i'm writing this message from the hotel in msp right now as I'm sitting on five days of out-of-base reserve for my regional airline. my family and I just bought a nice house last week so I could stop commuting to work every week and could spend more time at home. the irony of having to leave immediately and be gone for an entire week just like as if i were still commuting is painful. if it weren't the fourth of july week when my family is going to be grilling and having a good time together with my two year old daughter it might be just a little better. yes, i'm a fairly junior pilot with this company and i'm sure things will get better, but I'm with SkyHigh in the sense that I can see this isn't going to be the dream job I imagined when I got started on this path. i find myself wondering if my airline would file suit against me for the training pay they said I'd owe them if I quit in my first year. i know the grass always seems greener, but as I waste away in this hotel yet again, I can't help but wonder if just maybe this gig isn't for me. i can do more than twist the little knobs over and over again. and answer to foreign teenage dropouts in crew scheduling telling me how i'm going to live my life. well its time for another nap, good luck to everyone and happy fourth.

 

My father was in aviation for 38 years - 14 AF, 24 civ helo pilot. As he put it the dream job ended the day he left the AF. After the military (late 60s - 79) pilot lifestyle / culture it was like driving a cab. My father was punjabi so it really was like driving a cab except he couldn't accept tips...

-LAFF

 

with an 80% divorce rate and widespread alcoholism


Really? I always thought this was a myth. Is alcoholism a problem in aviation? You'll always have a few problem kids in every profession but not institutional alcoholism....

-LAFF

 

I do not feel that alcohol is a problem in the aviation industry. Sure, there are some pilots out there who are alcoholics,however, I would bet that the vast majority of pilots do not have a drinking problem. In my opinion, I have not seen very many cases of alcoholism; within the pilot group that I have worked with. Both of my neighbors are doctors, I would say that they both have drinking problems. My wife is a surgeon, and she does not have a drinking problem. Like you said, there will always be a few problem kids in every profession. I do not think that alcoholism is more prevalent in aviation than any other industry. I would concur with the 80% divorce rate. I have many friends who I work with; who are on their second, third, and fourth marriages. I have been fortunate to have a wonderful wife, who I have been married to for the last 30 years. Sorry for the long and probably worthless post. I am just sitting in a hotel room(Paris) and very bored right now. Just my 2 cents.
CO777Driver

 

WOW!! So much hate. I hope all the examples that you have just given did not happen to you. I am sorry that it did not work out for you.

 

Last night I had an unusually frightening nightmare. In the dream I was forced to return to Horizon Air and had completed ground school and was home for a few days awaiting a sim date. My wife and kids started crying when I put the phone down and told them that I was to report to the sim in 4 days. We all knew that upon completion it meant a return to poverty and moving from our beautiful home in the country back into a crummy two bedroom apartment in an urban hell hole. Back to the life of wasting away in miserable hotels a thousand miles from home while my family needs me. I remember thinking about all the money I would loose and how bad I felt having to take my kids away from their safe school. It was a horrible nightmare.


SkyHigh

 

You must be from a well connected aviation family because these things have happened to most everyone I know. By my estimation perhaps as few as one in ten or twenty ever make it to a good job at a stable major airline. The rest of us slowly sink in poverty and despair.

SKyHigh

 

That story is as heartbreaking as it is common. What a life...

 

Some did some didn't. No hate, just like to give the young guys that havent commited thousands to flight training some insight, that if you don't get on with a major and marry a doctor you may have to worry about things like money, food, and electricity.

 

I'm 100% Indian - Punjabi Sikh minus the turban / beard - I'm on active duty - USAF these days...

I've been to Assam - beautiful place. I visited there many years ago. My father was stationed there for a few years in the early 70s.

-LAFF