Becoming a career aviator is rough!

[time builder]

I understand the need to keep morale up, and encourage each other, but really I think there's alot of "If you can do it, I can too" mentality with new students, even though they're looking at paying, in many cases, 2 or 3 times as much as we did, and it doesn't seem that employers are willing to raise pay scales to compensate for that.
In short, these threads may be negative sounding, but I think new students coming in should pay attention to someone other than the CFI/salesman who will tell them anything they want to hear.

 

[mcjohn]

Thanks folks. Whoa avbug! You had it rough man. I agree that's it's all about the journey. Unfortunately I'm not really digging sharing a travel trailer with 2 other pilots and being away from my wife for over 2 months straight now. But hey, I'm sure it could be worse. I'm toughin it out and definetly getting my time and home's only going to feel that much better when I get back. Dang I'm home sick!! And one more thing I must add....WHY'S IS SO HOT IN NEW JERSEY!!! :angryfire <-- That's me having a heat stroke flying today. I even flew up to 2500 in search of cooler air.....AND THERE WAS NONE!

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

A banner pilot huh? If you have to hand prop it, sounds like Aerial Sign.

CFI- people try to kill you.
Banner- you try to kill yourself.

On the bright side, you probably no longer fear death.

An old WWII pilot told me:
"I'll take luck over skill any day"

CE

 

[Steve]

A banner pilot huh? If you have to hand prop it, sounds like Aerial Sign.

CFI- people try to kill you.
Banner- you try to kill yourself.

On the bright side, you probably no longer fear death.

An old WWII pilot told me:
"I'll take luck over skill any day"

CE

I'll guess paramount air. If i'm correct watch your back.

 

[Midnight Flyer]

An old WWII pilot told me:
"I'll take luck over skill any day"
CE

Now I'll believe that any day.
That's how it is trying to get consistantly good landings in a B727. :laugh:

 

[Skyboy722]

In the course of developing a career, I never worked less than two jobs at a time. I moved frequently (more times than you would find believable). I did a lot of different kinds of work. I lived on the road for extended periods. I performed jobs which burned me, cut me, knocked me unconscious, left me stranded in unusual and often inhospitable locations, required me to fix what broke under often trying field conditions, and often payed little. I've lived everywhere from tents to a hangar to a tiny trailer on a muddy runway in the middle of nowhere. I've seen unbelievably poor and falsified maintenance, flying conditions that are probably worse than any nightmare you've ever had, and employers that ranged from fair or generous to a few that were so far off their rocker as to be criminally dangerous.

I completed a specialty school that gauranteed job placement. Upon graduation, (after six months of hell that pushed one classmate far enough to purchase a firearm with the intent of killing the school owner, and who sat in the owners chair when he was out and shot out runway lights to practice), I was told to buy a car and begin traveling and ask every operator I encountered for a job. I was told that eventually someone would hire me. I used the few funds I had left to buy a car, for four hundred bucks, and began driving. I finally ran low on fuel and got two flat tires in a small town. The engine wouldn't start. I had enough money to eat, or buy gas to get to the next town. The local operator hired me and put me up in his house. That was my first commercial job, right out of high school.

I've been shot while flying. I've been hospitalized in intensive care after equipment malfunctions. I've been run over by an aircraft. I've lost hearing to aircraft. And so on.

When trying to get a foothold in the industry, I worked side jobs, often second full time jobs, that ranged from working in a candy factory to a rubber stamp factory. I scrubbed supermarket floors, was an armed gaurd, packed parachutes, repaired aircraft, cut logs, dug ditches, wrote technical manuals, and spent time at an answering service. I worked in a green house. I mixed chemicals, drove a tractor, cared for horses, scrubbed aircraft, and cleaned up vomit. I flew air ambulance by day (and night), and maintained a full time job cleaning theatres by night that paid more than the ambulance duties.

