Don't Become An Airline Pilot

[BOYCAPTAIN]

Tell me do you feel getting hired at FedEx at age 25, was an example of your skill and desire, or luck and timing? If you feel it is skill and desire, why was your skill or desire at age 25 superior to 10,000 other pilots looking for jobs? How many pilots will ever even have a chance to even apply at FedEx? BTw You seem to enjoy your job and that makes it a great job.

Aviation is a combo of all of those things...some of us make our own luck...the skill and desire was there...aced the sim eval and interview...and had recommendations from people that thought i would make a good employee...i have had friends who have gotten the interview but did not pass the sim or failed the writtens...maybe skill was an issue...they had the desire and timing...at 25 FDX knew i could give them 35 years of service...jokes on them...i will be leaving much earlier ...i did the things i thought that put me in position to succeed and it worked out....yipee!...and yes i love the job and hope to stay healthy and finish up at 55...

 

[Publishers]

Having been in business now for 44 years and aviation for 30, I have hired and fired a fair number of people. To day that the process is purely objective or subjective would be misleading. As I said here before, I hired someone into a jet seat from a 402 when others were available as a result of watching how he handled working for the 402 operator particularly when the owner was out of town. Any interview was a forgone conclusion. Right place, right time. In a couple of years, he got a Bravo and Lear 60 type and now has the hours and experience to be competitive with fractionals or airlines. I am now trying to help in get to one of them with the hiring managers that I know.
I am glad you are happy at Fedex. Had I ever really wanted to work as a pilot for a job, I would have definitely headed there or one of the other hub deals as I loved the night flying and days off.
It is luck, skill, desire, but as much as anything the ability to sell ones self that makes the difference.

 

[UndauntedFlyer]

Part of the job and the industry is complaining. I can say that right up through the wide-body captain position flying for one the largest air carriers when captain's earned $300K plus and f/o’s earned $185K per year I heard nothing but complaining about the job. While even those who were so fortunate as this loved their jobs, negativity is just part of it. This is not always true but it is more the rule than the exception. It isn't always the money that pilots complain about, it's everything: The layover hotels, the crew desk, the management (a favorite target), schedules, age-60, the flight attendants, training, the union, current events,worthless pass benefits, commuting, jumpseats, politics, ex-wives, Hilary, etc. I can not explain why this is true but it is. My guess is that since you have to spend so much time with one other crew member for a multi-day trip or even a month long schedule, that negativity is a much broader subject than saying positive things. I mean how many times you can say what a nice day it is or how lucky you are. It's just much easier to bash everything until that becomes the norm and the habit of common cockpit behavior.

I hope you all have a nice day but chances are it's going to turn really bad. That's what always happens. Just try to plan something nice and it turns $hitty. You can't win. If it isn't the crew desk it's something else. Enjoy!

 

[Snapshot]

Have you ever heard of such a thing as professionalism.

Coddling adults who can't manage their finances is not my profession. I am not at work.
Apparently, you feel that coming to a board populated in large part by people who bust their asses day after day dreaming about flying a 75 to Paris (between Scuba diving trips) and crying to them that you can't survive with 3-5 times what they make is professional. Save your "I'm a victim" speech, we aren't buying it. If you don't want to be called a whiner, don't be a whiner.
Granted, about once a year, something I see here really taps into the rage center of my brain. Looks like you're it for 2008. Pilots like you are the ones that end up broke on retirement day and my sympathy for your kind has dried up in the last couple of months. I will offer two pieces of advice.
Stop living beyond your means.
Tell your husband to get a job and start pulling his own weight.

 

[N6069L]

Snapshot!!

Snapshot,

This thread and information and complaining is also for your benefit. You obviously, are not a pilot for a major air carrier, because if you were you would not be saying the things you do. You just don't make sense. Ultimately, when you do take your major pay cut to come to a major you can enjoy when, but of course only if, we actually do "take it back."

 

[N6069L]

Flying Magazine

March 2008 Issue

An Airline Pilot's Real Life
pg 34

Please read it Snapshot and start to understand.

 

[siucavflight]

AT 80K a year, you are making more then about 77% of this country. What will you be making in ten years? Most likely close to 200K a year, which will put you in the top 95% of pay for the country. You are right, get out now!!!

 

[Partridge]

Well, I for one have some sympathy with N6069L.

I appreciate it is hard to understand for those that are still working their way up to an airline job, or those private pilots that are flying for the joy and passion. But honestly... it can be disheartening to find that those things you thought you would find at the end of the line, after all the building of hours and paying your dues, arent completely what you thought they would be.

Yeah, it is a lot of money you get paid, but it is a lot less than it used to be when you were still working towards this job. Money isn't everything? Sure, I fully agree, but what about the terms and conditions that have been eroded away? Not quite the lifestyle you thought you would get at the end of this journey. Perhaps the worst is the overall morale, if everyone around is down and everybody is continuously complaining about everything, it simply doesn't make for a nice working environment.

Why not put this out as a warning to some, give them a heads up that it isn't all that anymore. Not to steer them away, just to get to adjust their expectation level. Maybe then they won't feel let down by their chosen profession.

Now, I don't expect some of you to understand this. No disrepect intended, I myself would have not understood it, even a few years ago, when I was hour building myself. But you see, expectations change as you climb the ladder.

I myself work for an airline in Europe and here the terms and conditions haven't seen the same erosion as in the US (there is time yet ), and I have to say that I genuinly enjoy virtually all aspects of my job. But that isn't to say that I cannot sympathise with someone like N6069L.

 

[N6069L]

Thank you Partridge.

Thank you for further clarifying my position. Maybe, Snapshot too will understand, unless of course his name is in a little dark booklet indicating why he states what he does. Snapshot, if you are not in the dark booklet, because only then do you still have a chance, please begin to reconsider your position and change for your and our best interest as it is ugly for the ones who are described by Jack London:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a SCAB. A SCAB is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water-logged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When a SCAB comes down the street, men turn their back and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to SCAB as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a SCAB. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A SCAB HASN’T![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern STRIKE-breaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust or corporation. [/FONT]
http://mesabapilots.alpa.org/scabs1.htm

 

[24 carat]

Wow! Where did all that suddenly come from..?!!