I am still a youngster in the aviation community however, I am noticing the overall scheme of things in the aviation world.

I love to fly and being a 135 freight pilot, I love the type of flying that I do. That said, the question constantly in my mind is, "Is it all worth it?" I have always wanted to fly. Ever since grade school, I wanted to be a pilot however, I am wondering whether my love for flying is enough compensation to make it worth putting up with all of the crappy things about the job.

As opposed to the regionals, I am home every night at my home base and I have the weekends off. The other side of my schedule is I leave at 6:30am and return home around 9pm with a 6.5 - 8 hr layover in the middle of the day. Having the same days off every week is nice however, if you think about it, I only get 8 days off per month (sat + sun) x 4 weeks per month.

In addition to the aspects of my job, I also have a fiance who lives on the other side of the country. The fact that my job is M-F with only the weekends off, makes it impossible to commute across the country so i am forced to live away from my fiance and having done this for over a year now, I cannot wait for the day when I can live where I want (not on the other side of the country from her).

Now, given this situation, i keep telling myself it will be better when i get an actual airline job however, I am not sure if it will because i will just trade one set of annoying circumstances for another. I can deal with most of the bad aspects of the professional aviation industry because I love to fly however, (god willing) when I am married with two kids, a dog and a house somewhere, the ones who will suffer the most from my crappy job will be my family because they don't get anything out of it.

All in all, I feel your pain however, you really have to ask yourself, "Is it all worth it?" and no one else will know the answer but you!