SkyHigh

I never liked giving up so much control over my life as you have to when you are a pilot. During my part 135 days I hated being tied to a pager. I especially hated being the play toy of a self absorbed executive. They were constantly changing the schedule. You never really knew if you would make it home that day or not. A 4 hour trip easily turned into three days on the road. No matter what I was told after a while I would always bring a small bag with at least a tooth brush. I spent plenty of blue bird days waiting around at FBO's for tantrum throwing people in blue suits. A two hour wait would turn into 4 then 6 then 12. finally I would be on my way home and dispatch would call and divert me to someplace else.

As a charter pilot for one of my past employers I was on 24 hour call and would be on duty for 21 days in a row with 4 days off. One time I had been called by dispatch at 2:00AM for a flight that ended back home by 11:00AM. I stayed up till my normal bed time so I could get back on my normal sleep pattern then I was called again at 12:30AM since my 8 hours of rest were up by then. I was back in the late in morning and again that night I was called for a trip. I ended up going for nearly three days without sleep. I was miserable. Guys over 50 seem to be able to stay awake all night and sleep mid-day if they wanted. I could not. I did not like loosing control over when I could sleep.

Then came the airlines. The schedule made things better. 12 hour reserve was nice. I could plan my sleep better, but nearly everything else was out of my hands. As an airline pilot you do not have much control over where you live. How you live. What kind of plane you will fly. Your career progression. What kind of clothes you will wear while at work. Who you will fly with. How much money you will make. Humans can adapt to changes however changes in the airlines were either painfully slow as with upgrade or blindingly fast, like how quickly a company could go down the drain.

By the end of my career I was beginning to become comfortable with my profession and really began to feel that I had found my place. I had been on the same equipment for three years and was becoming very skilled at most everything that had to do with the 757 and my company. I was senior enough that I could control my schedule a bit and upgrade was just around the corner. My pay was still lousy but we had just refinanced our home loan to a lower payment and were in the process of paying down our credit cards. I was beginning to feel that we had made it. I was looking forward to going to work. My wife was starting to see the benefits of an airline life when the company shut down.

Yet again by the time I wanted to stay I had control taken away. Executives were making decisions behind closed doors that directly effected my life. No control. Today I may not be able to control the government or economy but have a say in much more that I ever had as a pilot. My value is not tied to a seniority number or to the actions of unseen executives anymore. I still have to do things that I am not all that excited about but instead of being lead about by others I am my own task master. Control is an illusion but it is still nice to be able to think that you have some say in what happens to you. As a pilot you can not even pretend that you have any input. The people who have ultimate control over your life have names and titles. As a matter of practice they like to disrupt the peace of their subordinates to remind them that they are being lead. I sleep much better now.

SkyHigh