I'm once again, on Skyhigh's side of things. No agenda, just speaking the truth about what happened to me in this Biz. I started out in 1990 when I was a senior in HS. Couldn't even find an instructing job where back then they put a broom in your hand, and later on maybe you can start instructing. I come from the days you needed 500 hrs. TT to just instruct! Mind you i'm only 36. There was no internet, no sites like this, no willflyforfood.com, no aviationinterviews.com, etc. All there was was the Airjobs Digest. We had to blindly hand type resumes out and send them to whomever would accept. We didn't know Mesa sucked, or NJA's interview gouge, or UAL was the place to be.

I had to fight, scratch, and claw just to get a job flying a 310 at night. My big break finally came when a buddy of mine who was flying right seat in a corporate jet got a job somewhere else and offered the position he was in to me. Of course I accepted. I was out of Aviation at the time because it was during the downturn of the mid 90's, and no one was hiring.

Did that job for a while and loved it! The boss passed away (how could he), and the aircraft was sold, and I was out. Went to a pretty good 135 job in South florida in 2000. Once again, never upgraded. flew as an fo. That place shut down and then Raytheon Travel Air called. Some of you kids never heard of it i'm sure. They were the Netjets of the late 90's, early 20's. "you should upgrade in 6 months". Nope. We were bought out by Sanford and Son (Flight Options). I lost a year seniority, and spent the next 7 years in the Right seat!

Around this time, life started sucking there because the union was voted in ( I voted for it), and management started making life miserable. (They hired that union busting law firm out of atlanta.) I just up and quit without another job like Bryris did on the above post. Got a job at a local part 142 sim facility and have been here now for two years. My qol has skyrocketed, home everynight, and this week I only work 2 hours per day making very good money. I'm also enrolled in an online school, and excited about learning new things.

Moral of the story......My path I took led me to never being able to upgrade to Captain. Mind you I was still typed in several aircraft, but I never had the opportunity to ever "play" Captain and sign out for aircraft under my responsibility. I would never discourage anyone from entering the field, I just hope you're luck is better than some of the fellas on here. That's all it is is luck BTW. Right place, right time. BTW, I just interviewed with NJA last month. Took them about 5 weeks to tell me they're not interested. When that happened, I felt kind of an inner peace that's allowing me to pursue other interests.