Considering leaving the profession for good, could use advice
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Avalon781ML
Well-Known Member
To the OP:
I would give this some thought before responding to this post.
A common reaction would be to write some response right away but Iād encourage you to chew on this one for a day or so and really do a deep dive into what Gonzo has written here. It took real fortitude and love on his part to vocalize this even if in the moment it feels insulting, mean, and wrong when you read it.
Regardless of what your emotional reaction is in the moments following reading his post you should count yourself VERY lucky to have a friend that is willing to tell you truth as he sees it from his vantage point. Most would deflect and say āyouāre rightā or ā youāre doing the right thing just keep at it.ā instead of verbalizing what he sees as the problem directly.
The world would be better off with more Gonzos. Let this be a lesson to us all to speak the truth with those we care about even when it is uncomfortable to do so.
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
I appreciate that. I still kind of like it here, and to be honest, I like it more now than say, a year ago or so. Now that I'm not trying to get a job from anyone either I really feel a lot more free to be myself too, which is nice, that's been a change in the 5 or 6 years.
As long as you do something I think you'll be ok - but - legitimately, a couple of years of chaos and discomfort is not unlikely.
It was literally a major part of my sense of being. Still, it gave me strength to do new things. "If you crash, be sure to keep your hands on the controls and trying to fly until you're dead or the movement stops" isn't just sound flying advice, it is good advice for life.
Regardless, to OP (because your new name makes it hard to tag you), I recommend switching things up some if you can, trying to do something that's a different direction is a pretty good option. Also, if you don't have time for doing a degree, find a job that doesn't eat your life that would give you that time if you think it's necessary. You're smart, I've been interacting with you on here and on FB for years. You're more than smart, you're clever, but, here's the thing, nobody cares about how smart or clever you are until you have the piece of paper that says you are willing to put up with ā¢. A degree isn't about smarts it's about showing to employers that you're willing to eat some amount of ā¢. Credentialism is messed up and I don't like it either. In fact, I tried for awhile to get ahead without one in aviation, but in the end I did really find it to be a valuable experience. At least for me, finishing my degree (while I was flying medevac and had time) spurred me onto other things and got me better flying jobs (though not for a few years) that would have simply been closed to me without it. Also, it was a big confidence boost - I kind of lost the chip on my shoulder I had about it, and I did have a chip on my shoulder about it.
Today, I don't care if my coworkers have a degree - personally I just want to work with people who are motivated enough to try to go and do something that they think will make them better people - that can be anything as long as they're doing it for themselves - but HR departments are lazy and they view a degree as something that makes someone a better worker and better person (even if it's objectively not). You cannot change what other people think about the credentialing process, you can only change what you think. You can either say, "oh, this may be as high as I progress, or I'm going to have to figure out another way to work around this requirement and I'm going to need to have some luck" or you can try to follow the path others have travelled.
Personally, in my albeit limited career (7500tt and 10k landings is enough for one lifetime I suppose), I repeatedly found that when I tried to do the thing everyone else was doing to get ahead it didn't work for me and I suffered along the way. After awhile, I found that I was actually ok with not being like everyone else. I was ok with a career that went a different direction as most folks, indeed I was "better" for it, but your story is a lot different than mine, so, you do you I guess. Still I don't think it would hurt your chances if you got a magic piece of paper, and I do think it might turn out to be a positive experience if you could find something you cared about to study.
College was a positive experience for me, after my box-ticker degree from UVU I found a problem I couldn't solve and while I was reading about it I ran into "oh, I don't understand math enough to read this book! I should learn math." That became "man, I'm never going to learn this as well as I want without a tutor," which itself became "I should take some classes" which finally resulted in me getting a second BS in Mathematics, which, directly put me onto the path I'm on now.
You're a better engineer than me, you have way more experience and you're just clever, comically, you could probably learn all the things I did in the last two years of grad school faster and more efficiently with arguably a better thesis and finished product... I believe that. But a faceless HR rep looks at your resume and says, "huh, I wonder why no degree?" That's who you're up against. So you can either accept that and try to find a work-around to break through that wall without being "like-everyone-else" or you can figure out something else. Personally, I know you're not going to want to hear this, but
To be clear, you are right - just wanted to note that you're correct in this assertion, I hadn't quite realized it was so bad.
