Airline pilot means no control over your life!

[rvsm410]

Life's choices, they can change, up to you!

Well I can sympathize with you guys on alot of the stuff written here...

But you guys are looking for a perfect job..plainly I can tell you it does not exist..short of hitting the lottery. You have to pick and choose you're battles and fully understand what you are working so hard to become, but you better be flexable and willing to lay it all on the line to change it....complaining about the airline life on the road, being in the air, flying for the love of flying is all we ever learned and wanted when we were in training...yea I am a pilot as well, but I learned at an early age that professional flying would never work for me and the family lifestyle I wanted and had. I kept flying fun and stayed in GA....now Sport aviation.

Fortunately, I have seen many sides to making a living...did the corporate gig for 20 years...9 to 5 grind, it was fine and exciting at times, but I had a family to raise and did so, once they were on there own...I was done and my wonderful wife said go do it!...
I stepped out, bet the farm and bought a franchised sports business. Business ownership is wonderful....you get to work 120 hours a week, and you get to do this anytime you want to, but you know you have to do it, You get to be the HR dept, Marketing, finance...you learn alot...but you better hire your family if you ever want to see them...I did well, but the QQL sucked...13 months later, business sold..... next adventure?

I had to step back again and look at what was going to make me happy, Aviation has always been in my blood, Like you guys/gals, but I did not want to fly for a living, I did like the idea of being a dispatcher...I study the job, and read the school hype, bit it hook line and sinker.....off I went to school...walla, licensed dispatcher..I had job offers with 5 regional airlines before the week was out...this of course was pre 9-11 days...I took the nicest company at the time....after a while I realized the schools really failed to mention anything about the QQl of a junior dispatcher and that commuting to work is not what it seems to the outsider....I learned that it would take the majority of my 3 days off to get home and to return to work, plus I had to maintain a crashpad and second car.....

It was time to step back again as family matters went below mins.....not good. Still learning, I decided that maybe finding a company that paid better would be the answer, afterall this is what I went to school for, this is the life I choose to lead...dispatcher...yes...(sound familar to you pilots out there) So off I went to find a better paying, bigger company....I had alot of success at interviews, learned a tremendous amount about dealing with HR departments, dress, mannors, the right and wrong thing to say, on and on....I made a profession out of interviewing....over 3 years later, offers from many very good airlines, I finally realized that the cost of living was going to eat up most of my earnings and I was still going to commute away from the only security I had with my wife and her career and the QQL I wanted and was accustomed to.

Yeap some of you here have seen my posts, some call me an idiot, what ever, but I was not ever afraid to try...I am still successful...

My point here folks, is we all make choices in life...the lession is that careers can come and go, change it if you dont like what you see...Pilots fly airplanes...that is what you all worked so hard to do, but just like me, I did not see the forest for the trees when it came to true aviation life.... before I was all the way in!

Remember we work to "Live", not Live to work...if you're job as a pilot has you so bummed out that you can't stand it, then do something to change it....work on a plan, and step out....just do it..what ever, but no one is holding a gun to you're head, not scheduling, not the airline..just YOU..you applied to work there remember....just move on if you can...

As for me, well I had given up on the airlines about 2 months ago, but I had worked the employment market so hard, and had so many resumes in circulation had made som many contacts out there that I was pleasantly surprised and shocked when my home town airline finally made "several" job offers to me this past week....So my hunt came full circle, I never saw it coming.....I am where I wanted to be the whole time, but never thought I could quailfy.....dreams come true but you have to work them the right way...Good luck to all of you in you're search for happiness....

Yawn..Story over....

 

[pilotyip]

congrats 410 you sound like you will be happy and that is great!!

 

[FN FAL]

Being a pilot means having no control over your life!.

Working too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack
You can pay uncle sam with the overtime, is that all you get for the money

Remember that scene in apocalypse now where the boat commander looked at the spear in disbelief when he got it? This guy had to be thinking the same thing when he saw he was getting offed by the baggage handler banging his old lady.

Separate trials sought; 3 charged in pilot's slaying


By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Two people facing the death penalty in the slaying of a Delta Air Lines pilot killed in the name of love, police say, but the pair do not want to stand trial together.

