Yesterday I realized a benefit from my aviation career. Recently a prominent young local business man committed suicide leaving a wife and three young children to deal with the financial fallout that was unfolding when he decided to check out.

It caught me by surprise since he did not seem all that bad off to me. He was loosing some properties and had to downsize but it did not seem worthy of the extreme choice that he made. Then it occurred to me that as a pilot I was use to being humiliated, disappointed and abused. Most people enjoy appreciating wages and lifestyles. It must come at quite a shock to receive a setback. As a pilots we are use to being kicked to the curb well into our advanced adult years. I had been broken by aviation continuously since graduating from college and knew how to survive on little. My ego has been caged. I do not have an image to protect other than being broke and frugal.

Most people do not have to endure a tenth of what pilots have to go through. We have had to develop a sense of self worth from someplace other than what kind of car we drive, how much or employers think we are worth or what ghetto apartment we live in. Pilots are very accustomed to seeking government assistance and living on handouts. We drive old cars and sleep on the floor in airports when commuting rather than to blow 50 bucks on a hotel room.

Regular people do not have the same hurdles. They are not regularly broken by their chosen profession so when hard times come they are not nearly as well prepared to handle it. It is a true benefit in these times to be continually humbled by aviation. Pilots do not have far to fall and always know that hard times are just around the corner.

Skyhigh