Now, I'm not tied into the trans scene really, got a couple friends, but I have no relevant lived experience really, but are MSP, ORD, and DTW not realistic options? I get that BOI is out (it's out for cis people afaiac), but I mean, at least ORD probably seems resonable as much as any place, no? Housing prices in that part of the world are substantially less, seriously, it might have changed, but yeah, way cheaper than here. Excuse my ignorance, I just don't know, but I have to imagine there are trans people and a trans scene in Chicago.
Also, I don't know the trans scene in ANC, but personally, I have found this place has really grown on me (though it's probably not cheaper).
So, personally (and not to get into our finances too much), but my wife does around $120k, and we are comfortably able to support a house with 3 kids and even save a little money on her salary alone. Everything I make is gravy. Now, we have one car, it's paid off, and no other debt, so we're fairly privileged in that regard, but the biggest difference I see is rent. We're lucky with a crazy low interest rate, but... we only pay $1700/mo for our mortgage, also, we're paying about half as much on food as you, give or take, with 5 mouths to feed. So, I think the grubhub and the rent are really what's killing you. My immediate thought would be try to find a cheaper place to live... I know that's not the kind of advice you really want to have, but yeah. That, or I don't know what your overnights are like, but maybe you could figure out how to go get groceries? I don't know.
Anyway, good luck, I'm rooting for you.
Beaker
Well-Known Member
I am also quite ignorant here, but I do know that we have a trans person within our extended family who lives in downtown Chicago and appears content there.
Autothrust Blue
Speed Bugs, Surf, Sunshine
First of all, if you want to fly airplanes, you absolutely need to continue to fly airplanes, especially as you've stepped away once before. The fact that it's TPIC isn't going to hurt whatsoever.
Second of all, Middle Brother's most excellent advice always rings true: "If you hate your job find a new one and quit, but in that order only." (I could read and have expressed it as "if your job is untenable," as being a perma-plug in a SkyWest category probably is, and then the rest of it, too.)
Specifics:
1) Sometimes it's just not your day.
2) Sometimes it's them.
3) Sometimes, even, it's a hit job (but good luck proving it).
4) Sometimes it's you.
The flying is superkickass always, 100% of the time. Some other bits are less superkickass.
The early morning guy now gets to stay up most of the night save some short naps eastbound. I'm plenty tired when I get home from a Europe 3-day: they all involve a 24 hour layover and those are surprisingly not cakewalksāyou have to manage your arrival nap or you won't sleep the next night and your 0745 CEST pick up is going to be brutal. But I manage to bend to it, even if I have a "no power tools or superuser commands" rule when I get home from a trip, or especially two of them back to back, for about a day. I also manage to bend to unaugmented redeye flying (I find that stuff surprisingly underrated actually) and the dreaded "sign in at 1405 and then fly all afternoon and night," my own personal least favorite brand.
One of the hardest parts of this job is making my brains function when they need to, upon the demand of the operation. Sometimes I can't do it, which is when I call in fatigued. But I also do my best in my personal life to ensure I am going to be fit for duty, and that sometimes means staying up later than I like at home, or getting up earlier than I like at home. Shift work isn't for everyone and it sure can take a toll on you but everyone involved needs to understand when it's time for the Captain to be off to bedāincluding the Captain!
I wound up having a REALLY good time (and making a boatload of money, gobs more than could ever be plausibly screwed out of OO) working somewhere I never figured I would while doing way in the less of flying, so you do the math there.
Some of these rotations are so obviously 10lbs of excrement in a 5lbs vessel that they make what I call the "naughty list" from the FRMT. (Yes, we have a monthly "naughty list" of rotations.) RJ rotations are automatically 12.5lbs of excrement in 5lbs vessels.
I was way more 'burned out' as a CRJ Captain than I was actually physically tired. YMMV. Endlessly fighting with a [bleep]box operation is immensely wearing. Setting aside your frankly murderous sleep situation it sounds like you're also at least slightly on the burned-out end of it.
And can I suggest the upper Midwest? I pay an embarrassingly low amount for an almost wastefully spacious place in a town where nobody's going to mess with hardly anyone over anything. Sure, it's not California and I'm about to waste a lot of money to move back, but that sounds like more of an expenses problem than an income problem. Last I looked there was a big E-jet base in ORD. Haven't been to the gayborhood lately, but it's a place and it exists.
But I can tell you something about all of mine. The three expensive pieces of paper hanging up on my wall were done for the pursuit of knowledge. The fact that it puts my resume in a different pile (occasionally in the pile in someone's bin but anyway) is a perk, but it was not the point.
