There’s an old story about the Cessna pilot who looked up at and envied the fighter pilot, who envied the test pilot, who envied the airline pilot, who looked down and envied the Cessna pilot. ;)

While I see your point I’d still rather watch the autopilot fly in the dark than spend another 9-12 hour day staring at spreadsheets, making cold calls, and sitting through pointless meetings. I know that it becomes pretty mundane no matter what line of “work” you choose, but at least flying comes with a view.

Your point of view is realistic, Been there, done that and I prefer redeyes too.

I found it!


One fine hot Summer’s afternoon saw a Cessna 150 flying circuits at a quiet country airfield. The Instructor was getting quite bothered with the student’s inability to hold circuit height in the thermals and was getting impatient at sometimes having to take over the controls. Just then he saw a twin engine Cessna 5,000ft above him and thought "Another 1,000 hrs of this and I qualify for that twin charter job! Aaahh.. to be a real pilot.. going somewhere!"

The Cessna 402 was already late and the boss told him this charter was for one of the Company’s premier clients. He’d already set MCT and the cylinders didn’t like it in the heat of this Summer’s day. He was at 6,000ft and the winds were now a 20kt headwind. Today was the 6th day straight and he was pretty damn tired. Maybe if he got 10,000ft out of them the wind might die off... geez those cylinder temps! He looked out momentarily and saw a B737 leaving a contrail at 33,000ft in the serene blue sky. "Oh man" he thought, "My interview is next month. I hope I just don’t blow it! Outa G/A, nice jet job, above the weather... no snotty passengers to wait for.. aahhh."

The Boeing 737 bucked and weaved in the heavy CAT at FL330 and ATC advised that lower levels were not available due traffic. The Captain, who was only recently advised that his destination was below RVR minimums had slowed to LRC to try and hold off a possible inflight diversion, and arrange an ETA that would helpfully ensure the fog had lifted to CATII minima. The Company negotiations broke down yesterday and looked as if everyone was going to take a damn pay cut. The F/O’s will be particularly hard hit as their pay wasn’t anything to speak of anyway. Finally deciding on a speed compromise between LRC and turbulence penetration, the Captain looked up and saw Concorde at Mach 2+. Tapping his F/O’s shoulder as the 737 took another bashing, he said "Now THAT’S what we should be on... huge pay packet... super fast... not too many routes... not too many sectors... above the CAT... yep! What a life...!"

FL590 was not what he wanted anyway and considered FL570. Already the TAT was creeping up again and either they would have to descend or slow down. That damn rear fuel transfer pump was becoming unreliable and the F/E had said moments ago that the radiation meter was not reading numbers that he’d like to see. Concorde descended to FL570 but the radiation was still quite high even though the Notam indicated hunky dory below FL610. Fuel flow was up and the transfer pump was intermittent. Evening turned into night as they passed over the Atlantic. Looking up, the F/O could see a tiny white dot moving against the backdrop of a myriad of stars. "Hey Captain" he called as he pointed. "Must be the Shuttle. "The Captain looked for a moment and agreed. Quietly he thought how a Shuttle mission, whilst complicated, must be the be all and end all in aviation. Above the crap, no radiation problems, no damn fuel transfer problems... aaah. Must be a great way to earn a quid."

Discovery was into its 27th orbit and perigee was 200ft out from nominated rendezvous altitude with the commsat. The robot arm was virtually U/S and a walk may become necessary. The 200ft predicted error would necessitate a corrective burn and Discovery needed that fuel if a walk was to be required. Houston continually asked what the Commander wanted to do but the advice they proffered wasn’t much help. The Commander had already been 12 hours on station sorting out the problem and just wanted 10 bloody minutes to himself to take a leak. Just then a mission specialist, who had tilted the telescope down to the surface for a minute or two, called the Commander to the scope. "Have a look at this Sir, isn’t this the kinda flying you said you wanted to do after you finish up with NASA?" The Commander peered through the telescope and cried "Ooooohhhhh yeah! Now THAT’S flying! Man, that’s what its all about! Geez I’d give my left nut just to be doing THAT down there!" What the Discovery Commander was looking at was a Cessna 150 flying circuits at a quiet country airfield on a nice bright sunny afternoon.

A lot of times it's the lack of job satisfaction. I've been working in a pediatric intensive care unit for almost 10 years making well over 70k a year and only work 3 12 hour shifts. I've always loved my job but I hit a wall, I just don't want to do it anymore. I work with screaming kids and sleep deprived/stressed parents all day. I listen to monitor and ventilator alarms, all alarms going off all day. I can tell you that being able to sit down, shut the door, sit inside a dark cockpit staring at the controls and flying a plane sounds fantastic to me. I'll give up my pay to do just that because I can't take what I'm doing until I'm 65.

Just as an update to this thread I did finish my instrument rating last month. I’ll say it was certainly interesting starting my flight training back up just as a global pandemic was beginning to unfold, and the airline industry was (temporarily) crumbling under the pressure imposed by said pandemic. Life is just like that sometimes I guess. I’m still debating whether or not to continue with commercial. I’m curious though, is it enough to get simply commercial and multi engine before ATP if your goal is the airlines? Or should I also be anticipating to go after CFI, CFII, MEI? Also is it better to go part 61, or 141? What’s more affordable?

You have time now. So I’d recommend slow and cheap (part 61) instead of fast and expensive (part 141) You’re gonna have to do so much more to market yourself to an airline who’s up to their elbows in applicants with airline experience nowadays so I’d say prepare to instruct for a while.

Start reading/studying for your CFI as soon as you’re finished with your IR.
All materials can be downloaded for free from the FAA website. Start watching videos online.
Keep in mind there is about as much junk as there is useful stuff on YouTube.
Start immersing yourself in aviation.
Read and watch everything you can including on TV. That part is all free.
Find yourself a training buddy and work together.
Timebuild, study together.
At around 160-170 hrs start teaching each other all the PPL maneuvers.
Find a school or experienced CFI that is willing to combine your Commercial with your CFI.
Start at around 200 hrs TT.
Continue to practice with your training buddy in between instructional flights.
You’ll save yourself 20-30 hrs of dual this way.
As far as Part 141, a lot of people don’t realize that the syllabus and the aircraft need to be approved. Which means under part 141 you have to fly ALL hours in the syllabus on an airplane that is on the 141 certificate.
So if you are enrolled in a CPL 141 course any outside flying will NOT count towards your training hours or completion of your course.

That is what I was leaning towards as well.

Thanks for the advice. I think my instructor that I did my instrument with would be open to doubling up both commercial and CFI. That would certainly save me some money.