Pride Air ..........out of New Orleans
Air One ......... out of St Louis
MGM ..............out of LA

Just to name a few of the top of my head. You pay your money or dues and takes your chances. But if you do nothing, than nothing is guarnteed.

 

actually MGM is alive and well as champion air

 

The reality is that some will make a career at COEX. I will finish my aviation career at a regional. I'm not lazy but realistic. Starting out in my early 40s (42 or 43) I want to fly 121. More than that I'd like to be a CA for as long as possible in my career.

I have being an airline captain as a goal and regionals will give me that opportunity faster / and for a longer period of time.

Now, for someone else a 121 career would be SWA or UAL even if they did start in their 40s I can see them making it to CA at any airline if they so wish.

-LAFF

 

OOpps. Sorry Mommy

 

Sorry everyone. I had to spend the day in the field today and missed all the action.

Thank you for all the kind words of support. I know that my message comes off sternly at times however I enjoy the art of making a colorful point in the written word. In addition it takes some might to break through sometimes.


It is often mentioned that I made a mistake by going to National Airlines, and hindsight is 20/20. My choice was to stick it out at Horizon Air and get lost in the swelling sea of paper throwing regional airline captains or throw a Hail Mary into the end zone. I was getting older and I knew that had I stayed I would still be there today. Like someone else mentioned my dream was to fly a big jet at a fancy airline. I had no interest in wasting my days away in a Dash 8 headache machine. Mediocrity was not something I was willing to accept.

I guess it is left to everyone to decide what "making it" means to them. I could have stuck it out at Horizon Air and over the years perhaps lucked out and gotten hired at FedEx at 47, but to what end would it be to achieve the left seat just a few years before retirement? In essence my entire career would have mostly been in the FO position and always junior. To me there is an all important momentum that needs to be started while young and maintained into the majors. My strategy was victory or career death. As I got older and saw the door to my dreams beginning to close I burned the candle at both ends. I got farther than all of my friends and most of my peers. In the end the ball dropped just a few inches short. I am not sorry I took the chance. Better a clean break and a fresh start than a slow death at a regional.

The movies would like you to believe that if you "try hard enough" you will get what you are after. I don't know if I agree with that. Life isn't like the movies. I have three good friends who died in the pursuit of their flying dreams and many dozens more who had to hang it up. Fairy tales don't always have a happy ending.


Your humble servant,

SkyHigh

 

[QUOTE=SkyHigh;74548.

I am not here for my losses alone. Moreover I am here to carry the flag for all my friends, co-workers and classmates who were cut down like cannon fodder. All with lost dreams and wasted lives.
[/QUOTE]

Sorry to sound like an a@@ but seriously get a grip on reality. Wasted LIVES because things didnt pan out? Are you F-I-N-G kidding me? Is that all that life revolves around. Don't get me wrong, I have given up a lot of things for flying but life isnt wasted around something this freakin petty. Flying IS NOT the most important thing in life, remember you only get one shot at life. Wasted life? That is the most selfish thing I have ever heard, and you F up alot of other peoples lives thinking in that mode. For example I have a couple of close friends who were destroyed emotionally when their old instructor decided to take a UND aircraft and yard dart it into the ground because he got a DUI and was going to lose his license and would never get to major. How many other lives did he ruin with that decision? Seriously people there is more to life that flying a freakin airplane, and this is not my two cents, this is freakin reality.

 

Wasted lives, God I want to smash something, what a freaking joke...LET me cry for you a little right after I get back from the cancer ward.....

 

Wasted lives, what a bunch of losers if you think life revolves around move a d%mn bus a little bit above street level, okay now I am done

 

Yes, wasted lives. I heard it used in a description a captain gave to me while describing his youth as a seaplane pilot in SE Alaska. He told me that he "wasted his youth". The revelation was shocking since pilots are suppose to cherish such an experience as flying a seaplane in the Alaskan wilderness. However it hit home with me as well since I felt the same way about my time in Alaska. Aviation has an allure that has a way of sedating us into lustfully pursuing a career that mostly has nothing to show as a result.

Upon looking back the years were wasted since they did not help me in any way. The desire for flight suckered me into burning time uselessly. It didn't help me to get on with a major airline. It did not pay well. It did not benefit my life through the development of relationships or business contacts. The flight time is useless to most companies. I don't even have it listed on my resume. The same could be said for wasting away in the right seat of a regional airline. The time is near worthless. It serves to catalog the passage of time and little else. The only benefit it serves is that the indentured servitude hopefully will earn you a Left seat one day. The experience in itself has no value at all. You can upgrade with 200 or 20,000 hours in the right seat. The accumulation has zero benifit. As things are going if that left seat isn't in a RJ then that too might soon be counted as wasted time. More days burned awaiting something better.

Aviation has a way of sucking up everything in ones life and leaves you with a black hole of lost time in its place. The days of our lives are precious. The life force that we all possess is not a renewable resource. Time passes with little to show for it in aviation because it is not like most other professions. Aviation leaves little room for anything else in your life. In addition I use the term in reference to all the people who I have known who died with a yoke in their hands. To me when a 21 year old is killed in lustful pursuit of a dream I consider that a waste.

If you take offense to these words then perhaps I touched a nerve and you should reevaluate your own situation.


SkyHigh

 

Sorry for the loss of your friend. It too is an example of another wasted life. Sadly over the years You will watch as other friends spiral out of formation. I have witnessed many of my friends implode in the pursuit of aviation. Some destroy their marriages. Others damage their health. Most are financially destitute.

I have one old and close friend from high school who shot himself after being caught intoxicated on the job. He worked for an airtaxi in Alaska. The stress of daily operations can push one into alcoholism. He lost control. His loss in my life will bare a mark on my heart for the rest of my days.

Aviation is a disease, an addiction. The lustful drive is blinding. Often it takes the passage of time before you realise what has been lost.

SKyHigh