Piloting career regrets?

[MINIME]

Go to med school and forget about it!!!!!!!
This career can be brutal and don't event think about spending thanksgiving with your family for the first few years!
Without Pappa, don't even think about owning new, nice stuff.
Managemets usually hate you, they don't value you!!
It could take ten years for you to make what you'd make first or second year out of med school, considering today's enviroment that is.
Sorry dude, it can be that brutal.

 

[huncowboy]

On my last medical examination the doc told me not to go to med school. I don't know why he considered it important to share this piece of wisdom with me as I have never had such inspirations. He also mentioned that he made sure none of his sons will ever attend med school. He explained this with the high liability insurance and all the administrative paperwork that comes with it. I got a complete lecture on it while he barely paid attention to what he was doing (of course who am I to tell). He also said that one of his sons has his own jet operation out of Boca Raton, FL and struggles while competing with shady charters that are very common around the area. Then he lost his interest in the conversation when I told him the largest airplane I have ever flown was a 172.

I guess his son will tell to his kids that they should forget about becoming a, doctors or b, anything aviation related... whatever but I am not going back behind an office desk to stare at a screen for the rest of my life. Screw that.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

I would really appreciate people who could share their stories--more imprtantly regrets, bad stories, etc.--on piloting that would allow us to know what to expect in this kind of career.

OK, I think about this on a daily basis, and saw it again this morning. I'm flying into ATL from an outstation on the return leg of a nap. It is still dark out, and I look down, and what do I see?

Nothing but friggin' brake lights of cars belonging to the poor souls that have to spend the rest of their lives doing 9-to-5.

The pay sucks sometimes, the hours suck sometimes....but I wouldn't trade it in to sit in commutter traffic M-F twice a day.

Good luck with your decision.

Remember, nobody looks back on their life and says, "Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office."

 

[VGerect]

My low point came when I ran afoul of a FlightSafety/Vero Beach check airman who found fault with everything I did. I had never failed a stage check until he came along. I suppose it was just a personality conflict...I wasn't one of those aggressive golfing, beer-drinking types. After a couple of flights, this guy had me convinced that I couldn't fly.

(I don't want to mention his name, but his initials are "Kevin Pence.")

I heard through the alumni grapevine that he was fired several months ago, something about getting cought cheating on his wife with one of the girls in flight ops.

I also had the bad luck of getting the same check airman for three stage-checks. Not that i have a problem with gays, but.........well you know.

 

[Timebuilder]

Those brake lights you saw are operated by those who will hopefully continue to do thier jobs, since they are the ones that cause airplanes to fly, in the larger sense of this.

I have commuted into NYC several times over the last several months. No big deal, I drove cab there in college. I don't have to do it every day, or even every week. Every job I get takes me to a different place with friendly people and a very satisfying check for an hour or two's worth of work.

So to suggest that every job outside of aviation that is worth having is either in front of a screen in a cubicle or requiring a boring commute every day is incorrect. Many of the people that you see as you fly are the people that keep GA alive. They have good jobs, and they are enjoying life. Hopefully, they charter a jet once in a while, or become fractional owners.

We should be thankful that they are there.

 

[88_MALIBU]

A fork-tailed doctor killer?

That just made my day!!!
BAHAHHAHAHAHHA

 

[bigr]

I saw an interview last night on the local news with Julie Clark. she is an airshow pilot (T-34) that you've probably seen perform. very talented pilot. she just retired early from her captains chair at Northwest at age 55. the commute from Sacramento was just too much anymore. who knows what her real reasons are. but she will still be on the airshow circuit.

after 20 years as a captain she gave the following advice to aspiring pilots: "Get started early".

as a tragic side-note, her father was an airline captain that was killed when a psychotic passenger took over the plane he was flying and crashed it deliberately (in 1964), killing all on board. sound familiar?

 

[B1900DFO]

I would say that both doctors and airline pilots have seen their professions erode but when it is all said and done the medical field will be much more lucrative and rewarding. I hate to say it but I think pilots have done more to ruin our profession in the last few years than just about any other group of professionals in this country. Just do the math of a typical newcomer.
Four years at UND/Riddle-----70K?
Two years flight instructing-----10-20/flight hour (roughly 15k/year)
Two years as a regional FO------(14-30k/year)
Two years possibly the rest of your career as Reg. Cap ----(45k-85k)


Of course some guys get there quicker, but the average aviation puke can expect to hit the big time and make the coveted position of reserve captain at a regional airline around 8-10 years after beginning college. Quicker if you go to a bottom-feeding regional. Plan on being gone 60% of the time, more if you are a commuter. Once you do get that upgrade you'll see your salary skyrocket to the 60k range.

