What would YOU take to leave
 

Just looking for opinions (not bashing, please)

Took up flying for fun and it has become a career change for me. I have been with a regional for about 3 years now as an F/O. Pay is a joke, away from home all the time....but I love to fly. Got offered to go back to my old job and pretty much pick up where I left off making close to 3 times what I make now. What would you do?
For the record, I am leaning toward leaving the airline industry but I am wondering if I am going to miss flying jets all that much or not. Wondering if anyone here has stories of friends leaving the airlines and then coming back after a few years. Or vice versa maybe, leaving and never regretting it, and have a much better life now. It would be a waste of my seniority to leave the airlines and find myself trying to make it back later. I am losing too much sleep over this decision!

Bid zero lines or part time lines at your airline if available and work full time at your previous job. You are still available for your flight benefits.

You will always miss some part of the job, and nostalgia will make you overlook the worst parts. But, a steady income with time at home, in a city of your choosing is hard to pass up. I would go for the stability and the chance to have or create a home life.

Agreed, go for the stability and paycheck. With 3 times the pay you can go rent a 172 and take friends/family out flying for fun. You can always be nostalgic and come to APC to remember the horrors of regional pilot life ;)

I'd take the job with the 3x more money, and use some of it to keep flying for fun....... buy a J3 Cub on floats and really have some fun........find a little part-time CFI job on the side, if you have the rating. As you get older, you will likely find that sleeping at home in your own bed and making a decent paycheck may tend to significantly outweigh the "fun and glamour" of flying a shiny RJ.

Agreed. This is what I did. Airline industry was tanking, I received my furlough notice and displacement notice and finally decided to cut my losses. I am part time CFI ing right now and in school working on something else completely.

I do miss the cockpit and miss the conversations at cruise. But I don't miss a plastic wrapped kiosk sandwich, dirty hotel rooms, commuting (arrgh), uncertainty for a future, etc AT ALL!

I think you'll find that if you can keep a steady diet of aviation in your life (2-3 hours a week min), then you'll find happiness and be able to focus on more important and more fulfilling activities.

I agree with everyone else on here. Flying RJ's isn't fun anyways. If you really want to have fun flying, go buy an older Citabria, Champ, or a Cub. That's real flying and real fun. I am looking for a way out of this industry. Being away from home 20+ days a month for the crap pay just isn't worth it!

Personally I'd go for the old job. Sure you'll miss flying but you won't miss all the horse-hockey that went with it. If I were in your shoes I'd take the old job and, like the rest have said, fly for fun. I'd love to have that opportunity myself.

Tell you what, when you start to miss it, someone here will call you up and pretend to be crew scheduling and junior man you to Keokuk, Iowa, where you can spend the night in a Motel 8 and have all those fond memories come flooding back to you. I'll buy you a gas station egg salad sandwich to round out the completeness of it all.

Fly
 

You have only so many years left in your life. How could you turn your back on two or three thousand ILS approaches that would would miss out on? Who would be there to watch the free HBO at the Holiday Inn? Wouldn't you miss the excitement of Getting up at 3:00AM?

Money is money. Friends and family grow on trees. Time at home is over rated. :D

Just kidding. :) Sure you would miss your airline job but the stuff you would gain is pretty significant. It is better to leave now when you still have some affection for the profession then to be stuck there a decade from now and kicking yourself.

Skyhigh

My cousin got furloughed from Alaska Airlines a year ago or so. He was hardcore into flying and loved flying the B737. He now lives where he wants, is home with his wife and baby EVERY night, and has a bigger and more steady paycheck. He won't even talk about the airlines anymore. It's a taboo subject in the house. He won't ever go back. He rents from a local FBO and loves life.
I agree with every one else on this thread. Quit and cut the losses.:cool: