I guess I should come clean.

Congrats bro! Was good seeing you and Sarah the other night...even if it was only for a few minutes. Once you are done with the academy and have your normal schedule hit me up and we'll fire up the BBQ at my place, crack open a lot of cold ones and enjoy life!
 
Congrats with the new job.

Remember: Walk down the hill.........!!!

Your job is to go home each night, everything else is a bonus.
 
Congrats!

Some days I debate on taking a 30-40% paycut and moving back to the office.
 
So is this a personal leave? Or resigned for good from XJT? I know some airlines allow a personal leave of up to 5 years with retaining seniority, no longevity. Are you doing a whole career change or is this a personal leave to try something else?
 
Welcome to the badge. Remember the rules of LE, you and your partner go home at the end of the night, someone always has a camera recording, watch what you say and do. And just like flying know your policies it will keep you employeed and out of court. You will wear a tie again by the way, its a funeral and they suck! The streets are a blast.
 
As a former PO Sgt with 10 years on the streets before going to law school and repesenting/defending police officers for over 20 yrs, I can say without a doubt that as long as you keep the following three items in check you will be fine.
1. Alcohol;
2. Women;
3. Your Ego.
Being a street officer in Texas was a GREAT job. You will have more fun and get the @!#$@ scared out of you so many times you wont know what to do next. However, eventually you will get burned out unless you have a life outside of LE. Officers tend to only congragate with other officers and eventually you find that you have no outside interests. I would definitely keep flying so as to have those outside interests. Also, doesnt CPD have an aviation division. If my department had one, I would still be there. One of my old cop friends was a State helo pilot all his LE career and he loved every minute as well as writing a book about his flying. Now his son has his old job. How cool is that?
Good luck, and remember it is all about going home at night. Remember this:

"it is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6"
 
So, in the same tradition of teaching Marines the history of the Corps ... did they make everyone watch the Blues Brothers movie?

Is SCMODS a real thing? :)
 
Thanks all! So far seven weeks in, and it has been a blast. Today we started our driving course. It was... Bad. Ass. We drive up at ORD, so that was interesting being back in my old "stomping grounds." We were in a new Tahoe most of the morning, and I was running that thing HARD. Didn't hit any cones on the emergency vehicle operation course, either. :)

We're supposed to hit the streets in the first week of September, right when school starts. So that should be fun. Honestly, I haven't missed flying at all... Even today at ORD, seeing all the EMBs landing didn't really phase me. That says a lot. I feel like I've been working much harder, but my home life/QOL has improved quite a bit.

Thank you to the current/former officers for the advice as well... it's appreciated.
 
If, once things are settled, if you're going to be offering "ride alongs", sign me up.
 
Found your class photo!
11625390_gal.jpg
 
Hey FlyC, congrats and good luck in your chosen profession. I've just finished 26 yrs with a 180 person Dept in NJ. (20 on the part time SWAT team). It was all a great experience that I wouldn't trade for the world.

It appears that were doing careers exactly opposite, I've just gotten my comm ride finished but have about 1300 hrs of $100 hamburger flying. I'm hoping that the "real world decision making experience" and ratings may lead to a part 91/135 position a little down the road .

Good Luck and memorize the ten deadly sins ( assuming they still teach that in academies), the most important of which ( for me anyway ) "always watching their hands"....
 
why would you take a pay cut to leave flying?

More time with the family/friends, set hours, planning vacations/activities and not having to worry about if I'll get those specific days off. I'm only 23 and have an awesome flying job but I don't want to waste my 20's, aviation is my job, it's not who I am.
 
Congrats, it's tough to leave anything, especially a seniority based system. I've been gone for two years now and occasionally miss flying. But I don't really have the time to be a part time CFI nor the funds to fly on my own. And as a father of two young children I wonder if it's wise to fly small planes right now.

Enjoy your new adventure, I respect anyone that can deal with the dregs of society on a daily basis.
 
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