The Thrill Is Gone?????

[zonker]

Hey,

I'd rather do this than vegging in a cubicle or sitting around a boardroom, listening to someone drone on about margins. Or attending focus groups to increase my productivity.

The only other thing I'd rather do is run a small business on a sunny island somewhere.

Yea, that's the ticket.

 

[xjcaptain]

Hard to do that when your still quallified for food stamps!!

Professionalism has nothing to do with $$$. Some of the best pilots I have flown with don't do it for a living, and some of the highest paid people in the county are some of the biggest idiots out there (ever listened to the average NBA player attempt to talk to a reporter?).

 

[FlyChicaga]

Hard to do that when your still quallified for food stamps!!

How so? Somehow qualifying for food stamps means you can't act like a professional? Or learn how to iron? Last time I checked the hotel had irons for free, and the water for steam was free, and the board was there free...

 

[WhiteCloud]

In my opinion, the respect is not gone. If you treat others with respect, so shall you be respected. People who find out what I do are still intrigued by the job and always ask myriads of questions. I never respond complaining about mgmt, delays, a/c, fares, scopes, and I don't bring up the negatives.

The repect is still there from most people I run in to. However, I do not recommend that people pursue flying for a living without having other ways to earn a living going for them too. My friends ouside of aviation are, without exception, shocked at the low starting pay and usually ask how they get people to work under those conditions. I don't really have a good answer other than they are being used and don't really have much choice if they want to progress in the profession. I appreciate your positive approach, but I do think it's up to us to educate the public and prospective pilots on the realities of the industry.

 

[capt. megadeth]

WhiteCloud,
Very well said. I agree 110% that you should have something to fall back on. Everytime I think of it (which is every day), I am so thankful that I got a degree other than aviation. My friend (who did get a degree in aviation) and I joke around how we would be fired as university counselors because we would tell every person pursuing an aviation degree to do something else. I can't even believe that aviation programs are still profitable.

 

[climbhappy]

kudos for discoduck

dicsoduck:

i sincerely wonder why jetblue hasn't picked you up. you have what they're looking for. i know this...you will get back to the thing you love ...flying

 

[BE99chick]

And I thought it was all about the chicks. I bet his mailbox says Captain Neil Swindells.

I actually knew a UAL Captain whose checks in his checkbook said "Captain So and So" and he signed his checks "Captain So and So".

 

[BE99chick]

Seriously though, discoduck has a good perspective, even though things are tough. That's hard to do.

I do miss those times sitting in the crewroom, or in the flying club and laughing so hard at something funny somebody said I would be crying. That's rare anymore, unfortunately.

Anybody hear any good jokes lately?