Cargo Gig Advice?

[Bob Dylan]

BINGO give that man a cigar, the only reason to go to college is to learn something that leads to a job that will pay you a lot. I think many middle class parents feel themselves a failure if their child pursues learning a trade, and would much rather have them get a degree in French History. We are training less engineers than we did in the 60's, even thought college enrollment is up 400%, however have had 1000% increase in communications majors. Students go to college by the 1000’s but graduate with no marketable skills. BTW My brother-in law, owns a Muffler Shop, (non-college graduate) lives in a neighborhood with Doctors, Lawyers. In addition, other professionals because he makes over $200K per year. Sends his kids to private schools, lots of vacations, etc. You fly airplanes because you like to fly airplanes, if you want to make money go to a trade school out of high school and run a muffler shop.

Finally, someone else around here who gets it. This board is full of bozos who fly airplanes for peanuts because it's "fun". It's a shame what has happened to this industry because many pilots are so lazy.

It would do some of these fools good to read "Shop Class as Soulcraft". It's written by a guy (genius level) who quit a Washington think tank to become a motorcycle mechanic.

The big money in the future will be repairing and renovations while a lot of the flightinfo bozos will be flying for less than middle class wages.

 

[staledog]

BINGO give that man a cigar, the only reason to go to college is to learn something that leads to a job that will pay you a lot. I think many middle class parents feel themselves a failure if their child pursues learning a trade, and would much rather have them get a degree in French History. We are training less engineers than we did in the 60's, even thought college enrollment is up 400%, however have had 1000% increase in communications majors. Students go to college by the 1000’s but graduate with no marketable skills. BTW My brother-in law, owns a Muffler Shop, (non-college graduate) lives in a neighborhood with Doctors, Lawyers. In addition, other professionals because he makes over $200K per year. Sends his kids to private schools, lots of vacations, etc. You fly airplanes because you like to fly airplanes, if you want to make money go to a trade school out of high school and run a muffler shop.

OK I would agree with this..

 

[staledog]

That's funny. My brother in law is a plumber and has never been busier. In fact, he's hired 10 employees this year. The fact is, the baby boomers are aging and staying in their older homes now, rather than buying a new second/retirement home in Florida or someplace. The handyman/plumber/electrician business is booming.

Very few people have the skills to be a plumber or an electrician.

The opposite is true for aviation. Stagnant, no growth, age 65, and too many boneheads (like the people in this thread) willing to do this job for next to nothing because they think it's fun. Lots of rich daddies paid for their loser kids to go to ERAU or somewhere when these underachievers should have learned a trade.

I think your cousins and brother are probably lazy and don't want to work. Plenty of work out there for guys that want it. Lazy ones can go stand in the unemployment line.

But I don't agree with any of this.

Yeah, some plumbers are busy, some are losing their jobs. Just like some pilots are busy and have good jobs, and some are on the street.

Aviation: No growth? I think not.

In a slump? Yes.

Coming out of the slump with the biggest hiring boom ever happening in the next 5 to 10 years? Yes.

Age 65 will contribute to this. It's a good thing for all the pilots trying to make it up the food chain, unless you're an old fart that wants to continue working past that.

By the way, I'm not willing to work for little or nothing. Nobody paid for me to get to where I am now, I came from nothing. My dad was a coal miner and laid off half the time when I was a kid.

Also, if I could make more money doing something else, I would.

It just so happens that I know how to do this, I LIKE doing this, and I can and do make good money at it.


p.s. I think anybody could be a plumber or an electrician. It's not rocket science. Neither is aviation. You could train a monkey to do any of these jobs.

 

[Bob Dylan]

But I don't agree with any of this.

Yeah, some plumbers are busy, some are losing their jobs. Just like some pilots are busy and have good jobs, and some are on the street.

Aviation: No growth? I think not.

In a slump? Yes.

Coming out of the slump with the biggest hiring boom ever happening in the next 5 to 10 years? Yes.

Age 65 will contribute to this. It's a good thing for all the pilots trying to make it up the food chain, unless you're an old fart that wants to continue working past that.

By the way, I'm not willing to work for little or nothing. Nobody paid for me to get to where I am now, I came from nothing. My dad was a coal miner and laid off half the time when I was a kid.

Also, if I could make more money doing something else, I would.

