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Why I Left a Pilot Career Worth $8.3 Million

Old 11-25-2018, 09:29 AM
  #31  
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Default Airlines

Originally Posted by BoilerUP View Post
...so what was the airline’s name you flew the 757 for, again?
I am not comfortable providing that information.

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Old 11-25-2018, 09:37 AM
  #32  
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Default I am glad

Originally Posted by velosnow View Post
Just wanted to touch on this point, it serves me extremely well as few of our friends have 9-5 jobs and all of the recreating we do is madness on the weekends. Ain’t no lift lines or busy trails on Tuesday! Plus we don’t have kids sooo there’s that.

Overall interesting conversation as the career can obviosuly have different impact for many folks. Those that get out have a whole different set of issues to contend with. I dig not being beholden to answering emails, phone calls, etc. on my time off that most jobs come with if you make any sort of decent money. I see my 9-5 friends busting their arse 60+ hours a week then sit in ski traffic on the weekends, dodge Jerry on the mountain and start over again on Monday. Not worth it to me.

Granted I worked Turkey Day this year, but I’m sitting in Beijing now having a had a fun couple of days exploring with a good crew and will head home for at least 9 days off with belated Friendsgiving followed by fresh tracks the rest of the week. Wouldn’t trade it personally.
Plenty are well suited for the sacrifises of the career. They may not have families to care for and are comfortable spending their days far from home among strangers. I am writing to those who want to be home, have relationships to maintain, and families to support.

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Old 11-25-2018, 09:43 AM
  #33  
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Default Dear John

Originally Posted by JohnBurke View Post
Leaves you wondering if he will answer the question, or whether he can actually answer the question, doesn't it?
John,

You are becoming a borderline stalker. I don't feel comfortable putting so much information out there for you. I notice that you are extremely frugal with the information you lend.

I don't know if you are a man or woman, have a family, fly for an airline, or much about you at all. I have to take your stated information as fact the same as you must with me. It is the nature of a forum like this.


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Old 11-27-2018, 09:10 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by viper548 View Post
I'm about 60% in base, which would easily hold a line. I'm also about 60% on the reserve list. Reserve in base is a completely different experience than commuting to reserve, i've done both. My first 2-1/2 years here I did a 2 leg cross country commute. Once our seniority list finally got settled I was able to transfer to a base much closer to home. It was an easy commute, 10 flights a day on mainline. We can reserve the jumpseat, and the flights were rarely full. Last year I was in the jumpseat 4 times, 2 of them to get another non-rev on. Even with the easy commute I was giving up 5 hours going to work and 5 hours going home. Add in an occasional time or two getting in too late to make it home also. I figured I spent 23 days of the year just going to and from work. I now live 7 miles from the airport.
I bid reserve sometimes at SkyWest and though it occasionally sucked, overall it wasn't that bad.

Getting on with a major is not a guarantee, like you said. It looks like you were part of the lost decade. It's still not easy, but the numbers of guys getting hired are huge. A few airlines even have guaranteed flow to mainline. Envoy, Piedmont, PSA all flow to American. I don't know the timeline on that, but I think it would be easier to do your time at a regional KNOWING there is a light at the end of that tunnel. If you're set on staying in STL then airline flying is probably never going to be attractive to you. Congrats on finding something that makes you happy though. That's what really matters. BTW your numbers on major airline pay are very conservative. Plan 1100-1200 hours per year times the hourly rate to include the distance learning pay, training pay, per diem, profit sharing, performance bonus, etc. I think Delta is more like 1400. Also add 16% going into your 401k. 1000 hours would be pretty close to the bare minimum (flying low time, no premium, no picking up extra trips)
A two-leg commute was always the most dreaded sentence any junior FO or Captain imagined when Republic opened their Grand Rapids base. So it sounds like the trade-off is, if senior enough on reserve, you can have a better schedule, but must live close to the airport of your employer's choice. With a regional, you have more bases to choose from, but a higher chance they'll close. With a major, you have fewer choices and likely expensive choices of where to live, but far less likelihood of the base closing.

Good observation on total compensation versus hourly compensation.

I'm not in STL right now, as I'm working from home after moving to England. After just getting married, I can't imagine anything better at this stage!
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Old 11-27-2018, 09:33 AM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by Skyguy85 View Post
So what makes more and gives you control of your own time? Since you said “many opportunities” I’d love to hear at least 3. Thanks for your prospective on making such a big career change!
There are jobs that earn more, but the only ones that gives you control of your own time requires already having ownership in something else. Remember that after 15 years, only one person who started flight training in my undergraduate class actually ended up with a viable long-term career at a major, earning major salaries. Lots of people I spoke with ended up stuck in "stepping stone" flight jobs but grew accustomed to their location or lifestyle, or couldn't get on with a major. Their salaries ended up far lower than their career estimates.
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Old 11-27-2018, 10:53 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by SkyHigh View Post
Plenty are well suited for the sacrifises of the career. They may not have families to care for and are comfortable spending their days far from home among strangers. I am writing to those who want to be home, have relationships to maintain, and families to support.

