Seasons of Life

[ZapBrannigan]

In another thread Slumtodd mentioned that most people here hadn't even entered the industry the last time a certain airline had 5 year upgrades.

That got me thinking. It's so easy to get wrapped up in our own lives that you completely miss the acceleration of the passage of time.

For example, there was a time when every pilot I knew experienced 9/11 as a professional pilot. It's not unusual today to run across pilots who weren't even flying yet on 9/11. Many who were still in grade school. Forget for a moment that their perspective on the profession will not have been colored by that event and the nearly decade long furloughs that followed, and imagine what else they missed and, as a result how that created a generational change among pilots as a group.

That crowd won't have experienced pay for training schemes.

Many of them will never have flown a turboprop.

Some will never have flown steam gauges. Or have flown an airliner without an autopilot.

They have always existed in a profession where the retirement age is 65, so they likely can't grasp what it was like to have that 5 year 'pause' inserted into furlough recalls, upgrades, or hiring.

Many won't ever have done Jeppesen revisions.

Pay at the commuters in our generation was sub-$15,000 per year. We lived in fraternity-like crashpad apartments with wall to wall pilots sleeping on air mattresses because it was all we could afford. The company warned us not to apply for food stamps. Today regionals pay a livable wage and offer extra-contractual bonuses that far exceed first year pay at the majors.

Pilot retirements over the last 5 years have created an environment where pilots looking to move to major airlines have multiple offers and multiple choices. Our generation took the first offer that came along and hoped it would all work out.

I have decades of professional flying behind me, and only about a decade and a half in front of me. I can't imagine what more will change, but I am sure that the current generation of zero to hero pilots advancing through airline sponsored flow throughs will never look at the profession through the same lens as I do.

 

[QXDX]

This is basically the same thought expressed in another thread where someone was trying to convince someone else of the existence of lost decade.

It's a relative thing. This current generation of pilots will have their own set of challenges. Single pilot cockpits? Unmanned or remotely piloted aircraft? Another pandemic?

I personally think the biggest challenge that lies ahead is an increasing trend toward authoritarianism in world governments. History shows us it tends not to bode well for the general prosperity of people who buy plane tickets.

 

[mikecweb]

Every generation has it's struggles. How much per hour was it when you rented an airplane when you were learning to fly? Have you seen rates these days? How many members on this forum can't still make it to a legacy for whatever reason? Yes the 26 year old that just barely meets the minimums and is a new hire at Delta makes some heads turn and alot more head shakes, that certainly isn't the norm.
Does the current "zero to heroes" lack prospective that your generation had with 9/11, maybe? But they also will never know long layovers and any of the glamour that this industry once had. They go to work, min rest almost everywhere, wearing a mask and possibly trusted to take toothpaste through security. It's not all puppy dogs and roses for the new guys.

We were lucky to have had the opportunity to fly turbo props and experience some of the fun in flying. I wouldn't for a second trade my time flying checks for regional bonuses and shiney jets. Im the lucky one, they just get to hear the stories.

 

[Richman]

Interesting perspective, Zap.

My introduction to GA was at the local field. 1987. Cessna had just stopped production, which was a shock to an industry that had delivered 17,000 units in 1978, not even 10 years past. Magazines were still hopeful that this was a temporary blip. Rental spots had an incredible variety of aircraft on the rental line. Some large outfits had 30 aircraft. I remember walking around Denver Centennial to find they and THREE such clubs. FBOs often had walkup parts counters. There was still substantial industry inertia.

FBOs, except the largest at major fields, were "full service" with fuel, MX, rental, training, you name it.

The 1-800-WX-BRIEF had just been introduced. Before that you had to find your local FSS and call directly. DUAT via dialup wouldn't show up until the end of '88.

EVERYTHING was rumor and word of mouth. No interwebz.

LORAN was just starting to creep into GA awareness. The Apollo 618 was the shiznit. 4 lines of 20 characters each and a full database. No GPS. Most airplanes didn't even have mode C. TCAs, ARSAs, control zones and the like were still a thing.