Somewhere at the intersection of the Venn Diagram of "cool stuff I want to learn" and "cool stuff that gets me a piece of paper that shows I can complete a course of study persistently" is where all of that stuff was for me. Would recommend. (I burned a lot of evening oil on layovers finishing my M.S., but it was absolutely worth it. It was also one class per term; I don't remember if the undergraduate programs were similarly structured but I know someone who got one and I can ask for you.) Maybe the third circle in that diagram is "stuff I'm willing to spend money learning."
Second of all, Middle Brother's most excellent advice always rings true: "If you hate your job find a new one and quit, but in that order only." (I could read and have expressed it as "if your job is untenable," as being a perma-plug in a SkyWest category probably is, and then the rest of it, too.)
Specifics:
As someone who has been the recipient of an adverse decision from a hiring board more than a few times in this career:
1) Sometimes it's just not your day.
2) Sometimes it's them.
3) Sometimes, even, it's a hit job (but good luck proving it).
4) Sometimes it's you.
My Dad thought the same of his forty year airline career and will freely tell you that he loved the circus but got tired of the clowns. If Pop-Pop was still around I bet he'd tell you the same thing. He did not always like the other demands of the job itself or even his employer, but the flying, all of it, was excellent. So do I. Even when I don't want to go to work (it happens...), I still enjoy the flying-the-airplane part of it. Everything else, ehhhh.
The flying is superkickass always, 100% of the time. Some other bits are less superkickass.
Frankly, I really want to understand the bolded bit here. I'm the annoying person who, in a perfect world that I'm just now getting to realize, wants to fly every 0645 departure from SNA and be done by 1400 or so. I flew morning short call for a LONG time at your employer because it worked for my own annoying early morning circadian rhythym. RES can be tough, but a pure AM short call line should be a circadian cakewalk from a simple purity of the line standpoint (and at another carrier was a stated reason for retaining such pure lines). Have you considered implementing a sleep schedule more...appropriate...for such a duty? Moving the "low" sucks, but it can be done.
The early morning guy now gets to stay up most of the night save some short naps eastbound. I'm plenty tired when I get home from a Europe 3-day: they all involve a 24 hour layover and those are surprisingly not cakewalksāyou have to manage your arrival nap or you won't sleep the next night and your 0745 CEST pick up is going to be brutal. But I manage to bend to it, even if I have a "no power tools or superuser commands" rule when I get home from a trip, or especially two of them back to back, for about a day. I also manage to bend to unaugmented redeye flying (I find that stuff surprisingly underrated actually) and the dreaded "sign in at 1405 and then fly all afternoon and night," my own personal least favorite brand.
One of the hardest parts of this job is making my brains function when they need to, upon the demand of the operation. Sometimes I can't do it, which is when I call in fatigued. But I also do my best in my personal life to ensure I am going to be fit for duty, and that sometimes means staying up later than I like at home, or getting up earlier than I like at home. Shift work isn't for everyone and it sure can take a toll on you but everyone involved needs to understand when it's time for the Captain to be off to bedāincluding the Captain!
This is why it became "anywhere else, and as fast as you can, please" for me when I was a Captain at your airline in a continuously understaffed category. And I was 20% in category and getting a required minimum line value of 92 hours. Forget it. The last time I dropped a trip at the Mormon Air Force was on the Brasilia, so I surely feel your pain.
I wound up having a REALLY good time (and making a boatload of money, gobs more than could ever be plausibly screwed out of OO) working somewhere I never figured I would while doing way in the less of flying, so you do the math there.
Hate to tell you but...that sounds like a domestic rotation on certain narrow-body categories where I work. The breaks-in-duty are supposed to be longer under the new book, when they build them, but have you seen the weather this year?
Some of these rotations are so obviously 10lbs of excrement in a 5lbs vessel that they make what I call the "naughty list" from the FRMT. (Yes, we have a monthly "naughty list" of rotations.) RJ rotations are automatically 12.5lbs of excrement in 5lbs vessels.
The average age of a retiree from this business is a somewhat upsettingly low number, and you might be surprised at the number of people slightly to the right of middle age who are on the sick list at any given major or legacy for a combination of the demands of the job and lifestyle factors. But see comments above re: sleep schedules and bending to the needs of the operation. Harder to do with RJ schedules that give you less recovery time, I will concede.