In separate filings in Kenton Circuit Court, Adele Craven and Russell McIntire say they should not be tried together.

Evidence that would be used against one should not be introduced against the other because it would be “so overwhelmingly prejudicial,” wrote Mrs. Craven's attorney, Deanna Dennison in Covington.

The prosecution has indicated it has confessions from both of Mr. McIntire's co-defendants, wrote Mr. McIntire's attorney, Jon Alig of Covington.

He said if those statements were admitted into evidence without the co-defendants testifying, Mr. McIntire would be denied his right to confront and cross-exam ine those co-defendants as witnesses.

Ms. Dennison and Mr. Alig said using such evidence in a joint trial violates one or more of their clients' constitutional rights.

Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe has already scheduled a joint trial to begin on Oct. 17. The trial is expected to take four weeks. There is a hearing on Monday to determine whether the trials should be separated.

Mrs. Craven of Edgewood, Mr. McIntire of Erlanger and a third person, Ronald Pryor of Independence are charged with murder in the death of Steve Craven.

Mr. Craven, a 32-year-old Delta pilot, was killed last July 12 in his Edgewood home.

Police say Mrs. Craven wanted her husband dead so she could continue an affair with Mr. McIntire, a baggage handler at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Mr. McIntire then contacted Mr. Pryor and asked him to kill Mr. Craven for $15,000, police said.

 

[A Squared]

Less than 33K National pilot average wages

It was a statistic that was given to me by the unemployment office. They were using it as a reason for not giving me another type rating. They claimed that aviation was not a growth industry anymore and that I should look at taking a welding class or getting a CDL. I could ask my counselor to tell me where she got that information? It came from a labor and industries web site. I think it take every possible pilot position into consideration, CFI ect.

Skyline

Skyline,

You should have parried that with your own statistics, well not your own, but the official, US gubmnt statistics. Here it is right from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos107.htm#earnings

commercial pilots, (as opposed to airline pilots) according to them

Median annual earnings of commercial pilots were $47,970 in 2002. The middle 50 percent earned between $33,830 and $70,140. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $26,100, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $101,460.

According to the BLS, your counselor is way off, only 25% of pilots make less than her number. You should have won that round. You an I can argue about wherther that is realistic (and I'm skeptical about some BLS data) , but I don't think a bureaucrat can argue with official US certified numbers

 

[Skyline]

Current Work

Jetfo

After my airline shut down I got a job flying a Kingair and was trained for it. The investors backed out however and then I was offered to fly a 414 at the same company. They are still waiting to see if they will get their 135 cert. I also have received a few offers to flight instruct and to teach a few aviation classes at the local university. I didn't take any of those jobs. Mostly I have been working at building small houses. I rent them to college students and oddly enough I have done better than in the last 7 years or so as a pilot combined. I am home every night and work only when the weather is good. If I am sick or tired I stay home and work on plans or something else. It is a strange life, but I it has been financially very good. I spend the day listening to music and working in building counter tops or painting. No captains or FO's. No WX delays or angry FA's. Very peaceful. Since I quit flying I have discovered that there are tradesmen here who are earning a lot of money doing simple things like I have a carpet layer friend who is banking 120k. and an average plumber is making 60K. If this works out I don't think I will be going back to flying any time soon.

Skyline

Skyline

 

[Skyline]

A Squared

A Squared,


Man I wish they paid that much here. The highest paid guy I know of outside of a major airline makes 55K in a challenger. Perhaps the figure I was given was for Washington state and not for the nation as a whole. In any case the unemployment office sent ma a letter a while ago saying that they have closed my file.

I just can't make it on those wages anymore. 33K to fly a king air is not that good.

Skyline

 

[Goose Egg]

It is a strange life, but I it has been financially very good. I spend the day listening to music and working in building counter tops or painting. No captains or FO's. No WX delays or angry FA's. Very peaceful.

For what it's worth, it wouldn't shock me to be doing something other than flying when I retired. You never know how things will work out in life. All you can do is ride it out and see what happens, and make sure that you are happy along the way.

-Goose

 

[SkyBoy1981]

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