What do you Love about this job?

[WillFlyFoCookie]

It know that this may not be the best place to put this topic but I just can't get away from these Regional posts because for me they just hit home the hardest.

So that's my big question to throw out there. What do you, my fellow airline pilots, love about this job? Sometimes I feel some people of these posts focus on the negative aspects too much and forget just how fortunate they are.

I love the way kids look at you in amazement when they see you in your uniform or sneak a glance into the cockpit. I love it when a passenger sincerely expresses their gratitude and lets you know they'll be flying your airline again. I love the way ATC will sometimes be willing to trade some friendly banter with it's faceless pilots even when both sides have had a long day. I love the way up and coming pilots working on their ratings tell you they can't wait to be in your shoes and you can confidently say "you will be...because I was once in yours."

Basically you have to find the joy in life or what's the point in living? Our jobs are such a big part of our lives...what do you love about yours?

 

[CheapFlyer]

The best part of my day at work is checking out and going home. Seriously!!! I have more fun with my free time than flying the line.


-CF

 

[Lequip]

My Six figure salary for doing part time work. WAY too much to list about what I love about my job. It more than makes up for the fact that the majority of pilots are A$$ holes and gerk 0ffs.

 

[pilotyip]

Exactly!

That is why you fly, because you like to, not for the pay, benefits, respect, prestige, etc. Making $100K per year doing something you like is every working mans dream.

 

[atrdriver]

I love taxing into a gate area when there are a lot of people looking out of the windows...I love the sunsets and sunrises...looking at the stars you can't see from the ground anymore...The look of a kid in the terminal when they realize you're going to be their pilot...The sound of engines all around...Watching takeoffs and landings...looking out the final and seeing 15 planes lined up...The sound of the wheels coming up...I could probably go on for hours...

Anyone who can't find things to love about flying for a living really should find something else to do. I have flown with many who hated the job and just there for the paycheck, and that's the saddest thing of all...If you can't have fun in this profession then you just can't have fun...

atrdriver

 

[Flying Illini]

I know I'm not an airline pilot but I thought I would share. Saturday night we taxied into gate A14 at CLE at around 11pm. That was a completely new experience for me. We were returning from nova scotia and that is where customs was to meet us. Just a cool experience to be two gates away from a 757 and to have an ERJ on either side of us. I don't envy everything about the airline lifestyle, but I am jealous of the amount of night flying you guys do. Night is my favorite time to be in an airplane.
Thanks for starting a "positive" aviation post.

JD

 

[Twotter76]

There is entirely too much to list but briefly - Sunsets at 350, the Aurora Borealis, the smell of Jet A on the ramp, Chicago at rush hour (which in reality is all day long), being #2 behind the Concorde, listening to engines spooling up all around me, going places i've never been before, my 17 days off a month (give or take), being part of an honorable tradition, decent (not great) money, being trusted with a 20 million dollar piece of equipment, and the list goes on and on.

Like the previous guy said if you can't have fun at this job then please, please LEAVE and make room for those of us who love what we do because there is nothing I hate more than being stuck with some jackass for 4 days who can only tell me how bad he has it. The pros far outweigh the cons on this one...

 

[tittyjet]

I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning.

 

[satpak77]

I love

meeting all the hot FBO girls

 

[jobear]

I got a sunrise on my birthday last November climbing out over Lake Michigan, prior to the early blitzes out of MKE,ORD,and MDW. Light radio traffic, the captain and I sipping our coffee, respecting our mutual silence(thanks JB). The Beeches engines purring like kittens, cool but not cold air outside a light heat inside and one the most glorious sunrises ever.........

SO anyone working on November 8 th this year keep your fat yappers shut!


Jobear

 

[ilkwamh2]

I'm a CFI, not an airline pilot yet, but what I love about this job is that when I get up every morning, I don't feel like I'm ever going to work. Plus, when I take someone on an intro flight, they are so excited and always tell me that I have the best job in the world...otherwise I just take it for granted sometimes.