The late 80's also saw the closing of a ton more "close in GA fields" that started in the early 70s. Continued suburban sprawl also ate up a lot of once-rural mom-n-pop fields that provided a cost effective place for the average joe to keep an airplane.

Cell phones weren't a thing. If you wanted to get a clearance at an uncontrolled field, if you were UBER lucky, there was a VOR on the field you could communicate with FS. If not, it was the payphone on the side of the cinder block FBO. Good luck making your void time.

Flight training was much the same, however. No ipads or videos. It was sectional charts and filmstrips at the local Cessna Pilot Center. Getting lost on your XC was a real possibility.

Most civilian flight training was done at FBOs. There were a very few "big schools" like UND and ERAU plus some other real old school outfits like Burnside-Ott, Daniel Webster and whatnot. There were a few big "mom-n-pops" starting to really fire up, like Shields and Bolivar. They'd become more of a thing towards the end of the 80s. Some grew to be quite large, and even the medium sized places had 20-30 airplanes. Most of these places were barely organized chaos...a flurry of 152s and Jeppesen lesson folders.

The late 80's was the first time a solely civilian guy could reliably get hired. Prior to that, the majors were all military, all the time, and the best a civilian guy could hope for is a North Central, Ozark, Piedmont type of operator. There were some VERY brief time periods where a civilian guy could get hired, but it was typically during heavy MIL action like the late 60's. Many majors still had eyesight limits and age restrictions. If you didn't get hired by 30, you were cooked.

The late 80s was also a time when regionals were still in their box, and not really a threat to the mainline operator. RJs wouldn't pop up until 1992. Most commuters, as they were called then, flew a pretty oddball mix, and most were mom-n-pop operations. The biggest places might have 40-50 airplanes, but most were quite small. Beech 99s/1900s (C models), some Twin Otters, J-Balls, Metros, Shorts, with maybe some Saabs and Dash-8s starting to appear as you got closer to 1990. Names like Crowne, Ransome, Henson, Westair, Air Midwest, Britt, Rocky Mountain, plus hundreds I can't remember.

The "pipeline" was pretty well defined. You instructed until you had 1,200 hours (135 mins), flew checks in single engine pistons until about 1,500-1,600 hours, then switched to twins. Did that until 1,800-2,000 hours and then made your break for one of the commuters. VERY rarely would those mins be adjusted downward, but never below 1,000/100.

Every once in a while, some lucky oddball would get a job flying a Citation. For the most part, corporate jobs were for nephews, but some worked their way up through 135 charter outfits through an assortment of Navajos, 402s, 414s, 421s into turboprops and onto jets. A large percentage of guys I knew doing that "flamed out" for one reason or another.

This all worked pretty well until 1990. Recession and then Gulf War 1. That parked everyone where they were for 4-5 years. Compounding that were some near and actual bankruptcies, vast retrenchment, proliferation of RJs and the predation of one commuter vs another (IE Mesa). If you were a CFI during that time, it sucked. If you were a FO at a regional, that sucked less, but the overall theme was the stagnation really dicked up the program for anyone who wasn't a turbine PIC. because after 4-5 years waiting for an upgrade, an FO would still have to bank 1,000 turbine to be picked up anywhere. Some guys I knew bailed from on commuter to another, hoping to upgrade, only to get stopped in their tracks. If you were at the wrong outfit, you could really get hosed.

Things didn't turn around until mid-1995. The guys/gals at the top of the heap moved quickly, but it took a while for the movement to carry through as most regionals weren't in a "upgrade" mode. Things did pick up in 97 and things were pretty much back to normal until 2001 and GW 2. Thus began the lost decade. Bankruptcies, mergers, lost of pensions. The financial crash of 2008 ensured your savings didn't do anything. Lots of people stuck where they were for quite a while. Again, it all depended on where you were when the music stopped. Things didn't pick up again until 2013.

