my 02 cents
ifly4u said:
LOL Good replies.

I don't think anyone expects an instructing job to be paradise but I think the money is the big hang up for most people. Not making enough money to pay the bills effects your attitude a lot. If they would pay the instructors even half of what they bill the students it would make the whole experience a whole lot more tolerable. Why we can't have a union like electricians and other skilled laborers is beyond me. Well actually that's not true I know the answer to that a cfi union would never get off the ground because too many instructors would see a union as limiting their potential by restricting their ability to build time. It is the very "time builders" that everybody loathes that drive down the quality of life for flight instructors because they are all to happy to accept long hours with low pay just to get the time and move on. If you stand up and refuse to work 14 hour days for 8 bucks an hour the next guy will so what can you do. I don't understand why it's considered noble to accept poor working conditions as a flight instructor but you're a wh*re if you go to work for a low pay airline like Mesa. They use all the same justifications that cfi's do, "I'm just doing this for now until I get the experience" etc. etc. I see people rage against pilots who PFT and work at bottom tier airlines but turn around and pat someone on the back for flying 150 hours a month at slave wages. It's the flight instructor double standard. Just my observation.
Pretty good observation, in my opinion. The problem I have with the "it's all about the flying" rationalization for the status quo that we face is that the valuation is placed on an artificial "top goal". That is to say, the major airline gig, and everything below that is a stepping stone. In the process, the QOL goes down the sh$tter. The market, fully aware that people are whorin' themselves for hours, keeps the salaries low and the only difference between bitter and banking is an individual's ability to
artificially sustain a living, meaning not having a NEED to depend on the income your flying job provides.
Of course as we all know, the majority of people looking to get on the airline track do not fall into this category, they all depend on that below-poverty-line salary and most can't compete with the kid that pretty much uses the regional pay for pocket change while daddy ran and continues to run with the differential that is needed to sustain that quality of life most seek and few enjoy.
Then it gets better....Furloughed? Well, that kid didn't feel a dent, his access was compatible with a job whose compensation wasn't crucial for the survival of his lifestyle (read rich) while you, dreaming of that wide-body jet, just f%cked yourself. It wasn't Sept. 11, or the unions, YOU decided to pursue a vocation in a manner that created a scenario where the compensation for that vocation became moot. People go all day talking about flight instructing being a de facto part-time pursuit. LOL I say F$ck that, your airline gig is a de facto part time job.
We all understand how irrelevant and self-defeating a life can be when it doesn't involve pursuing one's talents and insight, and that is why we all share this same interest and struggle to make ends meet in the process. But let's not go off the left end because we don't like living in the far right end. So we hate the Office Space that America has become? I second that, but don't trade one evil for the other. My friend, watching the sunset with you sitting on the controls, free as can be, IS NO different than popping pills @ lunch at your desk hoping they'd fire ya and your 50K/year, when you land and have to go flip burgers to pay rent.
If the pilot community would attain a balance in the
valuation of things, we would all be better off. Compensation would be more appropriate (instead of top heavy) and more flying careers would be thought of as worthwhile endeavors and not mere stepping stones. I personally believe there are options, even in this airline-centric age; niche markets to be tapped into, better compensating jobs for career CFI's with other formal education such as engineering or management just to make a few examples. Options that are not inherently selfish and do attain a balance between what's important to all of us as pilots (pursuing our passion) and those who surround us (our families, our support structure)....IMHO anyways.
Happy flying folks