Be grateful...
You know, I've been reading so many posts about how bad 135 is, I guess I should stop making faces and post my thoughts...Ready...give me a second to get my old bones up on da soapbox...OK...here goes...
Be grateful!
It is better to be on the inside flying 135, than it is looking from the outside wishing for a flying job. I've been doing 135 for over 20 years. When I was the freight dog, I'd be happy that I had "waiting around" time so that I could instruct, go running, make good life-long friends(and network system) around the airport, hang-out in the hangars learning stuff from the mechanics(who are the real hotbeds of gossip & jobs), and just be happy to get to fly. I would be grateful that the boxes couldn't complain about the bumpy weather or a crappy landing.
Now, when I fly around the people who sometimes complain (because it is bumpy here in the mountains), I use it as an opportunity to use my wit & charm to put them at ease. After that, the connections are made, & from then on they shake my hand, the women hug me, and I am requested each time as "their" pilot. Makes my day, and I think back to flying around boxes and how ungrateful and uninteresting they are- I am glad that I get to meet the different characters that otherwise I never would have had the opportunity to know.
It's all how you look at it and what you choose your attitude to be. If you choose to make lemonade, learn how to make the best there is, have fun with it; if you just want to suck on 'em and make sour faces, then you've lost site of why you are there. We've all known too many guys who are pushing desks now, or walk with their eyes upward toward the sky...don't forget how lucky we are that we get to do what we love for a living.
Try to look at all the crap you deal with in 135 as just the busy work until you get to plant your butt in the cockpit seat, that it's meager payment for someone else footing the bill for us to fly. If that seat, either side, is not worth it, if you can't find a way to love it, then get the heck out of flying altogether and stop whining!
Also- Don't forget that one of those passengers just may, one day, buy his/her own jet...who do you think they're going to ask to be their 91 driver?? The sourpuss???
AIRLINE
03-07-2024
