Can I be an airline pilot?

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Stets66

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Stets656
Can I still be an airline pilot even if I don't enjoy flying that much? I already have my private, I had a little fun with that, but it wasn't the most exciting thing. Job outlook for pilots looks great currently and I'm already enrolled at an aviation college and will be starting instrument next semester. Also, how much time does an airline pilot usually have off? If I am not in a good position, are there any careers that I could combine aviation with? Or should I quit with the industry all together? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Stets66 said:
Can I still be an airline pilot even if I don't enjoy flying that much? I already have my private, I had a little fun with that, but it wasn't the most exciting thing. Job outlook for pilots looks great currently and I'm already enrolled at an aviation college and will be starting instrument next semester. Also, how much time does an airline pilot usually have off? If I am not in a good position, are there any careers that I could combine aviation with? Or should I quit with the industry all together? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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Sure you can... But you might not like your job very much.
I usually get about 16 days off per month. The other 14/15 I'm in a hotel at night.
It can be a rough life at first, especially at the regional level. Low pay, work like a horse. Definitely improves at the majors, but not always so easy to get a job.
 
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You're asking these questions after you enrolled in a aviation program!?
 
Why would you ever want to be an airline pilot? Just become a bus driver.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Your right. In some places, a bus driver gets paid more.
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Yikes... Be careful not to confuse a regional with a major. First year major can be low, but that's one year and done. Regionals are getting better slowly, especially for captains.
 
Kritchlow said:
Yikes... Be careful not to confuse a regional with a major. First year major can be low, but that's one year and done. Regionals are getting better slowly, especially for captains.
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Yes, I know. I was kidding mostly, although I did meet a guy a few years ago who quit his job at a regional to work as an apprentice plumber. Better pay and QOL he said.
 
Kritchlow said:
Yikes... Be careful not to confuse a regional with a major. First year major can be low, but that's one year and done. Regionals are getting better slowly, especially for captains.
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True. I've flown with three captains lately that have no interest in the majors. Pay is enough and they have the QOL they desire.
 
Kritchlow said:
Sure you can... But you might not like your job very much.
I usually get about 16 days off per month. The other 14/15 I'm in a hotel at night.
It can be a rough life at first, especially at the regional level. Low pay, work like a horse. Definitely improves at the majors, but not always so easy to get a job.
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Yes, aren't the regionals raising pay tho? some of them up to 40,000 as a starting FO, it's not that I hate flying it's just that I can't quite tap into my passion for it, i enjoy most of my classes about aviation and I find them to be very interesting, I believe I may still be passionate because this is the only career that has sparked any interest for me, every other job I see just looks flat out boring to me
 
You may be too young to know yet, what career suits you best - after all, it is like trying to predict the future.
It could be that you will be in love with it in x years. And we all know of those who hate it, after starting out with a crush.
The mind works in funny ways; it is also possible you might not like it so much now but work at learning to truly love it, later on.
 
Does it have to be airlines? Could be something else as/more rewarding that permits frequent scratching of the flying itch.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Yes, I know. I was kidding mostly, although I did meet a guy a few years ago who quit his job at a regional to work as an apprentice plumber. Better pay and QOL he said.
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Yup... I figured it was semi tongue-in-cheek, but indeed there is some truth to what you say.
 
You're probably a troll.

Otherwise if your heart isn't in it you're f'd anyways.


Try fast food, I hear they pay like $15hr now.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Sure. Why not? I don't think that German Wings guy liked flying all that much.
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Really?? Are we now comparing newbie questions to a mentally ill suicide / mass murderers?

FWIW, I think the German Wings was fine with flying. It's life in general he didn't like.
 
Stets66 said:
Can I still be an airline pilot even if I don't enjoy flying that much? I already have my private, I had a little fun with that, but it wasn't the most exciting thing. Job outlook for pilots looks great currently and I'm already enrolled at an aviation college and will be starting instrument next semester. Also, how much time does an airline pilot usually have off? If I am not in a good position, are there any careers that I could combine aviation with? Or should I quit with the industry all together? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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They do?:dunno: Pay scales are as bad as they ever were, training costs more than it ever has. If you finance it all with student loans, you won't even be able to use bankruptcy to escape the crippling debt. Then to top it all off, about the time you start climbing the seniority scale (that is if you haven't had to restart several times due to failed carriers) will be about the time autonomy starts hitting the industry and we go to one pilot monitoring and providing engineering support, and maybe take over in an emergency.

