Originally Posted by
Airdale
I really don't know what there is to look forward to anymore honestly. Maybe just a few pipe dreams. Maybe ask the Midwest pilots what they have to look forward to?
As I watch my own company grow and consume, I watch my career expectations dwindle too. Sure would have been nice to be flying for Continental right now, but you can't control the hand you are dealt. Its all timing, good and bad. I seem to have caught things in the middle.
Unforunately, the future doesn't look very bright. Just look at the last 10 years, wages and working conditions have gone nowhere but backwards. There's no predicting the next 10 years in this industry, but one thing I've discovered is that spending so much time away from my wife is only going to get harder when we have our first child.
I've recently gone back to school and I'm hoping to make a career change out of this industry. Like Skyhigh, I think I'm coming to the realization that the sacrifices to fly metal just aren't worth the reward.
When I resigned from my last regional position, I went back to school as well and have thoroughly enjoyed the last 11 months in the pursuit of higher education. I'll be done with the program I am doing the first week of Feb. Then it'll be time to face the real world again and only time will tell what my true sanity level will settle in at as I work again in a non aviation field.
However, during my time as a regional pilot, I contemplated what life would be like on the road with little ones at home. My bro and his wife had their first kid in Dec 2007 while I was still thriving at the airline. I believe this is what spurred my thoughts on the likely lifestyle conflict.
Once I resigned in the face of the upcoming displacement/furlough, I made a pact with myself to utilize the downturn to get come professional credentials outside aviation and to have my first child - outside aviation.
I believe that there is more discomfort in the path of being a professional (commuting, especially, as I did) pilot while having your first child, to be tugged away from home by crew scheduling only to strap a jet to your ass that will haul you away from your kids at .80 the speed of sound, as compared to having the first child while at home every night and weekend, working in close proximity, etc - then deciding to go back to the airlines. I am not sure I had the ability to successfully judge what my feelings towards my wife and newborn child would be in the face of the airline lifestyle.
I am still hoping to break back into the cockpit when a good opportunity avails itself - if ever again - but one thing is for sure, kid #1 is coming out while I am NOT a professional pilot. I want to enjoy that up close and personal. You can't get that back once the opportunity has passed.