Sure I could be making a bunch more money than I am now but i wouldnt be happy behind a desk, My office is the sky, what better job can I find being happy than that. Stick with the flying

[quote=rorwizard;347368]Seriously? Ok... so this kid is on his ME comm. checkride and your going to tell him to get out now, after he's spent a mere 50 or so grand on flight training... I really have an issue with all of the people on here who b***h and moan about QOL and pay, you knew this BEFORE you ever started working towards your pilot certs, and furthermore you're really not that much better of in other industries most places you will make somewhere between 20 - 30 K your first year ...quote]

20 to 30K your first year??? Maybe with a basket weaving degree or something. Most start in the mid 40's.

removed due to misreading previous posting

I would be one of though pilots that have experienced landing with the gear up. Not to go into all the details but I was giving a 141 stage check, gear didn't come down, all the gear warning indicators didn't go off, and skidded a PA44 to a screeching halt. Worst feeling in the world! Anywho, did some recurrent training with the FAA, my chief pilot, and after 2 years my record is clean as a whistle. I was still able to get an airline job with this on my record so it isn't a complete career killer. Just be open and up front with it in a interview and talk about what you learned from it. Now......I check that F'in gear a hundred times before every landing.

my little gear incident was also in a PA44...and you'll probably agree with me...never again will you land uneventfully and not be a little relieved that everything went okay...

to be honest this is the way I feel every single time a landed a seminole and any retractible gear airplane that I fly now. No landing is "uneventfull". Thats just somthing that was instilled in me from private pilot days. I'm not saying it wont happpen to me cuase in this business anything is possible. Look what happened to the Eagle guys up in Boston a few years back. like your landing, everything was telling you good to go, but I bet if you looked in the convex mirror (if your PA-44 had it) you wouldnt have seen the nose gear down and locked.

That's a heck of a blanket statement. They don't look at ANYONE with even an INCIDENT? I mean, considering the list of things that could be an incident, I think that's kind of stupid really on their part. A mechanical failure of one of the mains on a 182RG I was flying forced me into a gear-up landing, which is the only incident on my record. I kind of feel like I proved something by successfully landing without totaling the airplane, or putting a scratch on me or my student. It didn't seem to bother the airlines I interviewed for. Granted I was 98.6° and had a pulse...

like i said before i had an incident...i also have a conditional offer from Eagle. i got a letter today from the faa saying i need to take a 709 ride...if my offer with Eagle done? or do i still have a shot? i told them shortly after it happened and sent them the paperwork they wanted...they just never got back to me.

Update:
Turns out the kid only got a warning from the FAA put on his record, and they didnt take any action against him. Does that still mean he has an incident on his record? Does that still hurt his chances of applying for airlines?

Wow. I was surprised to read that statement about American Eagle. Given their need for pilots, I'm surprised they would be so dismissive of applicants without even hearing their side of the story. Sometimes accidents and incidents are truely accidental. Landing gear-up or fuel starvation is a bit different from suffering an unexpected engine failure that results in aircraft damage.

I was under the impression that the deciding factor between an accident and an incident was the dollar amount of the damage to the aircraft. It would seem to me that carelessness and negligence should be much more important factors in determining an applicants abilities. I think accidents and incidents go off a pilot's record after five years now as well.

Just as a side story, I was involved in a landing mishap while acting as a CFI four years ago. The student pilot lost control of the plane in gusty winds 30-40 above the ground. The plane veered to the right and I took over and landed the plane. Unfortunately, the plane bounced back into the air, drifted in the wind even more, and ended up clipping a taxi sign. The FAA examiner said she saw no negligence in my actions, deemed it an accidental accident, and even offered to write a letter stating so if I ever interviewed at an airline. I learned more than you could ever imagine from that experience.

I reluctantly decided to hang up the wings about a month ago though.