Re-Post: Stages of Pilot Career
12-16-2011, 05:10 PM
#281
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: Out of Regional Jet flying
Posts: 296
Originally Posted by GoPats
You can support a family and a GA plane on a regional FO's salary?
12-17-2011, 05:19 AM
#282
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2010
Position: 747 CA
Posts: 344
I think Sky High's posts are very valuable to us all. He shows one extreme end of the spectrum which allows us to put our positions in perspective.
I was hired by Horizon Air in August 2001 with a class date of 29 October for the Dash 8 Q400. On the morning of 11 September, as I went to Dr Leroy Brown to get my first class medical certificate, the world changed. I was called to fight two wars. It was 7 years later that I was able to continue my airline career. I ended up getting my dream job....
I was hired by Horizon Air in August 2001 with a class date of 29 October for the Dash 8 Q400. On the morning of 11 September, as I went to Dr Leroy Brown to get my first class medical certificate, the world changed. I was called to fight two wars. It was 7 years later that I was able to continue my airline career. I ended up getting my dream job....
12-17-2011, 07:30 AM
#283
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2011
Posts: 158
That's good for you but it is what was discussed on a different thread on this forum. It sounds like your situation is more like one where you made previous financial arrangements and could now "afford" to be in this business a little later in life.
It is a little different from a large percentage of your peers.
It is a little different from a large percentage of your peers.
12-17-2011, 08:49 AM
#284
With The Resistance
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Burning the Agitprop of the Apparat
Posts: 6,191
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
Grumble,
To be fair I was laid off. And to suggest that I am a quitter after all the years I have spent here and thousands of posts is inaccurate too. I hold on and still do (obviously
). The reason I own a small plane is to maintain currency and fly at least 50 hours a year on the outside hope that a miracle will come through one day. I do have friends who are out there banging their heads against the wall. One of them might become the cheif pilot someplace.
Skyhigh
To be fair I was laid off. And to suggest that I am a quitter after all the years I have spent here and thousands of posts is inaccurate too. I hold on and still do (obviously
). The reason I own a small plane is to maintain currency and fly at least 50 hours a year on the outside hope that a miracle will come through one day. I do have friends who are out there banging their heads against the wall. One of them might become the cheif pilot someplace. Skyhigh
After all that?
This is an example of a level of cognitive dissonance rarely seen in humans. Sort of like the wifebeater who proclaims: "I beat you because I love you."
Amazing.
Last edited by jungle; 12-17-2011 at 09:06 AM.
12-17-2011, 09:25 AM
#285
Working weekends
Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: Left Seat
Posts: 2,384
Just my two cents, but this thread is getting weaker and weaker. In summary
1. Attractive, stable, well-paying [airline/corporate] jobs are hard to come by, argubaly harder now than anytime in history. Insert into brackets your choice of any career in today's economic climate. American has hundreds of law school grads, with fresh law degrees (and 100K+ debt), mixing expressos at Starbucks because nobody is hiring attorneys with no experience. Sound familiar ?
2. Some folks in "the hunt" for that job described above have chose to leave aviation for their own reasons.
3. Some folks continue the hunt. Whether your do #2 or #3 is a tactical strategic decision left to the individual. Your decision may or may not impact #5 below. At some point you reach the PONR Point of No Return in other words 55 year old RJ captain can't just go to school and become an IT manager. A 38 year old can. Etc. The individual will have to assess this. Me personally I believe the PONR age is 40-45. Once past those ages, your chance at re-invention is lessened greatly.
4. There is another life and world besides the airplane cockpit. Other careers exist. Whether those careers are pursued is a personal choice left to the individual
5. Life is not "fair". Nobody that I know was given a "guarantee for fair life" certificate at birth. Just ask malnourished children born into famine in Africa. Then rebels whack their arms and legs off and leave them to bleed out and die. Ask them how life is treating them. Makes our b1tching about "SWA hasn't hired me yet" and/or "FedEx is a military good ole boys club" and/or "the check airman at ABC company has an axe to grind" seem kind of trivial, no ?
Done, end of story
1. Attractive, stable, well-paying [airline/corporate] jobs are hard to come by, argubaly harder now than anytime in history. Insert into brackets your choice of any career in today's economic climate. American has hundreds of law school grads, with fresh law degrees (and 100K+ debt), mixing expressos at Starbucks because nobody is hiring attorneys with no experience. Sound familiar ?
2. Some folks in "the hunt" for that job described above have chose to leave aviation for their own reasons.
3. Some folks continue the hunt. Whether your do #2 or #3 is a tactical strategic decision left to the individual. Your decision may or may not impact #5 below. At some point you reach the PONR Point of No Return in other words 55 year old RJ captain can't just go to school and become an IT manager. A 38 year old can. Etc. The individual will have to assess this. Me personally I believe the PONR age is 40-45. Once past those ages, your chance at re-invention is lessened greatly.
