If I Could Have All My Money Back

ATOflyer

Well-Known Member
that i've invested into flight training, i would have put it towards med school and gone that route. this is seriously the most frustrating industry ever. like everyone says, you have to really want it to succeed in this line of work, and for me that want is slowly starting to dwindle down.

would i do this all over again knowing what i know now? i'm leaning towards no. part of me tells me to keep going because ive come this far and the other side says **** it and try something more rewarding. so what im getting at with this post, is not so much to discourage those who are still in training, but rather to take a look at the big picture and see if this is something you truely want to do before dumping such a large amount of money into it.
 
that i've invested into flight training, i would have put it towards med school and gone that route. this is seriously the most frustrating industry ever. like everyone says, you have to really want it to succeed in this line of work, and for me that want is slowly starting to dwindle down.

would i do this all over again knowing what i know now? i'm leaning towards no. part of me tells me to keep going because ive come this far and the other side says **** it and try something more rewarding. so what im getting at with this post, is not so much to discourage those who are still in training, but rather to take a look at the big picture and see if this is something you truely want to do before dumping such a large amount of money into it.

Go become a controller:panic:
 
Eh, Its just money.


(says the guy who only has 9 more months of a 10 year of SLM loan to pay off :D)
 
While aviation isn't easy, I'll bet my million dollars that it's not anywhere as challenging as medical school.
 
Medicine is fustrating too - I have a good friend who went to the best colleges, has a Phd/MD, got into plastics (the most competitive program) and although he does well for himself, considering he worked 100 hours weeks until age 36 and is still tied to a pager - it is not that great. Certainly a comfortable living, but it is not all that.

Nursing on the other hand - I think that is where it is at!!
 
If I could have all my money back I would do it again, just cheaper. I would probably buy my own plane so that I would have training and something else to show for it, and probably something to work in.

I was studying for the MCAT when I decided that I did not want the doctors life. Decades of schooling, endless hours at work, always on call, in debt till I was 50+.

I love what I do, the paycheck sucks, it is a lot of stress and headaches, by being a good instructor I get rid of my best customers on purpose.

But I love it.

I don't wake up in the morning and say "Oh ####, here we go again".
 
Medicine is fustrating too - I have a good friend who went to the best colleges, has a Phd/MD, got into plastics (the most competitive program) and although he does well for himself, considering he worked 100 hours weeks until age 36 and is still tied to a pager - it is not that great. Certainly a comfortable living, but it is not all that.

Nursing on the other hand - I think that is where it is at!!

I was just talking to a good friend of mine who is in medical school earlier today.

It was the typical stuff I've heard in the past. She's had basically zero free time for the past six months. Now the school year is over and there was about a week off and now rotations have started. Not so much homework now but lots of long workdays. Keep in mind, ATO, this eight to ten years of education ends with about 150-200K in debt.

We've compared these two fields like you have, ATOflyer, and there are some tradeoffs for sure. I send a postcard from Hong Kong after having non-revved there in first class for free and she's doing homework. Or the month prior, e-mail from Athens as I'm about to go have some souvlaki and uozo in the Plaka...she was doing homework for 15 hours that day. I'm just an RJ pilot who flight instructed for a year, but I will have made my first 100K by the 30th month after college and flight training ended. Someone in med school at that point is still a half decade away from being able to start making a profit and their debt is considerably higher at that point.

Later in life that career is more stable, for sure. However, if a pilot were to be in a desirable employment situation by then, I can see it resulting in a higher day-to-day QOL despite a less stable future. i.e. 15-18 days off making $100,000+ a year instead of 8 days off a month and 12 hour layovers at home between those days off.

Not to mention senior people living in base willing to do daytrips probably have more time off than most any job can offer.
 
I was just talking to a good friend of mine who is in medical school earlier today.

It was the typical stuff I've heard in the past. She's had basically zero free time for the past six months. Now the school year is over and there was about a week off and now rotations have started. Not so much homework now but lots of long workdays. Keep in mind, ATO, this eight to ten years of education ends with about 150-200K in debt.

We've compared these two fields like you have, ATOflyer, and there are some tradeoffs for sure. I send a postcard from Hong Kong after having non-revved there in first class for free and she's doing homework. Or the month prior, e-mail from Athens as I'm about to go have some souvlaki and uozo in the Plaka...she was doing homework for 15 hours that day. I'm just an RJ pilot who flight instructed for a year, but I will have made my first 100K by the 30th month after college and flight training ended. Someone in med school at that point is still a half decade away from being able to start making a profit and their debt is considerably higher at that point.