I was way more 'burned out' as a CRJ Captain than I was actually physically tired. YMMV. Endlessly fighting with a [bleep]box operation is immensely wearing. Setting aside your frankly murderous sleep situation it sounds like you're also at least slightly on the burned-out end of it.
I mean, nobody really 'affords' California, but also, people also afford California just fine on (far) less money than you make with more mouths to feed.
And can I suggest the upper Midwest? I pay an embarrassingly low amount for an almost wastefully spacious place in a town where nobody's going to mess with hardly anyone over anything. Sure, it's not California and I'm about to waste a lot of money to move back, but that sounds like more of an expenses problem than an income problem. Last I looked there was a big E-jet base in ORD. Haven't been to the gayborhood lately, but it's a place and it exists.
Fine. I won't tell you to get a degree.
But I can tell you something about all of mine. The three expensive pieces of paper hanging up on my wall were done for the pursuit of knowledge. The fact that it puts my resume in a different pile (occasionally in the pile in someone's bin but anyway) is a perk, but it was not the point.
Somewhere at the intersection of the Venn Diagram of "cool stuff I want to learn" and "cool stuff that gets me a piece of paper that shows I can complete a course of study persistently" is where all of that stuff was for me. Would recommend. (I burned a lot of evening oil on layovers finishing my M.S., but it was absolutely worth it. It was also one class per term; I don't remember if the undergraduate programs were similarly structured but I know someone who got one and I can ask for you.) Maybe the third circle in that diagram is "stuff I'm willing to spend money learning."
Ok, I was going to avoid this thread but ehh, Iām not any more.
There are a number of trans pilots at SouthernJets and all around the industry. Itās not that, AT ALL.
Youāve been back in the profession for barely over a year and Iāve said before that you need to re-establish āreliabilityā by getting some more time between realistically expecting to move on and having quit your last job. This isnāt 2022 or 2023 and I can assure you the regional FOs with certificates that are still warm from the printer getting regional jobs, spending a handful of months before moving onto mainline are over for a bit, if ever to return during our lifetime. Just as you hit that one-year point, the industry has slowed and even my own airline considers 4000TT, four year degree and at least 2000 turbine/jet minimally competitive because thatās the current market.
I assumed you had a network of other trans pilots because there are a lot and I can, off the back of hand, name a number of them that would be more than happy to talk to you that are at my shop, some are in flight operations leadership.
Have you reached out to NGPA? REACH OUT TO NGPA. Hell, I go to the āWinter Warmupā every year and Iām just an average boring straight dude and have a wonderful weekend of fellowship, fun and networking and Iāve never seen you at an event in the decade that Iāve been attending. People need to know and see that they have advocates and I enjoy being that person.
Aviation is hard. Grind like youāre broke. Hell man, Iāve got five jobs at my single employer, made almost $700K last year and still GRIND LIKE IāM BROKE even at year 26 at SouthernJets because I have agency to make changes and get to use creative ideas and āIāll be honest with you and if you donāt like it, so what, fire me and Iāll just to fly jets to Asia the rest of my careerā attitude to help steer the airline.
In 2024, aviation is about the easiest way to clear six figures long term and not be under immediate threat of being replaced with generative AI, leadership changes or your company collapsing because it was nothing more than a meme stock. If you quit, thatās $0 per pay period. The big problems become grenades with the pins pulled and the little problems get bigger real fast.
The people that are moving on were all out there astride their surfboards when the wave hit. You swam toward the wave after it already crested and there will be another one, but youāre going to have to be out there to take advantage of it. That influencer that spent a whopping two months at your airline that moved on to Spirit was probably at PAPA last weekend in Vegas looking for another regional job because heās about to get furloughed and isnāt competitive for another major airline job no matter how many followers (or bots) they have.
ā¦By the way, I did not see you at PAPA last week...
Adulting sucks, the grind sucks, having to āplay the gameā sucks. But so do root canals, heart surgery, orthopedic shoes and buying tires ā but youāre glad you did it when itās all over.
My advice? Go dry clean your uniform, pick up some open time, get back to work. Every mouth in that house that wants to eat needs to work, this isnāt 1950.
There are a number of trans pilots at SouthernJets and all around the industry. Itās not that, AT ALL.
