Don't tell me you do this job for the money

[JustaNumber]

Avro Fo,
You didn't take that truckdriving gig, did you?

I understand your frustration with the airlines (specifically the ones you worked for), but I think you will miss flying for a living. It sounds like you really have a passion for flying, and in my experience, you are the kind of person who makes the best pilot, because you give a damn and actually enjoy flying. I could tell you to reconsider all I want, but I bet that you eventually decide on your own that you miss this stuff.

Just a few of my own random thoughts on happiness in life:

The quickest way to become disappointed is to not receive what you were expecting. As in, you're expecting to go home after the last leg of a long trip, and screw scheduling grabs you at the last minute for another day of flying. That'll make you madder than hell. Same goes for career expectations in general. If you actually believed Kit Darby, you're gonna be madder than hell right now. But if you adjust your expectations to something less, you won't be disappointed. (Remember, an optimist can never be pleasantly surprised)!

Philosophers and psychologists have long agreed that the secret to happiness is to be constantly grateful for what you have. I saw a provocative movie a few years back, called La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful). (If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it--http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/ ) It's about a father and young son who are put into a Nazi concentration camp in WWII. In order for his son to make it through the situation, the father pretends the whole situation is a fun game, and is able to keep a smile on his face. If he can smile in a concentration camp, we can learn to smile when it seems ALPA/management/the public/the FAA are all conspiring against us.

That's not to say you should voluntarily stay in a concentration camp if you have a better opportunity. The human spirit needs to feel appreciated, and if your current airline doesn't care about you, then you might consider looking elsewhere. There is an employer out there who will appreciate having a motivated and enthusiastic pilot; you just have to find it. Good luck, and may you find what you are looking for.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

I saw a provocative movie a few years back, called La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful). (If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it--http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/ ) It's about a father and young son who are put into a Nazi concentration camp in WWII. In order for his son to make it through the situation, the father pretends the whole situation is a fun game, and is able to keep a smile on his face. If he can smile in a concentration camp, we can learn to smile when it seems ALPA/management/the public/the FAA are all conspiring against us.

I might have my man card revoked for divulging this one, but that movie (watched it twice), made me cry at the end. Well, okay teary-eyed. It was an extremely touching movie.

 

[AVRO_FO]

Avro Fo,
You didn't take that truckdriving gig, did you?

I understand your frustration with the airlines (specifically the ones you worked for), but I think you will miss flying for a living. It sounds like you really have a passion for flying, and in my experience, you are the kind of person who makes the best pilot, because you give a damn and actually enjoy flying. I could tell you to reconsider all I want, but I bet that you eventually decide on your own that you miss this stuff.

Just a few of my own random thoughts on happiness in life:

The quickest way to become disappointed is to not receive what you were expecting. As in, you're expecting to go home after the last leg of a long trip, and screw scheduling grabs you at the last minute for another day of flying. That'll make you madder than hell. Same goes for career expectations in general. If you actually believed Kit Darby, you're gonna be madder than hell right now. But if you adjust your expectations to something less, you won't be disappointed. (Remember, an optimist can never be pleasantly surprised)!

Philosophers and psychologists have long agreed that the secret to happiness is to be constantly grateful for what you have. I saw a provocative movie a few years back, called La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful). (If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it--http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/ ) It's about a father and young son who are put into a Nazi concentration camp in WWII. In order for his son to make it through the situation, the father pretends the whole situation is a fun game, and is able to keep a smile on his face. If he can smile in a concentration camp, we can learn to smile when it seems ALPA/management/the public/the FAA are all conspiring against us.

That's not to say you should voluntarily stay in a concentration camp if you have a better opportunity. The human spirit needs to feel appreciated, and if your current airline doesn't care about you, then you might consider looking elsewhere. There is an employer out there who will appreciate having a motivated and enthusiastic pilot; you just have to find it. Good luck, and may you find what you are looking for.

No, I am not a truck driver but I did leave the airline a couple of months ago. The movie that I kept thinking of in my circumstance was Bull Durham. There is that point where Crash feels that he will never make it to the majors and after he hits his record home run, he leaves. I felt that after I upgraded that if I ever got to the point of quitting again, that I could do it and never go back. I was really positive on things for the last half of 2007. Age 65 wasn't a reality and it was before oil was about to make its run to nearly $150/barrel and the mergers were just speculation.

I like the notion that if you could smile in a concentration camp then it is possible to do so in the face of the adversity that the airline business throws at you. Before I even had a commercial certificate I used to go pick my wife up at the airport when she traveled on business. Back then you could pass through security and meet pax at the gate! It used to warm my heart to see families hugging at the gate and it was that kind of sentiment that I invoked when I was gone almost every weekend and holiday, that I was doing what I was so that the folks in the back could be with their families.

Once I get a job and a budget I intend to include aviation in my life, it wont be as a form of income though. I have been working on a glider rating and have joined EAA and have a couple of fantasy airplanes in mind that I wouldn't mind trying to build. Soaring and building a plane are way more family friendly forms of aviation than flying for the airlines.

I will give Kit Darby credit for one thing. I subscribed to FAPA, the precursor to Air Inc. One magazine I got had an article about crash pads. The picture that was painted in that article was dead on accurate based on my extensive experience of sitting on reserve.

 

[Spicepilots]

I will give Kit Darby credit for one thing. I subscribed to FAPA, the precursor to Air Inc. One magazine I got had an article about crash pads. The picture that was painted in that article was dead on accurate based on my extensive experience of sitting on reserve.

Kit Darby is like any other snake oil salesman. He's great for his predictions and promises, which usually involve something he can make money off of.

