Don't listen to Shy, or the choir.

While pilots like to gripe, this is a terrific career. There probably is a five year window of opportunity and I sure can't complain about my job or working conditions (although I still do).

Even with massive outsourcing, no connections, no military experience, terrorist attacks and a couple of bankruptcies, I'm employed with a six figure income, never missed a check and spend more time with my kids than anyone I know. When I go to work the people I work with are great and the flying is a blast. Guess I'm an idiot because in after 10,000 hours I still enjoy looking out the window and I have to stop myself from being an aviation bore at parties.

If I can do it, almost anyone can. It just takes a lot of determination, investment and willingness to forgo the BMW's and other trinkets of success that tempt the young in other professions. Better to build as much of a "rainy day fund" as you can so you can make the moves and remain flexible.

I don't recommend aviation lightly. Without uncle sugar paying the bills, the first five years can be brutal. But, there is no other career like it. Not everything boils down to purely money. Ironically, I live in a house that I bought in foreclosure from a Surgeon's lender.

Smart man once said ... "find what you like to do and what you're good at ... then ask what it pays."

 

Terrific career? Not anymore. I was gonna say how can you say that, and then I read the bolded portion. You make 6 figures and have never missed a paycheck, which I only can guess means you've never suffered a furlough. Congrats. These days, you're the exception rather than the norm.

This will never be a terrific career like in the golden days of aviation, those days are gone, and now it's nothing like how it used to be. The career potential, amount of respect, flying used to mean something to the general public. Not anymore. The aura is gone, and has been trending that way since deregulation, and really gone south since 9/11.

Has it been a career that I, personally, enjoy? Yes. I do love my job. But I'd only do a disservice if I try and sell this as a "terrific" career. It isn't terrific like it used to be. For the majority of pilots I know, this century (2000 and up) has been more a disappointment than a smooth happy 6-figure career without missing paychecks like you have. Congrats to you, but realize that not everyone is at the level you are. Plenty of guys who started in aviation in the 90s and 2000s have spent quite the time in furlough, and a historically longtime at a regional making crap wages.

Yes, the view is great, flying is fun, and the destinations varied, but today there are far more sad stories than happy ones. The majority of my CAs on the Airbus are ex-Aloha, Champion, National, Skybus, USA3000, ATA, US Air, etc. Many now commute across the country to their base because they cannot leave their homecity due to kids, mortgage they can't rid of, a wife's career, etc.

Congrats on your six-figure flying job and a smooth sailing career that never missed a paycheck. Before you tell others to ignore "shy and the choir" , take a look outside your bubble of success.


Safe flying and cheers.

 

Shyguy

Let's see

Golden years? Ask the guys from any past decade how golden their years were. Furloughs used to be a seasonal event. The Seventies were very similar to the last ten years, plus two fuel crisis. I knew guys from the Fifties who spent years waiting for captaincy, only the mid to late sixties hiring upgraded them.

"Historic" times at regionals?

There is no history of regionals on the present scale, so how is it historic?

RJ pilots kill me with their tales of woe. I hope they realize without the RJ plane and RJ jobs, 17,000 pilots likely wouldn't even be airline pilots in the last 15 years.

OP

Get a degree, look into a Reserve or ANG UPT slot. OR ask yourself where you are going to get that first 1500 hours you are assuming.

GF

 

Well said.

I would like to add to what one guy said about digging in for 35 years, whatever you do don't do that at a regionl. Comair. Do it at an L C C or national or legacy. once you're in 1 of those groups anytime the company goes out it's a merger to another national our legacy.

 

Lets see, during the "golden years" my father spent 9 of 16 on furlough. Galaxy is correct that airlines would furlough seasonally. Before retiring from FedEx, he flew 4 contract jobs in the middle east and rode two carriers into bankruptcy.

The golden years are a trick of retrospect.

Once difference pilots did have going for them was that back then, ALPA was more of a trade union and would fight outsourcing. As a result there was not this enormous longevity reset after flying jets for a decade.

No doubt outsourcing has made the first ten years cheaper for management and more difficult for pilots.

 

Air National Guard. (That is coming from a Navy man)

 

Yeah with the prospect of single payer national health care being eventually crammed down our throat, being a doctor will be very lucrative.

This is gonna be a GREAT career if you are ticketed and qualified in the next 5 years or so. That being said, if you are going to University, get a degree in SOMETHING other than aviation... ANYTHING but aviation. Engineering, business, accounting... anything else.

 

I wish there were a way to make this post pop up in about 3 years....

 

There are no bets to hedge, just save your money like crazy. As a "golden age pilot" it was a wildly fun career, to be paid for later. living on PBGC and SS ain't that much fun. As a side note, of the 5 pilot domiciles I served at, only one survives,go figure....

 

The Golden years are a myth. Unless maybe you are talking about the 50s and 60s.......certainly since the 70s..... for various reasons aviation is what it is. A good career for many...not all. Has my career taken the path that I thought it would 28 years ago when I got started...NO.... but most haven't...there are extreme examples on both sides of this career.....Most fall in the middle somewhere....kinda like the bell curve of aviation. I know guys who were in the right place at the right time ....spent 5 years in the right seat then the next 25 as a CA at a Major... I also know guys hired at the same time at a different carrier who spent 15 years riding sideways... then another 10 in the right seat who at 55 finally upgraded to narrow body domestic CA for the last 5 of his career. Timing and luck play a huge factor in this industry... its the way it is now... and will be forever.