I guess I should come clean.

FlyChicaga said:
Yes.

I had a couple beers last night with another guy in my academy class. We both agreed that it will always be hard to explain why we chose the path we did, when we had good jobs prior.
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Was the Regional life worth it? Were you seeing any movement, or did you see/feel stagnation?
 
MikeD said:
Was the Regional life worth it? Were you seeing any movement, or did you see/feel stagnation?
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It was fun while it lasted. The lifestyle was great when I was single and had no responsibilities at home. But now that I am developing a family and home life, it was a drag to pack up my suitcase and go away for days at a time. It was especially frustrating when weather or poor crew planning meant another night or two away that I did not count on. I missed a feeling of community.

To be honest, I hadn't had any setbacks in my aviation career. No furlough, downgrade. A pay cut, but that came at a time when I could easily manage it, which was about a year after my large pay raise (upgrade). To feel so unfulfilled by a career that I was "successful" at was a tell-tale sign to me I needed to get out. When I started to look around, I discovered that I had a calling in law enforcement. I passed by the idea of going into this career when I was younger due to the coaxing of family and friends. I'm glad I had the support of my fiancee to pursue this calling, even though it's a dangerous line of work.

The thing is, I have a new renewed sense of enjoyment for flying now that I don't do it professionally. Flying a big automated machine was a total drag. I'm more of a stick-and-rudder type of guy, and doing ILS approaches with 30-mile finals all week long was boring as hell. When I recoup my pay cut and start picking up overtime hours, I plan on doing flying on the side, and getting some ratings that I wish I could have picked up years ago. A helicopter rating and a seaplane rating. If I could somehow combine flying and law enforcement, that's cool. If not, no big deal. There are some other paths in LE that I'd like to pursue before I'd fly anyways.

It is especially refreshing not to hear about which company is getting EMB-170 orders this week when I'm in the locker room. Instead we just rip on each other and compare bruises from CT.
 
FlyChicaga said:
The thing is, I have a new renewed sense of enjoyment for flying now that I don't do it professionally. Flying a big automated machine was a total drag. I'm more of a stick-and-rudder type of guy, and doing ILS approaches with 30-mile finals all week long was boring as hell.
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There are some here who would hang you for those statements.......:D
 
Congrats Matt! I can completely relate to our prior job becoming a big downer as time went by. I think that was as much a reflection of the particular company we worked for as it was the industry in general (no offense to those of you still there). The crews were great for the most part, but I definitely felt more like a "cost unit" than a crew member. Even as a single person with no commitments, the job lost a lot of its luster in the past 3 years. Personally, after 6 years, I felt that things had run their course and that it was time to step aside and give some more FO's a crack at the left seat. I'm glad to see you've found a better option and wish you the best of luck.
 
Good for you! I don't want you to leave and perhaps since you and MikeD are in law enforcement - and maybe we could get Five-O back - maybe we could have a subforum where you could tell us about beating confessions out of prisoners, or profiling or all of the other neat stuff. Perhaps even body slamming Code Pink hippies and then choking them. I would frequent that sub-forum heavily! Be careful and enjoy! You can get a Luscombe cheap - gotta be more fun than some RJ. I knew a NYC detective that came to Blakesburg every year in his Cub and another one from Wyoming that always came in a C140.
 
Congrats Matt, I just left being a police officer to pursue flying. I left it for some of the same reasons you left flying. Enjoy yourself and above all be safe. The goal is to go home after each shift....alive.
 
Glad to hear you found your new calling! I was in the background phases of my sheriffs department stuff when I backed out for now. How long is your academy? Also, what does PPO stand for?
 
The thing is, I have a new renewed sense of enjoyment for flying now that I don't do it professionally. Flying a big automated machine was a total drag. I'm more of a stick-and-rudder type of guy, and doing ILS approaches with 30-mile finals all week long was boring as hell.

MikeD said:
There are some here who would hang you for those statements.......:D
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Thats why I want to get in to aerobatics so badly... Oh if I had the dough.
 
Good for you. Hope it all works out as you expect. Now, can you hook me up with one of them little "FOP" stickers that make you immune from traffic stops? :)
 
Welcome to the ranks brother. I'm actually trying to move in the opposite direction. 8 years on the road, trying to make it to the sky. Stay safe out there and remember to watch the hands.
 
