Why professional pilots suck

flhrci said:
Wel let me see, pretty much have given up on any type of flying career. Haven't even tried to be a CFI Since late 2008. Paying on $30k of flying loans for the rest of my life probably.

No CFI jobs available here in Columbus except at Ohio State's non-student clinic with hellacious pre-hire testing that I won't do. So not too worried about getting hired.

Life sucks. Barely flying anyways. Almost a waste of money.

/rant off

David
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Uhh its called move...
 
flhrci said:
Wel let me see, pretty much have given up on any type of flying career. Haven't even tried to be a CFI Since late 2008. Paying on $30k of flying loans for the rest of my life probably.

No CFI jobs available here in Columbus except at Ohio State's non-student clinic with hellacious pre-hire testing that I won't do. So not too worried about getting hired.

Life sucks. Barely flying anyways. Almost a waste of money.

/rant off

David
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30k of flying loans can be paid off quickly, if you set it as your highest priority. My wife and I paid off 25k in combined credit card and student loan debt in about 2 years on peanuts. Of course during that time we lived in a hovel, but that is the sacrifice we made to not owe our lives to creditors. Most people choose to ignore it and only pay the minimum payment though in which case, yes, it'll take the rest of your life, lol. ;)

I have also given up on a flying career for now. The last time I flew as a CFI was in 2011 so I feel your pain. I chose to concentrate on making money instead, as my love and need for making money outweighs my love for aviation. My wife is almost finished with school (paying in cash). She also gave up her dream for a career that makes actual money. She is a helicopter pilot but is now focusing on a medical career. We'll soon be in a position to own a plane and be the subject of many a "professional" pilots' disdain on the taxiway.

Also, get out of Ohio. The economy there sucks, they tax you up the a$$, and there is nothing to do. I couldn't imagine a worse hell than being stuck in Ohio.

Just take the above for what it is... Cheap a$$ internet advice.
 
There's a few more issues than what I have alluded to already but my mistake was going after a flying career with a butt load of debt i nthe first place. Most of my original debt is paid down but I also went to college the last 2.5 years and graduated in Dec. using GI BIll. But I have not been able to do any better than my part-time Fedex Express job so far. Has benefits but the hours are not good enough and no future to become full-time right now.

I agree I need to move and that is in the picture. Still a few other issues on top of all this.

And since I am almost 42 @ 580 hours TT, do I really have a future in aviation other than being a CFI the way age discrimination plays into everything?

Here locally I have seen a commercial power washing job that pays $600 a week plus benefits advertised. Sounds good, but I really don't want to do that the rest of my life either.

David
 
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flhrci said:
And since I am almost 42 @ 580 hours TT, do I really have a future in aviation other than being a CFI the way age discrimination plays into everything?


David
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You could do freight once you get 135 mins.
 
flhrci said:
There's a few more issues than what I have alluded to already but my mistake was going after a flying career with a butt load of debt i nthe first place. Most of my original debt is paid down but I also went to college the last 2.5 years and graduated in Dec. using GI BIll. But I have not been able to do any better than my part-time Fedex Express job so far. Has benefits but the hours are not good enough and no future to become full-time right now.
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Most people make mistakes when hot about a career change or doing something "fun" like flying for a career. The trick is to replace the broken concrete, fill in the cracks, and make sure the rest of the sidewalk is paved correctly to continue walking on.

I agree I need to move and that is in the picture. Still a few other issues on top of all this.
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Not downplaying what could be serious issues, but a lot of times the real issue is just going through with the task and committing to it. Sometimes people use thier pending "issues" as crutches, or excuses, for not moving on. I have a co-worker supervisor who could really kick a$$ in life if he just concentrated on himself and his needs and didn't constantly give away his money to charity cases like his loser brother and sister. I'm finding that he probably likes and craves the attention of always complaining and being the victim, and also has a neat packaged excuse for not moving forward with his own life, not having to risk dating, not having to risk getting a better job, etc.

And since I am almost 42 @ 580 hours TT, do I really have a future in aviation other than being a CFI the way age discrimination plays into everything?
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At 42 years old it would be difficult for anyone to make a career change to anything. At 42, there is a certain expectation of compensation and lifestyle that a candidate is already used to, but a new company just won't provide. And companies love to hire younger because generally speaking, younger equals inexperienced, cheap, energetic, and more apt to conform to company policy.

