Thanks guys for the honest input. I am going to keep trying-and probably take Tom’s advice. I’ve read the forums and I probably speak for many pilots when I say thanks for the information. All of the good AND all of the bad. I definitely don’t have all of my eggs in this basket, but it does offer a lot that I don’t have now. It may not be the dream job of everyone, but it is definitely all about perspective. Flying corporate with no schedule, being on call 24/7 sucks. I have stuck around because I am home most nights, so I sell myself on the fact that I can be home for all the important events in life. 2 days ago, I did 4 legs with a 17.5 hour duty day. My daughter was asleep when I left and in bed when I got home. That’s pretty normal. On my last anniversary, while eating dinner with my wife, I get a call to go to the airport. “Life or death.” We cancel our order and rush to the airport with no clue what we are there for. After 3 hours and as many attempts to reach them, he finally calls back he no longer needs me, but doesn’t answer the phone when he is having dinner with his wife. I missed 2 of my last 3 anniversaries, 2 of my wife’s last 4 birthdays and 3 of the last 4 birthdays of my daughter. Might as well have been at an airline.
On top of that, I am only allowed to use vacation on a Friday-Monday(can’t take a full week off). A normal week Includes managing maintenance, cleaning the hangars, updating databases, scrubbing toilets, cleaning the plane-including the urine off the floor when they can’t hit the mark, setting up hotels and rental cars, driving the passengers to their meeting location, shop for catering, find a contract pilot that can make the trip. then show up at 430 to prefilght the aircraft and plan the flight, wait a few hours on the passengers……..aaaaaaand the flight cancels. Those tasks, along with the ones I left off are reason to believe that the grass may be greener over there for me. In all honesty, I am not even complaining, but I am burning the candle at both ends and I am just exhausted all the time.