Professional Pilots, what drives you?

tpaRob

Well-Known Member
You wake up after a great night’s sleep. You look at the clock and you still have a few minutes until the alarm goes off. You get up and check you stocks. Nice, the market is up and you made a few extra bucks today. After a nice relaxing shower, you put on your freshly pressed uniform and head to the airport. Traffic is clear and you made it to the airport in record time.

Dispatch says smooth sailing today. Delays are minimal and your plane is on-time. A check of the weather shows no problems. Temp is 76 degrees and skies are clear.

Preflight looks great, no problems. Corporate switched the regular coffee to your favorite blend. What a nice surprise.

Here come the passengers. Everyone smiling and looking forward to a smooth flight.

Your flight finishes as smooth as it started.

NOW A REALITY CHECK

You’re running behind after 5 hours of sleep at a crappy hotel. The shuttle is waiting for you as you rush to get dressed. This is day 3 of the week and you are 4 days behind. You’re broke and slam a quick muffin in your mouth as you hop on the shuttle.

The weather outside is dark, rainy and cold. It will snow before the day is over. A check of the radar shows a big line of storms right in your path.
Here come the passengers. They’re mad.

What keeps you going? Is it the pure love of flying?

Flying on a nice day is great. What about all the other days?
 
I'm not an airline pilot, so my motivation might be somewhat different than others, but here are a few things that keep me going...

I like the people I work with. That includes everyone--bosses, coworkers, and customers. I'm a very social person and even on the hard days, I like hanging out and talking with the people around me.

I love the feeling of a job well done. That might mean going the extra mile for a customer, greasing on a landing, or seeing how all of my efforts helped the business turn a profit last month. It's like an addiction to success...keep pushing on, even when it's tough, because you know the eventual feeling of success will be worth it.

Going through the hard days are what allow me to have the good days, if that makes any sense. What I mean is, if I wasn't willing to slug through the crappy days, I wouldn't be able to keep the job. If I didn't have the job, I wouldn't be around to enjoy the really awesome days. And the really awesome days are worth putting up with the crappy days for.
 
What keeps you going? Is it the pure love of flying?

Flying on a nice day is great. What about all the other days?
The guy at the bank that will kick me out of my house if I don't write him a big fat check once a month.

-mini
 
The guy at the bank that will kick me out of my house if I don't write him a big fat check once a month.

-mini

More like a hut if the pay scale continues on its current trend.

bdhill1979 said:
except turning shovels probably pays better.

Dunno bout shovels, but garbage men make 24k a year...30 percent increase if you want to think about a career change.

OP as others have said, paychecks is a big one. For me, I like seeing a student succeed but I don't know if CFIing will ever pay the bills so I will get back to you in a few years on what keeps me going in the airlines. Right now I am thinking about a career change to mechanical or electrical engineering with CFI on the side.
 
I think it's a combination of that I worked hard to get where I am, I don't like quitting things, I don't really know what else I would do with my life, and supposedly it gets better the longer you do it.

And the fact that the flying can be pretty fun helps too. Bit that is probably the only part I really enjoy about the job. At least if I'm flying with an interesting captain who knows what they're doing.
 
I'm pretty much terrible at everything else.

Don't worry, I'm working on changing that.
 
The smell of omelets cooking in the oven as you witness a beautiful sunrise on the climb out.

The personal satisfaction you get from guiding a silver tube from the west coast to the east coast around lines of thunderstorms and finishing the flight with a category III landing.

Flying with the very best first officers in the world.

Can you tell I love my job?:)
 
The love of flight is what gets most into the game. It is a considerable challenge. The learning curve can be quite steep and grades are usually issued at the end of each flight. Only the dull walk away not knowing how well or poorly they did that day.

After the newness wears off, it is still the challenge. Being pragmatic, it is also money. And yes I know the money trail today does not lead to the heights it used to. And that forces choices.

Now, after 40+ yrs of climbing into the cockpit, the challenge is still there. What is the perfect flight and am I willing to try to go for it or will I slack off and go for a C+ or B performance? And where does the line stop between being a 'professional' pilot (whatever that means) and not approaching other facets of life as a 'professional' (high standards, maybe?)

I am just glad to still be climbing in the cockpit although the 0430-0500 wake-ups are not as easy as they used to be.
 
When I was CFI-ing, a lot of times it was the thought of the next day teaching in actual or the next long x-country, or finally getting the student ready for their ride.

Other days it was just the spreadsheet of last months utility bills posted on the refrigerator in the house I shared with 2 other CFIs.
 
The smell of omelets cooking in the oven as you witness a beautiful sunrise on the climb out.

The personal satisfaction you get from guiding a silver tube from the west coast to the east coast around lines of thunderstorms and finishing the flight with a category III landing.

Flying with the very best first officers in the world.

Can you tell I love my job?:)

Doesn't that mean a really early wake up? :)

I'm a senior in college and what drives me is ... well I don't know anymore. ATC sounds real good with the higher pay and every night in bed.
 
...The realization that I have to work to live, and if i have to work I might as well fly. It aint all that bad.
 
When I wake up at 5 am for my flight, sometimes I think it cant get much worse then this, haha.....But, then when I am in the air I realize that I am getting paid for looking down at the earth at 25000ft which is pretty amazing. My brother is a business consultant, and while he makes more money than myself, he is constantly a stressed out wreck about new projects he is getting thrown onto. I will take being nervous about my 441 once a year as opposed to being a wreck 4x a week, haha.
 
Back
Top