GA during this time did OK, but obviously never "came back". Cessna eventually restarted production. During the market crash of 2008, lots of planes got sold at discount prices, but recall that all serious support of GA essentially stopped. As we got into 2010s, you saw business insurance inflation, which started in 2001, really take off, and after 9/11 it went into orbit. The easy availability of parts started to dry up, especially for older/oddball breeds. After 2000, most FBOs had gotten out of retail aviation services like rentals, MX and training, and simply elected to be a fuel/space provider, with everything else outsourced to vendors. This caused a lot of cost escalation for the rental guys. These days, you really need to find a specialist MX provider for anything more complicated than a 182 or Cherokee.

In 1990, you could go zero to hero, including CFII/MEI, for about $13k, with a bit more for food/lodging. That translates to about 28K today, but the actual number is far higher and the places to go far more restricted. That directly fed into the "shortage" that caused the wet-ink commercials getting hired into the regionals. But that's another story.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Excellent history by Zap and Richman.

To continue that story…

“That directly fed into the "shortage" that caused the wet-ink commercials getting hired into the regionals. But that's another story.”

This happened but was fairly limited to 2006/2007. 2008 things started to slow and by the end of the year we were in the GFC and recession. By the time hiring came back in 2011/2012, the new ATP rule went into effect 2013.

I was one of those wet commercial straight to a regional CRJ in 2007. My flight school produced maybe 75 or so that actually made it to the regionals. By ~May 2008 they basically shut down as hiring came to a halt.

Luck and timing then helped me fly over 990 hrs/calendar year for each year (4.5 yrs) that I was at my regional. That translated to getting just barely over the 4,000 TT hrs required by VX.

Had I been hired just 3 months later at my regional, I would have been reserve for 2008-2010 and flown about 300-500 hrs at best, and not have had the hours for the LCC job. No control over that, all luck and timing.

Since 2013, I will say the newbies knew nothing but the good times. Hired into a regionals of their choice, upgrade as soon as legally able, and then got hired at majors all the way up to March 2020. Covid was their first major hiccup in the career, but now looking back even that seemed to be short lived, in that newhire classes stopped in March 2020 but resumed Summer 2021.

Without a doubt, the guys who had it worse were the late 90s hires. Hit by 9-11, BK contract/pay cuts, and just when things seemed to have recovered and hiring in 2005-2007, the 2008-2011 GFC and recession hit. Many were double furloughs (or more). A huge double whammy with 9/11 amd the GFC.

The lost decade was a real thing.

 

[MikeD]

I flew with a kid who didn’t know what the terms Flight Engineer or Second Officer meant. “Is that some derogatory name they had for a jumpseat rider?” Uggh. When @Derg and I were in college together, we had one CFI who was a former TWA Flight Navigator, and had the certificate……flew on TWA L-1649 Connies and 707s.

Even in my training days in the late 1980s, you were somebody if you had a CFI job. And in Prescott, if you got the job with Mesa to fly the 208 Caravan they used for airline service to there, you were somebody! You might even be able to move up to their Beech 1300s they had at PHX, before they got the 1900s. Prior to that, the golden ticket was being able to get a gig flying the Golden Pacific Cessna 402, which did airline service into PRC before Mesa did.

As a student pilot, was fun training at PHX in the ARSA that later became a TCA, and now required an endorsement to be a student pilot flying inside in and out of it. Back when PHX only had two runways, still had Terminal 1 and didn’t have a Terminal 4. My future company I would work for, was on the north side of the field which was actually active and still had the Left Seat restaurant with rooftop open-air seating as well as indoor seating on the first floor, right by the ramp and north runway.

Seems like yesterday that I can remember sitting in Holbrook, AZ, as a storm is approaching in the evening, checking my watch for the last UPS truck to show up from the area and offload into my Piper Chieftain so I could get the cargo back to PHX. As the driver was unloading the last of the boxes and nicely stuffing them away for me, I went to the pay phone on the outside wall of the airport office that closed for the night an hour earlier, in order to call FSS and get my clearance. Then run back to the plane, say bye to the UPS driver, do a quick run around for security of doors and latches, hop in and launch before my void time, trying to remain in VMC at night as I contacted ARTCC to be able to pop into the weather.