Later in life that career is more stable, for sure. However, if a pilot were to be in a desirable employment situation by then, I can see it resulting in a higher day-to-day QOL despite a less stable future. i.e. 15-18 days off making $100,000+ a year instead of 8 days off a month and 12 hour layovers at home between those days off.

Not to mention senior people living in base willing to do daytrips probably have more time off than most any job can offer.

I don't think it could have been said ANY better. At the end of the day people that are frustrated when things are going bad develop tunnel vision and see no end. Especially the new guys. They are mainly the ones freaking out. OMG! XYZ airlines is furloughing, am I next? Oh no, why didn't i become a doctor/accountant/whatever makes 50k fresh outtta college.

Guys like Doug, DE727, Polar etc are all like, eh, been there, done that, got the Tshirt, sent the postcard, and know that the industry will recover.

Couple months ago everyone was rejoicing with all the hiring going on. Now we're on a downturn and its the end of the world. Just as quickly as things can go bad they can go good again....and then bad again....then good...then bad....then you get the point....welcome to the airlines
 
I don't think it could have been said ANY better. At the end of the day people that are frustrated when things are going bad develop tunnel vision and see no end. Especially the new guys. They are mainly the ones freaking out. OMG! XYZ airlines is furloughing, am I next? Oh no, why didn't i become a doctor/accountant/whatever makes 50k fresh outtta college.

Guys like Doug, DE727, Polar etc are all like, eh, been there, done that, got the Tshirt, sent the postcard, and know that the industry will recover.

Couple months ago everyone was rejoicing with all the hiring going on. Now we're on a downturn and its the end of the world. Just as quickly as things can go bad they can go good again....and then bad again....then good...then bad....then you get the point....welcome to the airlines

Yeah, I say dudes shouldn't worry about losing their jobs when that issue stares them in the face.:sarcasm::sarcasm: You know in your last paragraph those are two totally opposite things that bring about those natural opposite reactions. I feel sorry for guys that got the shaft and they weren't prepared. Like Sugafree said "If you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready".
 
Nah, I couldn't deal with being a doctor.

I mean come on; body fluids, blood and the whole death thing kinda turn me off.

But sitting next to a student while they shoot an ILS down to mins. Now that my friend is priceless.
 
I would have been a pro golfer. Ever see their wives?

In all seriousness I love my job, love aviation, and have a great passion for it. It has its up and downs, but you have to look at the glass like it is half full. If you don't you will be miserable.
 
Gotta love the shoulda-woulda-coulda discussions.
If I could have done it all over again I uhh...would have become a
secret agent/male model...yeah! thats where the real money is at.
 
I would have been a pro golfer. Ever see their wives?

In all seriousness I love my job, love aviation, and have a great passion for it. It has its up and downs, but you have to look at the glass like it is half full. If you don't you will be miserable.

Pro soccer player, have you seen their wives?
(Players in Europe of course, not MLS)
 
In all seriousness I love my job, love aviation, and have a great passion for it. It has its up and downs, but you have to look at the glass like it is half full. If you don't you will be miserable.
:yeahthat::yeahthat:


Every job out there has some issues attached to it. The grass may always look greener, but generally when you get there it has it's own brown patches you didnt see because you were too busy looking at the green.

I think if you ask a lot of successful people out there if they could go back and do it all over again but this time know the struggles they'd have to endure, they'd say "hell no" and go do something else.

If you're getting up everyday hating your station in life, and are just waiting to catch that big break getting the perfect job, you're in the wrong industry. The journey is the reward.

If you sweat the small stuff, you won't last long.
 
I would have been a pro golfer. Ever see their wives?

In all seriousness I love my job, love aviation, and have a great passion for it. It has its up and downs, but you have to look at the glass like it is half full. If you don't you will be miserable.

I keep telling you geniuses that the glass isn't half-full or half-empty.

The glass is obviously too damned short.
 
Pro soccer player, have you seen their wives?
(Players in Europe of course, not MLS)

I dunna.

There's this one.

r


I think he done good, eh?

Enough to buy her a diamond encrusted platinum, uh, toy.

I think that thing might weigh more than she does!

I keep telling you geniuses that the glass isn't half-full or half-empty.

The glass is obviously too damned short.

Oh yeah?

"I see this glass not half empty, but half full and more."
 
Back
Top