It just so happens that I know how to do this, I LIKE doing this, and I can and do make good money at it.


p.s. I think anybody could be a plumber or an electrician. It's not rocket science. Neither is aviation. You could train a monkey to do any of these jobs.

Apparently you agree with pretty much everything I said except the part about growth in aviation.

For that, I say, keep dreaming. If you think this business (aviation) is going to get better in the future, you truly have your head up your azz. Sorry, but true. This industry is flooded by bozos willing to work for free (unlike you, if what you say is true). I don't think there is anything wrong with liking your job, but unfortunately, most pilots are unwilling to do anything else but fly which drives our wages down.

Also, it takes much more creativity and critical thinking to be a plumber than a pilot. Anybody can be a pilot (as long as you have a rich daddy) whereas not everybody can be a plumber.

 

[landlover]

I think your cousins and brother are probably lazy and don't want to work. Plenty of work out there for guys that want it. Lazy ones can go stand in the unemployment line.

i guess i'll join you in making assumptions. i think your brother is a union busting manager and undercuts by using illegal migrant workers. or he is selling drugs and the plumbing biz is just how he washes his money. all 3 do odd jobs/side work using said trade, but aren't sustaining full time income. have you ever thought maybe the demand for this type of work varies greatly by region. bob dylan you come across about as smart as a bag of hammers.

 

[stupidpilot]

What's wrong with becoming a pilot, but then having another skill or two in your back pocket when things go south? We work in a very volatile industry. We seem to be one of the first to go down the crapper when the economy gets bad, and then one of the last to come back when it recovers. We spend long hours on the road in hotel rooms picking our noses(amongst other nasty things) just waiting for the next flight. I say utilize that time to enhance your marketability or have a side business that nets you extra money you can put aside for the bad times. Whenever any kid asks me about becoming a pilot, I tell him that it's a great job but it's a lousy career. Always have at least one or two other means of income to fall back on.

 

[terryhfly]

Perhaps the mods could open a plumber thread and this could be moved there.

 

[Captainzero1]

My sister and her husband are school teachers in Michigan family income in excess of $160K per year, live in a $400K house, buy new cars every year. School teachers can make a good living. The movie "Waiting for Superman" real grabber, you see parents who want their kids to succeed, you see kids who know they need an education, but they are trapped in a failing school system. You feel so sorry for these kids. But the teachers union will not allow anything to be done to these failing teachers. The NEA/NFT will use their power to get rid of anyone who tries to improve on the system. When you see these motivated kids not get a lottery number to get into a high performance charter school, it is like seeing them get a death sentence. No wonder the US is a failing society. BTW Because of what I saw in the Ann Arbor, MI school system, it matched this movie in the low-income section where I lived, I put my son into the Catholic school system. 99% of his classmate went on to college.

PY, your sister and her husband are the what you would call classic middle class, which helps to power our economy. What do you want to do, slash their wages to 30,000 a piece, what would that do to our kids having motivated and committed teachers as well as to our economy. We have given the truly rich so many tax breaks for the past 10 years, how come we are stilled mired in an economic malaise. I thought they (the rich) would spend the money so it could trickle down to the great unwashed. Quit beating up on unions, My dad retired from a utility which had a union. He is collecting a 65,000 a year pension plus social security which is plenty for him to live on. Not bad for a guy with a 10th grade education. Only in america . BTW. he worked is arse off providing for me and my siblings. He didn't get anything he didn't work his arse off for per the contract. Now are you going to start feeling sorry for the poor utilty that had to pay him. Believe me they got their pound of flesh.

 

[pilotyip]

PY, your sister and her husband are the what you would call classic middle class, which helps to power our economy. What do you want to do, slash their wages to 30,000 a piece, what would that do to our kids having motivated and committed teachers as well as to our economy. We have given the truly rich so many tax breaks for the past 10 years, how come we are stilled mired in an economic malaise. I thought they (the rich) would spend the money so it could trickle down to the great unwashed. Quit beating up on unions, My dad retired from a utility which had a union. He is collecting a 65,000 a year pension plus social security which is plenty for him to live on. Not bad for a guy with a 10th grade education. Only in america . BTW. he worked is arse off providing for me and my siblings. He didn't get anything he didn't work his arse off for per the contract. Now are you going to start feeling sorry for the poor utilty that had to pay him. Believe me they got their pound of flesh.

