Oldfreightdawg

In 1982 (I know that's a long ago) I had a brand new commercial/instrument ticket. Interest rates were 16%, unemployment was 10%, and it seemed like the whole world was on furlough. You couldn't even find a job in the right seat of c-150 as a flight instructor--because all the furloughed airline guys held those jobs. People laughed when I told them I wanted to be an airline pilot. By 1986 all that had change. The more things change, the more they remain the same...

727C47

I know,I was a private pilot back in '82,everyone from my CFI,to my AME poo pooed the idea of an airline career,when 4000 hr ATPs were tending bar. Thank God i didn't listen.

tomgoodman

Right. I was hired in '79, not long before that dry spell, got about 400 guys below me, then stagnated for 6 years on the 727 S/O seat. One thing was different then -- almost all new-hires were military and age 30 or younger. The regionals as we know them were just getting started.

Deez340

of the few civilian folks you knew, what were their backgrounds? I often lament i hadn't been born 50 or so years ago so that i could have been around for the golden age of aviation. However, since i wear contacts and could not fly in the service, and airlines didn't take too kindly to myopia (nearsightedness) either, my career as i know it today would most likely not have been possible if my wish were granted.

pilot141

I must have imagined that chest and abdomen X-Ray, as well as that EKG! This was in the summer of 2000, so maybe they "tweaked" it from when they started the first hiring. It wasn't a no-go item as they legally couldn't do it until after the interview, but it was a lot more than an FAA First Class. It was also not nearly as bad as it was in the "old days" - two or three-stage physicals, playing with your poo, etc. At least that's what I heard from Captains I flew with!

Ah, memories!

Deez340

When i was at Eagle (same medical as AA performed by the same folks in the same facility) if they didn't find my poo it wasn't from a lack of looking! "moon river.... using the whole fist there doc?!" long before 2000. and they advertised it very much as a no go item.

tomgoodman

The only civilian in my new-hire class (Aug '79) had a lot of King Air time and was age 25. He's now nearing the top of the DAL seniority list. Back then, the market was flooded with military guys from the Vietnam era. In the mid-60s, however, there had been a pilot shortage -- many civilians were hired with low amounts of recip time, and they upgraded quickly.

Or you might have been hired by one of the many airlines that went out of business, or not gotten a job at all. The golden "field of dreams" contained land mines. Had they known what deregulation would do, many would have stayed in the military, even though it meant a desk job. All you know for sure is that things will change. One race-car driver said that when he sees a crash on the track ahead, he aims right for it, on the theory that when he arrives at that spot the cars involved will have spun and slid elsewhere. Maybe airline career planning is like that.

Deez340

Your right. Still, it would have been nice to fly the DC3, convair, or a brand new L1011. Did you prefer the two or three man cockpit? I went straight to FO at DAL.

tomgoodman

Three, but that discussion should probably "creep" into a new thread.

Skyone

Three, except when some new hire 28 yr old f/e would "shortstop" the f/a's. I actually had a bet with a captain in 1981 that I wouldn't make it to the right seat in ten years at DAL. Gradly lost the bet after 6 yrs in the back.