Anybody enjoy being an airline pilot?

In my mid 30's. Been flying a turboprop for nearly three years now. Yeah I have my complaints and sooner or later my bones might shake loose from the prop vibrations, but I can't think of a single job out there that would not have at least a few things that I don't like. I like being with my wife and kids and my personal time more than anything. No job or dream career could ever change that.
Even if I'm just flying the Brasilia I LIKE WHAT I DO. Especially since upgrade. The job is challenging and rewarding. Don't think I could do turboprop or regional flying forever, but I like the stick time. Of course I would eventually love to do the kind of flying that Doug and you other long haul guys do. All in good time I suppose. I'm learning to avoid whining, enjoy the ride and try to change things that are in my power to change. I'm much happier when I keep that perspective.
 
Lee D said:
In my mid 30's. Been flying a turboprop for nearly three years now. Yeah I have my complaints and sooner or later my bones might shake loose from the prop vibrations, but I can't think of a single job out there that would not have at least a few things that I don't like. I like being with my wife and kids and my personal time more than anything. No job or dream career could ever change that.
Even if I'm just flying the Brasilia I LIKE WHAT I DO. Especially since upgrade. The job is challenging and rewarding. Don't think I could do turboprop or regional flying forever, but I like the stick time. Of course I would eventually love to do the kind of flying that Doug and you other long haul guys do. All in good time I suppose. I'm learning to avoid whining, enjoy the ride and try to change things that are in my power to change. I'm much happier when I keep that perspective.
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:yeahthat: With the exceptions of the family (not married w/ kids), the Brasilia (Saab here) and the Captain thingy......hopefully have that box checked in a few more days ;).

This job beats all others I've had so far!
 
Ok here is my question. If you were to have a job that pays well into the six digits, allows more than three months off a year, and you could own a flash plane would you trade that in for an airline job?
 
Cav said:
I can say that I still enjoy the flying part. I also enjoy many of the people I work with. Any negatives I associate with the job really don't have a lot to do with the act of flying.
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I'm not flying for living but I feel that this is true, not just for the airlines but any job. I think people who like what they do can't be too negative about it. :yeahthat:
 
I absolutely love my job. But I'm not going to sit back and watch the pilots play ping pong against management. I'm getting a paddle and joining my fellow aviators. :D
 
I absolutely love it. I've been in the military, Corporate America, and am now an airline pilot and this job beats the others hands down!

No job is perfect but if you REALLY think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence I think you're sadly mistaken.

Take schedules for example. People at my airline bitch and moan because they "only" have 10 days off a month. Well, the rest of the free world only has 8 days off a month. In the military I was lucky if I had 6 days off a month. In Corporate America do you think you're going to even have that many? You aren't going to get ahead in the business world unless you work MANY evenings and weekends. Compared to the alternative the airline schedules are OUTSTANDING!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how many people complain about being away from home. What, exactly, surprises you about that??? In this job WE LEAVE HOME FOR A LIVING!! If you want to be home for weddings, birthdays, ballgames, etc, why on earth did you choose this job (or being a flight attendant - they bitch the most).

I don't mean to preach a sermon but a major portion of this job (emergencies and bad weather excepted) involves operating a piece of equipment that most people could never even hope to do, drinking coffee, and chatting with the guy (or the girl, if you're lucky :)) flying with you.

It's not perfect but it's pretty damn close!
 
Its all cyclical. Every job has its down side. If I could do it all over again, there would only be a couple things I'd do differently:

1. Join the Air National Guard in a tanker squadron.
2. Gone to that UPS interview. I'd rather fly freight.
 
fly22 said:
Ok here is my question. If you were to have a job that pays well into the six digits, allows more than three months off a year, and you could own a flash plane would you trade that in for an airline job?
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No. Man has been created do his share in the world. If there was something meaningful that I could come up with for those three months, maybe. Galavanting around the world indulging in the pleasures of the nations could only last so long, and certainly would not be good for my moral and psychological character. Besides, it would take a ton of cash to be able to fly my own 737!

