de727ups

"How would you guys define your passion for aviation?"

It's the only thing I ever wanted to do and the only thing I've ever done.

dd89

If that is the benchmark Mr 727ups, then i cannot measure up and i'm starting to believe you really do have to have that kind of passion to really enjoy the career.

I have to be honest about this, flying is not the only thing i've dreamed of since a little kid. It was only since high school that the infatuation got me. I was so bored of school, and was trying to figure out what i was going to for the rest of my life. Pilots to me at that time represented a profession that was almost impossible to achieve, only the fittest and smartest could become pilots, they're superhumans. After finding out that it was perfectly feasible (albeit with very costly) i was estatic of course. My god, i can actually become an airline pilot (knowing nothing about actual flying). From then on i was obsessed about aviation.

This certainly can't be considered real passion can it? I was in love with the image i had in my head, the glamour of being a pilot. The flying part i knew nothing about, but i just assumed it must be the really cool to be in command of such an impressive machine. Now I realize it was just an infatuation, not real passion.

Ottopilot

I always wanted to fly. I took a lesson when I was 15 and was hooked. I soloed on my 16th birthday and never looked back. 13,000 hours later, I still love going to work. Yes, I have a life: wife & two kids, hobbies, etc. I'm just fortunate enough to love what I do.

ryan1234

Those videos are really boring, even Flightsim is kinda boring

I kinda followed the same path as you... did AeroEngineering at ERAU... I remember sitting in DifEQ thinking that had to be the most boring place in the world. Aerospace Engineering is not for everyone.... if I never see another math equation again I will be happy...

If you end up flying for a job you will probably be happier than engineering something through enormous dif. equations and such... just my experience...there is nothing like looking at the earth from different places seeing everything.. it is really something!

If you get bored with fixed wings try helicopters... I did and got hooked...

USMCFLYR

That is DE727UPS's version of the passion - it is not everyone's. It was the same for me though - so different people have different benchmarks so there is no measuring up or not.

This is a good thing. It means that you have other options and other things in life that might give you the same level of joy that flying gives others.

This does seem to be the truth in your case. I encourage you to find out more and maybe take an introductory flight to see what you think of the real thing.

It is!

USMCFLYR

Subpilot

To be able to make it as an airline pilot you need to have the aptitude to sit 2 feet from a complete stranger for several hours a day and several days at a time and be able to work with, relate to, and shoot the breeze with this person no matter who he or she is.

Cubdriver

Not to thread drift here, but if you haven't had a position somewhere as an aerospace engineer you don't have a clue how different the real experience is from the school experience. It's far easier and simpler than they will tell you in AE school.

Perhaps 85% of real aerospace engineering work is so simple a good high school student could do it. College is academically challenging and the equations fly faster than a jet sometimes, but routine engineering is the other way around. It is good to know how the math works, but at the design and performance evaluation level you can get by with some calculus, trig, a little bit of linear algebra and a 5 dollar calculator.

That doesn't mean that routine engineering work isn't boring at times. But if you don't like finding eigenvalues or working flight dynamics equations is no reason to avoid a job in this occupation. There is an immense amount of CAD modeling. They usually do not teach CAD in college and I had to pick up Catia V5 in my spare time when I was a student.

ryan1234

The summer internships were enough to see what day to day life was. My uncle also works as an engineer for a company that handles a lot government military projects and he can't wait to get out of it either.

There is complex math in normal AE work. Granted most math is given and the formulas are almost always the same whatever project it is. A lot of it (from my short experience in the work side) would be just your understanding of physics, chemistry, fluids, thermo, etc applied to whatever you are doing.

I'm just saying that compared to flying, engineering is boring in my opinion.. the only reason I did the degree was to get better handle how an airplane flies.... most of which you can read in a few good books (some books are just wrong in descriptions)...whatever...just rather be flying.

Cubdriver

What you are talking about would be positions responsible for advanced design and analysis. Most engineers make CAD models if not doing something even simpler. Companies hire us because we are smart and easily trained not because they need anything very brilliant from us. I haven't owned a programmable calculator or worked any tedious hand calculations since I left engineering school. The job is mostly bureaucratic grunt work. I think we agree on that part.

dd89

Hi cubdriver and ryan. It's great to see that there are engineers about on this site!

I hear the same stuff from aero engineers who've visited our school. Quite a bit of CAD (which i find quite enjoyable), and the last time the guy had done integration or derivation was during engineering school. Basically a lot of what they now do, they receive training for at work.

Not all engineering jobs are office jobs of course. Aker Solutions came to our school a few weeks back. I talked some of the "service engineers" who have traveling jobs where they are one month at work and have one month off doing

- maintenance of offshore drilling equipment.
- installation of such equipment
- instruction on how to operate the equipment

They are often on the rigs doing said stuff, and it's not just in the north sea either. One has worked in China, Korea, Singapore etc wherever such machinery is being used. Many even settle down in these countries for a while and then bid for another when they wish. Quite flexible he says when you get some seniority (higher positions like being an instructor).

There are many companies where you can find traveling jobs (not just for engineers either) but it takes its toll of course, and the guy told me most people retire from such work when they hit the late twenties and get the office jobs.

Point is, engineering jobs aren't all office jobs (like i thought before).