Every single one of us? You paint with as broad of a brush as Sky. I have a great career and started flying professionally in 2006. I did ok in math and I think 7 is smaller than 30.

Hey it's not a perfect career for everyone. I'm just sick and tired of SH's never ending drama queen contest. And he's also full of chit if you actually slow down and read what he's saying.

So you weren't a military pilot or anything?

No, I wanted to go that route but my vision kept me out.

I started civilian flight training in 1998. Ten years later I started class at Northwest Airlines. It can still be a perfect career for many.

Got lucky? Hardly.

Those of us who have succeeded in the industry have done so because we chose to work and to succeed.

It is not a matter of luck.

It never was.

I came from nothing, and worked damn hard to be where I am. No one with any knowledge of the industry, or who has put in the effort to succeed would be uninformed so much as to suggest that success in this business is "luck"

You would pick the CFI, I was picked many times because I have an A&P. One of my friends was picked by Hawaiian Airlines because he had the A&P. Depends on who is doing the interviewing. Big purple really loves military people, just depends!

To clarify, I would not necessarily pick the CFI, or just the CFI. I only mentioned that as an example. In fact I had my A&P prior to my CFI. I would very strongly recommend an A&P as well for many reasons. Having an A&P is very valuable, especially in the corporate arena. Many newcomers don't consider this and instead have fixated only on things they deem directly related to actual flying of the aircraft, to their detriment... Additionally, it goes against much human nature to start at the bottom and why build a solid foundation when someone will let you enter at other floors on the elevator? Because there is a reason for it!

JB-Happy for you. Sounds though like you have not been in the industry for a very long time. I started back in 1981.

You're not one of the unlucky ones whose career and retirement were wiped out when Eastern went under. They worked damn hard too and lost, a lot.

Your also not one of the plethora of unlucky ones whose first furlough from US Air lasted nearly a decade before they were recalled, only to be furloughed, again! Did they work any less hard than you have?

What about the thousands of PATCO controllers who were fired in 1981 and lost everything they had worked for? Were they any less deserving?

To say that no amount of luck has any bearing on ones aviation career makes you appear sanctimonious and quite frankly, moronic on a forum like this.

HD

Last I heard Lorenzo was hiding outside the country, probably with armed guards. What a nice man... And yes, the PATCO strike; it sure was nice flying in the few years after that, especially the first few months... on the other note; I spent too much of my life thinking the one set of footprints in the sand were mine...