Originally Posted by
Droog
In spite of these undesirable characters, ATC still offers better pay and security than most airline jobs. How long would you have to work at a regional (or major for that matter) before you could make 160K per year? Also, when I spoke with you briefly in CVG last summer, Comair was going to hire hundreds of pilots, and then (well you know the rest!). So it can be argued that airline management can turn on you "quicker than a Greek waiter!" Also, you and I are collecting a federal pension, which allows us to live on our own terms (to a degree), a luxury that "Diesel" probably doesn't have. In other words, he can expect to go to work and be forced to eat $hit for many years to come. Finally, I will go out on a limb and predict that the working conditions in ATC will improve now that we have a new sheriff in Washington. So I say to Diesel "go for it and good luck!" You'll have a couple of decades to get jaded and cranky, and then you can retire!
First off, I disagree that things will change. There is a lot of people hanging their hat that paradise is just around the corner. Obama has much bigger fish to fry than worry about a paltry 15,000 federal workers but I guess when your desperate any glimmer of hope is magnified and grasped at!! Second off 26 years ago when I was going into the FAA I said the same things that Diesel said. Like I said I soon realized that I adapted and forgot rather quickly the enthusiasm I had when first hired.
I remember speaking with you I believe at the hotel while you were waiting for the van to take you to Comair the morning of my interview. If memory serves me correctly you worked New York Center or one of the major airports in NY. Are you still flying for Comair? I got hired but never made it due to them stopping hiring.
I was just trying to point out to Diesel that money is not the cure all. Like we used to say at ZFW, the best job is the one you came from or the one your going to but rarely the one your at.