JamesNoBrakes

Why does he have to believe what you do?

USMCFLYR

Sky wants you to believe what he does.
Why don't you ask Sky that same question?

USMCFLYR

HercDriver130

he doesn't obviously because he is a bitter, soured person, for whom life didn't deal him the cards he wanted.. so he drew more, and got something more to his liking. Frankly Sky has a good message, but he is like the boy who cries wolf...... say it took much and people begin tuning you out... further frankly Sky only responds with the same old mantras and will rarely engage a discussion of reality,,,,, point in case his insistence at using the postal service as a good career.... sure for some.... but not for the 100000 plus who will lose their jobs in the next few years .... for them their dream is also shattered.

Hell I would probably feel some sympathy for sky if he even took a small amount of responsibility for how things turned out. That....and well.... he says "we".... he gave up being "we" along time ago.

HercDriver130

And further... I don't think I included you in this conversation.....

SkyHigh

HercDriver130,

I appreciate your honest assessment of my situation and I would like to do the same for you.

You like to refute my posts because there is a part of you that knows that returning to the airlines after so many years is kind of a mid-life crisis driven self centered thing to do. Long ago you choose to leave the career. The reasons you left have not changed but you have. If I recall you suffered a personal loss that involved a business of some kind that was destroyed by a fire. As a result there was no business to sell and no retirement in the bank. That is just an invention to cover your tracks. Rather than face the pain of starting over you have chosen to run away from the situation instead.

Then I come along and muddy the waters of your cognitive dissonance by constantly bringing up the same things you told yourself ten years ago when you quit the airlines before. You are now constantly trying to rationalize it to yourself why going back to the airlines now is a good idea however my posts irritate your attempts at self denial and you feel obliged to voice opposition. You can't help yourself.

Now granted I could be wrong about the details and sequence of events but you and I go back a long time here together. I believe that I have a good bead on a few things in regards to you. I understand that you might not be ready to accept my observations yet. These are some difficult things to get a grip on, but I believe that I am close to the mark.

What are good old friends for if they don't tell each other the hard things that they need to hear? In my case I still have a year or two left before I make it to ten years out of the industry. Perhaps my mid-life crisis will kick in and I will get to run away to the circus too?

In my case you are right about the industry not being for me. I am all about earning a living. Never would I have enjoyed the profession at what it currently pays. My life is centered on family and not a career. I loved flying of course but if it can not provide an equitable return on my investment then I need to find something else to do. When we both started things were much different in aviation and that is what I like to write about. People need to know what has been lost and the realities of the career.

I hope you and your family enjoy a Merry Christmas as well.

Skyhigh

SkyHigh

I like to use the post office comparison because it is a commonly accessible career that does not require much beyond a high school diploma. It is merely a tool to measure against and nothing more. We could also use the military or even being a city bus driver.

The exercise is to discover what the opportunity cost of an aviation career is. An example of what could have been gained in comparison if you hadn't invested all the years in college, flight training, low wage experience building jobs, furloughs and the like.

To me a career in the post office comes shockingly close to what a typical airline career can earn and that result is meant to upset people. After all the struggle that it takes to become a professional pilot it should pay far more than it does.

Some however would rather confuse the situation by smoke screening the truth through discourse over details of being a postman. It is only a metaphor. We could use another term like: baseline profession.

Skyhigh

SkyHigh

I have been accused of focusing too much on income. A career is more than the money it provides however it is a method of measuring the return on ones efforts. It also says a lot about what your value is to an industry or employer.

To a true artist compensation lies exclusively in the satisfaction that comes from their efforts and nothing more. To a realist however a satisfactory return on investment is where the focus lies.

Most of us struggle between the mixture of the two sides. The artist wants personal satisfaction while the realist needs to see a fat paycheck. We can not set a standard for what artistic satisfaction is worth but we all can relate to what the value of money is.

Skyhigh

Cubdriver

Man is the proposer and god (or fate) is the disposer. I am not religious, but this bit of advice seems to ring true. And if it is true, then for what reason should we not shoot for the ultimate thing in the pursuance of our goals? I appreciate SkyHigh's mission in supplying newbies with a diverging viewpoint and I never think his story is less than genuine. But in the end we make our own destiny, and whatever happened to SkyHigh or anyone else for that matter is irrelevant. We can't say that because some number of persons failed to do a task then we must also fail. We must forge ahead with a certain element of faith however small.

SkyHigh

Cubdriver,

I agree but faith needs to be placed behind solid facts and reason. Be careful of what you wish for because you just might get it.

Skyhigh

GoPats

Nice post Cub but, "in the end we make our own destiny", is a point I have trouble with. By definition, we can't make our own destiny. That's predetermined, it it not?