Tach 32,
You sound like a girl with a chip on her shoulder...you sound like the stereotypical female pilot.
Now, I have nothing against women flying, any more than I do men. It was you that felt the need to introduce gender. I had no idea that you were white, black, female, or male. Didn't matter, don't care. But it does to you. (Just for the record, I'm a slightly short, approaching-middle aged ugly male with dirty red hair, bad teeth, and lots of former broken bones).
I'm not going to pounce on the gender issue, because as I stated, it's a non-issue. However, don't try to raise sympathy based on that, or your merits of buying time, or the claim that you're paying your dues. You may think you are, but think again. You're doing what you can, because you have the means to do so.
As far as I'm concerned, I might feel that you're paying your dues when y ou're slogging it out eating noodles and jello, because you can afford nothing else. You're flying for next to nothing in nasty icy weather delivering boxes for no significant money, no respect, and in airplanes that really invite the carriage of a parachute. Or flying into a tangle of powerlines with a load of Furadan. Or one of many different jobs. No, you're not paying your dues. You're buying your dues, and there IS a difference.
I don't care that you're female. I don't care that most places I've worked, males needed 4,000 hours to get the same job that females did at 900. That's someone else's problem (yours?); I have my own to worry about. Things such as how I'm going to eat, or put gas in my car...let alone paying for an airline ticket somewhere to fly for free in someone else's airplane. It's a luxury I never had, nor do most folks here. Come to think of it, it's a luxury I still don't have, and I've been doing this for a while now.
When I was looking to fly every chance I got, I bicycled the fifteen miles to the airport in the winter to beg for rides, or wash airplanes in unheated hangars. I couldn't afford coveralls, nor could I afford a car or even gas. Perhaps we all pay our dues in different ways. I wouldn't trade a minute of mine, nor an hour of the flying I've done. Much of the flying involved some very intense extreme type flying that was worth likely five hundred hours of straight-and-level experience for every hour flown. I have also seen many of my co-workers killed on the job. I've put out the fires on their wreckage, I've pulled out bodies, I've attended their funerals, and raged at the conditions that put them there. I have yet to pay my dues...but I'm still working on it.
Pick up a copy of Trade A Plane, and find a banner job if you like. The jobs are out there. You seem dead-set against flight instruction, and based on your attitude, I'd strongly recommend that you steer clear of flight instruction in order to protect the integrity of the profession. Personally, I find it a very honorable activity. Presently I have a student staying in the hangar with me for a couple of weeks, getting his instrument rating...and I'll take every chance to instruct that I can. Just because it's enjoyable and a great way to share flying.
"the fact that I work hard at acquiring the knowledge and the ability to have my flights end with no added statistics to the NTSB is plain GREAT! "
Are you honestly saying that your standard of success on a flight is not crashing or getting killed? Shoot for a higher standard; after all, it's the only professional thing to do. Most everybody on this board fully intends to complete every flight without adding to accident statistics. Surely there must be more.
Lose the attitude and you'll go much farther. You feel it's difficult because of your appearance. You may not realize this, but we can't see you. You want to build time fast, but bristle when you're told to build experience, rather than time. You have Kingair and Astra experience at fifteen hundred hours, but you're looking for a banner job to build time, because you want to do anything but instruct. You buy your own airplane and regular airline tickets but know all about paying your dues. You are indeed a conundrum, Ms. Tach. I wish the best of luck to you, but in reciprocation to your comments, I hope you're never my FO.