Youāve been back in the profession for barely over a year and Iāve said before that you need to re-establish āreliabilityā by getting some more time between realistically expecting to move on and having quit your last job. This isnāt 2022 or 2023 and I can assure you the regional FOs with certificates that are still warm from the printer getting regional jobs, spending a handful of months before moving onto mainline are over for a bit, if ever to return during our lifetime. Just as you hit that one-year point, the industry has slowed and even my own airline considers 4000TT, four year degree and at least 2000 turbine/jet minimally competitive because thatās the current market.
I assumed you had a network of other trans pilots because there are a lot and I can, off the back of hand, name a number of them that would be more than happy to talk to you that are at my shop, some are in flight operations leadership.
Have you reached out to NGPA? REACH OUT TO NGPA. Hell, I go to the āWinter Warmupā every year and Iām just an average boring straight dude and have a wonderful weekend of fellowship, fun and networking and Iāve never seen you at an event in the decade that Iāve been attending. People need to know and see that they have advocates and I enjoy being that person.
Aviation is hard. Grind like youāre broke. Hell man, Iāve got five jobs at my single employer, made almost $700K last year and still GRIND LIKE IāM BROKE even at year 26 at SouthernJets because I have agency to make changes and get to use creative ideas and āIāll be honest with you and if you donāt like it, so what, fire me and Iāll just to fly jets to Asia the rest of my careerā attitude to help steer the airline.
In 2024, aviation is about the easiest way to clear six figures long term and not be under immediate threat of being replaced with generative AI, leadership changes or your company collapsing because it was nothing more than a meme stock. If you quit, thatās $0 per pay period. The big problems become grenades with the pins pulled and the little problems get bigger real fast.
The people that are moving on were all out there astride their surfboards when the wave hit. You swam toward the wave after it already crested and there will be another one, but youāre going to have to be out there to take advantage of it. That influencer that spent a whopping two months at your airline that moved on to Spirit was probably at PAPA last weekend in Vegas looking for another regional job because heās about to get furloughed and isnāt competitive for another major airline job no matter how many followers (or bots) they have.
ā¦By the way, I did not see you at PAPA last week...
Adulting sucks, the grind sucks, having to āplay the gameā sucks. But so do root canals, heart surgery, orthopedic shoes and buying tires ā but youāre glad you did it when itās all over.
My advice? Go dry clean your uniform, pick up some open time, get back to work. Every mouth in that house that wants to eat needs to work, this isnāt 1950.
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Autothrust Blue
Speed Bugs, Surf, Sunshine
Best party in professional aviation, bar none.
And get out of the Bay Area.
Hot damn, Iād love to live there again but even at my income level coupled with the lack of a dead relative leaving me real estate to assume ownership of, I donāt want that level of financial āheadwindā at the point in my life. I think of the entire Bay Area like Atherton. Unless youāve from old stinky trust fund generational wealth, itās just not going to be a thing.
Hot damn, Iād love to live there again but even at my income level coupled with the lack of a dead relative leaving me real estate to assume ownership of, I donāt want that level of financial āheadwindā at the point in my life. I think of the entire Bay Area like Atherton. Unless youāve from old stinky trust fund generational wealth, itās just not going to be a thing.
Autothrust Blue
Speed Bugs, Surf, Sunshine
Underrated comment.
Happy home, happy life. Unhappy home, miserable life, doesnāt matter what the job is. (I know, incidentally.)
I think the snake oil firms are crap too, but the truth is there is enough in the way of explanation required that some professional coaching is absolutely warranted.
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
Some tough love crowd here, but I suppose some of it's warranted.
My points:
I hope you stick with this career. I know you left and came back, it's still worth doing and pursuing.
I can't speak for how hiring is now - and like you, I loathe the job fair BS. It might be time though to start attending some of these BS events. Worse case, you don't get anything, which is where you already are. Best case, you get an interview shot.
Any place that has denied you, as long as you are allowed to apply again, re-apply. Don't get any ego over whether or not they accepted you the first time. It's your career, not theirs. Treat it as a whole new opportunity.
The schedules get better at larger carriers on the A320/B737. Unless you get stuck on the 717 or A220, apparently Autothrust Blue says those are RJ planes with RJ schedules.
For comparison purpose, I bid the PM reserve short call in May for LAX, I got called for one flight up to PDX, and then DH back next day. 2.5 hrs block for reserve the whole month. Of course, I can't be sitting around for the other 29 days, so I picked up 7 days of flying on my reserve days off as extra pay above guarantee. Took 79 hr reserve guarantee to 120 hrs pay. And physically flew 9 days. Well, flew 8 days and DH 1 day.
