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I'm interested in your guys input. Aviation and relationships. And ATC Career?

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wessidemike

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Posts
13
I'm 24 years old and just finished my CFI, Well almost.... I had my checkride today and became another statistic for the 80% first time failures. I think I’m an above average stick and very capable instructor. Although I need some work on the FOI’s. But I'll get em next time. Like all of us I Love to fly. I have about 10 hour in a twin and around 300 TT. So I’m low time and I haven’t invested my whole life into aviation. Although I hope to keep it in my life. My problem really occurred to me today as I was talking to the FAA examiner. Something about the divorce rate of pilots came up and we started talking about it. He said he wasn’t' surprised at the divorce rate. When pilots are gone as often as they are, they seem to grow apart from their family and especially their partner. Anyone else find this true???? My father was a 747 captain for two different International Company’s. He retired at 54. I’m just starting to realize how unhealthy his relationship was with my mother. And also with us kids. I don’t want that to be in my future. So I’m at a point where I need to decide what I want, and how I want to live my life. I want to continue Flying, and I enjoy Instructing so I see that as a way to keep it in my life and still be able to feed my self and my family. But we all know you can’t make a living as a flight instructor. I’ve thought about ATC before, but have no idea if my personality or traits would make this a good option for me. I know being a pilot gives me an advantage over non pilots. But how well do the two mix?

So I guess I have two questions. How are relationships in an Aviation lifestyle?
And what type of characteristics are best for an Air Traffic Controller?

If there are any ATC guy out there I’d love to hear first hand from you about your job.
AIM Wessidemike
Yahoo Wessidemike
 
Do a search on the boards for "AIDS" and you may find some of the answers to your questions on here. Bottom line, it comes down to how strong your relationship is and how much trust there is between both parties.
 
Good pay, good schedule, early retirement, government pension. Sometimes I wish I went the ATC route.
 
DorkProp said:
Good pay, good schedule, early retirement, government pension. Sometimes I wish I went the ATC route.

I'm in the process of going the ATC route. It ain't all pretty and roses, and the hiring itself is just as cyclical as flying.

Bottom line over why I chose ATC over flying: Career wise, it is much more stable. I won't have to worry about BK's and what not, and the most important thing is that I won't have to worry about how many companies' pay scales I'll be sitting at the bottom of. You know, like what happens when Skyway was iffy, guys went to the bottom of ACA's pay scale. ACA went iffy, so guys went to the bottom of Comair's pay scale. Now that Comair is iffy, whose bottom payscale are those guys going to go sit on?
 
yeah I think I would have gone ATC if I could do it again. You will have better financial security, better home life most likely, can actually buy a house and start investing, and plus you can fly when you want to, instead of when someone else wants to.
 
A handful of ORF ATC guys fly corporate all the time when they are off. You can have the best of both worlds. I have to agree with the others....wish I had done it too.

HOWEVER, it is not impossible to have a great relationship and be a pilot. It all depends on the type of flying you end up doing, the company you work for, and the woman you marry.

Good luck.
 
Its not impossible, but it sure can be an uphill climb.

I know a tower guy that has flown corporate also on the side. He is a former AH-1 pilot who once extracted out an F-4 crew to during Nam on the fold out ammo doors.
 
Gotta watch that flying for hire stuff while employed by the FAA. You can get yourself in trouble several different ways, especially flying on days you're supposed to be in front of a radar scope.

As far as AIDS goes, I personally know two controllers who've been divorced 4 times, and another dozen that have split the sheets more than once. I don't consider the job all that tough on family life, you are home every day, but some wives crab because their husbands can't be off every holiday or have to work mids. Crap, it ain't like we left on a 6 month cruise with the Navy....
 
My job has been great for my marriage. I get a little space and she can do her own stuff when I'm gone, and when I get home I tear it up. Then when I'm off for 3 or 4 or 5 days, I can bring her lunch at her office and catch up on the honey-dos and we train together (we're both triathletes.) My trips are rarely more than 3 days, so when I went to school for 3 weeks and then left on a week long trip, that wasn't fun, but it's not the norm either.

I'm not sure what the divorce rate is, but it's between 50 and 70% depending on who you ask, so if your relationship doesn't work you can always blame it on your job, but there's probably more to it than that.
 
Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome: 3 controllers -> 3 wives each
15+ pilots, 2+ wives each, most currently unattached. One said the wife even got the dogs the last time (now that's cruel, 'specially to the dogs!).
 

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