Or, going into Winslow, AZ on a snowing morning. Break out at MDA from the VOR approach just below the undercast, and there just a sea of white on the ground, no airport. Rock the wings one way and then the next and looking south of Interstate 40, and happen to spot a couple of airplanes sitting in a sea of white……must be the parking ramp. Start to circle now in order to try and get the runway orientation since the runway lights are below the snow surface, and just hang out for a few circles around the field…..at circling MDA and inside my obstacle protected distance for the approach category, so it’s safe and legal. Figure out where the runway is under the snow and widen out to a base/final, landing right on it with some nice deceleration. The tricky part was now precisely determining where the exit to the taxiway was so as not to run a main gear off the asphalt surface. Taxi in and the UPS driver walks up to the nose of the bird after shutdown, and removes a saucer shaped nearly 2 inch piece of ice that had been adhered to the nose cone, and shows it to me. That was fun.

NDBs were common in those days. Flew many of them in IMC to many of the fields I went into, Show Low AZ being the most common one. Got to the point where the outbound teardrop course reversal to the inbound configuring for landing and descending to the MDA became second nature. Only hard part was thunderstorms, where the bearing pointer would oscillate left and right for 30 degrees……aim to fly a heading halfway in between the oscillations, and the course was close enough to break out and be somewhere where the airport was still in front of me.

One of our birds had an RMI and it was the bomb. Another one had A VLF/OMEGA navigation system installed, and it was just as neat.

Even when I started military flying, many cohorts I flew with had never flown an NDB. There were many instances where the 135 cargo flying experience came in very handy in flying fighter jets. Once when on a night patrol, I get called to assist in a firefight going on in an area that is low overcast. Heavy fighting going on in the mountains below. Arrive over the scene to solid undercast below me. No idea how far down it goes. Pretty serious battle going on, so I decide to pick an anchor point where I know I am, crosscheck that with the 1/100 topo map that I have with me so I can see what the orientation of the terrain is below me and the estimated heights, and I selected a heading which would take me down into a narrow straight canyon, and determined my own MDA to not descend below if I didn’t break out. Flew a made-up holding pattern to cross the anchor fix outbound, and started the descent into the weather, entering IMC just as I could make out the dark mountain peaks to my right and left jutting out of the cloud tops. Figured what the hell…..if I impacted terrain, it would happen so quick that I’d never know it, but still, it was maddening waiting for that to happen, or not, while watching the altimeter unwind and nothing but clouds and rain outside the canopy. A few hundred feet from my made up MDA, I break out into rain and mist, and two large mountains to my left and right, arc to the right towards the one mountain, and make a tight left 180 degree turn to reverse course back towards the battle area, honking on the G’s to ensure I wouldn’t hit the terrain that I couldn’t see below the fuselage while in the turn inside the canyon. Worked my way back up towards the battle and was able to employ forward firing ordnance against enemy vehicles on two passes in the tight racetrack that had to be maintained inside the canyon, before taking up the escape heading and climbing back into the undercast, hoping not to hit anything on the way up and exiting out the top of the weather. Having flown in crap weather in the old 135 days, at least set a good foundation for being able to accomplish that without becoming a smoking hole on a mountainside wall.

There’s lots of things that I think the new generation of pilots have missed out on. Have a few newbies where I am now that I’m responsible training, who haven’t ever flown steam gauges……and also have no clue what an FE is/was.

