It finally happened

Been 28 years or so since instructing. Here's what I remember: "Right rudder.......right rudder.......more right rudder......."
 
Probably year two of regional flying.

As others have mentioned, its not the flying that gets me down but all the other BS that comes with it. Time away from home, not seeing any positive change in the way the company is run, fighting the exact same battles every day, flying with idiots, etc.

The flying itself isn't bad, provided you're working with someone who knows their job, is motivated enough to do it, and has a personality other than being "Mr. Airline Pilot Guy."

Oh and lack of career progression too. That's downright depressing.
 
The last couple of months have turned into this for me. It's not so much the flying, but the life and the pressure by marketing in some circumstances.
 
It hit me when I flew freight. Even flight instructing isn't a real job. Usually you can make your own schedule, cancel flights if you don't feel like flying. You can hand students to the lower seniority guys that you don't want to fly with, or only fly certain planes etc. But when you get to a scheduled 135, or 121 outfit, that all goes away. Now all of a sudden you are a number. You show up when told, fly where told, and thats the way it is. Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but its absolutely a job.

The biggest part for me was the paperwork. I still cannot believe how much damn paperwork is involved. You fly for 45 minutes and you have to fill out an hours worth of crap. It is a paperwork job with flying on the side.

In fact if more people regarded it as a job, wages in certain parts of the industry wouldn't suck. Idiots who would do this for free, or for peanuts because they cant freaking believe somebody lets them do this. It is a job, but it is an awesome job when you work for a good company.
 
This might sound crazy, but if this is your first real job, you might just be finding out what life after school is like. I've met a lot of pilots along the way who've only flown for a living since school and many are miserable. I've also known people from other professions who've only had that one job since school and the same thing- misery. In contrast, people who've bounced around a bit seem to be at peace more often, especially those who've had a choice and "took the dive" into their career.

I've worked tons of different jobs and for me it's been how many people I've had directly supervising me. I've had jobs that should have been crappy jobs that were awesome because only one person was responsible for me and they had predictable expectations. Here are some examples:

1. Delivering pizza- awesome
2. Watering grass- awesome
3. Cleaning corporate jets- awesome
4. Flying crew chief- awesome
5. Beech 1900 pilot- awesome

What did all those jobs have in common? No one bothered me unless I really screwed up. If I screwed up a little bit, I was permitted to attempt to fix it on my own and some jobs even had standards that made that easy. Other jobs, however:

1. First CFI job (the big financial role reversal): sucked
2. Freight dog: sucked
3. Home station crew chief: sucked
4. Home station crew chief (different location): was good now sucks
5. Stocker at grocery store: sucked

Why? Because of horrible management. They would quickly point out that because of us, management needed to be tough, but what comes first, the tough management or the crappy worker? There are a few other jobs that I didn't list and some were kinda cool but were hit and miss as the bosses came and went.

My advice is if you're just out of college and never worked full time, get a part time job outside of your career field and get some perspective. Have a reason, like to pay off bills or something. If you can, first try a non aviation job for a while (6 mos to a year) and then try an aviation job. In most cases it will cure your problems. Well, it won't completely but you'll really start to understand what you like and don't like, especially if the jobs entail entirely different management styles. Different people handle different styles in different ways. If you're lucky enough to find that one temporary job that was supposed to suck and turns out your boss loved you, you will really see what work is all about.

My long winded point really is that it's not always the type of work, it's more or less the conditions and how they are managed by everybody.
 
It hit me right about the time I got my first paycheck as a CFI. I made absolutely horrible money and had to move in with my folks so I could afford to put gas in my car to make it to work. Sour, bitterness soon set in.

Mapping job after that felt like a huge raise, had a pretty good schedule, pretty monotonous but overall a decent stepping-stone job. Then, i met my wife and the desire to be home at any cost set in, and the search was on again.

Worked in the sim, was home every night, but absolutely worked my tail off. This got old as well... Point is, for me anyway, every job becomes a job at some point. As I'm getting older and more mature I am able to adjust my expectations and try and realize how good I have it.

Enjoying my current position more than any job I've had... ever. Petty good schedule so far, just got a very good raise, safety-conscious operation, made huge leaps in my experience level in the last year, and plenty of time in warm weather destinations to go enjoy the sights and beer. Maybe it's maturity, or maybe it's just finally getting a good job, but I'm generally happy to go to work and happy when we head home. Life is good.

My advice: Hang in there, this is an endurance test of a career.
 