4. There is another life and world besides the airplane cockpit. Other careers exist. Whether those careers are pursued is a personal choice left to the individual
5. Life is not "fair". Nobody that I know was given a "guarantee for fair life" certificate at birth. Just ask malnourished children born into famine in Africa. Then rebels whack their arms and legs off and leave them to bleed out and die. Ask them how life is treating them. Makes our b1tching about "SWA hasn't hired me yet" and/or "FedEx is a military good ole boys club" and/or "the check airman at ABC company has an axe to grind" seem kind of trivial, no ?
Done, end of story
Last edited by satpak77; 12-17-2011 at 09:37 AM.
12-17-2011, 09:43 AM
#286
With The Resistance
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Burning the Agitprop of the Apparat
Posts: 6,191
Good summary satpak, it has a lot to do with perspective.
As we get older the window gets smaller in many respects. At some point you have to commit, that does not mean for life, but you are only allowed a few tries. Best to make the most of your decisions early on, this is not just practice.
As we get older the window gets smaller in many respects. At some point you have to commit, that does not mean for life, but you are only allowed a few tries. Best to make the most of your decisions early on, this is not just practice.
12-17-2011, 11:37 AM
#287
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2010
Position: 747 CA
Posts: 344
Originally Posted by GoPats
That's good for you but it is what was discussed on a different thread on this forum. It sounds like your situation is more like one where you made previous financial arrangements and could now "afford" to be in this business a little later in life.
It is a little different from a large percentage of your peers.
It is a little different from a large percentage of your peers.
12-17-2011, 04:03 PM
#288
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2011
Posts: 158
Originally Posted by Atlas Shrugged
I don't know if this is addressed to me, but my point is that we never know what the future holds. Some of us were yanked out of our lives here with no certainty about much of anything. Your priorities change when people are shooting at you....
Sorry, my bad for not quoting. That was in response to MD11.
12-23-2011, 03:26 PM
#289
Self Employed.
Thread Starter
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Life isn't fair
I agree that life is not fair. We all know that. However we are also fed the line when we are young that you can do whatever you want in life and that is not the full story either. We are lead to believe that we can do anything but rarely are the consequences, risks or realities of life's daring choices discussed.
An aviation career is a massive investment. People need to know the full and honest truth about their chances of earning a return on their investment. I do not believe that the downside of the profession is commonly available to newbies.
Life is not fair but people deserve to get the cold hard facts before making such a risky decision as this. I believe that if presented with the reality of the profession most would back away.
I wish this website was around when I was starting out.
Skyhigh
An aviation career is a massive investment. People need to know the full and honest truth about their chances of earning a return on their investment. I do not believe that the downside of the profession is commonly available to newbies.
Life is not fair but people deserve to get the cold hard facts before making such a risky decision as this. I believe that if presented with the reality of the profession most would back away.
I wish this website was around when I was starting out.
Skyhigh
12-23-2011, 07:21 PM
#290
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: 744 CA
Posts: 4,772
We do to Sky, because then you wouldn't come on here every few days and "cry a river" about how this profession failed you.
Nor will I apologize for leaving the business for a decade, building a successful business and then selling it for a tidy profit to secure my retirement. Further, I will not apologize that my wife is well employed (and no Sky I don't believe my children have suffered because of it) and also has secured a nice retirement. Now I know Sky will go off on a tangent that a wife should not have to work, nor should I have to have done what I did to be in this business, (there are many paths to a career, not all will be the same) but I refuse to apologize for the path WE(my wife and I) took to be where we are in life.
I believe ALL things in life happen for a reason, and that is what you must embrace Sky, for I believe as much as you love aviation deep down in your soul the business was not for you and life moved you in other directions. I do not believe you would have ever truly been happy in this business no matter the circumstance.
Merry Christmas Sky, to you and yours.
Nor will I apologize for leaving the business for a decade, building a successful business and then selling it for a tidy profit to secure my retirement. Further, I will not apologize that my wife is well employed (and no Sky I don't believe my children have suffered because of it) and also has secured a nice retirement. Now I know Sky will go off on a tangent that a wife should not have to work, nor should I have to have done what I did to be in this business, (there are many paths to a career, not all will be the same) but I refuse to apologize for the path WE(my wife and I) took to be where we are in life.
I believe ALL things in life happen for a reason, and that is what you must embrace Sky, for I believe as much as you love aviation deep down in your soul the business was not for you and life moved you in other directions. I do not believe you would have ever truly been happy in this business no matter the circumstance.
Merry Christmas Sky, to you and yours.
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