On the contrary, i know someone who did exactly the opposite. Left a 70K poleece job to be a regional pilot. At the end of the day its to each its own. Congratulations and best of luck with your new endeavor. Keep in mind keeping the bad guys off the street is not easy either :)
 
Do what you think will make you happy, and if it doesn't, then try something else. What job will make you happy? No one can answer that but you. No one can fault you for trying, and if you are persistent it will pay off. Personally, I cannot believe how many people will not get out and try to find what makes them happy, but rather languish their lives away in a career they despise.

When I made the decision to go from cubicle-land to flying about four years ago, I considered several other vocations as well. LE was one of them. It seems that several others here have stradled that same fence.

Best of luck. I am sure that the good judgment that flying develops will serve you well in your new career.
 
It has to do with the personality of pilots or those interested in aviation!

One of the deputies at our station was an airline pilot before becoming a deputy. You'll never believe how I found out either....

I always wanted to ask him since he had the 'look of a pilot.' Sure enough, we're on a call, and I just asked him. Sure enough he was. The real question is though, why does LE and aviation attract the same type of person?
 
I'll quibble with you there, Bigey. There are all types of people, some of those types have done all kinds of things. When I'm dead and buried, I hope no one knows by my haircut or my manner of dress whether I was a Jet Pilot, a Freightdog, a penniless philosophy student, a Marine, a cab driver, or a political radical. I've been all those things, and I hope I have many years to become more things. More than anything else, I do not want to become someone whose life can be summed up in an easy cliche. That's a short sentence (if you'll pardon the expression) for a life. If my beer and cigarette diet doesn't catch up with me first, I suspect that some passer-by would mistake me for a middle-class nobody in his casket. And that's ok, because, in my personal opinion, what someone thinks about you when you're dead is worth about what someone thinks about you when you're alive. Which is to say, nothing.
 
Congrats, sounds like you made the choice for all the right reasons. I'm moving to Naperville next week, we'll have to hit up a little Chicago M&G.
 
WacoFan said:
Good for you! I don't want you to leave and perhaps since you and MikeD are in law enforcement - and maybe we could get Five-O back - maybe we could have a subforum where you could tell us about beating confessions out of prisoners, or profiling or all of the other neat stuff. Perhaps even body slamming Code Pink hippies and then choking them. I would frequent that sub-forum heavily! Be careful and enjoy! You can get a Luscombe cheap - gotta be more fun than some RJ. I knew a NYC detective that came to Blakesburg every year in his Cub and another one from Wyoming that always came in a C140.
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I want hear about the interviewing process, for example, we've all heard about the drunk captain scenarios, what would you do?Do they ask this scenario at CPD: You and Sean "Flatfood" O'reilly are working foot patrol in Pole town and you stop for a Polish at Stanislaus Kowalski's hot dog stand. Stan gives your partner 200$ in change. Do you (A) say "those dumb Pollacks can't figure out how to give change. (b) it sure is nice that Stan gives to the Widows and Orphans fund. (c) "what's my cut" or (d) I think my partner's on the take.
 
Congratulations!

Ahh the CPD. When I graduated from college and lived in Lincoln Park I would have big parties. Some of my buddies are cops and I would always invite them. Their usual response was "I think I have to work but I'll try to stop by." Usually around midnight when things really got cranked up someone who come and grab me and my roommate to let us know the cops were there to bust up the party. I guess it never got old for them because they never missed a party, and 90% of the time they were working.

Any idea of what district you'll be assigned? I still have some good friends on the force.
 
Bigey said:
The real question is though, why does LE and aviation attract the same type of person?
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I'm not sure and I don't have the credentials to speculate any type of respectful information unfortunately.

One of my bosses is a police officer and has been for over 20 years. I'm currently going to school for Criminal Justice/Legal Studies and I'm also looking forward for a career in law enforcement.

I haven't made it far enough to fly an RJ or an airplane that seats more than 6, but I have realized in the hours that I have accumulated, that I don't want to fly airliners as a career.

Congrats on the switch FlyChicaga!
 
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