Flying Career......

Walmart doubled in size as well, many times over, it never got any better for its employees. I aint no grumpy captain and I love aviation, I just want to get the facts straight here.
Blame it on the Economy of scale not me.
 
Walmart also employs unskilled labor. Pilots at least have a chance to make it better through collective bargaining and the like. The working conditions have grown much better at the regionals as they have grown. A lot of people new to the industry don't see that. The idea is to continue to make it better in any way possible. As the industry grows, so does the need for skilled labor. The good companies will attract applicants where the bad companies won't and will go out of business. That is why I see union representation at all airlines, so they can have comparable work rules.
 
woohoo! one less person out of the seniority list :D


jk meng, do what you want in life. if it is money you are after, you will be very happy with your MBA and whatever that comes with it :)
 
eagledriver101 said:
Yeah, not so much…. I admit I was eager and didn’t care about much, unless it was flying.
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying. I go back and forth on whether or not I want to end up pursuing it as a career. Apart of me just wants to instruct on the side, bank some money from my primary job and open up a flight school when I get my 2 year CFI.
 
skidz said:
Walmart doubled in size as well, many times over, it never got any better for its employees. I aint no grumpy captain and I love aviation, I just want to get the facts straight here.
Blame it on the Economy of scale not me.
Click to expand...

That illustrates my point even more though.

The example is: Walmart grew, and things never got better for the employees. But did the employees try to do anything about it? If you sit back and take it from the company then of course nothing is going to get better. Then, the company sees they've got a workforce that is willing to do anything and the trend accelerates.

skidz said:
Pilots used to be like rock stars when only rich could afford to fly, now that everyone and his momma is a pilot and tickets cost $99 you be the judge. If you think pilots are about to be rock stars again good luck
Click to expand...

Only the rich could afford to fly in part because the government made the airfares and there was no competition between carriers.

De-regulation has passed, and the new aviation industry is established. Any further downward trend in working conditions is at least in part due to employees putting up with it.
 
taseal said:
jk meng, do what you want in life. if it is money you are after, you will be very happy with your MBA and whatever that comes with it :)
Click to expand...

I don't think that it's money he's after. I just think he's weighing the quality of life he can get based on the pay at an airline or the job he's been offered.

And he's decided, you know what, it'll be more fun to fly if it's NOT a job.

That's a very valid decision, and it's one a lot of people have made.
 
tonyw said:
I don't think that it's money he's after. I just think he's weighing the quality of life he can get based on the pay at an airline or the job he's been offered.

And he's decided, you know what, it'll be more fun to fly if it's NOT a job.

That's a very valid decision, and it's one a lot of people have made.
Click to expand...

wow now, I wish him the best, thats all :)

My parents insisted I do something related to business, and when I make the money, I could buy a plane and fly for fun. I chose this route. I'm happy to say that I think I made a right decision, but this is his thread, and its what he wants, I really do mean the best for him, like I always say, do what makes you happy! I said the same thing to my ex... when she broke up with me, she said it was the best/right thing to do. I told her not to do the 'right' thing, but to do what makes her happy :) She left lol
 
Cjordan said:
Don't you think you'll always wonder what it would have been like, though?
Click to expand...


Great question!
Sure I’ll wonder… I love flying; I have fun doing it weekly. What it would have it been like as a career, I am sure, amazing… Different places, faces, challenges, there are many great things to come of it. Unfortunately there are too many 'negative’ things that come with it. I think of it like this, somebody comes by, says "hey", this Brand new 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 is yours. But, you have to replace the brakes every 1k miles, you will need a new tranny in 3k miles and continue to replace it every 5k miles after that. Your tires will blow out every 500 miles and that’s it. Nice car, something you’ve always wanted, “What will it be like to be driving that car, what will the girls think?” Is it worth the headache and the sacrifice?
My sacrifices outweigh the good, my wife would have to work, we have two kids, I would never be home. She would have to get the kids taken care of and work, and we would have to make other sacrifices, move maybe. Love flying, I want that feeling of the GT2, I just can’t put up with the sacrifices that I would have to make to make it happen.
 
ABP52380 said:
This is my concern. I've two offers on the table that both approach 100k - neither flying planes. I'm 27 and have passed on like opportunities in the past BECAUSE of the flying gig -- I'm finding it VERY hard to do it again.


I know where you're coming from Eagledriver :banghead:
Click to expand...