Please don't give up. Hang in there and throw your darts out to majors and make sure to keep it updated.
And I mean no ill will on this one, it's from a good place. If you've busted a couple of interviews, it is definitely time to pony up some dough for a prep course like Emerald. Preferrably one that is so confident, they offer money back if you don't get hired.
Your problem hasn't been not getting called. So the advice about getting interview prep help is definitely worth it.
My points:
I hope you stick with this career. I know you left and came back, it's still worth doing and pursuing.
I can't speak for how hiring is now - and like you, I loathe the job fair BS. It might be time though to start attending some of these BS events. Worse case, you don't get anything, which is where you already are. Best case, you get an interview shot.
Any place that has denied you, as long as you are allowed to apply again, re-apply. Don't get any ego over whether or not they accepted you the first time. It's your career, not theirs. Treat it as a whole new opportunity.
The schedules get better at larger carriers on the A320/B737. Unless you get stuck on the 717 or A220, apparently Autothrust Blue says those are RJ planes with RJ schedules.
For comparison purpose, I bid the PM reserve short call in May for LAX, I got called for one flight up to PDX, and then DH back next day. 2.5 hrs block for reserve the whole month. Of course, I can't be sitting around for the other 29 days, so I picked up 7 days of flying on my reserve days off as extra pay above guarantee. Took 79 hr reserve guarantee to 120 hrs pay. And physically flew 9 days. Well, flew 8 days and DH 1 day.
Please don't give up. Hang in there and throw your darts out to majors and make sure to keep it updated.
And I mean no ill will on this one, it's from a good place. If you've busted a couple of interviews, it is definitely time to pony up some dough for a prep course like Emerald. Preferrably one that is so confident, they offer money back if you don't get hired.
Your problem hasn't been not getting called. So the advice about getting interview prep help is definitely worth it.
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
Small story of mine, which I think is appropriate. I was a 5th yr RJ FO in 2011 in a dead economy with no upgrade in sight. No upgrade in those days meant no free ATP from the company. The big 4 were not hiring. The only hiring was Spirit, Virgin, jetBlue, and US Airways. Of those, US Airways did not require an ATP (just Comm/ME/Inst) but the other LCCs listed all required it. I did not have an ATP. So even though I was a 5th yr FO wage ($37-38/hr) I told my wife I have to pony up the dough and take some 2-3 day ATP course and get my ATP done. It was clear/obvious it was not happening at my regional. After a good discussion, we decided we would have to do it. It was a long shot, but it was still a shot worth taking. Between prep, the actual course, study materials, examiner fees, hotel, meals, I was probably out about $3500. That's no joke when you're only making $40-45k/yr. I landed my ATP late Sept 2011 in a Seneca.
By late September, the only ones hiring then were Spirit and Virgin. I applied to both and VX was my sole call. Interviewed in a January and took the first date they gave.
Looking back, from a financial standpoint, that ATP decision was one of the best financial decisions I ever made.
I would like you to have a similar story, very soon. An interview prep course (or two) and then a successful major airline interview eventually.
Please hang in there, don't quit!
By late September, the only ones hiring then were Spirit and Virgin. I applied to both and VX was my sole call. Interviewed in a January and took the first date they gave.
Looking back, from a financial standpoint, that ATP decision was one of the best financial decisions I ever made.
I would like you to have a similar story, very soon. An interview prep course (or two) and then a successful major airline interview eventually.
Please hang in there, don't quit!
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
You making 700k and a DINK lifestyle, you can definitely afford the Bay Area.
Shark, I had a wife and one kid coming when we moved to Pacifica in 2012 renting a 1 bd 1 ba 740 sq ft for $1,500 month. First yr pay on the A320 was $44/hr. There were several months I just broke even. In fact, a couple months where my expenses exceeded income. It was rough. I watched every dollar come in and go out. The months we were negative were the last 2-3 months before delivery, where she had to get an echo on the baby twice/weekly to monitor something they saw. It drove the medical expenses up quite a bit. But we had savings and I pulled some high credit months and made up for it. Baby was born very close to me stepping up to second yr pay of $65/hr and that was a noticeable difference in income.
Autothrust Blue
Speed Bugs, Surf, Sunshine
I mean, Iām at peace with the fact that Iām likely to rent for the foreseeable future anywhere I want to live. Oh well. A rates will have one able to service the debt, but the down payment is another story.
