Thanks fellas. As a former nasal radiator, I like what I've read so far (although I may not agree with everything). I have to say that flying in this day and age is definitely not a picinic.

I started life out as a helo bubba who managed to switch off to flying fixed wing about 14 years into a 20 year career with the hopes of landing a flying job on the outside. I'd hoped to bypass the whole regional nightmare after I left the service, but had no such luck. Part of it was a lifestyle/location issue and part of it was who was in the process of hiring when I got out.

I've been with two regionals over the past five years and was furloughed just last week. I don't put much faith in my employer recalling anyone who has either recently gotten the axe or those who will surely follow. I have resigned myself to looking outside of the US of A for potential employment opportunities with either foreign flagged carriers out of the gulf states or flying with any number of defense contractors who are out there supporting the GWOT in the sandbox (I know that's not the PC name for it anymore, but I can't help it).

I've been blessed with the fact that I have a retirement income to fall back on to pay the rent and a couple of other things and feel the pain of my fellow pilots who are struggling to make ends meet after having lost a job that could barely do that as it was. I also curse the management team who let it get to this point. The company recently went into Chapter 11 due to its own shortsightedness. For most of us, this was an event long in the making and if they wind up closing up the shop, there are a lot of us out there who wouldn't mind all that much. That is of course until you factor in of all the great folks that I've had the pleasure of working with and the fact that they will ultimately be the victims in this unfolding tragedy.

I live and love to fly. I have since I was a small boy, and that won't ever change. This industry has become infected and is being slowly poisoned by individuals with no real interest in keeping this as a profession that one aspires to. What has happened can only be described as a soulless campaign to squeeze profits from a corporate entity at all costs and promote a lifestyle which has virtually ceased to exist to a demographic that can ill afford the cost of the ride they are about to be taken on.

Pardon the analogy, but, life is like a bowl of mixed fruit, especially if you only have cherries, plums and peaches in there. No matter what you bite into you're going to discover a pit. The only question is how big it's going to be. Most of us knew what we were signing up for in advance. That said, we do owe it to those who intend on following in our footsteps a sobering, honest look at what they're about to get themselves into.

Nuff said, it's past my bedtime.