This post about my schoolteacher sister was in response to a post that school teachers are under paid Not bad for a 174 days a year, 6 hour days, don't give me the grading homework, lesson plans, etc. they only had 4 classes during that six hour day. I have nothing against their income, but their productivity would not survive in the business world. As posted above Ann Arbor, a town that thinks money grows on trees. Completely out of touch with reality. Used to live there, going to U of M grad school after leaving the Navy. As a student I live in the low-income section of the city. The city is very liberal, let the public employee unions set up fantastic pay, benefit, and retirement. 20 years 75% base pay for retirement, full medical, and cola. The retiree cost now makes up the largest portion of the budget. Now a manufacture, Phiser Drugs (sp?) decides the Michigan business climate is too difficult and packs up and leaves. They paid 25% of the taxes for the city, the other major employer is U of M, and they pay no taxes. So the city goes after the tax base, with the standard, police and firefighter layoff if you don’t pay more taxes. While I lived there the city wanted to make black English a second language requirement in all schools, they already had a no failure policy in the schools, and you know automatic advancement even if you were dumb as a rock. I go a parent –teacher conference, wondering why my son has no homework, teacher says oh! He and this other girl are only ones who are working on 3rd grade level out of 30 kids; she says most of them are at the kindergarten level. . This feel good policy punishes the very people they are trying to help the poor, for they learn nothing. They hate the airport; airplanes represent everything wrong in our society, pollution, noise, and incorrect use of green space. They propose to turn the airport into a low-income housing development, with the runway as Main Street. I moved out as soon as I could

 

[Redmeat]

This post about my schoolteacher sister was in response to a post that school teachers are under paid Not bad for a 174 days a year, 6 hour days, don't give me the grading homework, lesson plans, etc. they only had 4 classes during that six hour day. I have nothing against their income, but their productivity would not survive in the business world. As posted above Ann Arbor, a town that thinks money grows on trees. Completely out of touch with reality. Used to live there, going to U of M grad school after leaving the Navy. As a student I live in the low-income section of the city. The city is very liberal, let the public employee unions set up fantastic pay, benefit, and retirement. 20 years 75% base pay for retirement, full medical, and cola. The retiree cost now makes up the largest portion of the budget. Now a manufacture, Phiser Drugs (sp?) decides the Michigan business climate is too difficult and packs up and leaves. They paid 25% of the taxes for the city, the other major employer is U of M, and they pay no taxes. So the city goes after the tax base, with the standard, police and firefighter layoff if you don’t pay more taxes. While I lived there the city wanted to make black English a second language requirement in all schools, they already had a no failure policy in the schools, and you know automatic advancement even if you were dumb as a rock. I go a parent –teacher conference, wondering why my son has no homework, teacher says oh! He and this other girl are only ones who are working on 3rd grade level out of 30 kids; she says most of them are at the kindergarten level. . This feel good policy punishes the very people they are trying to help the poor, for they learn nothing. They hate the airport; airplanes represent everything wrong in our society, pollution, noise, and incorrect use of green space. They propose to turn the airport into a low-income housing development, with the runway as Main Street. I moved out as soon as I could

Since it appears you like big airports and the communities that surround them...have you looked into living in Romulus next to DTW? Some nice prize-winning neighborhoods round' there huh?

I bet their school system is top-notch too.

Belleville used to be an OK place to reside 25 years ago if you happened to fly for one of the bottom feeders at YIP while you were paying your dues. Now, with the exception of the lake-shore property, it is a slum. Their schools are a mess as well.

I'll take Ann Arbor any day of the week. The animosity the city has toward the airport stems from an FAA expansion study done some years back that called for turning it into a huge "reliever" facility. Back then Connie was bringing DC8s and even Forty-Sevens into YIP daily. The city of Ann Arbor did not want any part of that, just as the city of Canton didn't want any part of a huge cargo expansion plan at YIP. I don't blame them one bit.

Take a look at any neighborhood in the country that surrounds a big airport and you will get the drift. Property values plummet and it essentially becomes industrial wasteland.

Face the facts pilotyip...not everyone loves airplanes as much as you and most pilots after they reach a certain age have bigger priorities outside of aviation.

Get a life...