It's hard, to put it into perspective, I turned down a job about a year and half ago starting pay was 60K. “No, I am going to a pilot” I said. Live on roman noodles, it’s worth it… or is it?
This new job started me out at over 80k, + bonuses, travel… I just couldn’t turn it down this time. I put all the cards on the table, I needed to be objective about my choices….
 
Cjordan said:
Don't you think you'll always wonder what it would have been like, though?
Click to expand...

The flying part really isn't that much different than punching holes in the clouds with a well equipped Cessna 182, actually. In fact a new Cessna 182 is better equipped than my ERJ-145 is.

The people on the other hand, keep things REALLY interesting and make it fun.
 
Nick said:
That illustrates my point even more though.

The example is: Walmart grew, and things never got better for the employees. But did the employees try to do anything about it? If you sit back and take it from the company then of course nothing is going to get better. Then, the company sees they've got a workforce that is willing to do anything and the trend accelerates.



Only the rich could afford to fly in part because the government made the airfares and there was no competition between carriers.

De-regulation has passed, and the new aviation industry is established. Any further downward trend in working conditions is at least in part due to employees putting up with it.
Click to expand...

That isn’t always true; you have to consider the industry and its labor force. Wal-mart requires a relatively low skill set of workers; you also have to consider the labor supply vs. demand for labor. With wal-mart there is no struggle whatsoever in finding people to fill their positions. Some will do it for less, and they know that. If the current work force caused a problem, they could simply hire someone else who will do it for the current pay scale.
 
eagledriver101 said:
That isn’t always true; you have to consider the industry and its labor force. Wal-mart requires a relatively low skill set of workers; you also have to consider the labor supply vs. demand for labor. With wal-mart there is no struggle whatsoever in finding people to fill their positions. Some will do it for less, and they know that. If the current work force caused a problem, they could simply hire someone else who will do it for the current pay scale.
Click to expand...

Erm...that's exactly what has been happening.
 
Eagledriver, what kind of airplane are you wanting to get next year? With fuel prices high, Mooney's look good for their efficiency of speed vs. fuel burn. Depends on what size your kids are, though... Mooney's aren't always the roomiest choice.
 
Cjordan said:
Eagledriver, what kind of airplane are you wanting to get next year? With fuel prices high, Mooney's look good for their efficiency of speed vs. fuel burn. Depends on what size your kids are, though... Mooney's aren't always the roomiest choice.
Click to expand...

Not sure yet, me and my really good friend are going to go on it together, and we may have another one of our friends that may be interested on doing a 3-part ownership. Once we have a definite then we’ll start looking for planes in our price range 75k or less with two of us, with three of us 100k or less. We found a nice 1967 C310 for 66k that we have been looking at. Other than that, not sure yet, we prefer a ME.
 
As a former owner, definitely partner with other(s) if you can. It brings the fixed costs down more reasonable. Not a big fan of twins for personal hobby flying, nothing wrong with it per se, just that maintenance reserve, fuel expense, all doubles over a single for not that much payoff unless you really need the capabilities. 310's are very cool, though. My FBO has one, only flew in it once, right seat, but as passenger on a charter the county paid for in order to fetch a key witness that was out of town and failed to show for a high profile murder trial. Can't remember the enroute time but we made it from Evansville IN to Huntington IN (right by Fort Wayne IN) pretty quick.

But then again if you owned part of a twin building multi-time would be easy. For that money you could get a decent Pa-28 Arrow 200 also.
 
Cjordan said:
As a former owner, definitely partner with other(s) if you can. It brings the fixed costs down more reasonable. Not a big fan of twins for personal hobby flying, nothing wrong with it per se, just that maintenance reserve, fuel expense, all doubles over a single for not that much payoff unless you really need the capabilities. 310's are very cool, though. My FBO has one, only flew in it once, right seat, but as passenger on a charter the county paid for in order to fetch a key witness that was out of town and failed to show for a high profile murder trial. Can't remember the enroute time but we made it from Evansville IN to Huntington IN (right by Fort Wayne IN) pretty quick.

But then again if you owned part of a twin building multi-time would be easy. For that money you could get a decent Pa-28 Arrow 200 also.
Click to expand...


Right, we haven’t made a decision on anything yet, we came a crossed this one by mistake its really nice fly’s really smooth. So far we have primarily been looking at a Beachcraft N35 Bonanza (V-tail) We found a super clean one in IL. There nice to fly too, but like I said nothing concrete yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top