My sister is a hiring specialist for a staffing agency and she is always telling me about these sad stories of guys over 35 trying for a mid-career change, gambling it all on a new degree, and getting nothing back in return except for intern slots or lower positions. At 35 myself, I have also come to the realization that people need to stick with one thing for it to be a success, no matter how boring or tedious it may seem. The older you get, the less likely a career change will be successfull (depending on how you view success, of course).

I got into coax cable design for a cable company as a newbie 4 years ago (coming from 1 year as a full-time CFI job) and even though I HATED the job, it's got me out of my hovel, bought us a nice house, and opened up many opportunities that aviation never would have in a million years. I started at $14 an hour 4 years ago, I also continued to work as a CFI on the side, but I had so little work and it was so sporadic, that it never paid off. Once I shed the weight of that CFI gig and began to really sell myself in the cable industry, things really took off. I now just got hired with a major online company at 80k per year. Just by jumping through the right hoops and being patient. Had I continued with a position in Aviation, I'd be working at a regional, making $25k a year right now. No house, away from home, etc.

About location... I was looking to move back to Idaho 3 years ago, as I had enough of this dreary weather up here in Seattle. Had I done that, moved from a place with good jobs to a place with hardly any good jobs at all, I'd be screwed right now.

Another thing related to getting back into aviation... If I were to get back in right now, even with my 2000 hours (most in 172's and 182's), tons of IFR actual, mountain flying experience, etc, I'd have to begin at a cr a ppy regional making peanuts again, co-habitating with 6 other guys in a cramped apartment, while my wife and kids back home wonder if we'll make the motgage payment this month and have to choose between Kraft and the generic mac n cheese to eat.

Here locally I have seen a commercial power washing job that pays $600 a week plus benefits advertised. Sounds good, but I really don't want to do that the rest of my life either.
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Nothing says you do, but it would be a major upgrade from a part-time fed ex job. ALWAYS trade up. I would sell everything I could that has no utilitarian use in my life, and downgrade my residence if I could. I would take it as part of a plan to pay of all debt and take care of all other outstanding "issues". Then afterwards I would have a choice: Do I move to where the CFI jobs are, and resign to probably only getting a regional job as the highest realistic position in the future? Or do I evaluate my other skills and see what else I can do that is marketable and move to where that industry is?

The choice is yours, but one thing is for sure, not doing anything will yield the same result next year, and the next, and the next, etc...

Best of luck!
 
Excellent advice Seattle Pilot!

I am however sad that so many people have to HATE what they do for a living in order to make a comfortable living. It seems so mutually exclusive. Enjoy what you do and make no money, or hate 5/7th of your every waking moment and make the rent. Living for the weekend seems just as much a false economy to me as working for a regional airline for mickey mouse wages. Perhaps, if one can tolerate one's well-paying job it would be a workable construct. Hating something hardly seems worth the opportunity cost...Life is a choice that is true.
 
One can certainly learn to love, or at least tolerate, what they do if the find pourpose for it and there is a future in it. It's also very relative. For a while I hated what I did when compared to flying. It felt like a way to make ends meet, but flat and boring. It was a very narrow-minded comparison - to only compare how the two made me feel. Well, when one has a family, they need to open up that gap to see how both jobs would benefit the others in their life. Seeing my kid open up a new toy on christmas as opposed to a dirty, half-broken hand-me-down from a relative made me feel like a million bucks. My non-aviation career allowed us to have stability, get a nice home, decent transport, weekends off, school opportunities for the kids and the wife, etc. Once I saw the future opportunities in what I did I completley let go of flying and concentrated fully on this other thing with great success.

Its all about what one wants out of life...
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Captain, I've done similar to your MEM flight before. Good to know I'm not the only one.
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(chuckle).

There was this time, a few years ago, when family and I were flying up from Central Texas back home to Addison. We knew we were in a bit of a race to beat a frontal system to the home plate, but had plenty of "outs" to land and wait it out.

