|
Originally Posted by Cubdriver
(Post 819853)
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.
I wish you tailwinds on your employment stint with I assume "R---on" (you said Wichita and the "other guy" so it has to be them). Doing what you're competitive on (what pays you the most for a trading of skill and labor) is definitively the right approach to life. Attempting to turn blood out of a turnip (a profession where the goal is to be a carbon copy of each other in the cockpit [standarization]) is merely to bang your head against a wall and suffer economic hardship. Work for money and fly for fun. You'll never go wrong with that. Once again, congrats! :) |
Originally Posted by Cubdriver
(Post 819853)
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.
|
Link
Originally Posted by Cubdriver
(Post 819804)
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. Skyhigh |
Man I don't think so.
Originally Posted by DeadHead
(Post 819811)
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. I think I would have been very satisfied and very happy if it was commonly possible to make it to a good paying airline that offered fair wages and some respect to their employees. I have a good life now. The people I left behind are not happy. Others are here trying hard to defend the idea that they are happy as well. In my opinion it is largely what is wrong with the profession. Instead of wearing a forced smile we all should be hopping mad. The profession is unfair. We all do the exact same job however some are living well while the majority are suffering and abused. The industry uses the promise of becoming an "A" grade pilot to sucker the masses into a "C" or "D" grade life. Skyhigh |
Deadhead
Hey Deadhead,
Why don't you volunteer some information about yourself. You don't have to be specific. Single? Married? Regional? LCC? Old? Young? Whenever someone is guarded about their credentials it makes me wonder where they are coming from. As far as I know you are an unemployed flight instructor who is desperately trying to justify his choices. Skyhigh |
Years Ago
My bush years were largely spent hand propping 207's in the mud, loading and unloading airplanes and digging out from the snow. On one occasion I remember picking up a few people from a small village. The village had a poor runway. It had a severe dog leg, was short and had a massive crest in the middle. On take off roll the plane slowly would climb the hill on the first half and accelerate rapidly on the downhill second part. It took a lot of faith in the downhill side to prevent you from aborting during the pathetic run up the hill.
In addition in the spring the runway was always very soft and constantly plagued with mud. It was a common procedure to park the plane with the nose pointing downhill so you could use the slope to help in getting unstuck once the plane was loaded. In addition in the bush you do not stop for run ups, checklists or anything else for fear of chipping the prop from the sucked up gravel. The idea was to keep moving. On this occasion I had a heavy plane on a soft and muddy runway back taxiing downhill to the worst of the mud at the downhill end. If I were to have slowed down enough to make a gentile turn at the end I surely would have gotten stuck. My plan instead was to do a fast power on turn at the end that transitioned straight into the uphill take off roll. To properly brief my passengers as what to expect I told them that "when I get to the end we are going to turn and burn". My female passenger in the right seat and in a thick accent told me "I hope it is going to be turn and fly". Well said I told her. We indeed did "turn and fly". Early on in my bush career I discovered an ATC frequency that I could hear the communications of the big jets as they passed far overhead. It was common for me to listen to that frequency during long cross countries over hundreds of miles of empty wilderness. It was a great source of inspiration. I told myself that one day it would be me up there wearing a white shirt and eating steak. It helped me to press through the hardships of my day. In comparison my ragged and stained carhartt apparel smelled like oily dried fish and rotten milk. My crew meal consisted of a dry peanut butter pilot bread sandwich and the occasional piece of dried fish that was kindly offered from a passenger. It was not what I wanted but was the path before me and what I had in order to climb the ladder to my dreams. I spent eight years in various places and flying jobs in the Alaskan bush. By the end I could have worked just about anywhere up there but that did not matter since I did not want to be there. I wish I had known that I was wasting my time. Skyhigh |
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
(Post 820501)
Hey Deadhead,
Why don't you volunteer some information about yourself. You don't have to be specific. Single? Married? Regional? LCC? Old? Young? Whenever someone is guarded about their credentials it makes me wonder where they are coming from. As far as I know you are an unemployed flight instructor who is desperately trying to justify his choices. Skyhigh I've been fortunate in my career path so far, we'll leave it at that, and I don't feel the need to try and lambaste your arguments with my own career progression. The what, who, why, or where of my piloting career is irrelevant in my arguments with you because I am not using my aviation background as an excuse for the person I was raised to be. Furthermore, I would never be the type of person to thumb my nose at another persons' career misfortunes. I truly and wholeheartedly am sorry that this career has been so unfair to you, but, with that being said, I don't think it gives you the right speak so lowly of the airline industry and our profession. I don't take offense with what your saying because I agree with many of the half-truths, but the other side of the half truth gets lost in the over-bias of your opinion. Many of the correlations you make with the instability of the airline pilot career can be related to any other career path out there. Whereas you think the airline industry is unfair, I just think that life can be unfair at times. It's not in the unfairness in life that we find happiness and contentment, but rather in our ability to cope, accept, and move on with the realities of life. Life carries no guarantees, and aviation is no different. I would love to think that hard work, commitment, and attitude would always guarantee a healthy, lucrative aviation career path, but unfortunately I would be foolhardy in believing that. |
Life carries no guarantees
Life carries no guarantees, and aviation is no different.
I agree and people need to know that. They also need to know what their true odds of making a return on their investment is. They also should know what kind of lifestyle they are buying into and what the opportunity costs really are. Aviation is not like most other endeavors or careers in life. To start it takes a massive investment in cash and in lost years of your life. The average pilot does not commonly have access to the facts about the career they are considering. Most are sold on the idea that they will be a SWA captain in ten years. Why else would a rational person blow his/her education and go deeply in debt on a career unless they thought they had a chance of earning it back one day? In addition there are pilots who are currently working and are beginning to realize that things are not as they had expected and are asking questions. People need to know. Skyhigh |
A perfect example of your bias negativty Sky.
Aviation is not like most other endeavors or careers in life. To start it takes a massive investment in cash and in lost years of your life. You would if someone posted on APC "the greatest years of your life" or said that there would be NO TOUGH times ahead.....but they don't. You are NOT the only one speaking of the tough times in aviation. 99% on here speak the truth using examples for both sides of the isle. The average pilot does not commonly have access to the facts about the career they are considering. Most are sold on the idea that they will be a SWA captain in ten years. In addition there are pilots who are currently working and are beginning to realize that things are not as they had expected and are asking questions. People need to know. USMCFLYR |
Originally Posted by USMCFLYR
(Post 821127)
The information is out there for any half educated person to find and figure out for themselves. If the Flight Schools are putting out lies - then it is called Advertising - and most can see it for what it is; especially with the help of the internet and even forums like APC. But there will still be those that go to quicky loan stores for a cash advance loan on your paycheck at what - 25% or something crazy like that?
FAQ: How much can I borrow for an online payday loan? You can get $100, $200, $300, or $400 for your first online cash advance with higher amounts available for returning customers. (As long as you qualify for a higher payday loan at that time.) FAQ: How much does it cost for an online cash advance? The fee for a check advance is 25% of the amount borrowed, so for a $100 loan, the fee is $25, or $125 total due. Remember, your first loan with us is carefree as long as it is paid in full on your due date. FAQ: How does the carefree payday loan work? Every new customer is eligible for a carefree payday loan or cash advance. The loan is carefree as long as you pay the full balance due (the amount that you borrowed) on your due date as well as the 25% loan fee. |
| All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:58 AM. |
User Alert System provided by
Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Lite) -
vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Website Copyright ©2000 - 2017 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands