So I got a real job. Now I just want to fly.
09-03-2010, 08:38 AM
#41
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2005
Posts: 233
Do what you want with life. It goes by too fast.
I just wonder when people are pilots, yet complain about being away from home, what they expected? You can be a pilot and be home every night....if you want to be a full time CFI, banner tow, crop duster, sky dive pilot, etc.
If you can work for yourself & have your own a/c, that's the best possible situation.
Good luck to all.
I just wonder when people are pilots, yet complain about being away from home, what they expected? You can be a pilot and be home every night....if you want to be a full time CFI, banner tow, crop duster, sky dive pilot, etc.
If you can work for yourself & have your own a/c, that's the best possible situation.
Good luck to all.
09-04-2010, 08:50 AM
#42
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2010
Position: Boeing Boss
Posts: 335
"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return"
- Leonardo da Vinci
More specific:
"There is for a man two things in life that are very important, head and shoulders above everything else. Find work you like, and find someone to live with you like. Very few people get both."
All work is work. Parts you like...parts you don't like.
- Leonardo da Vinci
More specific:
"There is for a man two things in life that are very important, head and shoulders above everything else. Find work you like, and find someone to live with you like. Very few people get both."
All work is work. Parts you like...parts you don't like.
09-10-2010, 08:58 AM
#43
I'm a man of my word.
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Position: Devil's Advocate
Posts: 2,883
Originally Posted by bryris
I got a bean counting job. Start Tuesday. But the money is good and I will be motivated by the fact that I am well on the way to airplane ownership and I'll be home every evening, with the wife, etc.
Good stuff bryris, glad to hear it. Is it at LAL or GIF? Either way, fond memories of both airports.
09-11-2010, 02:04 PM
#44
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2008
Position: Hotel
Posts: 714
Originally Posted by CaptainCarl
Good stuff bryris, glad to hear it. Is it at LAL or GIF? Either way, fond memories of both airports.I did my first week at the job last week. Its OK. Its basically a standard desk job, but the pay is solid and it gives me many things that flying didn't. Can I stay away from pro flying for good? That has yet to be seen. But, I'm working on getting my ducks in a row to buy something soon. If I can fly WHEN I WANT at will, that itch will be scratched and I can excel outside of pro flying. It does offer a better quality of life no doubt, solid career advancement, professional portability, etc.
For now, I am satisfied with it. We'll see how I feel in a month.
09-11-2010, 07:07 PM
#45
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: FAA 'Flight Check'
Posts: 13,837
Originally Posted by bryris
Its going to be at LAL. They are relocating to the old Piper building I believe.
I did my first week at the job last week. Its OK. Its basically a standard desk job, but the pay is solid and it gives me many things that flying didn't. Can I stay away from pro flying for good? That has yet to be seen. But, I'm working on getting my ducks in a row to buy something soon. If I can fly WHEN I WANT at will, that itch will be scratched and I can excel outside of pro flying. It does offer a better quality of life no doubt, solid career advancement, professional portability, etc.
For now, I am satisfied with it. We'll see how I feel in a month.
I did my first week at the job last week. Its OK. Its basically a standard desk job, but the pay is solid and it gives me many things that flying didn't. Can I stay away from pro flying for good? That has yet to be seen. But, I'm working on getting my ducks in a row to buy something soon. If I can fly WHEN I WANT at will, that itch will be scratched and I can excel outside of pro flying. It does offer a better quality of life no doubt, solid career advancement, professional portability, etc.
For now, I am satisfied with it. We'll see how I feel in a month.
USMCFLYR
09-11-2010, 07:58 PM
#46
New Hire
Joined APC: Sep 2010
Position: Thrush
Posts: 2
Interesting to hear someone say that a 'crop duster' is home every night. Today is Sept 11 and I haven't seen my family since June 10. I abandoned aerial application for a fieldman job in 1997 and flew my summer vacations until 2001. In 2002, I took my first summer vacation ever - too bad my kids were grown and gone. Got sick of the office job and decided to become a financial advisor - in 2008. How's that for bad timing? Here I am, after a year unemployed, back in a spray plane. Living in a fifth wheel trailer 1200 miles from home. Made enough to pay the bills until I get home and start looking for a winter job. I originally quit instructing at 19 to go on tour in Europe as a musician. At that time, I was making more playing on weekends than I was flying 5 1/2 days a week. Flying for a living takes passion - it's never quite as romantic from the cockpit as it is from the ground, looking up. And the pay sucks.
