🦈💜
Well-Known Member
This exact thing.
High School to Cockpit
- Thread starter gettinghimready
- Start date
Screaming_Emu
Well-Known Member
You have the tools to succeed, you just choose not to use them.
🦈💜
Well-Known Member
I’m not talking about myself. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for people who wouldn’t want to hire people like me. Not all of us see every facet of aviation as a path to Delta Air Lines™, and I resent a system that extorts the poor and below upper-middle class. People should be judged on their merits and will, not on “qualifications” paid for with daddy’s money...
Anyway, tilting at windmills as always. But I do ask that people respect my position on the subject. If they offered degrees based on knowledge, experience and aptitude, or if higher education was free to all—as it should be—my opinion would be different.
Screaming_Emu
Well-Known Member
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
I’m more pragmatic than you are about such things. But I respect this view.
Screaming_Emu
Well-Known Member
I respect it. I mean, it really has nothing to do with me. But it makes me scratch my head.
I read the Fox's initial post as complaining about the man getting her down. That's what prompted my post. It's one thing to abstain for idealogical reasons, but then you don't get to complain that the rest of society isn't playing by your rules.
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
Sure you do, if you feel that the rules are unjust.
ClarkGriswold
Non Nutritive Cereal Varnish Engineer
3 colleges, 4.5 years, a crap degree and barely broke 3.0 (at the every end)5 years of school and a 2.3 here.
But I still get people wanting to argue with me about it in “other venues”
Butch Palmore
Just happy to be here.
Let him get all his licenses at an inexpensive part 61 school. Find one with plenty of planes and instructors. When he’s done, find a college that will give him credit for such. From there it’s a short walk to checking the degree box. He can get an MBA on his own dime later.
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Screaming_Emu
Well-Known Member
Eh.
That kind of stuff doesn't appeal to me. I have no regrets with my route which was go to the airlines as quick as possible and then use my nonrev benefits to travel whenever able.
Hiboglossi
The Most Depressing Person
You can't go to the airlines until 21 under the current rules, but bad advice. Get to the airlines as soon as possible; and get into turbine equipment as soon as possible, and your chances of making it to the majors sooner (or at all) will be greatly improved. Adventures don't pay the bills. Do not exchange the "birthright" of a chance at a lucrative career for the lentil stew of "adventures". Besides as @Screaming_Emu pointed out you can have much better adventures with non-rev benefits and the kind of schedule you can have at the airlines than you would ever have at work doing bush flying.
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
Meh. I disagree. I had fun, but I wish I had gone to the airlines sooner.
Screaming_Emu
Well-Known Member
Plus if bush flying is your thing if you get far enough into your career soon enough you can do it as a hobby, which I would imagine is a lot more fun and less stressful.
Hiboglossi
The Most Depressing Person
Probably my biggest regret in life is not going to the airlines sooner. And when you consider that seniority is everything in the airlines it's all the more important.
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
Sure it ain't for everyone, but I'd always recommend it to young people. It's fun, you meet cool people, it taught me how to be an adult (albeit in the most dysfunctional way imaginable, but still). Sure, you can nonrev to Europe a lot easier with a job at RegionalBrand X, that's true, and if that's your idea of an adventure go for it. For me though, while it was an "option" it never really was an option. Big mountains, and crummy weather, and learning how to prove myself without being a dangerous maniac was formative for me, and the kind of kid who gets his start in flying early may be similar.
You only live once. Those years flying down glaciers, drinking at beach parties with my friends, chasing caribou and whales around are some of my fondest aviation memories. Did I scare the crap out of myself a time or two? Absolutely, but it was a lot more fun than fear and I learned a lot about flying that I absolutely would not have learned flying something in the transport category.
Two weeks on/ two weeks off with CASS opens the doors for a lot of adventures - just saying.
A lot of people don't do this for a "career" early on. I mean, yeah it was my "Career" (with a capital C), but the flying I did, I did because it looked fun and because I thought I would enjoy it for the first half of my first decade in flying. The second half it was about schedule, QoL, and my family. If the kid was 25 or maybe older, I'd say the same thing you're saying. But didn't you want adventures at 19? Didn't you want to see the Northern Lights from FL250 or whales breaching in Lynn Canal, or spend a night in Dutch Harbor? It doesn't have to be Alaska, that's just what I know - go wherever and have the adventures you want to have, but have some adventures when you're 19. Why not? A seniority number is good for your career, and it pays the bills, but nobody gives a crap about being seniority #9 at CommuteAir when you're lying on your back in the nursing home.
Beyond that, the adventures ABSOLUTELY paid the bills - I made more money than my RJ counterparts for my first couple years of flying for a living because of where I lived and what I did (though that has thankfully changed, and the 121 guys are making slightly more). Also, it's not an "all or nothing" proposition - if this kid goes off to the bush for a couple years, has his fun, gets some real PIC decision making experience, then comes to the world of 121, it'll be a good thing. It's not like he has to do it forever. Do it for a couple years, have some fun, learn about himself and flying, then go put on the monkey suit and throw the gear lever. He can't upgrade until he's 23 anyway, if he jumps into a 207 with 501hrs at 19, then flies the bush for 2 years (or has adventures somewhere else), then comes to the RJ world, then does that for 2 years, he can upgrade at 23. He's got the time to kill - he might as well do it doing something fun.
You were also a few years older than this cat when you jumped into a 207 for the first time - I don't think I'd be telling a 24 or 25 year old the same thing, especially if they had bills to pay and responsibilities, etc. At 19 though, it's different. Get those adventures, have some fun, really truly learn how to fly, have legitimate adventures.
Also, good god I know who you worked for up here - I know I have the reputation of trying to work for the worst jobs in aviation (shoutout to my man @z987k ) - but damn, you basically started at the crummiest places in the industry. I'd be burnt out too if I had to do what you did. Still - strapping on a 207 at 19 and blasting off to parts unknown was a really good experience for me that I recommend for everyone who can do it.
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
I suspect when you’re on your back in that nursing home, you’ll be thinking “I wish I hadn’t wasted those X years on ‘adventures’ instead of getting my seniority number ASAP. I wonder how many holidays with my family it cost me once I finally got to Brand X?”
Jordan93
Well-Known Member
To each their own. I knew I wanted to do the airlines so I didn’t “waste time” doing other adventures. Some people like to try out different things. However, almost every FO I’ve flown with so far wishes they would have gotten here faster though. Just my useless anecdotal evidence/observation.