The Party is Over

BigBadLou said:
Congratulations on finally not having to work, they say it's fun! :)
What were you thinking about instructing? Total newbs for PPL? IR? ME?
Since you're in RR, I assume you fly your Bo out of GTU?
If you are really looking for some extra flying on the side, there are some local outfits looking for qualified ME pilots.
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Yep, Tower T's number 15. I am good friends with Scott Richter as SR Aviation and he has a lot of contacts. Already talked to a couple. Not wanting anything full time but just flying for fun (and money).

Not sure about the instructing gig...I enjoy all of it but it has been a LONG time. I am having to relearn a lot of the new stuff but it is fun.
 
Brad Z said:
Congrats on your retirement. I have a good friend who's a 747 FO for UPS out of Anchorage. He still has another 20 years to go before manditory retirement. The word's a small place in your line of work.
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What's their name? Don't know a lot of the newbies up in ANC.
 
Shepherd said:
Do what all the rest of you guys do.
Buy a warbird and hit the show circuit.
Or buy a warbird and I'll fly it on the show circuit for you.

Either way, congratulations on a new milestone in you life.
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Will be getting involved in the CAF and a B-25 Squadron. I am retired and buying a warbird is way way way out of my budget.
 
Congratulations. Don't let the others kid you, retirement is wonderful. You have all the time you want to do what you want.
 
Congrats, @MD11Pilot! I had an inkling that you were UPS, but was never sure. Now I wish I knew... I live in Köln and would have loved to have tipped a few Kölsch back with you at the Cork or Copper Pot. Enjoy retirement! Kölle Alaaf!
 
Congrats on your retirement. Sounds like you had a great career. Stories like this make me want to quit my job and go do this for a living. Very impressive list of aircraft as well. Best of luck and enjoy it!
 
Enjoy your retirement.

Hope you had the opportunity to have a Kölsch when in Cologne!! :)
 
Skywalker said:
Enjoy your retirement.

Hope you had the opportunity to have a Kölsch when in Cologne!! :)
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If you knew any of the people I flew/fly with they would laugh loudly over that. I have survived 40 years of flying and 63 years of living without alcohol and coffee. Married to the same lady for 43 years. Not a slam clicker but helped carry more than a few pilots and flight attendants back to the hotel.
Give my a Diet Dr. Pepper and I am happy.
 
What a great thread...thanks...Ever fly the Clear Lake to IAH metro flights in the Twin Otter?
 
MD11Pilot said:
If you knew any of the people I flew/fly with they would laugh loudly over that. I have survived 40 years of flying and 63 years of living without alcohol and coffee. Married to the same lady for 43 years. Not a slam clicker but helped carry more than a few pilots and flight attendants back to the hotel.
Give my a Diet Dr. Pepper and I am happy.
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Lol. Haven’t heard “slam clicker” in a long time.
 
Warlock said:
What a great thread...thanks...Ever fly the Clear Lake to IAH metro flights in the Twin Otter?
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Yes, quite a few times. I was hired by Dave Boatman there. Based in Longview and Lawton. Didn’t realize the how much fun we were having.
 
Congratulations to you Captain. I happen to know with absolute certainty that you have a VERY NICE airplane to enjoy in your retirement. Now you have no excuse not to drop into the Jacksonville area and say hello to it's former owner....
 
Dave Boatman what a local legend...died way to soon...everywhere he reigned over is now covered in houses and apartments...bet they were fun!
 
mturnerb said:
Congratulations to you Captain. I happen to know with absolute certainty that you have a VERY NICE airplane to enjoy in your retirement. Now you have no excuse not to drop into the Jacksonville area and say hello to it's former owner....
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Turner,
May be down that way before too long. Will let you know in advance.
75 hours so far. We may have to eat cat food but Sierra will stay.
 
I enjoy positive threads like this. You've had an amazing life, to be sure. Glad you're really enjoying yourself.
 