A300Capt
Freight Dawg
I know Kelly. My wife helped sell her fatherās house for her when he passed. She is an outstanding pilot and individual! I enjoy being around her. She did a Ted talk you can probably find on YouTube. I immediately thought of her when the OP mentioned being trans.
Sorry I donāt have any advice other than being junior at any airline is brutal. I donāt care whether youāre at a Regional or a Legacy. I lived it and saw my share of walking zombies each night during the sort. Itās a grind! It does get better with seniority and time. Only you can decide whether itās worth it regardless of what good well meaning folks say here.
Autothrust Blue
Speed Bugs, Surf, Sunshine
Instagram informs me there was a taiko performance at PAPA and that just sounds like something I should have seen.
Screaming_Emu
Joe Conventional
Back in the day of ripping CDs to make MP3s, my parents went to a performance and bought the CD. I pirated it and it was glorious, but always unexpected when it came up on my iPod shuffle.
That would certainly explain where all the money earned is getting drained. Seemingly easy correction to not be flushing dollars away.
With this attitude, youāre right, you wonāt be moving on to a legacy.
And not because being trans, not because of a degree or lack thereof, not because of āthe manā, not because of āthe systemā. But primarily because of this attitude, which I guarantee shows itself in any interview you attend. Maybe interviewers have wondered the reasoning behind making a decision to drop out of the career for a year, then trying to jump back into it, and whether that will happen again if they invest in you. Or even question making rash decisions without considering the consequences. Who knows. In time, this wouldnāt be an issue anymore, but you essentially made a series of career decisions that reset you to the back of the line again. And for a while, there will likely be some time needed to reestablish credibility with potential employers. But what you canāt do, is keep blaming everything and everyone else for what is going on in your life career-wise and where you are at, and not take responsibility for the decisions youāve made with your career and the consequences that have come from that. Again, I guarantee this seeps out and is noticed, in interviews. And thatās going to work against you.
Maybe you were told when you came back that in a year, mainlines would be calling. But aviation is much like an intel brief on the current status of a battle: the information is already, or will be shortly, obsolete and subject to change, at any time, with or without notice. You canāt expect that at 11 months, 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds, that the phones will start ringing off the hook from employers, based on 12 month old info. Things change, which you well know. Only thing you can do is play the cards youāre dealt, at the moment they are dealt by the dealer.
Job wise, if you want to change to another aviation employer, youāll need to go where the jobs are, which having worked in Alaska, is something youāre also well aware of. Hanging around one of the most expensive places to live, and inheriting 3 total dependents somehow, from somwhere, in the process of this (not sure what the particulars are), is going to drain you dry financially. Itās simply not sustainable, as you already know and as @derg has alluded to
You can keep on doing what you are doing, with no guarantees besides working a lot and making a steady amount of money that doesnāt get a chance to build itself or you a chance to move up. Or, you can make a slightly upward move to some places in 121ā¦.scheduled, supplemental, ACMI, whatever. You can leave 121 altogether and enter another area of aviation, since thereās are many areas of aviation as a pilot besides just the airlines. You can even do 121 part time and do something else in aviation, or something outside of aviation. Only you will know what is right for you to do. Butā¦. only you can make any needed changes in attitude, logical career decision making, and/or accountability; that will ultimately help you and not be a hinderance to you, also.
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Autothrust Blue
Speed Bugs, Surf, Sunshine
I donāt like ECIC. Iāve used them previously. Theyāre very programmatic, to the point of you can almost tell someone has used them because they wonāt answer the first question. They also refused (seriously) to provide me with any pointers or tips for Spirit, calling it quote a freebie unquote, which, well, maybe it is for the Squadron Buddies(tm) but I took it a little more seriously than that. It smacked of a level of arrogance I thought incompatible with job-seeking. (It turns out that Spiritās pilot hiring people have finely tuned bullcrap detectors and that, unusually enough, you also sit down with someone who might well be your Chief Pilot as part of the interview and they are also on the hunt for people who will NOT be in their office frequently. They bounced a full 40% of the applicants the day I interviewed.)
That said, plenty of other good firms, like Centerline or Cage, exist. Can personally vouch for the former, but frankly, any of them are going to be useful in steering explanations for things needing explained.
You canāt do anything about items 1 through 3 in my ālist of adverse hiring decisionsā but you can, and should do something about 4.
