ClutchCargo

What was he applying for?

Will be operating MEM-HNL tomorrow. And not in a 737.

Regards,
Clutch

JohnBurke

"To All," says he, then prattles on about confirmed bachelors married to the sky, as if all are confirmed bachelors, or married to the sky (How are the bachelors married?).

Many of us are quite married, quite comfortable, and yet manage a successful aviation career without any need to look back and cry at our failures.

You failed. You cry. You look back. You commiserate. You fawn over your past. It's really pathetic, you know, to see you so constantly celebrating your poor-me drama in public as you do. At least get a bottle, wrap it in brown paper, and lose yourself in private. Ought not embarrassment at such an indistinguished history of failure give pause long enough to retreat at least into the shadow where you'd be less shamed? It's sometimes embarrassing to watch you embarrass yourself, as you're wont to do.

This mailman busdriver of yours, his career will take off and one day lead to driving really big busses that may six figures and give him ample time off each month? No? Not really much of a comparison, is it? How much value does getting in on the ground floor gaining seniority as a bus driver, establishing his bus driver 401K, and gaining driving hours do for him in the long run?

You're making a comparison between a bus driver, and a career pilot? What has the bus driver to look forward to down the road? What lofty career heights will he reach, and what will he have seen?

I have seen sunrises in the arctic, endless oceans, the outback, Everest. I have seen fireworks in Victoria Harbor on Chinese new year, and spent Christmas in the snow in Liege. I have seen fields of blue russian aphids race by my cockpit, burning mountains full of fire and smoke, the lights of New York City falling away beneath me, and the pyramids of Egypt as I approached to land. I have eaten and slept in five star hotels, and under a rough wool blanket in a revetment in Iraq. I have watched rockets arc overhead in Afghanistan, and seen the sun set on the beach in Waikiki, all thanks to my employment as an aviator.

The bus driver as seen the traffic light at fourth and main.

I'll retire with enough memories to write a dozen novels, and two dozen grand children with whom to share them. The bus driver will retire to his life, but not that of a full successful career. Not as a bus driver, anyway.

You're comparing the bus driver to a career aviator? The bus driver might make a little more for a short season, but that's it. I make more in a few days than what your bus driver makes in a year. I have a lot more time off. I went to work this winter, just recently, because I wanted to. Not because I needed to. Your bus driver? How much of the year can he simply not show up because he has no need? This year, for me, a little over eight months of free time.

I'm not a bachelor. I have a family. I live in a quiet neighborhood. I attend functions, art festivals, events. Last week a concert. Today a music celebration, and a 5K run. You're not talking to me, of course, and you know this. Despite your invitation "To All," you didn't really mean those of us who know you're full of hot air and that your derision of the industry is really an ignorant lie. You're speaking to those who don't know any differently, as you've set yourself up as the defacto missionary of misery, and the harbinger of doom. You're the self-appointed grim reaper of careers. Yours died on the vine when you failed to try, failed to support, and you've moved on, never quite able to let go, and you must keep returning, again and again, to see how many you might possibly drag down with you.

What a stunning success you've become. Tell me, skyhigh, are you yet living like a king, and have you become James Bond, yet?

The pied piper of petulance, and the sewer of distrust, must you celebrate your failures so openly here, and can you not tell what an embarrassment you've become?

If you have a life of which you're proud and happy, then live it, tell us about it, and be thrilled to own it. This life, the aviators life, is not yours, and never was. Your stories are false, and have been shown so. You needn't preach to the unbelieving choir about our own failings. We're living the life you say doesn't exist, and enjoying the fruits you say can't be eaten. You're in poor company for your story: you're among those who know better. At the end of the day you're in the company of adults who see you groveling and crying on the floor in a tantrum that engenders not anger, but pity. Give it up. Live your life and stop trying to poison the waters you never could drink.

You've done enough here, and it all for naught. Move on, already, and find some peace.

Fluglehrer

Letting out a little of your inner Rutger Hauer, John Burke?

Blade Runner - TEARS IN RAIN [Hi-Res Video] - YouTube

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...Attack ships on fire off the shore of Orion...I watched sea beams glittering in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate...All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

John, I think you forgot to add a most important image: "I've seen SkyHigh's posts on Airline Pilot Central".