Unfortunately, thanks to excessive vectoring, as we arrived in the terminal area, the gust front in front of the frontal system arrived, and as we approached the Love Field area, we heard the exchange between the approach controller and a Southwest jet inbound to Love; remarkably enough (and what are the odds?), the voice we heard was the Southwest Airlines Captain who lived across the street from us.

Approach control notified Capt. Mike of the new weather, and asked if they still wanted the approach. Mike, who always honors the equal allocation of flying legs, replied, "the copilot is the pilot flying, and he says he's up to it so will accept the approach." We heard nothing more from them, other than their handoff to the tower, and presumed all was well.

Meanwhile, with the wind gusting across the runway at Addison hard enough to blow stucco off the side of a hangar (yes, it really did happen), I politely declined the visual approach to Addison, and diverted to another nearby airport which did not have the severe winter conditions. By coincidence (a lot of coincidences that day), Siciliano was arriving from Wisconsin in the P-Baron at the same time, and made the same diversion call (making me feel fully vindicated on my diversion decision). An hour or so on the ground, and all was well (and Dave successfully negotiated a significant fuel discount, to our mutual benefit).

The next day, I chatted with the Captain in his front yard, and he told me that his copilot made a very fine landing despite the substantial gusting winds (just within company limits), but that before they could get marshaled into the gate, the thunderstorm arrived, the rampers were obliged to go inside to avoid the risk of lightning, so they got to sit in the plane, 50 feet from the gate, while the storm raged for 20 minutes or so.

I have nothing but good things to say about this particular professional pilot, and of the professional pilots I've met since I've been flying, almost all of them are great folks, sharing of their time and expertise, and not at all arrogant. Some of them even qualify as "The World's Greatest Pilot." :D Others sit in the back seat and cackle whenever you make a mistake under the hood.

All in all, you could do a lot worse in picking friends and colleagues.
 
For the vast majority of them, I would have to agree.
 
ryoung99 said:
They fly with hot stewardess's all day and night long and arguably have the greatest job in the world.

Seriously, one of my best friends is a Captain with Southwest Airlines, he earns over $300k per year (if not more) and seems to only work about an hour a week. Takes the summers off to go boating. Oh yea and at 40+ he is still always dating some hot twenty something... that is why they suck!
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Trust me-we're not all as lucky as him. I still date 20 somethings though (helps that I am still in my 20s:D)
 
seattlepilot said:
The choice is yours, but one thing is for sure, not doing anything will yield the same result next year, and the next, and the next, etc...

Best of luck!
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SeattlePilot,

Thanks for the advice and understanding. I think you have a good idea how I feel. I have been unable to make a decision on what to do next since I got my degree in December. Sometimes I guess you just feel stuck and do not know what to do next. It will come. I just do not know when. It is part of my transition out of the military which has gone on for 7 years now.

Thanks,

David
 
Your welcome and I try... Sometimes all someone needs is a kick in the a$$ in the right direction. I know I've had to get my fair share too, lol!
 
I fly for one husband and wife.

Even when I am at work, its like being in the family, and I wear jeans, not a monkey suit.

Really I just get all expense paid vacations that I can bring family/friends with me on.

Its hard being me. That is all ;)
 
I flew coast to coast, sipping on a nice Cab Franc after visiting Arlington National Cemetery for the Memorial Day weekend. Tomorrow is the Air and Space Museum, again. ;)
 
Captain said:
Left column middle was literally me today. Last plane to land KMEM before the skies let loose.

.
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All well and good... but please tell us about the lower middle column...
 
jonnyjetprop said:
I got kicked out of some of the best FBO's for loitering while flying 135 cargo.
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You know you're a freight dog when the line guys start rolling out the red carpet and quickly roll it back up when they realize who you are.
 
GCA319 said:
You know you're a freight dog when the line guys start rolling out the red carpet and quickly roll it back up when they realize who you are.
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Or when you see the woman in the front desk bagging popcorn, and grabbing the cookie backet so you can't get any. Thanks Atlantic @ PSP lol..
 
Inverted said:
Or when you see the woman in the front desk bagging popcorn, and grabbing the cookie backet so you can't get any. Thanks Atlantic @ PSP lol..
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Are you too fat? Maybe she thought that. lol

David
 
flhrci said:
Are you too fat? Maybe she thought that. lol

David
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Not at all, but at the previous freight company, I think we were notorious for going in there, not getting any fuel, and just eating, and drinking all the stuff we could find for free lol.
 
