type of work found?

[jamhamms]

Gordo!
Check your PM for contact info - I'm at work, and my address book is in my laptop at home.

Sorry to all for the personal post.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!!!

 

[Seeniner]

My own things...plus

After getting furloughed, there were a few routes to take for us former military types:

Hop back into active duty military (not for me)

Jump into the Guard or Reserve (not for me initially)

Do something else (my route).

I have done a combo of the above. First I played Mr. Mom. Then I realized I wasn't getting recalled in 6 months, so I did various jobs. Finally I realized I knew people with talents that could be harnessed and put to good use.

This good use is what we call consumer empowerment...Knolwedge is Power.

Want to save thousands on a new car? Can Spam on your own? Fix your credit? Prevent ID Theft? Visit www.InsidersSpeak.com and you'll see how to do all of this and more.

Oh, on top of making a great living empowering people, I'm also now a Guard part-timer...must get the flying fix.

See

 

[usmc33]

I find it interesting when I read through the 'military transition' postings and read about the military not giving a crap about families as a reson to leave AD and go to the lines. For all you f'd pilots out there, tell me how much the lines care about your families when they let you go with no pay...especially when you've been doing your job to standard and above standard. At least in the MIL, when you're doing your job to par or above and they let you go (RIF), they give you a severance. I'm posting this in the transitions forum too. Feedback should be interesting.

 

[AA717driver]

usmc--If anyone was looking for warm-fuzzies from the airlines, they were dead wrong. It's an ice cold business and you are meat.

I love the companies that whine and cry about you having no loyalty then s**tcan you at the slightest burp in the economy.

I'm lucky. I got 4 mos. of furlough pay and I just got hired at a local corporate job. But it's hard to get any joy from this when so many of my friends and "board buddies" are on the street.

I'm hoping and praying that everyone who wants a job finds it--and keeps it. Good luck all.TC

 

[b757driver]

Well, here's another "hard luck" story. After 15 CONTINUOUS MONTHS of unemployment after having been laid off, I finally got a flying gig - with a price tag!

I'm being outsourced!!! Not a SINGLE interview with any US airline in all that time. Presumably I was not "competitive" enough whatever that means - only been flying jet transports the past 14 years, some international too, but clearly, not good enough to even warrant an interview. Now, for the SECOND time in 12 years, I'm headed overseas because that's where there is work for me. Aparently they don't give a s*&t how current you are, so long as you're typed and have >3000 hours experience, they don't care!! Isn't that amazing. Not only that, but I will be flying heavy iron, internationally, salary not great but good. Of course, I have to leave family and home (again). I wonder if I will be any "good" when I return down the road to find work with an AMERICAN company. It seems it's a crime for an American to want to work for an AMERICAN company. Why is it that most foreign lines are doing pretty well while we are still bleeding heavily here at home? Something is VERY wrong with this picture.

But I'm only doing what I've been forced to do. Also, it's "good" for the American economy, so I've been told. I fail to see how my foreign employment is going to help the American economy. It's only going to put additional stresses on an already difficult situation. Oh well, it's still better than enforced unemployment any day!!!

Good luck to those that remain and are still looking. Review all your options and go with what is best for you.

 

[AA717driver]

Keep in touch b757driver. Good luck. I certainly gave the overseas option a long look.

Some people are getting on at Orient Thai. I guess it's a good deal if you are into that side of the world. Take care.TC

 

[viking737]

Who you gonna work for, b757driver?
Are you AA furloughee?
Congratulations in finding a job!

 

[b757driver]

Thanks AA717driver & viking 737 for yr wishes.

I apologise for not replying earlier but I've been a bit preoccupied with training the past month and have limited computer access where I am.

No, I'm not AA furloughed - I'm laid off from a company that went bust a couple of years ago. I'm currently working for Air Atlanta Icelandic and almost done with 767 simulator training before starting IOE on various ETOPs routes - a first for me! I'm in the first 767 class of the year and there are 6 US pilots including 1 furloughed 767 AA guy and another UAL furlough. The others are are from my previous company. It's quite a different gig than a "normal" airline but what is normal nowadays? Anyhow, it beats unemployment and you got to do what you got to do.

I did look @ Orient Thai but the deal @ AAI was much better all round. Orient Thai is desparate for 757 guys but the pay sucks and you have to pay yr own way out plus yr own accommodation and yr own recurrent sim - approx $1800! No thank you. Where I am now they pay for everything. Can't say it's for everyone and it's far from ideal but it is a pretty flexible deal, so far. Ther is always a price to pay in this industry.

Still mazes me how after 15 months of nothing in the US, I can suddenly go from "not being competitive enough" to getting through an interview plus written tests to a job on a widebody flying all international. They don't seem to have that LOR or buddy buddy mentality here. If you got the ticket and the experience and are available and can be flexible, that's all it takes.

I'll keep you posted once I'm on line.

757 driver so to become 767 driver!

 

[MachPi]

I'm an AA furloughee (in the last bunch in March).

I'm a hideously practical person, and unwilling to put in yet another year or two at slave-wages at another company which may or may not be a going concern in the long term. I'd already decided to take advantage of the Montgomery GI bill to go back to school to do something that was a) monetarily worthwhile and b) worthy of the kind of respect that I'd laughingly assumed I could find in aviation.

My wife, after putting in a year at school to get her pre-reqs out of the way, has been accepted at nursing school.

Long story short, I've decided, after much research, to sort of follow in her footsteps. That is, I'm going to get my own BS in nursing, then go on to become a nurse anesthetist. I'll have to spend a little time at school with some clueless 19 and 25-year olds, but in the end it'll be worth the trouble.

Years ago, after two painful years waiting for the AF to give me a classdate, I finally made it to UPT. Eleven years later, I left the AF. Six months later I got hired at AA. I was certain I knew what my career trajectory was going to be. But 9/11 happened, and along with everyone else, I was rudely awakened to reality.

Although I feel now that I've wasted the last 14 years of my life traveling down a blind alley, I also know that I'm not dead yet. I have a family, and will not subject either them or me to the nearly endless amount of preparation that becoming a medical doctor entails. But I can manage to become a nurse anesthetist in six years, and eventually enjoy the 100 to 250k salary that nurse anesthetists command.

Money, of course, isn't everything; I personally had decided to apply to med school 14 years ago---but then the AF finally called with a classdate, and that avenue closed off for me. So it goes. I no longer have the time to do now what I could've done 14 years ago, but I can get close.

And, eventually, unless AA goes the way of Eastern or Pan Am, the company will recall me from furlough. But by then I plan to have an extremely lucrative fall-back position. I never again will allow myself to be at the mercy of circumstance, criminals, or the economy. People will always need hospitals, no matter what happens in Afghanistan, Iraq, or New York.

I used to love to fly. I still like flying, but I refuse to end up as some burnt-out expat, divorced because he was never home. That's no way to live.

My point is only this: we're pilots, and all intelligent people. There are many things out there in this brave new world for intelligent people to do. Don't lose sight of the options.

Finally, I congratulate those of you who are or will be lucky enough to back the right aviation horse, and be able to retire after a full career at a company that makes all the right decisions. I congratulate you on your luck. It's a great gig if you can manage it.

 

[learflyer]

Hey, good luck to you. Everywhere I fly to when I look in the paper, there seems to be lucrative nursing positions available. Some even have large signing bonuses. It seems they are always so short handed on nurses. You will have your pick of wonderful opportunities in that field for the rest of your career! I wish you the best.