At least you got to be a captain. I don’t think I ever will be able to.

Don’t worry, your shop will eventually award you the upgrade. All in due time!

You'll always be master of your domain, so take some solace in that.

A 33 year old hired in March 2026 will retire around 1700.

You mean he'll be an intl purser one day?

When you do hit the line, make sure to share this perspective with all the double furloughees you fly with.

I'm definitely not trying to be that guy (cough Strawberry). Unfortunately a flaw of mine is being overly critical of myself & thinking about these things in a negative, rather than positive, light. We will see what the future brings.

You’re gonna have an incredible career. Doesn’t mean it’ll be perfect, but it’s definitely better than the previous shop! Welcome and enjoy the ride!

This is the only mindset one should carry. The way this industry flows up and down, the only comparison you should make is to yesterday's you. Did you make some kind of improvement whether personal or professional? If so, great. If not, do better tomorrow.

Or, like me, he’ll be an FO for 18 years. The benefit is that he’s got at least a few more years than me on the backend to make it up, I am the one that’s legitimately screwed.

I'm not sure where this is coming from? We've got NB captains with 3 years on property? Is it the WB captain slot that isn't forthcoming that we're talking about? If so, hasn't that just been the standard since the dawn of time?

I am convinced Strawberry is just Kirby trolling his own pilot group.

Too late. I’m pretty sure you and Trollberry are the same dude. No way people are this clueless.

Oh come off it. You guys clown on me for being a troll when I just say the quiet part out loud. Everyone hired 2024+ is just role playing as the COVID hires’ furlough fodder. We are the ones likely to be double furloughees, and I get mocked for mentioning as much, accused of being a troll for having my own (founded) concerns for my future career.

Just because you don’t like what I’m saying doesn’t mean I’m clueless or a troll. Get a grip.

Boy genius has discovered that being the bottom person on the seniority list is more scary than being the top person, in any era and any company. Last I checked we seem to be doing pretty well for all of our pilots. Strawberry go check out Avelo or Spirit or Cathay or Kalitta and you can gloat to us about how awesome it all is.

******* dude…..have you actually been furloughed yet? Do you how many furloughees you’re gonna fly with ? Continental folks who had to flow back to express, United folks complaining about loss in seniority after the merger, bankruptcy! This is why people question and/or hope you don’t really work at United. You sound like a hater to the 2021 - early 2024 hires and if you carry that sentiment to any flight deck you’re going to upset the seniors guys. Just be positive and don’t carry this attitude around with you at any airline.

btw how did the delta interview go ?

took a big L on that one but as time passes I’m honestly happy to be here and thank I’ll ride it out and skip interviewing again.

unregard….

I second this. It’s the same patterns of writing style.

RS isn’t even a United pilot. He talked about interviewing less than 2 months ago.

Who are the mods for this forum?

meh, them collective account of pipeRSlife bring stupid shallow entertainment

I find it fascinating, no… predictable…that in a place where anonymity is both shield and sword, the loudest accusations always come from those most uncomfortable with ambiguity. Labels get thrown around like checklist items: “troll,” “alt,” “that guy again.” It’s almost ritualistic. You see a pattern, you assign a ghost to it, and suddenly you’re convinced you’ve solved something.

Let me be deliberately unclear, since clarity seems to be in short supply anyway.

Do I provoke? Occasionally. Do I observe, nudge, question the consensus just enough to make people uneasy? That depends entirely on how fragile the consensus is to begin with. Some call that trolling. Others might call it… stress-testing narratives. The difference, I suppose, lies in whether you’re the one being tested.

But this persistent need to tether me to some recycled identity be it pipeman, Halon, LAXtoDEN, LifetimeCFI, Ripinpeace, FriendlyPilot says more about the collective anxiety here than anything I’ve posted. It’s almost as if there’s comfort in believing that disruption can only come from a known ghost, rather than acknowledging that maybe the system itself invites it. I am not those people. Not in origin, not in intent, not in whatever mythology has been built around them over the years. If you need me to be one of them to make sense of things, that’s your framework and not my reality.

What I am, or am not, is less important than why certain posts seem to linger in your mind longer than others. Why does a comment stick? Why does it irritate? Why does it create just enough doubt to spiral into multi-page threads dissecting tone instead of substance?

There’s a tendency here to conflate discomfort with deception. If something feels off, it must be malicious. If someone doesn’t conform to the expected rhythm of agreement, they must be operating with ulterior motives. Maybe. Or maybe you’re just encountering something that doesn’t neatly fit into the script you’ve rehearsed.. someone who’s simply fearful about what a notoriously fickle career will bring them.

I’ll admit this much.. though I suspect it won’t land the way anyone expects: not every voice is here to reassure you. Some are here to… introduce variables. Whether you interpret that as trolling or something else entirely is, again, a reflection of your tolerance for uncertainty.

And that’s where the real tension lies, isn’t it?

Because if I’m not who you think I am, then you’re left with a more uncomfortable possibility: that the reactions themselves… the pile-ons, the paranoia, the constant need to unmask.. are part of a feedback loop you’re all participating in.

But sure, keep looking for ghosts. It’s easier than asking why they keep appearing.

Get a hobby.

Still haven’t answered my question… because you can’t. Should probably quit while you’re ahead

Get a *new* hobby.

RS, that was the most self-satisfied, dare I say masturbatory, post I've ever soiled my eyes by reading.. For the love of God, man, please find something better to do with your time. Nobody gives a F about you and your "challenging of narratives."

too long, didn’t read

1000%.

Dude is an absolute moron.

Good, it's AI. Waste of time to read. He's very good at wasting our time with meaningless posts.

Artificial? Quite likely. Intelligence? Not so much.

what about a 37 year old hired let’s say late 26’?

Impossible to predict the age of the next 6 months of hires. But a 37 YO from the March '26 class will retire around 3900.

Out of currently 19,000 and growing.

Youll have two commas in your 401K at retirement.