Originally Posted by gpatelzick

Hello all -

I hope this is the best place for this post. I am a relatively new member with this being my first post.

I am 46 years old, just lost my construction company and am basically starting over. I have been flying about 5 yrs and just got all my ratings (CFI,CFII,MEI) and am trying to get into the industry for a career change. Let me preface this with the fact that I am well aware of the crisis we are in and have a LLOOOOONG road ahead of me. Luckily my wife is going to nursing school and since she's 9 yrs younger - she can make the money for a while. Also, I have taught every "hobby or passion" I have ever done, and I like the idea of always learning and continued education. I would have probably been a CFI even if I didn't have to time build.

Anyway, enough of the intro....my question is this. I have been trying to educate myself with this industry and all of it's intricacys. I read several threads and am rather overwhelmed at all the things to learn. I thought I had to learn abreviations for my pilot certs....for *&^* sake, I can't always seem to follow everything. Can someone give me some help with threads or things to read about: how the union works, why it sucks or doesn't suck, who the key players are, why they suck or don't suck, who are the good/bad airlines and why, what is "scope" and why is it going down the toilet, RJ vs. Major or legacy, how many seats???, why are they bad/good etc. You get the idea.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Is there somewhere I can learn the HUGE amount of lingo and jargen without reading every thread in this whole forum. Books or articles would be apreciated too.

Again, I apologize in advance for the long rambling question, but the bottom line is...I LOVE to fly, always have ... always will, and I want to make educated decisions on the issues that will effect my AND your futures.

Ok - I'm done.

Greg Patelzick
CFII / MEI / AGI / IGI
Tailwheel