Aviation will always exist, position yourself to be where the future leads and that is in autonomous AI. Sensor systems and their integration into logic systems that can provide the "See and Avoid" is a major area of development both in hardware and software. If your school has an avionics program, and I was walking in now, that is the program I would sign up for, that is where the future growth of aviation will be the most significant.

If flying doesn't get you your jollies, you're wasting time and potential by choosing it as a career especially at this point in history. Pilot is a blue collar driver's job, and apparently pays about the same as Uber. The reason you take the job is for the view. It really is no longer a respected ego filling position, and the people seeking that really shouldn't be PIC of an airliner.

It's a driver's job, you're an equipment operater with a pretty complex machine to operate, and if you **** up bad enough at it, you kill a couple-few hundred people. It's not particularly difficult, though introduces quite a few quality of life issues if you also desire a family. Not necessarily detrimental, but certainly complications like always missing holidays and birthdays. Flying really should be a passion thing to take it on as a career, because it ain't all rose water baths.
 
oregonboy109 said:
You're asking these questions after you enrolled in a aviation program!?
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Doesn't sound right, does it? Doesn't enjoy flying much. Didn't enjoy getting his private very much. Doesn't sound like he wants to fly at all. Why even bother with studying aviation and getting ratings?

I think all people should have some interest in their job and for a profession such as flying, they should have a passion for it.
 
oregonboy109 said:
You're asking these questions after you enrolled in a aviation program!?
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He said he's enrolled at an aviation college, not in a flying program. The aviation colleges are pushing their programs as hard as they ever have because they are the primary revenue stream with the biggest margins, and the pitches haven't changed since the first time I heard them at Parks College in 1982 when they were pitching me and my dad. In retrospect, none of their pitch was an accurate portrayal of the industry, but it was going to cost $75k to go through back then, an engineering BS was like $27k.

He's probably at the school surrounded by the hype so he's rethinking.
 
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Stets66 said:
Ur a disgrace
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I'm okay with you thinking that way because I actually think you are an idiot. Anyone who is throwing a ton of money at an endeavor that they have no real interest in is a fool. Unless, it isn't a ton of money for you as you are a spoiled rich kid spending daddy's money and looking for something to do in life that doesn't require much physical effort. But if it is your own money that you had to work for or a loan you will need to pay back then throwing it at something you do not really want to do is pretty stupid.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Doesn't sound right, does it? Doesn't enjoy flying much. Didn't enjoy getting his private very much. Doesn't sound like he wants to fly at all. Why even bother with studying aviation and getting ratings?

I think all people should have some interest in their job and for a profession such as flying, they should have a passion for it.
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Someone has sold the OP the line that pilots are well paid. Some of them are. Who knows what it will be like in the future.

I see advice on these boards all the time telling young people to get some kind of degree other than aviation, even though the the subject of that other degree might not be their first interest. Now the tables are turned, so...
 
Everskyward said:
Someone has sold the OP the line that pilots are well paid. Some of them are. Who knows what it will be like in the future.

I see advice on these boards all the time telling young people to get some kind of degree other than aviation, even though the the subject of that other degree might not be their first interest. Now the tables are turned, so...
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Sure... after years of Raman noodles
 
I remember being very confused, when I was young, about what I should do as a career. I think a lot of it had to do with not being courageous enough to pursue what I was really interested in.
 
Henning said:
He said he's enrolled at an aviation college, not in a flying program. The aviation colleges are pushing their programs as hard as they ever have because they are the primary revenue stream with the biggest margins, and the pitches haven't changed since the first time I heard them at Parks College in 1982 when they were pitching me and my dad. In retrospect, none of their pitch was an accurate portrayal of the industry, but it was going to cost $75k to go through back then, an engineering BS was like $27k.

He's probably at the school surrounded by the hype so he's rethinking.
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When I was visiting UND they were pretty straight with us and said that the industry is unpredictable and what is happening now might not be in 5 or 10 years. I had done research and went in expecting to hear the hype your talking about, I had heard it at WMU and Purdue, but was surprised that UND didn't really pull any of that. Of course they do talk and brag about their program and all that but made sure we had no flase illusions about the industry and it's future.
 
Palmpilot said:
I remember being very confused, when I was young, about what I should do as a career.
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I was too. I considered and rejected a number of things which might have been interesting in retrospect. There are other things I never considered which might have been interesting. I still don't know what I want to do.

Palmpilot said:
I think a lot of it had to do with not being courageous enough to pursue what I was really interested in.
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I had the other problem. Many things seemed mildly interesting but I didn't have any passion or focus.
 
There is one hell of a bias against airline pilots on these boards. I wonder why that is.
 
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