good thread all around. I definitely appreciate when you more experienced guys out there share advice in a neutral light. Noobs like myself got plenty to learn when it comes to this business-we'd rather hear it in advance from you guys that find out the real hard way later on.

btw flying is a career we've all embarked on hopefully because we are passionate about aviation. There've been plenty of days where I grew weary of instructing but at the end of the day I still enjoyed flying and helping others along in their journey. My QOL was good enough that my goal for the next level is to keep it that way. Get paid what I am worth, to some degree. No steps backwards. I couldn't imagine taking less money than I currently make and have a worse schedule with tremendously increased responsibility (i.e. flying paying pax around versus flying 1 student around). Why should any pilot settle for less than that? I'm not even through my first airline ground school yet and I'm already seeing how much abuse management can throw around. Yikes.

Veteran regional guys out there, keep it coming. We need to hear it.