Rant from a regional FO!

I left aviation as of Feb 1 2013... made double what I did last year in 4 months and hated the current job's particular issues... so back to flying I go... rather be financially restricted somewhat and enjoy what I do instead of the reverse. I can always make more money (depending on how creative you are) but I can't make more time to enjoy my life.
 
desertdog71 said:
Do what you need to do man, its your life. You may or may not regret it, only time will tell.
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If I may make one little unsolicited observation:

You're best off living life without regret. At every turn in life, you make the decisions that your life has led you to. Left instead of right, going out "that night" instead of eating in, waiting another year as CFI instead of going on to the regionals, you get the idea. The point is very simple: At every turn, you make the decisions that your life has led you to, and the decisions you make are the only ones you could have made. No regret, no shame.

On the other paw, you should always seek to live a life that makes you happy.

But no regrets. They'll only hold you back and poison you.

-Fox
 
If the answer to a given circumstance is not 100% without a doubt "yes", then it is some version "no". This advice was given to me when I was in a place in life when I had to make some serious decisions. I had always struggled with making decisions because of the way I was raised.
 
If the regionals are killing you, go try something else. There's lots more out there. Every single job is going to have stuff you can't stand, that drives you nuts. Sometimes it's worth it to suffer through and just cope with the stuff you can't change, sometimes its better to bail and go do something else. A lot of the time you don't know until afterward which is the case.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Like Derg will go back to the 88. DO THEY HAVE AMSTERDAM LAYOVERS? I didn't think so.
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Not to be an ass but AMS is actually a semi crappy international layover.

My airline decided to do the 'mini hub' thing so there's very little way of even avoiding flying there for the most part as we fly from AMS to darned near everywhere in the US, multiple times per day.

Downtown is fun, but it's like Tijuana but instead of drunken gringos, it's drunken, potsmoking Englishmen and Americans. The beer is good, but it's dirty, the weather blows and our hotel is like an early 1990's Ikea in the middle of a sketchy neighborhood.

"Meh..."

Now if we were still laying over in Den Haag, now THAT'S living. Far nicer neighborhood where I don't have to worry about stepping around dog poop and getting my head cut off, a nice beach, some really interesting bars and restaurants. Better hotel where they actually appreciated our service. The one we stay at, hell, the one my airline BOUGHT is under the same brand but their attitude is largely, "You own us, we manage the hotel and it doesn't matter as, well, what are you going to do, sell it and put an RFP out for 400 rooms that MUST come at a steep discount? BAH!"

About the only good thing about it is being able to score a hotel bike and high-tailing it into the countryside.

WMostellar knows what I'm talking about! :)
 
I always find it amusing that the people who say "it's better than flying a desk" are almost universally people who have never actually had a job flying a desk. Having had a couple of them now, I can say without hesitation that a good job flying a desk is infinitely better than a good flying job. But, that's from my perspective. Other people would disagree, because they value layovers in Cancun or Zurich, and they don't consider sleeping in their own bed at home to be a major QOL issue.

My point is that different people value different things. Telling someone that "it's better than flying a desk" may or may not be true. It depends on what the person you're talking to values. And if you haven't experienced both worlds, then it's probably better to not say anything at all, to be honest. I always imagined that a desk job would suck balls, but I was wrong. Until you've been there to get a closer look, you don't really know whether the grass is green or brown on the other side.
 
Six pages of existential flying debate.

The SJS, Ray-Bans, Citizen Sky hawk, and epaulettes aren't worth shnikes anymore.

We all wanna go back and bitch slap our inner sky wench, but whadda ya gonna do?

Make that Seminole your bitch and apply for food stamps......
 
Derg said:
Not to be an ass but AMS is actually a semi crappy international layover.

My airline decided to do the 'mini hub' thing so there's very little way of even avoiding flying there for the most part as we fly from AMS to darned near everywhere in the US, multiple times per day.

Downtown is fun, but it's like Tijuana but instead of drunken gringos, it's drunken, potsmoking Englishmen and Americans. The beer is good, but it's dirty, the weather blows and our hotel is like an early 1990's Ikea in the middle of a sketchy neighborhood.

"Meh..."