Last edited by finnegan; 09-11-2010 at 08:09 PM.
09-12-2010, 05:59 AM
#47
I'm a man of my word.
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Position: Devil's Advocate
Posts: 2,883
Originally Posted by finnegan
Interesting to hear someone say that a 'crop duster' is home every night. Today is Sept 11 and I haven't seen my family since June 10. I abandoned aerial application for a fieldman job in 1997 and flew my summer vacations until 2001. In 2002, I took my first summer vacation ever - too bad my kids were grown and gone. Got sick of the office job and decided to become a financial advisor - in 2008. How's that for bad timing? Here I am, after a year unemployed, back in a spray plane. Living in a fifth wheel trailer 1200 miles from home. Made enough to pay the bills until I get home and start looking for a winter job. I originally quit instructing at 19 to go on tour in Europe as a musician. At that time, I was making more playing on weekends than I was flying 5 1/2 days a week. Flying for a living takes passion - it's never quite as romantic from the cockpit as it is from the ground, looking up. And the pay sucks.
09-15-2010, 03:37 PM
#48
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Do what you want.
Originally Posted by quimby
Do what you want with life. It goes by too fast.
I just wonder when people are pilots, yet complain about being away from home, what they expected? You can be a pilot and be home every night....if you want to be a full time CFI, banner tow, crop duster, sky dive pilot, etc.
If you can work for yourself & have your own a/c, that's the best possible situation.
Good luck to all.
I just wonder when people are pilots, yet complain about being away from home, what they expected? You can be a pilot and be home every night....if you want to be a full time CFI, banner tow, crop duster, sky dive pilot, etc.
If you can work for yourself & have your own a/c, that's the best possible situation.
Good luck to all.
However I don't want to be a low wage CFI, abused charter pilot, extorted regional first officer, or unappreciated corporate pilot. I don't like being kept up late one day and forced up at 4:00AM the next. I don't want 450 hours of time away from base each month for less than what I could have made for bagging groceries. The sad reality is that most will not make it to where they want to be in aviation so you end up living a greatly discounted life that is not of your original choosing.
Being a pilot requires sacrifices, we all know, but to be poor in addition is too much.
Skyhigh
09-16-2010, 06:25 PM
#49
I'm a man of my word.
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Position: Devil's Advocate
Posts: 2,883
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
I want to be a senior Alaska Airlines Captain with a Seattle base.
However I don't want to be a low wage CFI, abused charter pilot, extorted regional first officer, or unappreciated corporate pilot. I don't like being kept up late one day and forced up at 4:00AM the next. I don't want 450 hours of time away from base each month for less than what I could have made for bagging groceries. The sad reality is that most will not make it to where they want to be in aviation so you end up living a greatly discounted life that is not of your original choosing.
Being a pilot requires sacrifices, we all know, but to be poor in addition is too much.
Skyhigh
However I don't want to be a low wage CFI, abused charter pilot, extorted regional first officer, or unappreciated corporate pilot. I don't like being kept up late one day and forced up at 4:00AM the next. I don't want 450 hours of time away from base each month for less than what I could have made for bagging groceries. The sad reality is that most will not make it to where they want to be in aviation so you end up living a greatly discounted life that is not of your original choosing.
Being a pilot requires sacrifices, we all know, but to be poor in addition is too much.
Skyhigh
Just yanking your chain man. I know you got a raw deal, you've practically posted your entire lack of a career here. But some of us youngsters gotta keep plugging away, them wide-bodies ain't gonna fly themselves when today's pilots retire/keel over.
09-16-2010, 07:06 PM
#50
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2009
Position: pilot
Posts: 584
Originally Posted by finnegan
Interesting to hear someone say that a 'crop duster' is home every night. Today is Sept 11 and I haven't seen my family since June 10. I abandoned aerial application for a fieldman job in 1997 and flew my summer vacations until 2001. In 2002, I took my first summer vacation ever - too bad my kids were grown and gone. Got sick of the office job and decided to become a financial advisor - in 2008. How's that for bad timing? Here I am, after a year unemployed, back in a spray plane. Living in a fifth wheel trailer 1200 miles from home. Made enough to pay the bills until I get home and start looking for a winter job. I originally quit instructing at 19 to go on tour in Europe as a musician. At that time, I was making more playing on weekends than I was flying 5 1/2 days a week. Flying for a living takes passion - it's never quite as romantic from the cockpit as it is from the ground, looking up. And the pay sucks.
All of that said I bolded a portion of your post that is the gospel truth.
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