Twice while gone for extended periods on flying duties, the house I was renting was sold and my pregnant wife with small kids in tow had to move on her own. Once in the field my wife accompanied me and developed a life threatening condition; we had no insurance, I was on a tight relief schedule that had me moving town to town every two days. I've quit jobs because of the maintenance, because paychecks were bouncing, because of excess politics of poor company management. I flew for one national operator that in a single year, experienced every emerergency in the aircraft handbook plus a number that weren't listed...in my hire class alone.

All just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sorry for your plight, but there's a lot more to paying your dues, or potentially paying your dues if there is indeed such a thing, than you've yet experienced.

The day will very likely come, far off for you yet, when you will look back on your time now and realize that this has been a time of some of your best learning, some of your best experiences, and quite possibly, some of your fondest memories. When those days come, though I'll probably be long gone, remember that I was the first to tell you "I told you so." This too shall pass, but the day will come when you will come to appreciate that wouldn't go back and change the past, or trade these days for anything. Enjoy it while it lasts.

This is it. Especially the last paragraph. Best post and best info ever. I was going to tell my story but changed my mind because not only does Avbug have me beat hands down but my story really doesn't matter. What I will say is this: I realize now that when I was "paying my dues" I was entirely too anxious for the "next step" to arrive. Little did I know I was experiencing the best times of my life. This is not to say that it's all downhill from here, but take some time to "smell the roses". You'll never get this back, and believe it or not, you'll miss it. Indeed, as a wise man once said, "Enjoy it while it lasts".

 

[mcjohn]

Great info. It all ads up......especially the "smell the roses." I still love it and I'm sure I always will. Might shorten my lifespan a tad. We'll see. Yes it is Paramount. People diss on them too often. I'm pretty sure that this is the only place on the planet that still offers this kind of flying. When Andre dies (he's 86) it'll probably all be over (at least in the banner business.) I think J. Butler and Andre invented banner towing coming out of WWII. And we do it just the same as back then except with Pipers instead of Stearmen. Still it is rough and I can't wait to go home.....alive. Great quotes Crimson. You're dang right!

 

[momalley81]

Great info. It all ads up......especially the "smell the roses." I still love it and I'm sure I always will. Might shorten my lifespan a tad. We'll see. Yes it is Paramount. People diss on them too often. I'm pretty sure that this is the only place on the planet that still offers this kind of flying. When Andre dies (he's 86) it'll probably all be over (at least in the banner business.) I think J. Butler and Andre invented banner towing coming out of WWII. And we do it just the same as back then except with Pipers instead of Stearmen. Still it is rough and I can't wait to go home.....alive. Great quotes Crimson. You're dang right!

I liked working there, and AT can me a bit of a character at times. You just have to know how to handle him, that's all. And don't get your hopes up, he's going to outlive us all...

BTW- have you guys gotten the tailskid speach yet?

 

[Gryphon]

Thanks folks. Whoa avbug! You had it rough man. I agree that's it's all about the journey. Unfortunately I'm not really digging sharing a travel trailer with 2 other pilots and being away from my wife for over 2 months straight now. But hey, I'm sure it could be worse. I'm toughin it out and definetly getting my time and home's only going to feel that much better when I get back. Dang I'm home sick!! And one more thing I must add....WHY'S IS SO HOT IN NEW JERSEY!!! :angryfire <-- That's me having a heat stroke flying today. I even flew up to 2500 in search of cooler air.....AND THERE WAS NONE!

Sounds like fun, mcjohn.. hot here? It's only the beginning of august! Ya got a few more weeks of frying your brain to go.. but then again i'm not one to talk since i'm moving to Las Vegas the beginning of sept... Went out on vacation to tie down a job and apt... got to 116 one day, but was like being in a giant blow dryer... very low humidity... at least in the winter i'll still be able to fly.. good luck with your dreams, man... keep at it.

 

[mcjohn]

What's up momally. you never came around wildwood last weekend.
Bad news man. Andy from H.E. is in the burn unit. No one knows what happened yet but you will recognize the location in the 19 pics:
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9630246/detail.html
Wake up call.
Folks, no matter how bad it gets in life we are very fortunate just to be alive.
Dang. He's a friend.