The guy above who said the grass isn't always greener is right; I have a friend who used her business degree to land a job at a good firm and makes upwards of $70K a year... dealing with deadlines and cranky bosses and coworkers who don't pull their weight. Oh, did I mention she has to put in around 70 hours a week? It's easy to talk about fleeing this industry for something with better pay and more respect from management and the public. It's much harder to find such a job, especially these days.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Real jobs do suck but they leave you feeling more in control of what is happening to you. The ability to take your skills and move laterally or vertically isn't something you will ever see as an airline pilot. New job means bottom of the list and probation.

ever consider corporate?

More often than not things are performance based, not senority based....and you can certainly take your ratings/experience elsewhere whenever you want.

It might be more lucrative and better QOL than leaving aviation?

just a thought.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

The corporate world SUCKS. If you're gonna leave aviation (which is an occupation/field primarily performed by those VERY passionate and dedicated), then find something you are equally passionate about. It doesn't need to have the glamour, just the good feelings one gets inside.

The last thing you want to be is a corporate drone regularly working 100 hours of OT a month (b/c it means the difference between employed and unemployed - no unions here). BB's, emails, meetings, long hours chained to a computer, stress, office confinement, politics, the food chain, etc. - I could go on. It may pay well, but in the end flying will ALWAYS be the lesser of two evils. The meaningless toys you buy with a good income are really worthless in the end. I was never more unhappy than being in this type of environment. It can be a personality thing too.


Otherwise you might end up like this poor fellow.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/10/japan.japan?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront


.

 

[lear35pilot]

Finding happiness in this industry is about having equal parts luck, research, and a good attitude.

The luck part is obvious: some guys just happen to find that up-and-coming dream job at just the right time; others end up going through a dozen airlines throughout their career. I guess you just make the best choices you can at the time and hope for the best.

As for research, it's a shame more people don't try to figure out exactly what they're getting into before plunking down 50-100k. I suppose I was "fortunate" in that I started flying in the early 90's, when the industry was in a previous slump. Nobody was getting hired anywhere, and you were to be worshipped if you got a job in the right seat of a Metro. I thought I would be lucky to get hired as a CFI, if I played my cards right. And now I'm a jet airline captain, and I would say I am happy. Some of the students I taught during the late 90s' hiring boom told me their plan was to work for about 3 years at a regional and then move on to their major job. They didn't bother to look at the history of this industry and I would bet that every one of them is miserable right now. So it is amazing how expectations can color your perception of how good or bad you have it.

Finally, attitude is everything. I love the quote that says life consists of "10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it." You can choose to be miserable for what you don't have by looking at those with greener grass, or you can choose to be happy by looking at what you do have. You can be miserable that your job is difficult and you are only making as much as a C210 driver of days past, or you could think that it's cool that you have what it takes to safely take care of many thousands of passengers in challenging conditions.

If you think happiness can be found in money, think again. I've worked at jobs that made more money, and I wasn't nearly as happy as when I was flying in my 152.

If you think truckdriving, or whatever, will make you happy, by all means go for your dream, but do it with open eyes.

Well written. I know other people in non-aviation jobs that are miserable and want out of what they are doing. It's everywhere and not just here. It's just what you get out of the job and what your expectations are. Mine have been met so far. I just didn't expect a whole lot when I got into this industry.

 

[satpak77]

Good post Avro. I (and you) and others agree that the dream Kit Darby sold was not the total story. I read Kit Darby's teachings in high school (!), many of us did, and actually decided that we would be "major airline pilots" as a job career.

Some it worked, some not.

As far as the "seniority" issue, I agree to the other poster above, but tell that to those Airbus captains at Frontier, who have been with the company since day-1. If Frontier shuts down, they are just another resume in the stack.

So yes, seniority is important, but these days you can be a senior captain and still have little job security. You can also be a 20 year FO ala American Airlines.

Both examples are probably not something any of us were anticipating when we gobbled up Kit Darby's newsletter (remember the one, it had "airline new hire profiles" in the back, Joe Smoe got hired at XYZ, 5000 TT, Masters, 1200 Jet PIC, etc)

take care

 

[wrxpilot]

The corporate world SUCKS. If you're gonna leave aviation (which is an occupation/field primarily performed by those VERY passionate and dedicated), then find something you are equally passionate about. It doesn't need to have the glamour, just the good feelings one gets inside.

Absolutely! I've been there, done that. Spent most of my 20s absolutely hating my life. There is nothing like waking up and feeling depressed that you are heading off to something you HATE. I was well paid with great benefits too, but it didn't matter. When I talk to my friends that stayed in the office world, I have zero regrets I made the move to aviation.

The most bitter pilots I've met are ones that have very little experience in the civilian or non-flying business world. For the first time in my life, I was coming off my week long vacation and was actually totally ok about going back to work.

Fortunately a lot of people pointed me in the right direction when I got into professional aviation. I still have a lot to learn and will probably be at the bad end of some flying jobs in the future. But so far I've really been lucky, and now have a pretty decent entry level charter job. My sights are set on corporate and/or fractional flying. There are still some great flying jobs out there, they just don't seem to involve most airlines.

One other thing... I obtained all of my ratings with cash. No debt at all, which has really helped. I definitely recommend that path to everyone I know.

 

[Jon Rivoli]

Bad corporate jobs are the worst (I had a three day trip stretch to two weeks), good ones can be awesome, but you have to know the right people to get in and you must wait for someone to die for an opening. With no manditory retirement people don't give up a gig like that unless they have to. They are out there though.