-Feifong

 

[wil]

Knowing most people want to be in my shoes!! Sorry too be so cocky! Cheers, Wil

 

[wil]

Just kidding, but I had to post!! I wish all a safe journey!! Cheers, Wil

 

[BankAccount=0$]

What I love about this job (CFI) is sending a student solo for the first time. The look on their face when they taxi into the ramp after making their first flight on their own makes the long hours and low pay all worthwhile.

What I love about this job is when you go to interview for a job at an airline, and on the crew bus all the employees give you kind words of encouragement and tell you to relax even though you are as nervous as can be.

What I love about this job is driving to the airport and knowing that most of the people that you pass on the freeway are driving to jobs that they hate.

Aside from all of the complaining that is part of an airline pilots life. At the end of the day I always appreciate seeing a PM being answered from someone who is willing to help an aspiring airline pilot with the info that might help them get a job at their respective company. It always amazes me how generous pilots are in helping others out when they need it.
I guess this is my little way of saying thanks to all of you who have helped me on my long journey to becoming a airline pilot. With a little bit of luck, and a lot of hard work I hope to spend the rest of my career sharing the skies with all of you.

Cheers,
TJ

 

[Justino]

the truth:

As a prior 135 guy and MEI but now in grad school:


What I love about my job was the fact it was not a job. I loved being able to break the laws of gravity on most days (only as a cfi did the law find me in deviation of its principles)
I love being able to fly through white clouds for which people could only dream about dancing on.
I love being able to chase the sun as it sets only to greet it as it rises in morning.
I love being able to meet another pilot not matter what skill level and have a common fraternal bond.
I love being able to watch shooting stars at night from 10K feet with the cockpit lights turned off above a shimmering cloud deck that is illuminated by the moon's glow.
I love the ability to be able to quote something and have it truely move me:

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
​

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr
​

I love the fact that in a few short months after grad school I will once again join the ranks and continue to live my dream as a proffesional pilot and everything else will follow.....

Cheers and safe flying
~J

 

[norskman2]

I love being able to fly through white clouds for which people could only dream about dancing on.
I love being able to chase the sun as it sets only to greet it as it rises in morning.

Justino,

You're a F#&@^&*-ing poet, man! Excuse me, I think I got something in my eye....I love you, man!

 

[StaySeated]

I love running to the gate and watching my last chance to commute home start to push...

I love when my days off get moved...

I love when my pager goes off...

I love when I am home and a 1000 miles away from work and I hear someone elses pager and I think skeds just tagged me again...

I love when I see my paycheck and remember making more in one night bartending in college...

I love when new seniority list are posted and the net change for one year is less than 1%...

I love being in a sh1thole bar in alabama at 1am killing time and drinking beers with three other misguided aviation professionals when an impromptu "most trashy girl wins $100 contest begins"...wait, I really did love that one...

For those that know me, I am actually one of the more postive people in this crazy industry, I just thought this post needed some levity. Bottom line, I don't care how much you "love flyin", regional airlines will chew you up and spit you out, and then chew you up again, and then skeds will page you, and then...

 

[capt. megadeth]

"What I love about this job is driving to the airport and knowing that most of the people that you pass on the freeway are driving to jobs that they hate." Bank Account,
This is a great way to look at things.

Stay seated...that was funny.

What I love is:

Breaking through an overcast layer and seeing the sun

Breaking out at minimums after hand flying an approach

Being able to show up at work and not having to see your boss unless you fu$&ed something up

There are so many other things I love but it is almost 2am and I am going to sleep.....Good nite y'all

 

[Dash8]

I love the views

in flight; of weather and scenery, some beautiful vistas not visible from the ground.

in the terminals; of the fly honeys and multitudes of fine chicks strollin about, beautiful creatures that seem to be everywhere in airports.

 

[PBRstreetgang]

The sight of the dull, chemical haze encrusted lights of my domicile receeding in my rear view mirror, knowing I will not have to return and drag ungrateful toads back and forth to their trailer park existance and listen to this type of $hit from kool aid drinking booger eaters. Howz that for a run on?
Read it real fast, twice. I gotta go work at my second job to pay my bills, at least that pays enough to make it worth while! Drone on koolaid drinkers.
PBR