Yes, wasted lives. I heard it used in a description a captain gave to me while describing his youth as a seaplane pilot in SE Alaska. He told me that he "wasted his youth". The revelation was shocking since pilots are suppose to cherish such an experience as flying a seaplane in the Alaskan wilderness. However it hit home with me as well since I felt the same way about my time in Alaska. Aviation has an allure that has a way of sedating us into lustfully pursuing a career that mostly has nothing to show as a result.

Upon looking back the years were wasted since they did not help me in any way. The desire for flight suckered me into burning time uselessly. It didn't help me to get on with a major airline. It did not pay well. It did not benefit my life through the development of relationships or business contacts. The flight time is useless to most companies. I don't even have it listed on my resume. The same could be said for wasting away in the right seat of a regional airline. The time is near worthless. It serves to catalog the passage of time and little else. The only benefit it serves is that the indentured servitude hopefully will earn you a Left seat one day. The experience in itself has no value at all. You can upgrade with 200 or 20,000 hours in the right seat. The accumulation has zero benifit. As things are going if that left seat isn't in a RJ then that too might soon be counted as wasted time. More days burned awaiting something better.

Aviation has a way of sucking up everything in ones life and leaves you with a black hole of lost time in its place. The days of our lives are precious. The life force that we all possess is not a renewable resource. Time passes with little to show for it in aviation because it is not like most other professions. Aviation leaves little room for anything else in your life. In addition I use the term in reference to all the people who I have known who died with a yoke in their hands. To me when a 21 year old is killed in lustful pursuit of a dream I consider that a waste.

If you take offense to these words then perhaps I touched a nerve and you should reevaluate your own situation.


SkyHigh