I'm a New Hire!

[aero99]

zman quote:
"And just a little advice about those aspiring pilots living vicariously through Timebuilder, they may seem happy for you, but they're not, they'd slash your throat in a second if they could get into that right seat. I know, I see it everyday."

First of all, I am not an "aspiring pilot". I am a business owner that made a descision not to become a professional pilot. I do enjoy hearing stories that envolved those professionals that have one of the best jobs in the world. Most of them I respect very highly. So, I am not too concerned with anyone "slashing my throat" for a job. I work in corporate America where throat slashing is a daily occurrence, big deal.

By the way zman, did you get the job at SWA? I remember a post a while back where you changed the Director of Flight Ops flat tire in the parking lot after dropping off your resume. You were quite excited about this siuation you had.

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1851


Or, did your throat get slahsed?

 

[Snakum]

See Z ... you really DO want to know about Timebuilder's new Lear job. You really ARE interested. I knew you loved us and couldn't stay away.

BTW ... I guess our definitions of rude differ.

Minh

Waiting on the latest from TB ...

 

[bobbysamd]

Throat slashers

Me, neither. As much as I might like to, I'm not going back to professional aviation. Maybe one day, I'll get current again, get back my CFI, and take a student or two. Timebuilder and I are about the same age, and I'm delighted that he got a chance and in so doing slayed the age discrimination dragon one time.

 

[mattjenna]

Shheeesh you guys criticising Timebuilder for posting are really wasting your energy and time-just ignore the thread if you don't want to know about it, think it's not 'interesting', think TB has a big ego (rather than being genuinely excited and sharing) or just plain want to whine at someone.

Check TB's past posts, he's always been polite and humble and a gentleman. He's just sharing his experiences-it's part of what this forum is about and what keeps it active and keeps us coming back.

He's more than entitled to post here and does so out of obvious excitement and glee and wants to share this feeling with us, his flying brothers and sisters: let him have his day in the sun, let him share, let him feel like a child with a new toy-just let him be.

TB doesn't need defending from me or anyone else, he's obviously more than capable of holding his own, but after watching the thread evolve into something a little ugly I feel compelled to add my voice, albeit that of one of the freshly minted commercial pilots, to those drowning out the detractors.

TB keep up the posts, I for one am stoked for you and thoroughly enjoying following your progress. To the detractors-just leave it-stop following the thread.

Regards
Matt

 

[capt_zman]

Again, no disrespect to aero99, as you don't qualify as a aspiring pilot, so the comment wasn't directed at you, so please don't take it personally.

As for the throat slashers, I won't even go into detail except for two little tidbits. Some of you may know that I own a couple of airplanes, well, the other day, I had not 1, but 2, people come to me offering to pay me to fly the airplane (professional pilots might I add), while offering less than stellar recommendations for their counterpart.

We also run a couple of small flight departments and we caught an employee of my partner trying to steal one of our customers from under our nose. How brain dead can you be to have a CFI making 12k a year try and pull a makeover on his boss with a customer I've had for years and is a personal friend?

So I've seen it from an owner and a pilot's perspective. We can argue this all night long, but I think it is bad practice to elaborate on every aspect of your career to outsiders. Call me old
fashioned, but I think it exposes much more risk that satisfaction.

Aviation is a double-edged sword for me. Yes, it's great to fly and I enjoy it like everyone else, it's the other part that sucks. Hence, the whole SWA decision. Get out of management, sell everything, and go fly a 73 around for a few years. BTW, got the call for mid-april, then got pushed back until June due to the quarterly numbers.

 

[aero99]

Sounds like a normal day around the office to me.....


Good luck with SWA. They are a great company, and their numbers should look good come June if they don't already.

 

[starvingcfi]

cool

 

[Timebuilder]

Ahem.

Well, for the dissenters, I want to apologize if my posts have seemed arrogant or self-agrandizing. Obviously, some have come to know me as a man who will willingly tell you that any success I have had in aviation isn't attributable to any special skill or talent, but only the fact that God has blessed me by giving me this opportunity. Really, I could be stuck in radio, or a middle market TV station, and be forced to do reports on terrorism and security screening. Gaaaaag!

Captain Z, let me be the first to encourage you to get ready to do a great job at Southwest. If I had the PIC turbine, I'd be applying, too! I hope that you will share your experiences for the first month or so. I wish you hadn't mentioned the chocolate river, though. I'm a choco-holic, and I should start going to meetings...

For Saabtrash: sliced white bread? No, just sharing a good experience with some friends online. We're pretty good at sharing the negatives. Why not share the good times, too?

Anyone who does fancy themselves as a master of the Lear (and it will take several thousand hours before I would hope to be counted as an expert) needs to see Bobby Youngkin (sp?) do his routine. I saw most of his show down at Sun n Fun, and he shows the incredible reserve power and agility of this fighter-like business aircraft. I'll be happy if I can keep the client's coffee in the cup, and not in their lap.

A personal aside might be appropriate, given the turns in this thread.
I approach everything that I do with an intention of finding my maximum performance level. I don't always achieve it, but the effort propels me in the right direction. When I am able to achieve a modicum of success, invariably my performance was enhanced by finding pleasure and fulfillment in the process. When something becomes dull or mundane, I have to find ways of brining new insights, stretching the boundaries a little, making the old seem new. Perhaps most important is keeping an attitude of gratitude, because of the many other conditions of life I could be experiencing, most of which would be nowhere as satisfying as talking to Center from FL 410 while moving at 81% of the speed of sound. This is why I always encourage people to follow their dream. For example, at fourteen I was considering a career in medicine, but it wasn't a dream. By sixteen, broadcasting was a dream, and for a while, until the industry was dominated by consultants and focus groups, it was a pretty good dream. Dreams should be followed, and enjoyed when possible.

So far, I've been fortunate to be somewhat successful in aviation. As an instructor, I sent five people for practical tests, and all passed. The students deserve the credit. As a commercial pilot, I was able to fly other people's planes for them, flew some photo missions, and exposed some kids to the wonder of flying along the way. I don't know who had a better time. As a charter pilot, I was able to learn about some new aircraft, fly some dead legs, and make a few dollars. I feel fortunate. If I wasn't able to enjoy myself, then this would feel like just another job.

I hope that most of us here feel that this is a job like no other, warts and all.

I just got back from a two day trip in the midwest. I'll try to write a short post tomorrow.

 

[TurboS7]

Just got back from Pristina bringing back some of our mountain divisions finest. Flew today from SNN to NY then home to Miami. Heard a few Lears up there, hope you guys are having fun.

 

[TurboS7]

I just fliped back through the past post and was very upset and disgruntled to see them. I thought this has been one of the neat post of this entire deal. I love reading about someone's excitement about aviation and reliving my own past through that individual. It sure beats all the bs about RJ's and all the other stuff and gets into why we all do this crazy business. I just spent 12.0 hours at 360 and 390 crossing the Atlantic, I do this because I love it. And for those that arn't used to charter I left for a one night trip and flew to the other side of the world and back. I had a 12 minute notice that I was going, that is charter, even in a big airplane. The beer in Shannon is still great, and the hills are still very green.........that's for all the ATA boys that miss the stop with the 757.