What are you gonna do when your airline Tango Uniforms?

Try to find another job here and if that doesn't work I'll take my Dash-8 type rating and flee to another country where I'll perversely be paid better anyway probably!
 
E_Dawg said:
Putting the ugly, ugly side of prof aviation - furloughs and layoffs - aside for a second...

My roommate has a new professional level job. The dude leaves for work at 6:30am, doesn't get back until around 9:30p. 5 days a week, and sometimes does biz meetings on the weekends. He's about the same age as I am, college education, etc.

Don't know how much he makes, but I'd be surprised if it's much more than what I'm pulling as a 2nd year regional FO. Last month I had 18 days off and used my benefits to go to Israel and Ireland for next to nothing. I think he had something like 6 days off.

Work sucks. But I think it could be a lot worse. For some workers abroad, work IS their life. They put in 14hr days, 7 days a week, and make hardly anything in USD. Made me feel all the lazier talking to them.

Or maybe I've had to much kool-aid since this post wasn't 100% negative ;)
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I thought my cube job sucked until I thought about it. I make really good money, leave for work at 7:00am to get in at 8:15am (found a new route), can take extended lunches if I want, and usually I leave no earlier than 4pm but never stay later than 6:30. The times that I get home can be figured out by adding about 1 hour and 15 minutes to the time I leave and once a week I work from home. Not to mention the perks like court-side tickets to Laker games or the company suite, etc.
By no means am I trying to hold a longest schlong contest, it just doesn't seem realistic to portray piloting as the only good job in life and a picture of working in a cubicle as the worst job in life. Plus it totally sucks when people that love flying give up on it because they aren't aware that there is life beyond flying for an airline. To help make the aviation industry better overall, GA can't be forgotten.
 
777forever said:
Everyone needs to relax and calm down. A few small airlines that were in trouble even before 106 dollar oil close and people start acting like aviation Armageddon.
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What is interesting about this statement is that it assumes that we are all chicken-little running in circles fearing for the falling pieces of sky.

That is not the case. What this thread does show, however, is how our paradigms change over time. The circumstances of our lives dictate our "plan B".

Let me give you an example. The first time I was laid off I was a freight pilot. I was flying checks and Airborne Express feeder stuff in a Baron based in Tri-Cities, Tennessee. I had no family, barely any ties whatsoever. Everything I owned fit in the trunk of my car. So it was nothing for me to pack up my things, move in with Mom and Dad, and find a job -- any job -- flight instructing while working at a Grocery Store at night. Piece of cake.

The second time I was furloughed I was a DC9 copilot for AirTran. AirTran's starting pay was $25,000 per year and I hadn't worked there very long. I had a few hundred dollars in the bank but that was it. I still had no family to worry about and most everything I owed fit in the trunk of my car. I managed to get a job back at the commuter I had left before going to AirTran. So I took my few hundred dollars, drove back to Indiana, got my job back, and then parked my car in a secure parking garage near Pittsburgh, PA. (The parking garage, with employee discount, was much MUCH cheaper than any crashpad I could find at the time!) So I lived in the car when I didnt have overnights. Took showers at the YMCA, and saved quarters for the laundromat.

Had someone asked me THEN if I wanted to go work in Asia, the middle east, India...I would have jumped at the opportunity.

The third time I was laid off I was with US Airways. I now had a wife (no kids yet). I was making nearly $100,000 per year. I didn't own a house yet, but I had a dog and a rental house. Couldn't fit everything I owned in the car anymore. So what was plan "B"?

Well I had a dispatchers certificate so I tried to find a job dispatching. No such luck. I tried to find another job flying, but I was unwilling to sacrifice my lifestyle. When you have once made good money it makes it even harder to start over making commuter pay again. I toughed it out for a while on unemployment -- even took a commuter job that paid squat simply because I wouldn't have to commute! At least my wife was still working (she was a good plan "B") In time I gave up and got a job flying for a commuter with a domicile in town. At least I didnt have to move.

The last time I was furloughed (technically I quit before they ever got to me) I was better prepared. I had six months salary in the bank. It took me about 30 days to find another flying job -- albeit at another commuter flying an RJ for pennies. I figured it was best to remain current and flying for the commuters filled that requirement while still leaving me adequate time to keep job hunting. Anyhow I had plenty of cash in the bank for a few months, a wife that worked, a dog, and was now a homeowner. Clearly (at least for me) the opportunity to go work overseas was no longer a possibility. That is a single person's endeavor and I had to respect my wife's career ambitions. Hard to uproot a woman with her own aspirations simply to satisfy my own big airplane ego.

