Proceed with Caution
 

If you value anything you wrote here, than I would seriously re-think this as a career. Fly for fun since you make good money. All jobs, including aviation, become just jobs after time. This is a single persons game when you are starting out.
I heard on day one, (Once I made it to flying jets) and I quote:

"Gentleman....(pause for impact).....Our profession suffers from AIDS! ....Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome!"

He was right in my case and all too many other professionals I know.

I could elaborate more but you get the point.

You can expect to be gone from home for up to six days at a time when on reserve. 2 to 5 days or so as line holder depending on the month. Starting out you will work most weekends, all the holidays. My airline has a minimum of 11 days off a month for reserves. As a line holder I normally see 13 to 16 days off a month. but the rest you can plan on being gone, and if you have to commute you can plan of having to commute on days off much of the month.

Vacations are bid by seniority so expect several years of jan thru mar vacations.

Airlines don't care who you are, you are a number in the computer. they don't care whos birthday it is who's kid has a soccer game, who has an anniversary etc. You are paid to move airplanes when they need them moved. Nothing else.

You will fly all night some months and all day others. You will be sleeping when the family is awake, or home when the family is gone to school and work a lot.

Now having said all that if you have the right woman it can be a great career. In over 2 decades of airline flying my wife and I have seen ups and downs but she understands. Many cannot deal with it and divorce rates for airline pilots are pretty high. If your wife gets upset if you are late from work one night or if you have to work on a day that you thought you had off...don't bother with the airline career, it will only end up bad for your marriage.

Your wife needs to be the type that can call a plumber or an air conditioning repair man or get a car towed by herself, because after all these years one thing I can tell you is that you are always 12 states away anytime something breaks at home....never fails. Kid is puking his guts up....you on opposite coast, kid breaks arm...you are in a hotel etc etc. You can expect to have to commute also. I had to commute for roughly 10 years all total. Not all in one streak, but you can expect to get forcibly pushed from base to base at times. Commuting is the single biggest stress in the industry to me. During AME visits my blood pressure has consistently run higher during the commuter periods than it does when I am not commuting.

If the family can handle all that and make it through the early lean years it can be great, good money, good time off as long as it does not have to be holidays etc. You hardly ever see your boss. I have been in the same base for about 10 years and my chief pilot recognizes my face as one of his pilots but he would not be able to put a name with it without looking at my I.D. But then again there are over 1000 pilots in this one domicile. Regionals can be decent but you really don't get to the good stuff till you make it to a major.

One really nice thing is this, airline pilot is probably the only well paid job out there that you do not take home with you. When you climb off the jet you are done. Home is home. No paperwork, no getting numbers together for tomorrows meeting etc. Home work events are limited to getting a fresh medical every six months and the occasional studying for your recurrent training or for a new airplane.

You get used to having the "holidays" whenever you happen to be home. The date 12/25 will be meaningless. Christmas will be when Dad happens to be off.

LOL that's the truth...My kids got to the point that they would ask me "When is our Christmas this year dad?"

There are 2 paths you can follow as an airline pilot. Quality of life or quality of paycheck. QOL means not bidding left seat or bigger equipment or a new base for more pay. If you stay in the right seat in a particular a/c, your seniority and bidding options get better with time, but your paycheck doesn't.

This doesn't work so well with big families. The extended family will stick to the published schedule.

But if there are no in-laws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins involved (or you hate them all) then yeah you can make your own holiday schedule.

Thanks to everybody for their insights. I really appreciate the objective opinions and the facts. I grew up in a military family so I know firsthand how it can be to have my dad gone all the time, however I don't remember missing him as much as I remember the good times. I am also surrounded by extended family, all within 20 minutes of the house which is something I grew up without, so although commuting would be stressful, I feel like I could make it work with help from the family.

I don't think an aviation career will be my missing piece of life's puzzle, as most jobs turn into a rote ritual after time, but one of the most attractive elements of flying for an airline besides flying large aircraft is that you can leave the work at work. This is not the case with my current job and it only gets worse with seniority. The part that kills me is that I am completely apathetic towards the work and yet I bring it home with me every day and night. It's also a highly stressful job where the stress can last for months on end, especially when we have product issues that cause problems for our customers. That's also part of the reason I love to fly as it's an outlet and a chance to unwind.

I am going to keep on working towards my ratings while working at my current job. In the meantime, I'll share your words with my wife so we can make an informed decision. I will let you know how it goes.

Actually, you never leave the work at work. Airline flying is, as you say, rote ritual. But don't forget the time zone changes, long duty days and short overnights.

The result: Chronic fatigue. Crew scheduling's mission is to "make you more productive." Throw in a commute and you may be looking at an average of a day and a half off a week.

You always hear about the Whale drivers who are off 20 days a month and make $300K a year. At this point in your life, given the normal progression, you will NEVER get there.

And in between you'll have to suffer through Regional F/O reserve at poverty level wages, Regional Capt. reserve, Mainline F/O reserve and (hopefully if you manage to keep your medical and pass your annual checkrides) Mainline NARROWBODY Capt. reserve.

On top of that add in the Commercial Terminal rat race. There you get to deal with the TSA, CSAs and F/As who are jealous of the "enormous" salary you make and your airline's managers who are dedicated to reducing your pay and benefits.

1. It appears you need a career change, whether it is over to airline pilot, is yet to be determined

2. Flying as a job is not flying as an "outlet" as you will not be unwinding, you will be working.

3. Where do you live ? If it is LA, then you can commute much easier than if you live in Tulsa, OK. This is dependent on where you airline base is of course. It appears based on your statements, that you plan to not move your family, and moving them is more difficult because you will be relying on the "family network" to take care of them. Which is fine in theory, but when I came into aviation, I was told to be mobile mobile mobile. You can wake up and your company is out of business, you got fired/laid off/etc, you got transferred, company got bought out, etc. Plus commuting is he11.

Good luck but I would choose aviation for fun and change your career path to something else

Yes you will miss birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc BUT you will be home on days that are volunteer days at school, run errands in the middle of the week when everyone else is at work. It is all what you do with your time and not on the calendar. Quality of time is more important. There are parents who spend holidays in front of the TV and not really with their spouse or kids. If you and your spouse have an understanding..... Everyone is happy. Love what you do!