Now if we were still laying over in Den Haag, now THAT'S living. Far nicer neighborhood where I don't have to worry about stepping around dog poop and getting my head cut off, a nice beach, some really interesting bars and restaurants. Better hotel where they actually appreciated our service. The one we stay at, hell, the one my airline BOUGHT is under the same brand but their attitude is largely, "You own us, we manage the hotel and it doesn't matter as, well, what are you going to do, sell it and put an RFP out for 400 rooms that MUST come at a steep discount? BAH!"

About the only good thing about it is being able to score a hotel bike and high-tailing it into the countryside.

WMostellar knows what I'm talking about! :)
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I used to get that all the time when I'd be hanging out in Ireland on reserve.

"Oh, you can't have it THAT bad...it's Ireland!"

Except that Limerick is the knife fighting capitol of Europe, the hotel was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was 50 degrees and raining every single day. But at least there was a grocery store across the street! :)
 
dasleben said:
I used to get that all the time when I'd be hanging out in Ireland on reserve.

"Oh, you can't have it THAT bad...it's Ireland!"

Except that Limerick is the knife fighting capitol of Europe, the hotel was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was 50 degrees and raining every single day. But at least there was a grocery store across the street! :)
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Eeeeyup. An entire winter of flying a few too many six-day LHR trips (every six day saves me $122.79 in commuter hotel costs when I want to back up two trips together) -- dealing with Her Majesties crew security, cold, grey, pissy weather, luke warm draught beer and too many bangers and mash can drive a man to Paxil.

"But it's England!"

"So! It's cold, grey, and you REALLY don't want to know what you're paying for that pint in US dollars"
 
statusseeker1 said:
I've been in aviation for 10 years. I started working at a regional airline last July and can honestly say I've had it. For those working towards a regional job, I wish you the best of luck. I've worked too hard and life is too short to waste it doing a job that makes you depressed.
Short story- I was happy as a CFI. Took a job at a regional after the interviewers said I could hold a line in a few months, be based close to home in one of their many bases in my state, and upgrade times are 6-9 months. With that information in hand, I decided to try it out and take the $25,000/year pay cut to "live the dream."
One year later, I am still not senior enough to hold a line. I am based in an outstation far away from my family. I spend all my time off commuting to and from work. There is no glimmer of an upgrade. I never see my family. The final straw- the company, in its infinite wisdom, is deciding to ship us off to a pilot mill flight school in a mad dash effort to get all the company FO's their ATP certificates in Piper Seminoles. What a joke.
The point of this rant? If you plan on working as a regional airline pilot, please consider the following: you will be making less than the person that gives you your coffee in the morning on the way to the airport, you better be single or be able to live in base or else you will never see your family, and your passion for aviation (i'm assuming we're all passionate here) will be compromised. I miss the hell out of flying small airplanes. I miss being able to fly where ever I want. I miss having days off where I don't have to get into uniform to commute.
Congrats to those below me in seniority- your number will be going up by one very shortly!
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I am glad you figured this puzzle out early because the aviation world today is much different today than it was 25 or 30 years ago. Good luck on whatever you decide to do I know you will make a good decision.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I always find it amusing that the people who say "it's better than flying a desk" are almost universally people who have never actually had a job flying a desk. Having had a couple of them now, I can say without hesitation that a good job flying a desk is infinitely better than a good flying job. But, that's from my perspective. Other people would disagree, because they value layovers in Cancun or Zurich, and they don't consider sleeping in their own bed at home to be a major QOL issue.

My point is that different people value different things. Telling someone that "it's better than flying a desk" may or may not be true. It depends on what the person you're talking to values. And if you haven't experienced both worlds, then it's probably better to not say anything at all, to be honest. I always imagined that a desk job would suck balls, but I was wrong. Until you've been there to get a closer look, you don't really know whether the grass is green or brown on the other side.
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If I was going to do anything else besides flying right now it would be delivering pizzas. I had a blast doing it, and there was next to zero responsibility.

I still have next to zero responsibility, but I get a better pay check, work less, and the company pays to keep a fridge stocked with beer. I tell ya, Theres nothing like spending a long day laying on the couch and taking off early to grab a cold one.
 
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