Like it? Marine Aviators pay homage to the movie Sky. I use to go by his *house* about once a month to make sacrifices at the front gate.
I saw Airplane too. Guess you wore two sets of sunglasses too huh?

USMCFLYR

Sky was the guy who thought it was a bad day to stop drinkin' and sniffing glue...

I was Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the Co-pilot. You try draggin' Lener and Walton up and down the court, kid.

Support.... not likely. So using your line of thought, one could have a job which he is home all of the time but it could be the most dangerous profession available and that would be okay..... I guess using your line of thinking one could be a crab fisherman in alaska.. ( pretty high death rate based on participation ) but hey.... they might only really work a couple months a year .... so holy crap... that would be a good well paying profession ... ( yes its an off the wall example ) . My point being NOW it would seem the benchmark in your BIATCH with the industry is time away from home ( hell even in YOUR so called good old days of aviation pilots spent lots of time away from home...oh but they were better compensated right?... so that made it okay. )

here is some food for thought... the national average for a POLICE Sgt ... usually requiring a BS in Crim Justice and 7 years law enforcement experience is..... 61,622 a year.... not bad hell most regional captains with 7 years make that much. For Firefighter the 5-9 year national median salary was....45,320...hum... thats not impressive. ..Registered Nurse.. median rate per hour.. 9 years.. 26 and change per hour.... again... not bad... but still its no six figure income.....here is one... HIGH School Teacher.... National median income 5-9 years experience....43,515.... well you see the idea here. Any yes SKY we have all heard you say how all of these professions pay soooo much more than these averages in YOUR local area... GREAT ... but not everyone can or wants to live THERE. Certainly many of the professions can find locals which exceed these averages... but there are many that also only meet or even underperform these averages. Locality is a huge predictor in paid wages in many jobs and professions.

As for high suicide rates.... there are many differing opinions.. this article is but one... Jobs with High Suicide Rates - Associated Content

Interesting none the less.

Interesting topic
 

HercDriver130,

I am glad that this thread has gotten back on track in regard to family issues. Job choices each come with individual benefits and detractors. You have mentioned some facts about common careers. Police, fire and teaching. At face value they do not seem all that different from flying however if you were to add in that most of those jobs have good retirement plans, stability and in some cases a lot of quality time off they really flatten a flying career. Teachers earn regional captain wages and then get every weekend, holiday, two weeks in december and the entire summer off. Firefighters work an honest 8 days a month. I have a friend who turned away from aviation to become a deputy sheriff and will be able to retire at 53 after only 20 years on the force.

In addition all of those government jobs are largely recession proof, gaining in national status, enjoying wage increases and growing as professions. Stability, wages and quality of life are all essential components to a stable and prosperous family life. In contrast pilots are not paid all that well, are loosing ground as a profession and do not offer much stability. Time away from home is a huge and important factor. In general if an airline pilot is gone only half the time then he is doing well. When you add commuting it totally crushes time at home. In addition pilot schedules are not in sync with the rest of the 9 to 5 world. During times when they are home the rest of the family could be at school or work. Daily contact is in important component of family life. Long stretches away from home are not healthy.

Wages also add to pilot hardship. In the past pilots made enough so that their spouse did not have to work. They also were home more. Flying would be better if it paid more and offered greater job security and employment value as time went on. In summary pilot careers are a detriment to family life and inferior to most other comparable professions because they lack security, wages, benefits and most of all adequate quality time at home. My dentist only works three days a week and does not appear to be suicidal.

Skyhigh

The Great Santini
 

It has been a long time since I have seen that movie. Maybe I will rent it and watch it again soon.

Skyhigh

tit for tat... always two different spins on the same situation.

Here is an interesting thought.... Nationally, teachers, police and fireman are all jobs which are begging for people to enter the profession..... ( even with your so called HIGH wages. ... ) when is the last time aviation truly had a lack of people wanting to enter...????

FWIW... all of those jobs are 24 hour a day jobs...... I know plenty of nurses who work nights.. cops too... as for Firefighters only working 8 days a month... Most departments I know work 24 hours ON... then 48 off.....Id say that 24 hours ON... constitutes more than a normal day for you or I.

Bottom line is we will just have to agree to disagree.

Holy crap... everyone.... ( especially Sky ) needs to read this article... notably #10 on the list.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-arti...5rA1UxMTAxNzAx

As far as the article is concerned, that’s all I’m trying to tell sky; no one is saying that sky is wrong, none of my posts have ever said such a thing, in fact I agree with sky, my only problem is that sky makes it out to be that 99.9% of airline pilots feel the way he does, couldn’t be farther from the truth. Just play it fair and square… sorry about the run-on sentence. :D

Take it from a guy who LOVES flying, thinks about it during any given 30 seconds out of every minute of the day, has dreamed of doing it since early childhood, and has done it for the last 10 years (professional for 2 of those 10), the profession isn't nearly as rosy on the inside as it appears from outside.

The mind has a way on stripping away the negatives in order to convince itself that the computation to follow the dream is correct. I am guilty of this myself, even after enduring this industry in nearly the worst of circumstances for a good while now. When I take off and climb above the overcast layer, my mind tells me that this is what I need to do. But, when I get to the hotel at 2pm for a 24 hour overnight at La Quinta, am forced to eat Chili's, Qdoba, Subway, or something similar every meal, and to telephone my wife night after night after night from some random city, only to find out that the flight I commute on going home is sold out, etc, it loses its appeal quickly. Couple that with limited job security, fairly low pay (at first), the "seat meat" status of the profession, the constant rat race of pilots flooding the market, the constant futile fights between union and management, the fact that EVERY flight is identical to the next, coupled with the increasing automation of the job - it just doesn't make much sense to continue with it.

The way I see it is that I would rather die with 8,000 quality hours in my logbook if those hours were flown with a student who is succeeding at my hands, or on a trip to Oshkosh with my wife in my own airplane, or on an Angel flight delivering a cancer patient to a hospital, etc than with 45,000 hours sitting in a beat up old jet, too high to really see anything, eating from a bag of airport McDonald's, while the autopilot does the flying anyway. Its a nice view, but one can hardly call it flying in a true sense.

I do understand the lazy factor of the job. You do get paid to sit back and watch the clouds go by. Handle a switch off every 5-10 minutes, big deal.

Honestly, after a 1,000 hours of doing it, it becomes a JOB! and a crappy one at that. The sunsets are nice, the outdoor aspect of it is cool. But once the wheels hit the ground, after the mandatory post flight walk around, wait for the hotel van, and final entrance into yet another hotel (where you will spend 1/2 of your nights for the rest of your career - if you are senior!), it loses its appeal quickly.

However, one must see it for themselves. I took 2 years off of another career to give this a shot. If I could do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat. And with the same breath, I will say that I am not giving up on it forever. My choice is to cut my losses for a few years during this downturn and diversify my professional portfolio. If the industry kicks back up, maybe I will go back - but that is a huge MAYBE. If I own my own airplane by then and can afford to fly regularly on the weekends and evenings, still witness the sunsets on my own terms, etc, I don't think I'll be going back. I'd rather eat at home, sleep in my own bed, and score with my wife whenever I feel the urge.

There are pros and cons. Every job has its own. But take it from Sky, myself, or many others out there, it is far from "living the dream" as the brochures advertise.

Could it work for you? Maybe.

Only one way to find out.

Good luck.

how many days at a time are you typically away from your home if flying domestic?