Seems to me like four years of med school looks pretty good. I've never heard of doctors being furloughed, agreeing to work for minimum wage to gain "experience", or having to start over at the bottom because their hospital went under due to competition from the "low cost hospitals" aka LCH's. I've also rarely heard doctors complain about other doctors making too much money..."can't stand those surgeon pigs pulling in 250k/year, who do they think they are trying to make this a good job" You will hear statements like that daily within the pilot ranks. I know I've been rambling (reserve is rotting my brain) but I would recommend you go to med school, buy an airplane and a set of epaulets when you can afford it and go knock yourself out. Just make sure you find a new flight instructor to ride along and keep you safe. I guarantee he/she will do it for free to build some more "complex time."

 

[Timebuilder]

By complex time might you mean an aviation complex, as in a fixation??

 

[TurboS7]

Your doc was Dr. McCauley and his son Mike. Mike is a good guy but he has had his share of problems.Flying for a living is tough. My recomendation.1)Never get married.2) Get one of those freight containers insulate it an put a pot stove in it.3)You can live in it on a far dark corner of the airport.When you base changes you just shove it in the back of the airplane and move to the next base.Move around the world and taste all the erotic and exotic stuff, get it out of your system. Next come back get married then settle in with some nice little scheduled airline like Airtran..enjoy life.

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

d@mn good advice, turbo

 

[AA717driver]

The medical profession is eroding just like the aviation profession or the truck driving profession or...

Name your poison--globalization, NAFTA whatever, jobs aren't what they used to be.

My bottom line(getting furloughed after 15 years at a major) is all I've ever wanted to do is fly. I don't want my own business. I don't want to squeeze someone's balls and tell them to cough. I don't want to write software so some couch potato can kill bad guys.

If you are driven to be a pilot, do it. Anything else will not make you happy. If this is a coin flip or you are looking for the biggest W-2, do something else.

Good luck.TC

 

[slide33]

This is what I'd ask myself.

If you enjoy medicine and it will fulfill you - go to med school.

(I haven't heard anyone mention the nice chunk of debt you'll ring up for that PFT - calculate that - and liability insur. into the big bucks you'll be making after school/clinicals)

If you enjoy flying and it will fulfill you - fly

If you want money and it fulfills you - be a personal claims attorney.

In this case between medicine and aviation - you both pay your dues. Neither is a path to getting rich fast.

For me, money is not the driving factor. I've got an engineering degree - but absolutely no desire to make it my life's work. Flying is what I want to do - and I'll take the lemons with the lemonade.

Bottom line - do what makes you happy. If you aren't happy, then really - what's the F'ing point?

 

[Typhoon1244]

If you enjoy medicine and it will fulfill you - go to med school.

If you enjoy flying and it will fulfill you - fly

If you want money and it fulfills you - be a personal claims attorney.

Suppose you enjoy sex and it fulfills you...?

 

[flywithastick]

First, get a degree in something useful (1 - business, 2 - medical, 3 - engineering/science).

Second, go fly, OR get into some business for yourself. Working for someone else is not the secure, financially rewarding prospect it was a generation ago.

From an employees perspective, the corporate world is decaying day by day. Job security is essentially non existent in the avg *profitable* Fortune 500 corporation. You have no greater (and sometimes less) security than the avg contractor.

You get a new manager and he/she brings in their cronies from the previous assignment - you are then a target. The chiefs say reduce overhead 30% to offset a *predicted* or *possible* downturn... you're then a target. Someone figures out a way to outsource your services to *India*, you're a target. and so on...

Anyone who tries to tell someone to go the conservative route of corporate America has not been in this environment during the last 10-15 years. I was given very sincere advice to go this route (versus the very volitile route of a commercial pilot) when I was in school. It's not secure any longer, and a career change now would be horribly difficult at best with kids and debt.

Intense global competition, immigration problems, etc. have taken all comfort out of a 9-5 job (in this manufacturing industry). Don't think this is the easy-trucking route it may have once been.