A seriously rhetorical question

[Hootie]

No details to be given, as some people know where I work, but anybody besides texaspilot (I think that's who it was a while back), ever thought of getting out of aviation totally, even for a little while, if necessary?

Oh yeah. I'm not bitter in any way, but I evaluate my options CONSTANTLY. I also really try to envision myself on the other side of the fence and one nice thing about this career is ZERO take home paperwork, you get to leave the job at the gate which is huge for me. But yeah, over the last 8 years i've thought very hard about hanging it up, once in summer of 2006 and and pretty much all of 2003.

 

[falconvalley]

I love flying. There are lots of things that suck about flying for a living, but I've worked many different kinds of jobs and have figured out what I like and what I hate. I'm willing to put up with the bad because of the good. I'm gonna have to give a :yeahthat: to Hootie about leaving it at the gate. That has become one of my favorites since I've gone "all aviation" in my jobs. I hear my gf complain about work all the time. I don't want that. I don't ever want to dread work again.

I guess it's a happiness factor. Everybody's different.

 

[Stone Cold]

Thanks for all the inspirational messages guys!!! I'm just looking out of where I am right now. I just got turned down for a very, very good spot, and hopefully, more good is to come of this situation!!! It's good knowing that I'm qualified for a lot more than I'm doing, and I'll leave it at that!!

By the way, this is the first time I've ever been turned down for a job...go figure. Having recurrent hanging over your head sucks!!! Yes,I've turned in resumes and not heard back, but this one I was 1 of 2 people, and since I had recurrent coming up, they passed me up. Every other time, I've beat people out. We'll see what else is out there.

 

[B767Driver]

I'm too old to change careers entirely -- don't have the money even if I could.

The company I work for is very large and has all kinds of opportunities outside of aviation. They offer internal training for many of these jobs. I've been taking some of these courses from time to time to see what I like to do besides flying.

Hopefully if I lose my medical or just dont like flying anymore it will be easy to move to another part of the company. Who knows though. It's all a gamble.

I know from your posts that you work for a good corporate flight department. In the airline world...at least the majors...if you lose your medical you get 50% of your pay until you reach age 60.

Do the better corporate jobs offer this type of disability protection?

 

[B767Driver]

No details to be given, as some people know where I work, but anybody besides texaspilot (I think that's who it was a while back), ever thought of getting out of aviation totally, even for a little while, if necessary?

Just out of curiosity, of course...anic:

And open the floodgates...

Also, anybody have any new info, or know payrates for ACT in the MU-2? Last question, how is the crashpad situation in Denver?

At the lower ends of aviation, I'm not sure I would have stuck it out. I set a goal of age 30 to make some inroads into a good career in aviation. Fortunately for me, it worked out. At the upper levels of the career it is pretty darned good.

If I was not able to progress towards those good jobs, however, I would have probably looked at other career options...as I have a multitude of interests...chiefly teaching and coaching.

 

[kellwolf]

I know from your posts that you work for a good corporate flight department. In the airline world...at least the majors...if you lose your medical you get 50% of your pay until you reach age 60.

Is that in your union contract or is that the optional loss of license insurance? We don't have that at Pinnacle (not that I'm surprised), but I'm not up on ALPA's loss of license insurance.

 

[B767Driver]

Is that in your union contract or is that the optional loss of license insurance? We don't have that at Pinnacle (not that I'm surprised), but I'm not up on ALPA's loss of license insurance.

It's contractual. When I went from the commuters to the majors...I could not believe the level of insurance protection afforded. The commuters basically had nothing in respect to pensions, disability and/or survivorship plans. The plans have been degraded somewhat in bankruptcy...but these are benefits that most professional pilots don't even realize are out there when shopping for airlines.

When you look at a certain airlines hourly pay scales...that's not all that you should be looking at. This is why Delta pilot costs are still above SWA, for example, even though SWA has higher hourly rates. The SWA guys take their pay in the form of a high hourly pay but little elsewhere.

 

[kellwolf]

Dang. That's another tick in the Delta column for me. Thanks to the guys on this board, Delta has quickly gone from my number 3 or 4 choice to my number one choice. I was gung-ho SWA the whole way, but now SWA has dropped to a distant number 2 behind the widget.

 

[derg]

And we also have a DPMA plan that helps bridge the gap a little too. More or less Delta pilot funded and sponsored disability insurance completely separate from any contractual obligations the company has.

Don't EVEN ask me the details about it. I don't know and I hope to never find out!

 

[B767Driver]

All the "legacies" have this type of disability plan. Not sure about Air Tran, JetBlue, Alaska, etc. Actually...not sure about SWA either. They may or may not have some type of disability.

The nice thing about these disability plans is that they will pay if you can't hold a medical. So if you contract diabetes and lose the medical...you still get the disability...even though you can transition into another career.

IMO, this plan is absolutely essential for all professional pilots. It is too much of a gamble to enter this field knowing that a simple medical condition can ruin your entire financial future. Professional pilots need to have some financial protection for this matter or it's a career that becomes too risky.

Keep that in mind when when the regionals secure more flying from the majors! It is really not a good thing for our profession to see this flying outsourced to companies who do not provide the same level of protection.