MD11Pilot said:
Yep, Tower T's number 15. I am good friends with Scott Richter as SR Aviation and he has a lot of contacts. Already talked to a couple. Not wanting anything full time but just flying for fun (and money).

Not sure about the instructing gig...I enjoy all of it but it has been a LONG time. I am having to relearn a lot of the new stuff but it is fun.
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Lucky you! (on the T) I am still in the dang Barn.

Maybe a beer sometime might be a good idea, possibly after a BBQ run. PM me if interested.
Also PM me if you'd like to fly a KA Medevac.
 
Congrats on transitioning to the next phase of your life. I loved flying the MD-11 at World.
 
Congratulations on the retirement! That's an awesome career completed. Now on to better things... Question though, do you cargo guys have the same forced retirement age that the airline guys have, or do did you just have enough of it?
 
Thanks. All the same rules and regs apply and my license is the same as a pax pilot. The "forced" retirement age is now 65 and will probably be raised in the future due to the lack of pilots. Some countries used to use 55 but I cannot think of any now. As for me...after thirty years of night freight (not all of it at night but the daytime usually was overseas), the changes constantly coming from the Feds and the Company (the minutiae of "you said Brakes set,lights out, cleared to remove crew stairs and chocks...and confirm gear pins and pitot covers removed" as one sentence instead of two...from a "check" pilot that cannot fly his way out of a wet paper bag) just got to be too much. I am leaving about 14 months early and am leaving just over a years salary on the table...but at what expense to my physical and mental life? It was time. Word from my previously retired friends is that it will take a minimum of three to seven months to get my circadian body clock back to normal. Long answer....I just had enough. Flying my Bonanza and looking to reinstate my CFII-MEI and do some part time teaching and maybe some part time contract work. Basically, I am falling in love with aviation again.

Just a quick funny story that happens far more often than you might believe. Jump seating home one day on an American Airlines flight from DFW to AUS and I was going to have to ride in the cockpit due to the load. I was standing back in the galley to stay out of the way and the very pretty young blonde flight attendant turned to me and asked who I worked for and I replied UPS. Oh, do you want to become a commercial pilot? The older flight attendant just smiled and rolled her eyes and I told the young lady that I was a commercial pilot. She said "I mean do you want to become and American Pilot?" By this time the Captain turned in his seat and looked back and had a weird look on his face when I told her that would be nice but I couldn't afford the pay cut. American had just gone through a cut back fight. I told her that I made more than both of the crew put together and the Captain said "He's right".
I actually had Delta pilots in ATL refuse to acknowledge my hello one day but many years later I had some walk up to me and ask if we were hiring. It has changed, thankfully, the last few years, again due to the pilot shortages and the companies making more money, but us old freight dogs don't have to put up with flight attendants or self loading cargo.

Pay and benefits are so different at each airline that for someone to say that XXX dollars per hour (we are all just hourly employees) is more than XXX dollars per hour at another place. On the face of it, that is correct, but what is the minimum guarantee per month, what is a month? We worked on a 13 month year (28 day months with a high guarantee)...what is the trip and duty rig? I could go on a five day trip and be paid on a different basis each day.

Greatest job in the world, but if you sat around listening to us in the crew room or the cockpit you would think it was the worst. Just human.
 
Congratulations and best wishes for the next phase of your life!
 
MD11Pilot said:
It was time. Word from my previously retired friends is that it will take a minimum of three to seven months to get my circadian body clock back to normal. Long answer....I just had enough. Flying my Bonanza and looking to reinstate my CFII-MEI and do some part time teaching and maybe some part time contract work. Basically, I am falling in love with aviation again..
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I think that is true. For years I only needed about 6 hours sleep. Now going into my 5th year of retirement (went to 65) I'm actually getting 8-9 hours. I was fed up also with what you mention w/check airman, company, and FAA. Doing a little bit of instructing and amazingly (to me) I'm hitting the books and enjoying the teaching. Yes. You could say I'm "falling" in love with aviation again. Oh and blood pressure wayyyyyyy down lol.
 
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