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Old 07-10-2021, 11:11 AM
  #48  
SladeTin
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Joined APC: Jun 2018
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Originally Posted by PICsf340
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.
Let me assure you, this job is without a doubt a thousand times better than what you just described. There are many things to complain about here, I’ve done so plenty of times on this forum. However, perspective is key. Airline guys are spoiled. We have grown accustomed to this lifestyle over our careers and forget what other flying jobs are like.
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