Don't have high expectations
 

Get to know the WHOLE STORY ABOUT AVIATION before you get into it. There are many sacrafices to be made, and more likely than not, you will not get rich. Forget scheduled vacations, and get used to having Tuesday and Wednesday for your day off while your friends and family are at work.

I have missed a lot, but I still love it.

If flying is truly in you, then enjoy. See the thread "My Soap Box" in Hangar Flying for my full opinion.

Why do you have to go to a big name flight school to do that? WHats to staop you from sceduleing at an FBO 5 days a week if you want. I did my training at a local FBO and I flew everyday. SOmetimes twice a day. Even at an FBO you can get your training knocked out in 14 months. Its all in how YOU schedule it

www.speedandangels.com

Go there...just for a taste. Watch the trailer. That's where those that dream to fly start their journey. It's not for the money. You'll have plenty of time for that later. When you sip on that "more expensive wine" when you're old, you can talk about what actually was...what you really did for aviation, God and country, not what should have...would have...or could have been because you decided to be a plumber instead of fly.

Cheers.

F5, Very cool. When's the movie coming out, and is that where you got your F5 time? Also, good luck with the 500, hope to own one some day.

My 'timing' was better than yours. Under the circumstances, I would have probably changed my 'plans', which were virtually the same as yours. Give the AF or Navy a few years . . a much 'higher calling' and get the 'flying' out of your system before pressing on to a 'real job'.

Below is just one tragic example of where the industry has been taken by the likes of Frank Lorenzo, Karl Ichan and the politicians, who give 'lip service' to union fealty, but whose actions, or lack thereof, have stabbed every airline pilot in the back.

Delta seeks to end pilots' pension plan
By HARRY R. WEBER, AP Business Writer Sat Aug 5, 5:30 AM ET

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. filed a formal request with bankruptcy court late Friday to terminate its pilots' pension plan, as President Bush prepared to sign a bill aimed in part at helping the struggling carrier save its other employees' pensions.

If the court in New York approves Delta's request to cancel its pilots' pensions effective Sept. 2, the government's pension insurer would take over the plan and pay pilots a reduced benefit based on when they retire and other factors. A hearing on the request is set for Sept. 1.

The 6,000 pilots, as part of a $280 million concessions agreement with the company first reached in April, have agreed not to oppose the pension termination request, though other groups may oppose it. Atlanta-based Delta notified the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. in June of its intent to seek termination of the plan.

"Unless the pilot plan is terminated, Delta will very soon face an operational and financial crisis that will prevent it from emerging from Chapter 11," the airline said in its filing.

The bankruptcy court request comes just a day after the Senate approved a pension bill that provides special relief for Delta and Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp., allowing them to have 17 years to fully fund their pension plans.

Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, had lobbied hard for the bill, arguing it was essential to help them avoid terminating the pension covering its ground workers and flight attendants. Bush said Friday he planned to sign the bill into law soon.

Delta's effort to terminate its pilots pension plan, which is significantly underfunded, had been expected, as the company seeks to emerge from Chapter 11 by the middle of 2007 a leaner airline. UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the nation's No. 2 carrier, terminated its pilots' pension when it was in bankruptcy protection.

Delta has promised its pilots a $650 million note in the event the pension is terminated. Delta also has promised the pilots a $2.1 billion unsecured claim. The PBGC has argued that money belongs to the agency, a claim the company has rejected.

Once the plan is terminated, the company's pilots won't be entitled to the hefty lump sum payments under the existing pension plan, which allows pilots to retire at 50 and receive half their benefits in a one-time payout and the rest in an annuity later.

The lure of that lump sum prompted many pilots to put in for retirement before Delta filed for bankruptcy protection last September. But a shortfall in the pension fund has prevented pilots from cashing in their lump sums since Oct. 1.

"If the pilot plan is not terminated and the lump sum door reopens, Delta will immediately face a huge wave of pilot early retirements by its most senior pilots," Delta said in its filing Friday.


Delta said it would have to cancel thousands of flights if that happened.
"Delta likely could not survive an operational disruption of this magnitude," the airline said.


Delta said that if Bush signs the relief legislation it believes it can emerge from Chapter 11 without terminating its non-pilot pension plan, because that plan does not have a lump sum feature.

The government can bail out an airline pension plan, but can't raise the minimum wage without abolishing the estate tax. The golden rule: He who has the Gold, Rules.

Could Have?
 

You could also be poor at retirement and be saying "I should have gotten a real job like my brother the rich plumber". :D

SkyHigh

Now you're thinking!!

What are you going to do about it? Elections in November.

You perhaps have not lived enough years to understand things financial.

#1) Any pilot on a 'bailout' is only going to receive pennies on the dollar that he worked for and 'expected'. SO. . it is NOT much of a 'bailout'

#2) "Minimum Wage" is NOT something that one should expect to make a career out of earning. It is for menial, entry level jobs that don't take much education, skill or motivation and OUGHT to be a temporary, 1st rung on the ladder into the working world. . . NOT someone can have a family and get by forever on. The GOVERNMENT should NOT be in the business of deciding how much a job is worth .. THAT should be up to 'the market'.

#3) Your so-called 'estate tax' is a DEATH TAX . . on accumulated assests which you have ALREADY been taxed HEAVILY on, throughout your working life. It is SOCIALIST, confiscatory and immoral -and puts the heaviest burden on hard pressed 'mom & pop', middle class types, who have worked hard, invested wisely and OUGHT to be able to pass it along to their progeny WITHOUT the heirs being forced to liquidate to pay the friggin' government their blood money.

It is a greedy, SICK, class warefare scheme, foisted upon us by the Socialist politicians.

I'm interested systems (I'm taking automotives in school). I realize you don't do much hand-flying but I'm more than content with the technology.

Thanks!

I could get a degree in something else - though I would rather get an aviation degree. I understand where you guys are coming from though; incase something happens I'll have something to fall back on. Right?