Parabellum
New Member
Lately, I've been exposed to a lot of bitterness from professional pilots. Not quite so much here on the JC forums, but if you go to flightinfo.com, you run into threads such as "Mesa, the anti-christ of regionals" and "CFI pay too low." The actual content of these threads is not the subject I'm presenting here. I don't know or understand what the bashing of Mesa is all about, and the fact that CFI pay isn't the greatest is not at all news to me anymore. What I'm trying to get at here, is that it seems like there are an awful lot of pilots who simply don't enjoy flying.
As in my case, I love flying. I always have. Every time I get in a 172, I get the same adrenaline rush and excitement taking off as I did when I flew for the very first time. So my question is, is this a crime? I mean, there are bitter airline pilots out there (not saying all airline pilots are like this, but there are a few) who might look at someone like me and accuse me of being one of those pukes who accepts a low paying regional job for the "glory of being an airline pilot." Supposedly, my acceptance of such job is contributing to the overall decline in pay of flying jobs in the entire industry.
Well who knows? They could be right. I know that money is definately important, but that's not my reason for pursuing a flying career. If you forgot the reason I'm doing so, read above. I'm very well aware of the fact that a $19K/yr starting salary for a regional FO is not very good pay, but I don't expect to be making that my whole career. But if worst comes to worst and that ends up being my salary cap by an act of god, I'll either learn to live with it or do something else for a living. Whatever the case, I refuse to do something with my life that I hate doing. If someone offered me a job being a psychologist for 70K/year as opposed to a flying job paying less, I'll take the flying job any day.
Sometimes I wonder if the over-supply of pilots we have would exist if the pilots who have, for whatever reason, grown to hate flying would find something else to do that they actually love. I also have to wonder, did they even have a passion for flying in the first place? Or did they read some section in a "great careers" handbook about piloting aircraft that some school counselor gave them and say, "Wow! Airline pilot, sounds great! Where do I sign up?"
To me, it seems like the most successful pilots are the ones who have wanted to fly ever since they first laid eyes on an airplane.
As in my case, I love flying. I always have. Every time I get in a 172, I get the same adrenaline rush and excitement taking off as I did when I flew for the very first time. So my question is, is this a crime? I mean, there are bitter airline pilots out there (not saying all airline pilots are like this, but there are a few) who might look at someone like me and accuse me of being one of those pukes who accepts a low paying regional job for the "glory of being an airline pilot." Supposedly, my acceptance of such job is contributing to the overall decline in pay of flying jobs in the entire industry.
Well who knows? They could be right. I know that money is definately important, but that's not my reason for pursuing a flying career. If you forgot the reason I'm doing so, read above. I'm very well aware of the fact that a $19K/yr starting salary for a regional FO is not very good pay, but I don't expect to be making that my whole career. But if worst comes to worst and that ends up being my salary cap by an act of god, I'll either learn to live with it or do something else for a living. Whatever the case, I refuse to do something with my life that I hate doing. If someone offered me a job being a psychologist for 70K/year as opposed to a flying job paying less, I'll take the flying job any day.
Sometimes I wonder if the over-supply of pilots we have would exist if the pilots who have, for whatever reason, grown to hate flying would find something else to do that they actually love. I also have to wonder, did they even have a passion for flying in the first place? Or did they read some section in a "great careers" handbook about piloting aircraft that some school counselor gave them and say, "Wow! Airline pilot, sounds great! Where do I sign up?"
To me, it seems like the most successful pilots are the ones who have wanted to fly ever since they first laid eyes on an airplane.