ClutchCargo

It's shoulder of Orion, not "shore".
And it's 'C' beams, not "sea" beams.

BTW- he ad libbed that whole thing.

Regards,
Clutch

JohnBurke

No. Listing a few things I've seen recently along the way, to illustrate a point. Skyhigh seems constantly paints a picture of sadness and misery, failed dreams. I see it quite the opposite. Without a college degree and starting from a place of very humble origins, I've seen and done far more than I ever hoped, and frankly far more than I have need, and yet have a lot more career yet to go.

Not trapped in a tiny apartment with a dying houseplant and no life, I am able to pursue a life that still interests me, still has room for growth, and which is not stifling, and in which I do not have regret. It hasn't always been easy, and choices haven't always ended well, but that's the richness of life for which I would take no alternative nor sell for any reward. I would no more complain about the low points than I would the high; both sides of the same coin, one a price for the other, both the same reward.

If one feels the same from a lifetime of driving a bus, I say let them. There's nothing wrong with enjoying one's life work. If one intends to be a bus driver five years from now, then be the best bus driver one can be, and enjoy it. Be the happiest bus driver one can be. There's no shame in enjoying what one does.

Don't come on a web board that's all about advancing one's career in aviation, whether it's the airlines, corporate, or any number of other avenues in the industry, and whine that it's not possible, that it's a path of sorrow and misery, or that it's relegated to something less than driving a bus, as though driving a bus is some kind of failure. Neither a career in avaition, no matter what the station, nor driving a bus, represents a bad choice or track. Just different ones. Don't compare them. If skyhigh intends to sell out aviation as a dismal choice because a bus driver makes more, it's a losing sale; the bus driver only makes a little more for a short season, and then there is no comparison. None.

If skyhigh hopes to paint aviation as a poor choice because the bus driver has an established career, let us look forward five years and see where the aviator shall be, and the bus driver. The bus driver, driving the same bus. The aviator, advanced in his or her career, with full expectation of more choice of rides, better pay, better quality, more options. The bus driver's salary will be limited, capped, whereas the sky is quite literally the limit for the aviator.

I very much doubt that the bus driver goes to the bus station on his off hours to happily chat about driving busses, or spends time on a web board such as this to assuage his thirst for sharing a passion about driving a bus. Strangely, aviators do this all the time, hangar flying, talking shop, telling stories, mentoring, speaking of advances in their career, their track, their progress, their troubles…aviators do this all the time. The bus driver? Not so much.

Married to our work, or simply very happy with the opportunity to do what we love? I feel blessed to aviate. If one feels blessed to drive a bus, then one probably is, and should revel in that, too. For now, I haven't explored a fraction of what I set out to do in aviation, but I'm gradually working through the list. Every day to date, several decades later, has been an adventure, and in hindsight I see a successful path with which I'm pleased, and for which I'm grateful.

If that bus driver can look back and see the same, I say good on him or her, and let's celebrate that, too.

What can skyhigh look back on and celebrate in gratitude and joy? Let's find that and celebrate it, too, because whatever it is, it for damn sure ain't aviation.

brianb

Damn!!! If you had been my Poetry Teacher in High School, I coulda been a contender. Well said Obiwan.

Fluglehrer

Sorry Clutch, I should have googled the quote.

C-beams, sea beams, I-beams, high beams -- I have no idea what a C-beam is. I don't think Rutger Hauer did either. But his ad lib was arguably the best scene in any 80's movie. I've heard that he saw himself as the hero in Blade Runner, and Harrison Ford as the villain. He was right.

JB,
You appear very earnest in justifying your career choice. I don't think you need to. It's your choice. Nobody else has to account for it.

Cubdriver

Great posts on this thread, JB. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, you are very inspiring to the junior pilots like me.

Fluglehrer

JB,
I think you've hit upon the key difference between you and Sky. You live life without regrets, and you revel in all of life. That's commendable.

I guess the mystique of aviation is strong, and for some it takes them places they regret. But I don't know many people that attend a Realtor show, or a Doctor show, or a Lawyer show. I know lots of people that attend Airshows.

727C47

JB I think you rocked the house