I was in a similar position as you about a year ago. 25 years old, great girl, not-so-great car (but it got me to where I needed to go!), already worked in a deli and a desk-job in college, and starting to feel that it was just a job. The breakthrough that I had was that I realized that it's not that flying has become a job, but instead, that I've realized that I am starting to have other priorities in my life. I used to feel that everything came second before flying and in the process I found myself excluding a lot of other really awesome activities, people, hobbies, etc. If you start doing that, then the bad day of flying becomes magnified because you've put so much into just this one aspect of life that you have no other source of relief to turn to. The other realization I had was to stop putting timeframes on my career, stop judging myself based on the size of the aircraft I fly, stop thinking that it's somehow going to magically change when I get into a 737, and enjoy every step of this career. Guess what? I'm having a blast now flying because I'm less focused on becoming an airline pilot or a corporate pilot or a chief pilot and more focused on the happiness I have in being a pilot! So hang in there and as a retired airline captain once told me, "Enjoy the ride!"
 
I remember distinctly. Hit me at 57 on climb out on our way to SFO, my fav layover city. Company was about to go through BK on top of our current 40% pay cuts and frozen pension. They had just announced long layovers would be at the airport hotel....I looked at the F/O and said, "29.92, this is no longer fun."
 
I think there needs to be a balance in your life. I've been fortunate enough to have a flying job the past three years that gave me (usualy) two weeks a month off. I would work two weeks straight, fly about 80 hours and work long days. Towards the end of those two weeks I was always tired, and I was fine with letting someone else take a flight or two. But you know what? After two weeks off I would be itching to get back to work, excited alot of times actually. So I think there can be too much of a good thing. Finding a balance is important.
 
Inverted said:
It hit me when I flew freight. Even flight instructing isn't a real job. Usually you can make your own schedule, cancel flights if you don't feel like flying. You can hand students to the lower seniority guys that you don't want to fly with, or only fly certain planes etc. But when you get to a scheduled 135, or 121 outfit, that all goes away. Now all of a sudden you are a number. You show up when told, fly where told, and thats the way it is. Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but its absolutely a job.

The biggest part for me was the paperwork. I still cannot believe how much damn paperwork is involved. You fly for 45 minutes and you have to fill out an hours worth of crap. It is a paperwork job with flying on the side.

In fact if more people regarded it as a job, wages in certain parts of the industry wouldn't suck. Idiots who would do this for free, or for peanuts because they cant freaking believe somebody lets them do this. It is a job, but it is an awesome job when you work for a good company.
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Your idea of flight instruction isn't fair. You were an acro-instructor. :)

Freight was a breath of fresh air for a few months. Something about actually flying the planes rather than watching others fly was nice. Still miss flight instruction though.

The paperwork stuff on bank routes did suck though. UPS and DHL stuff doesn't take long at all.
 
Maurus said:
Your idea of flight instruction isn't fair. You were an acro-instructor. :)

Freight was a breath of fresh air for a few months. Something about actually flying the planes rather than watching others fly was nice. Still miss flight instruction though.

The paperwork stuff on bank routes did suck though. UPS and DHL stuff doesn't take long at all.
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Hey, I was one of your students....
 
I definitely have "a job." The schedule (or lack thereof sometimes) leaves much to be desired, and the odd hours and split shifts are getting old fast. But I'm still at the point where I absolutely enjoy the flying.

Will that change any time soon? I've got an imminent upgrade, and hopefully a new city after that, and a schedule that should have me "home" every day of the week while building twin turbine time. Ask me after I've been doing that for a few months.
 
rocketman5150 said:
It's called the law of diminishing returns. The more you have of something, the less it will satisfy your desires. If you can find a way to step a way from flying for a month or so, and then come back, so will the thrill...for while.
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Good advice. Just be careful. For 15 years I went non-stop flying a news helicopter for a TV station in San Diego. Hard to believe, great weather 95% of the year, flying on some of the coolest missions one could want,(Stolen Army tank, City bus pursuit) very good money and home every night with the wife and kids. But you know what? I burnt out pretty bad. When the job came to an end(signed a contract every three years) I had the option to stay on with the new contractor but decided to instead take "just a month or so off to get a break. The last shift had been on the pager 21 days straight. That one month off instead turned into five and a half years of flying a Technician bench and I wish most days I could get back and continue on. I'm now 51 years old and the window closes a little quicker than when you are 25.

Take these guys advice. Shake it off. Go rent something new and interesting to fly. Have you checked out Wayne Phillips' airline experience class for two days. I loved it and it broke up the monotony of the job not to throw a sales pitch but www.b737.com Got me through a wave of boredom.

Best!
 
Wayne Phillips is great, I did his ATOP program back in 2009 in the 737-800/900 simulator at Continental's training facility in Houston. In fact, I also completed my high altitude endorsement in one of the B737FTDs while I was there.

Great advice BTW; variety really is the spice of life.
 
djh1007 said:
Tell me to suck it up, sure, but every one has had that realization that being a pilot will still be a JOB.

Thanks for listening, I'm sure you guys can relate.
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I really don't feel like going to the airport tomorrow. Don't know what to tell ya, get used to it.

I don't want to give up flying either.
 
Flying is a job for me. I enjoy the heck out of it and wouldn't want to do anything else.
 
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