Now, after a career of flying traffic watch, single engine VFR/IFR 135 cargo, twin engine IFR 135 cargo, military fighter/attack jets, swapping over to military rescue helicopters; now I mainly fly helos (with its own dangerous and risky situations) with a side gig of dabbling into 121 supplemental part time in ancient 73s just to keep my fixed wing skills up, in addition to my fire/rescue contract company and it’s work. The number of pilots I encounter there who are shocked/surprised when I kick off the autopilot and autothrottles when cleared for a visual approach, just to be able to fly the thing and not be dorking with the FMS while low altitude or slewing heading bugs to try to get the autopilot to line up with the runway, is interesting. Then, I have the guys in the company that are older school than me, who think I kicked off those items too late.

Flying can be work, but it can still be fun and not just be systems management. I often wonder whether the new breed of pilots who haven’t really experienced anything other than systems-style flying from day one, even realize this…..

All in all, it’s been a good ride. And I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything. I’d love to hop into an old Chieftain and take one for a spin again sometime. Since Ameriflight has all of theirs retired and stored in the far west metro PHX valley at Buckeye, I wish I could take one of them.

Sometimes, it’s nice to take a look back at one’s path and see what kinds of experiences could not have been foreseen when way back at the beginning and trying to look forward.

 

[fholbert]

My introduction to GA was at the local field. 1987.

You Newbie!

 

[Stone Cold]

This is basically the same thought expressed in another thread where someone was trying to convince someone else of the existence of lost decade.

It's a relative thing. This current generation of pilots will have their own set of challenges. Single pilot cockpits? Unmanned or remotely piloted aircraft? Another pandemic?

I personally think the biggest challenge that lies ahead is an increasing trend toward authoritarianism in world governments. History shows us it tends not to bode well for the general prosperity of people who buy plane tickets.

Yep that was my thread, I believe. The sad part of it was it was a 60 year old, military retiree. He never had to struggle in the industry. It was, let's say, an interesting discussion. He was and is a pompous ass. He'll retire in the next couple of years, if he doesn't back up his word and retire due to the vaccine mandate.

 

[bLizZuE]

I think sometimes people forget that millennials are about to be 40 and we’ve seen some stuff. Certainly not as much, but the last 20 years of your career were just the first 20 of mine.

 

[Bob Ridpath]

Never a long-term pilot, or in the industry, I’d still like to share some things which will never come this way again.

- My first solo was in a Cherokee 140(N4377J) off Runway 16 at BEV when it was an uncontrolled airport with three runways. 9/27 and 16/34 were pieces of cake, so to speak, but I never really got used to 2/20 (a taxiway now). I can still remember the first jet I saw into the place and the run from Omni Beechcraft (West side) across the field to watch a Dash8 Jetstar as it landed and tied down. No one cared then that a couple kids were running down taxiways and through the underbrush. There were very rare Executive Twin Otters, too, that would occasionally use the place for full stop landings and taxi back for take-offs; training, I assume, though we enjoyed the experience without really knowing the purpose

- First airline ride as a wee one in a TWA Constellation. Certainly didn’t understand the full experience at the time but remember the trip, visit to the cockpit (in flight) and still have the deck of cards and plastic wings of same as souvenirs.

- I’ve had the privilege of riding Mohawk Bac1-11s and FH-227s for a couple weekends at $29.95 each from Friday 6PM thru Sunday 6pm, system wide. I did that when my parents were at the Maine cottage for weekends and I was a “responsible” teen with a driver’s license, access to the old VW and a few extra bucks. It was glorious - no reservations required and overnights in major airports - but I’ll bet the folks would have been surprised at receiving an emergency phone call from hundreds of miles away from where I should have been

- I flew on Northeast DC9s and 727s between BOS and PWM a number of times. The student fare was affordable and my parents, knowing my love for aviation, were amenable to drop-off or pickup at the airports. My first trips to PWM were well beyond the “new” terminal building and in a time of less security and far more freedom to explore

- I had the privilege of flying on Executive Twin Otters between BOS and PWM, and also to HYA and ACK. Used to take road trips when I could to watch Executive Otters into LEW and AUG, and to EEN, EWB, and WOR to watch Northeast put DC9s and FH227s into small, rural airports