My destiny in life is to work. Anything else is folly. It just so happens that the good Lord has granted me with the skills of a job that I thoroughly enjoy. Echoing the above, despite the challenges and frustrations that this job brings, there is nothing else I would rather do.

Look at the words of King Solomon, who, of anybody in history, could say "been there done that."
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him- for this is his lot. Morever, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work- this is a gift of God.
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I love my job. It is great to be able to wake up in the morning and go to work doing what I love to do.

Many of my friends, even though they have been out of college for only two years are thinking of career changes already. They hate their jobs, hate what they do and are trying to find themselves.

I feel fortunate that I have the ability to have the best office view in the world, work with some great people, and have the opportunity to have some great travel and life experiences through aviation.
 
mtsu_av8er said:
I agree with that. I'm also noticing that many (not all) of the people that whine and complain are the same ones that took the first airline job that came along.

Noticing a trend . . . maybe I'll wait longer.:p
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Even then, it was probably due to lack of research. I see that all the time here at PCL. Mostly b/c of guys complaining about the commute to DTW, MEM or MSP. To me, that's something you could have researched before coming here instead of assuming you'd be able to commute into one of those three. Commuting sucks, but into the bases PCL serves, it sucks more b/c of the limited number of carriers. If I wanna commute to MEM, my options are NWA, FedEx or.....well, then it depends on what major city I'm living in, but the flights per day are severely limited.

I know of a couple of guys that live in MLI and complain all the time about commuting and how much PCL sucks. Newsflash for them: it's gonna suck at ANY carrier commuting from MLI. Most of the complaints I hear around here, these guys are gonna be miserable anywhere. They want half the month off, but they want to make a lot of money. Dude! You've been here two months and you're working for a regional. I managed to score both this month (okay, well a lot of money in relative terms), but it's because I'm getting into the upper 1/3rd of the seniority list.

Yeah, there are some bumps in the road as far as my job goes, but overall I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing right now.
 
How does this commute thing work? Do you get to be based at one place long enough so you can set up some kind of apartment or something or it's moving around and you never know where you gonna be working out of?
Do they tell you ahead of time you will be moving somewhere else?
 
skidz said:
How does this commute thing work? Do you get to be based at one place long enough so you can set up some kind of apartment or something or it's moving around and you never know where you gonna be working out of?
Do they tell you ahead of time you will be moving somewhere else?
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When you're in training, you bid for whatever bases you want to hold in the order you want them. So, if you think the commute from MSY would be better to MEM, you put that as your #1 choice. DTW as the #2 if you think that would be second best, and MSP as #3. You get what your seniority will hold. If there are 6 MEM slots and 8 guys in seniority in front of you bid MEM, you'll get your #2 or #3 choice. The two guys ahead of you that didn't get their #1 will get their #2 or #3 choice. Every so often (about once or twice a month currently) a new vacancy will come out showing the open positions for CAs and FOs at each base. If you have the seniority to hold your #1 choice then, you'll be awarded that base. If back in training you got your #3 choice and now have the seniority to hold #2, you'll move up then. You'll move up to #1 on the next vacancy if you can hold it. Really, the only advance notice you get is that there is a vacancy out. Just keep an eye out for the initial and secondary vacancy awards, and you'll know where you're going to be.

As far as an apartment or crash pad, you get a certain amount of "moving days" as time off to move to where you need to be or get a crashpad set up in base. After that, you're dealing with it on your normal days off. If you haven't received your moving days but are schueduled flying in that base, then the company is responsible for a hotel room until you get the moving days.

Clear as mud?
 
BeechBoy said:
No job is perfect but if you REALLY think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence I think you're sadly mistaken.
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I'm originally from Europe and after coming here I realized the grass IS greener in America :D hmm, or at least money is greener :cwm27:
 
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