So that brings us to today. If I were to lose my job tomorrow, what would I do? Like many people here I frequently ask myself that question. I still have the dispatcher certificate, I keep all of my CFIs current although I haven't instructed since 1994. I have taken a variety of courses at my company to try and see if there were another field that interests me. I ordered free industry publications and networked with other pilots who, during the post 09-11 furlough went to work as retail managers for large companies such as Home Depot. (Do you know how much a manager at Home Depot can earn in a year?) I am well aware that my Aviation Management degree is virtually useless. But i'm also aware that as a pilot I have a high degree of motivation and the ability to be trained. I am clean cut, professional, and well spoken. So will I be able to command the same salary I do today in a non-aviation field? No. Most likely not.

But I will be able to put food on my table. And that, friends, is today's paradigm. I have a family, a son, a dog, and a home. The single most important thing in my life is making certain that they are provided for. So what will I do if this job goes away? Whatever it takes. Period.

If that means quitting flying then it's been fun but you have to do what you have to do. I know that I am no longer willing to work for yet ANOTHER commuter. I know that I am no longer willing to leave the country. I know that I am no longer willing to commute to reserve on the bottom of somebody's list.

Look at all of those things together and it says one thing. That if this job disappears i'm probably done in aviation. Sure i'll try and do a little flight instructing here and there, but I sincerely doubt i'll bother trying to build a career doing this kind of work anymore. (Well... maybe i'd try to get an interview as an instructor for FSI... but beyond that I think i've tried all the tricks to make this profession work for me.)

So forgive me if when 777forever tells me to relax and calm down I have to chuckle a bit. I'm plenty calm and very relaxed. I've been through this before time and time and time again. Each time my plan B has changed as my life circumstances have. But one thing is certain and that is that ALL of us need a plan B -- because there is no such thing as an aviation CAREER... just your next aviation JOB.
 
Always a pleasure to use a few minutes of Benjamin's naptime to share my opinions on a Delta pilot's message board rather than doing what I SHOULD be and making a dent in my honey-do list. :)
 
Very good post Zap I see exactly what you're talking about. Looks like your options go down significantly when you have a family to take care off. But I think you've found a pretty stable company to finish your career.
 
Come on Doug. Even YOU need a plan -- just in case producing adult films doesn't pan out.
 
Well, everyone's got a plan but I needn't publicize everything! I already live in an aquarium, of sorts, for everyone to have a gander at. Man's gotta keep some stuff to himself every once in a while.
 
And here I am, a student pilot with 20TT and working on my PPL with a boat load of student loan debt and aspirations of being an airline pilot. yikes. But I think all this shuffling is a good thing for people like me. Maybe this will get the airlines back on track to doing what they can actually do to maintain a business, and this economic crisis won't last forever, otherwise there won't be many jobs in america for anyone (which isn't too far off today anyway). I have a good desk job now, but it's in Houston, which is in Texas, which is way to scary to spend any significant amount of time in. But I hope everyone here falls on their feet. Aviation is still a very honorable profession, which requires skills that takes a professional to learn, and dealing with the public, and emergencies, all of which are skills in demand at most jobs.

Short answer: Firefighter.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Me? I'd put Jackie Treehorn out of business.
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Mr. Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town, Taylor. You don't draw %$%&^. We got a nice quiet beach community here, and I aim to keep it nice and quiet. So let me make something plain. I don't like you sucking around bothering our citizens, Taylor. I don't like your jerk-off name, I don't like your jerk-off face, I don't like your jerk- off behavior, and I don't like you, jerk-off --do I make myself clear?
 
That was a very well written perspective Zap!

I've been holding out on getting into any serious relationship (unless I'm absolutely sure that I find that woman who is the ONE!) until I get more stabilized in the industry. I'm finding out more and more that having a 100% stabilized and secure career is a figment of my imagination. My gig is pretty stable right now, but thats not to say that when I get to work Monday morning, there won't be a memo on the wall from management saying that a base is closing or we're losing this run and etc... I was thinking of putting a few more years in at this gig and moving on to the "nest egg". Then I watched four places that a lot of pilots considered to be their "nest eggs" fall off of that proverbial wall and go splat.
 
Sprint100 said:
it just doesn't seem realistic to portray piloting as the only good job in life and a picture of working in a cubicle as the worst job in life.
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:yeahthat:

Yes, I love flying. There's nothing like it.

But let's not act as if it's the only job that's fulfilling out there.

People need to find something else they enjoy.

Because you are just one medical away from never flying for pay again.

And if aviation is truly the only thing you enjoy, I feel sorry for you if that happens because you're going to be miserable.
 
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