He does have cool hair... I'll give him that.
I'll admit it. Flying corporate (Part 91) was WAY more fun than the airline grind. Loved flying to cool little airports in interesting parts of the country. Grab the crew car and find lunch, play some golf, do a little touristing. Yeah, I hated long multi-day sits in places like Toluca. I admit that after the third day it felt like I was wasting my life... no use to the company, no use to my family, just babysitting the jet.
But as much as I enjoyed the unique flying and the expense account, what really turned me around on corporate flying was when for the first time in the company's history, they laid off pilots. Out of seniority order, with no chance for recall. One guy had been there 33 years and was hired by the company founder!
Then, when we started a family and realized that - even though I had plenty of days off, I couldn't control when they fell. I started missing school plays and soccer games. I wanted control over my schedule.
Finally, the retirement was the straw that broke the camels back. We had a 6% match. I was going to have to dump a whole lot of my own money into my 401K to even come close to what the major airlines simply contributed to their pilot's 401K with no match required.
I was about half way through my career, looking at the downhill side of 40 and realized... crap. I just wasted the last (lost) decade. I should've been trying to build seniority somewhere. Instead I was fat, dumb, and happy flying light jets part 91... until I wasn't anymore.
I left the first chance I got. I still miss flying cool equipment to FBOs with clean bathrooms and warm cookies, but there is absolutely NO QUESTION in my mind that I did the right thing. I only wish I had done it sooner.
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