Greetings all... Back from a 4-day. Still a little buzzed from that last-leg Coke I had , and can't get to sleep (besides that, I always have trouble sleeping after 11+ hour duty days), so here I am.
The captain I was flying with today and I were talking about something that he brought up, but I have had in the back of my mind for the longest time. Success in the airline industry depends on one thing: timing. We decided that was the biggest determinant of the type of experience one has in the airline industry. If you get hired at the wrong time, it could mean years of reserve.
That's our theory anyway.
Although I suppose it also depends on whether one is willing to move to the junior base--I think that would make a big difference. I don't have all the answers.
And I hate to say this, but in much the same fashion as the rest of the world, success in a flying career depends a lot on one's ability to suffer. I'm sure a lot of people would jump up and argue with me here. I can hear it now, "Oh no we shouldn't have to suffer! That's wrong! We demand a high QOL!!!" The idea of suffering runs so counter to the modern mindset. I think one problem with the whole "jets at regionals" concept is that people took that to mean that since they were flying a jet at an airline, that they all of a sudden were entitled to all the same work rules, compensation, etc. that all the big airlines had--the assumption was "I'm flying a jet; I have arrived." Only the thing is, that really, nobody in a regional has really "arrived," at least that's my feeling. But I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that would argue with me, "Oh yes we have arrived, and we demand the pay to show it!" But it just doesn't work like that. The need for dues-paying continues, whether that need is acknowledged or not. Once someone feels that that have "arrived," then they have arrived, or at least they have gotten as far as they are going to get. A pilot who feels that they have learned all there is to learn, and earned all there is to earn, and assumes that a seniority number is indicative of authority and wisdom, has failed, in my opinion.
Don't misunderstand me, however. There's nothing, and I mean nothing that I'd rather be doing right now than "suffering" as a regional pilot. I understand that in order to get to where I want to go, I need to pay my dues, and I gladly do it. I love flying, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
So my thought is this; work hard, do a good job, learn all you can, and prepare for when the timing is right. If you haven't succeeded, it simply means that you haven't suffered enough yet (then again, I have the perverse mind of an endurance cyclist, so take that with a grain of salt). Luck favors the prepared.
Those are just my opinions. take what you want from my 2am ramblings!
-Goose
P.S. If I were going to blow a wad of cash on a car, it would definitely be the Subaru Impreza WRX STI. I'm a complete sucker for rally cars. What a freakin' awesome ride!
I ran a few numbers, and it does look like it comes out short of $50k. So what I'm going to do is change my answer to $67k, which is what I came up with for a Y6 CRJ CA, which about when I would expect to upgrade. Anything prior to that point is just "dues paying," meaning that the pay might suck, but I'll have a reasonable expectation of a sustainable income later on--therefore all that stuff that was talked about earlier, i.e. savings, vacations, helping children with school, new road bikes here and there, glider club memberships (ok, we didn't talk about the last two, but those are what I would call "luxury" items.) etc., etc., could be expected down the road, even though it couldn't be provided at the moment; it wouldn't be needed at the moment anyway.