Inverted said:
Not at all, but at the previous freight company, I think we were notorious for going in there, not getting any fuel, and just eating, and drinking all the stuff we could find for free lol.
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If you're talking about Ameriflight, then the guy who did the PHX-ABQ run used to drink half the lemonade supply at Cutter everytime he came in :D
 
WhiskeyPapa said:
All well and good... but please tell us about the lower middle column...
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My plane has no Stu's. My wife won't let me fly a plane big enough for them BECAUSE of the lower middle column!
 
I'm a single female, living in Anchorage, and yes, I do enjoy going out and having an adult beverage. I have avoided certain places because of the endless glorified bus drivers hitting on me and it's the married ones that are the worse. I mean, really, first of all those commercial/cargo prima donnas are the cheapest bastids.......second of all, they are just persistant and do NOT take NO, NO I do not date commercial/cargo pilots.....they ask..."Why not?"....I tell them, I'm allergic to penicillin........


Yeah..and for y'all thinking they "attract" the woman...maybe so, but only shallow women. Not us real women!! I love to fly! My problem is that the REAL pilots I meet here (SEL's) are all taken! Dag nabit!
 
cinbadl said:
I'm a single female, living in Anchorage, and yes, I do enjoy going out and having an adult beverage. I have avoided certain places because of the endless glorified bus drivers hitting on me and it's the married ones that are the worse. I mean, really, first of all those commercial/cargo prima donnas are the cheapest bastids.......second of all, they are just persistant and do NOT take NO, NO I do not date commercial/cargo pilots.....they ask..."Why not?"....I tell them, I'm allergic to penicillin........


Yeah..and for y'all thinking they "attract" the woman...maybe so, but only shallow women. Not us real women!! I love to fly! My problem is that the REAL pilots I meet here (SEL's) are all taken! Dag nabit!
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Hell of a first post!

Although I think on this board you may find that SEL means something different than it does in the land of the midnight sun. Having said that, there are atleast a few of us that work in Bethel here on the board.
 
DavidWhite said:
Hell of a first post!

Although I think on this board you may find that SEL means something different than it does in the land of the midnight sun. Having said that, there are atleast a few of us that work in Bethel here on the board.
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What David is saying, I think, is "can you please post a photograph?"

Heh. :D
 
I have a feeling it was the first post of a regular's alter ego.
 
SCCutler said:
What David is saying, I think, is "can you please post a photograph?"

Heh. :D
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If (s)he was really an Alaskan woman (s)he would know that the Alaskan single women's mantra is:

The odds or good but the goods are odd!

:goofy:
 
7:1 male to female ratio in Alaska, and she has trouble finding guys?

I've got 2 theories I'll keep to myself on that.
 
Palmpilot said:
Just thought I'd start this thread in the interests of equal time. :D



Here, I'll start things off:



1. Condescending attitude...
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If you post your rubbish threads in hangar talk then people trying not to waste time will find it easier to filter them out. The plus is that people that love this crap can find it easily and you can all **** your time away together.





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
You missed that this was a thread response to a "professional pilot" posting in this very section, on why all other non-121/135ers pilots sucked.

But congrats on reinforcing the stereotype...
 
But the question is Nick...assuming your wife isn't looking over your shoulder....well, you know the question.
 
cinbadl said:
I'm a single female, living in Anchorage, and yes, I do enjoy going out and having an adult beverage. I have avoided certain places because of the endless glorified bus drivers hitting on me and it's the married ones that are the worse. I mean, really, first of all those commercial/cargo prima donnas are the cheapest bastids.......second of all, they are just persistant and do NOT take NO, NO I do not date commercial/cargo pilots.....they ask..."Why not?"....I tell them, I'm allergic to penicillin........


Yeah..and for y'all thinking they "attract" the woman...maybe so, but only shallow women. Not us real women!! I love to fly! My problem is that the REAL pilots I meet here (SEL's) are all taken! Dag nabit!
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That has to be the BEST necropost of all time! :thumbsup:
 
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