Respect
05-17-2007 | 12:28 PM
#53
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,077
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From: MD11 CPT
We all have only our experiences to draw upon. I have kept track with peers from college, flight instructing, bush pilot air taxi and into the regionals. Perhaps fewer than 10 % are even still flying. Two of my best friends died in airplane crashes. Just last summer I turned down a job because they wouldn't promise me regular days off and they guy who took the position died in a crash just months later.
Perhaps I have had an unusual run. I think that successful pilots owe more to luck and contacts than even they realise. Though I do not yet have the statistical evidence to prove it my premise that there are at least 100,000 licensed and experienced professional grade pilots out there who have had to let the career go for similar reasons as myself. They are not counted anymore once their medicals lapse. I have been in contact with one of the FAA's top statistician who shares my thoughts and is trying to prove the same thing.
SWA is fine for many people. It doesn't fit me or my life. I am sure that there are plenty of companies you have chosen to avoid. Why don't you pursue a SWA job?
Skyhigh
Perhaps I have had an unusual run. I think that successful pilots owe more to luck and contacts than even they realise. Though I do not yet have the statistical evidence to prove it my premise that there are at least 100,000 licensed and experienced professional grade pilots out there who have had to let the career go for similar reasons as myself. They are not counted anymore once their medicals lapse. I have been in contact with one of the FAA's top statistician who shares my thoughts and is trying to prove the same thing.
SWA is fine for many people. It doesn't fit me or my life. I am sure that there are plenty of companies you have chosen to avoid. Why don't you pursue a SWA job?
Skyhigh
From what you've posted here, you've paid a mere fraction of the dues that I and many here have yet you whine more than all of us combined...what's up with that? Get it over with, hang it up and move on. I for one wouldn't want you in my right seat...in the middle of an emergency you'd likely break down, get out of the seat and go in the back to lament how unfair and cruel life is to the jumpseaters. Move on dude.
05-17-2007 | 07:04 PM
#54
Thread Starter
Self Employed.
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 7,120
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From: Corporate Pilot
FedEx
You know what? Keep this up and you're going to have to pay those of us who respond to your posts for this therapy. Twisted as it is, you're looking in the wrong place for people to hand you a plate of cookies, a glass of milk and pat you on the head saying "...it's OK Sky, it's not your fault, all the others are just jealous they're not you..." That's what mommy figures are for, not real pilots.
From what you've posted here, you've paid a mere fraction of the dues that I and many here have yet you whine more than all of us combined...what's up with that? Get it over with, hang it up and move on. I for one wouldn't want you in my right seat...in the middle of an emergency you'd likely break down, get out of the seat and go in the back to lament how unfair and cruel life is to the jumpseaters. Move on dude.
From what you've posted here, you've paid a mere fraction of the dues that I and many here have yet you whine more than all of us combined...what's up with that? Get it over with, hang it up and move on. I for one wouldn't want you in my right seat...in the middle of an emergency you'd likely break down, get out of the seat and go in the back to lament how unfair and cruel life is to the jumpseaters. Move on dude.
Next you can tell us all how you are a Vietnam vet.
Skyhigh
05-18-2007 | 01:15 AM
#56
Gets Off
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 688
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From: Nordskog Industries Field Technician
05-18-2007 | 04:32 AM
#57
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Self Employed.
Joined: May 2005
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From: Corporate Pilot
Dumb
It would be dumb for me to attempt SWA as well. Why I bet it would take three legs to commute back from Baltimore.
SkyHigh
05-18-2007 | 05:49 AM
#58
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 758
Likes: 1
BTW, SWA has three non-stops per day running between Vegas and Baltimore. Ironically, you could find yourself a SWA pilot before me. So go ahead, try SWA, beat me to it. THEN would you stop your bi itch in?
The bottom line would seem to be that you just can't stand it to see others content in a place that you were unable to sustain. Plenty of pilots have suffered from shattered dreams over the last 90 years, yet I don't know of a mentionable percentage of those who decided to spend their time trying to make the remaining professional pilots feel ashamed.
BTW, I could help you get a job flying a larger than RJ airliner. If you want PM me. If not, please let it go.
05-18-2007 | 07:26 AM
#60
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Self Employed.
Joined: May 2005
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From: Corporate Pilot
Yes
Right, I don't have the PIC. I still wouldn't apply however.
I don't want to commute.
I don't want to move.
I don't want to fly 9 leg days.
I don't want to strive to fit into the SWA culture.
I don't want to spend much time on the east coast.
SWA is a great company but I have never wanted to work for them. They offer few of the requirements that I have to satisfy personal lifestyle needs. Life is hard enough without having to sit in a terminal on my days off trying to get to and from work. SWA has had a fantastic run, however I think things are due to slow down. They have nearly conquered the nation. What else can they do?
Flying is great but it has never been worth it to me to completely uproot everything that I value in life in pursuit of it. I hold the belief that I can do better and have been fulfilling that expectation ever since I was laid off years ago.
What other profession demands as much? 4 years of College, flight school, to be followed by nearly a decade and a half of low wage jobs to reach a place where your odds slim to one in three at best. The reward then is to be a new hire at 40 at some major, get treated like a high school kid at Walmart. Enjoy the low wages and poor schedules yet again. Commute across the country. Miss family events and holidays. And if you are lucky you might miss the big furlough at 45.
Even if I were eligible for SWA I could not accept the difficulties it would present myself and to my family. Maybe in years to come after my kids are grown and gone and when the profession as totally collapsed I could consider something like that.
Skyhigh
I don't want to commute.
I don't want to move.
I don't want to fly 9 leg days.
I don't want to strive to fit into the SWA culture.
I don't want to spend much time on the east coast.
SWA is a great company but I have never wanted to work for them. They offer few of the requirements that I have to satisfy personal lifestyle needs. Life is hard enough without having to sit in a terminal on my days off trying to get to and from work. SWA has had a fantastic run, however I think things are due to slow down. They have nearly conquered the nation. What else can they do?
Flying is great but it has never been worth it to me to completely uproot everything that I value in life in pursuit of it. I hold the belief that I can do better and have been fulfilling that expectation ever since I was laid off years ago.
What other profession demands as much? 4 years of College, flight school, to be followed by nearly a decade and a half of low wage jobs to reach a place where your odds slim to one in three at best. The reward then is to be a new hire at 40 at some major, get treated like a high school kid at Walmart. Enjoy the low wages and poor schedules yet again. Commute across the country. Miss family events and holidays. And if you are lucky you might miss the big furlough at 45.
Even if I were eligible for SWA I could not accept the difficulties it would present myself and to my family. Maybe in years to come after my kids are grown and gone and when the profession as totally collapsed I could consider something like that.
Skyhigh
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