- Spent a year watching Wien Consolidated 737s into Galena, AK courtesy of the USAF, with regular and glorious flights of the two F4s stationed there taking off and landing. The small nature of the AFS and more informal atmosphere allowed those interested enough to join the flight line for operations. It was amazing and my favorite way to pass the time away up North

- Tolerant parents let me fly to visit grandparents in Ft Wayne, IN for most of my junior and high school February breaks (though I had to pay my own way). UAL had a one-stop flight for the first couple years (CLE) and then a flight to CLE, transfer to FWA. Had a DC7 once, a 727 twice and then generally 737s for both legs. My patient grandfather usually took me a couple times during the ten days there to hang-out at Baer Field and watch the UAL and DAL flights coming and going. Grandpa, btw, also took me to the Ft Wayne Baker Street Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad for train watching and it was my privilege to be on the platforms when tall E8s and the occasional steam engine still held forth on passenger trains.


I could add more which took place over the many years of a long life but the common denominator, like many of yours, is that those days are gone and will not pass this way again. Saddened by the loss of precious things, I’m so glad I had the chance to experience them in long-ago times. Sic transit Gloria …

 

[Richman]

I wish there was more that could be done for general aviation. With the exception of Canada, there is no other place on earth where GA does what it does than in the US. The history is so rich and thick, every cow pasture strip has some kind of story to it and the people that were there.

But like many other things, I’m starting to feel that time has passed it by.

 

[DE727UPS]

This thread's history explanation and stories are epic. I went through it all but have nothing to add. Well done.

 

[BobDDuck]

The crazy thing for me was that for the first 3 years of my commercial flying career (2004 - 2007) as the majors suffered from the back end of 9/11, my world prospered. Flight schools were busy, and I quickly got 1000 hours. Regional were growing as scope clauses continued to be chipped away at, and I moved up and off reserve fairly quickly. What most kept me grounded during that time, was flying with Jets For Jobs pilots who had lived first hand (as junior FOs and FEs) the shuttering of Eastern and Pan Am, and the mass furloughs that followed 2001. It wasn't until the bubble burst in 2008, followed by age 65, that I experienced any of that first hand.

My lost decade was only 5 years, due to pure luck, but I saw first hand the haunted look in the eyes of those that experienced the first 5 years of it.

 

[mrivc211]

Two things pop out in my mind with my career, during ground school at a regional 19 years ago, half my class was UAL guys that were on fresh furloughs. Most had B727 engineer time in their logbooks.
The second was when I was flight instructing at KSNA in 2001 and the last TWA flight called for pushback. The pilots from ual aa delta America west etc all chimes in on the radio and said very classy things. It was weird to see a TWA painted AA B737 landing at sna a couple of years ago. Brought back a lot of mementoes. 10 year regional guy here

 

[Burrito]

Been employed in the industry 11 years, but have loved it for nearly twenty. This thread still makes me feel like a rookie and I LOVE the histories.

 

[Richman]

For those that like doing their own sleuthing, Google Books has all the back issues of Flying from the beginning to about 2000 or so.

Paul Freeman’s Abandoned Airports is also excellent, but be prepared for a time suck.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I think sometimes people forget that millennials are about to be 40 and we’ve seen some stuff. Certainly not as much, but the last 20 years of your career were just the first 20 of mine.

Many of us won the Will Smith "Welcome to Earth, Bitch" award while still in high school.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

And in non-aviation, I think college grads of 2008 had it the worse. Graduate into the GFC and worst recession in decades. A boom for 2012-2019 and then Covid. That’s two once-in-a-lifetime event in 12 years.

 

[Crockrocket94]

Many of us won the Will Smith "Welcome to Earth, Bitch" award while still in high school.

I COULDVE BEEN AT A BARBECUE!

 

[USMCmech]

I remember when Gordon Baxter was writing a column for Flying Magazine.

I wonder if anyone can make the connection between Pt 135, Gordon Baxter, and this picture taken in the Beaumont Texas, Jefferson Theater back in 1957.