Skyhigh
The lie rolls on, the one you've attempted to float so often, the insinuation that no career pilot could have a family, a home life, or live in other than a ghetto one bedroom apartment eating ramen noodles. You've said it many times. You've also attempted to perpetuate the lie that one can't live on less than 300,000 a year.

A great many of us have kids, or grandkids. Many of us are married, live comfortable lives. I had two and a half months off this year. Presently I have ten days; I'm headed out the door shortly to go shoot a steel competition, something I couldn't do at a 9-5 job in an office somewhere. I have boys and girls in college, in the military, traveling abroad, and at home in school. There are multiple cars in the garage, pets, and my wife and I date every week.

This mythical world of tragedy and woe that you perpetuate is of your own making, your own imagination, and is not representative of the flying careers that most of us have seen and continue to enjoy.

As for your employment or former, all that's known of you is what you've elected to provide. If you're not comfortable having it out there, then you shouldn't have posted it. Your story has changed a lot. You've been debunked, exposed on numerous occasions. You've been called out, tripped up, and have revealed yourself in dozens of threads.

You call it "stalking." Newsflash for you sparky; responding to your posts isn't stalking. Nobody put a gun to your head and forced you to post. Expect a reply, whether you like it or not.
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Old 11-27-2018, 01:55 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by FullFlaps View Post
Everyone's journey is different. I left finance to pursue aviation (the total opposite of your experience). Once I get to the airlines maybe I'll form a small firm on the side but I realized what I wanted in life and the kind of people I want around me. Money
prestige power isn't everything . Find what works for you and its different for everyone.

I worked in finance before and after the crash. After the crash pilots were hurting but finance was abysmal. Guys with PhD's (literally rocket scientists) taking entry level jobs. Desks that were 20 people cut down to 2. It really was just survival by any means necessary back then.

I ended up starting my own firm which went well then decided to go in house at a larger firm. Moved around at a few firms climbed to senior roles at a primary (finance lingo for one of the big boy banks). What I realized is that senior management at many of the larger financial institutions today were not the best just the most ruthless / dishonest / connected or lucky. People were literally sabotaging each other to get ahead, even today. Many heads of very large institutions don't really understand finance today, they've just created and climbed in a beauracracy that allows it.

I took a look at life and what I wanted and while I haven't experienced it as yet I think QOL as an airline pilot is far better than in corporate America. This is subjective but I'd rather have a dense schedule with a max number of hours per month or year and defined days off.

QOL in finance as you climb gets worse and worse. My average work week was 80 to 100 hours per week. When it's busy there have been stretches where I literally live on the trading floor or in an office for 2 week stretches. Once I have a line if I need more money I'll find or create a side hustle. Even as a wide body captain at a major I'll never make what I was making before but hey I'm ok with that. The are other perks, I'll get to watch sunrises at FL350 every morning.

Happiness is very subjective, glad you found yours. Side bar the fact you're writing this or those articles something inside of you misses flying. Hope you make it big time enough to but a gulfstream or citation and get to fly yourself around! Cheers.
It sounds like you were immersed in the investment banking world. After being burned by the airline industry, I did a fair amount of research on corporate culture before jumping out of the frying pan and avoided investment banking as one of the notorious sweatshops in the fire.

From someone who has been on both sides, if you're looking for purely quality of life, the airlines aren't the first place I'd go looking. If you're looking for a stable industry compared to finance, the airlines aren't going to solve that problem either. As you already mentioned, you made more in finance than flying, so compensation clearly isn't driving you to make this decision.

However, if you're looking for sunrises at FL350, you'll have lots of those. For some people, nothing can compare with the joy of flying shiny new jets. Happiness may be subjective, but it is also dynamic and evolves over time. Over time, I felt like I had experienced the life of constant travel and was ready for a change.

On the contrary, the reason I wrote the articles was to give people the cautionary tale they needed to have a backup plan ready in case it didn't work out, and it ties into other aspects and philosophies of the site, including the ultimate goal of having all the freedom you can. Anyone who has worked or spent 100 hours a week away from home can appreciate freedom.
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Old 11-28-2018, 12:13 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by SkyHigh View Post
I am not comfortable providing that information.

SKyhigh
What could you possibly be hiding? ATA out of IND?

GF
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Old 11-28-2018, 02:46 PM
  #39  
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It was national. it's been shared here before. By he who shall not be named anything other than skyhigh.
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Old 12-05-2018, 12:07 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by GoldenGooseGuy View Post
Being an entrepreneur can be subject to its own brand of burnout, did you feel like running the business was too much? Or was the pilot lifestyle a stronger draw than any other factor?
You could never get away from your business, it was with you 24 hours a day seven days a week. I had build it up to $3.5M in sales and had 230 employees, but the constant issues of employees, accounts receivable, quality issues and dealing with unhappy customers, just started to get old and take all the fun out of being your own boss. The little time I could escape was spend in the Navy Reserves, building up retirement points and supplementing my income from my company. So when hiring started picking up again, it was back to the cockpit, I was too old for the major's but it was great to get back into the cockpit
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