USMCFLYR - don't get me wrong. I think I bit off more than I could chew when I wound up in a dry village of less than 500 people. (NO boobies, NO beer NOT good) In other words I took the Alaska sink or swim route and it didn't work out.

Also, I wouldn't fret about not getting a chance to be a bush pilot. They will always need aviation there and if your heart is really into it you will find your way. I did and it was much different than I imagined. Who knows you may find your way there one day and be the happiest man on earth.

Judging by your posts you should give it a shot. Life is too short to feel the way you do.

There are some good waves out on Kodiak island and there is a pretty cool operation that runs Islanders out that way. It seemed like a great set up for a surfer with a serious sense of adventure.

I think it would take some adjustment worrying about getting eaten out of the water instead of in the water .

 

You guys love to attack my spelling or other fringe components of my posts but let my best stuff just lie there. What about the 18,000? That post should receive some kind of reply.

It just makes me think that I hit the nail on the head and no one wants to touch it because you all know it is true.

You can't let me get away with that. Come on now. Tell me it is untrue.

Skyhigh

 

Your points are incoherent, inaccurate, and beyond personal negative bias.

One person's attitude can be a result of their life, and another person's life can be a result of their attitude.

 

Americans have developed a mantra of perpetual optimism. The belief is that if you are able to maintain a happy positive attitude for long enough then your dreams will come true. Only one side of the issue is ever truly examined. The other is branded as "negative" and is flatly rejected as being bad and the path of losers.

Avoiding the study of both sides of an issue can lead to a bad decision. Unbridled and unwarranted optimism is the main tool that universities and factory flight schools use to sell licenses.

Eventually when it becomes obvious that the unbridled focus on an unrealistic outcome will not bare fruit the broken usually choose to sink back into the woodwork still in fear of retaliation for expressing dissatisfaction.

There is no negative side in regards to aviation. It is just the facts from both sides of the issue.

Skyhigh

 

Exactly. The maintenance of an unwarranted positive attitude is what leads so many to financial ruin and an empty personal life in aviation.

Skyhigh

 

On my first day of college the director of the flight program addressed the freshman class hopeful aviators. He told us to "take a look at the guy to your left". "One of you will not be here a year from now." Two to one odds. I can do that.

Later that day my academic counselor during orientation week told me that only 25% of the freshman class will make it to graduation. Four to one odds. Difficult but doable.

Years later I was sitting in a room with ten other regional applicants waiting for our interview. I was the only one who got hired that day. I beat ten to one odds that day.

Eventually I made it to an up and coming start up. I was told by HR that they had over 3000 applications on file from current and qualified pilots with jet time for only 157 jobs. Twenty to one.

On a big year a legacy airline might hire a few hundred pilots out of the 18,000 current and qualified pilots that are perpetually in the national pool. 60 to one odds.

If your dream is to work for a good legacy like UPS however they only hire an average of 100 or so pilots ever year. In that case a CRJ captain with over 1000 hours of part 121 PIC flight time is facing odds of around 180 to one.

You would think that a pilots odds would improve over time. Each hurdle passed should result in improved chances. From my analysis however they do not.

Skyhigh

 

Probably is true, looking at the US BLS numbers for airline pilots here. As long as you stay on message and stick to facts, I do not think anybody really disagrees with you Sky. DE and quite a few others (Rick etc.) have supported the basic core statements you always make about the airline pilot career, however begrudgingly they may have done so. But you also have a tendency to stray away from facts every now and then, and that's when things get hairy because people get confused about your motives. I can't say that I blame them.

I just won a good engineering job, and it looks like I am heading back to the office. I spent a year flying around the country making nothing this year, but I had a good time and it was worth it. I find that I am one among many tens of thousands in the pilot ranks, yet one among a much smaller number in the engineering community. So, if I want to make the best of things I need to do what I am the most competitive in. But who knows, ten years from now I may find myself back in the cockpit of a commuter plane making half as much shuttling people to Europe or the Bahamas. I am at peace with both lifestyles, and each has its strong points and its weak points.

 

I have a feeling even if you were at a mainline company of your dreams making 6 figures a years, you would still be an insufferable, moping bore.

Your unfortunate luck in the aviation field is your convenient excuse for being unhappy. If you were truly content and happy with your life you wouldn't constantly be on an internet site trying to bring down the viability of the profession.

 

Congrats on the new engineering job! You're ME right? What's the new gig?

 

Aero, and working for a large Wichita aerospace firm again soon. Not the same one I used to work for, but competitive in every way. I sort of walked across the street you could say. I love airplanes and this city is a mecca for aircraft design, manufacture and testing. There is a large number of laid off engineers here currently, so to get back on staff is pretty huge and I consider myself lucky. If I were making toasters or Toros I would just stay in flying and tough it out with everybody else, but this is a way to have my cake and eat it too. Since I also fly skydivers and teach a little bit I have a pretty good mix of recreational activities. I hate hotels, so being home is worth the few negatives associated with a predominantly office-based gig. Work will always have a down side of some form or other, because it's work. The trick is to do something that you feel good about.