NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
Excellent. I hope everyone refuses the 717 and Delta retires them for a real airplane.
SWA a stepping stone airline
- Thread starter MikeD
- Start date
Excellent. I hope everyone refuses the 717 and Delta retires them for a real airplane.
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
🦈💜
Well-Known Member
Yeah, honestly I know people it works for, but it's getting worse over here. Of course, my perspective is reentering at the bottom of the list, so there's that.
Mneh!
🦈💜
Well-Known Member
(I actually want to apply for LCA, but it would only make my already nightmare schedule worse)
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
Despite the repeated and enthusiastic endorsement of my local chief pilot my application was DOA in SLC and SGU, and I would call that more of a blessing than anything else. Especially on “that” crap-ass program with that crap-ass airplane.
So, like you said, bullet dodged. Unless you really want to be an LCP (and as a junior one you’re their beeeeeeyotch even more than a CBA-less line pilot).
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
I did it back in the day on the back seat of the 727. At Great White, there was no separate standards group, you were an IP or not. As an IP, you did OE, full flight sims, checking events, seat fill, and if you were qualified, line checks or ticket rides. There were some IPs that only did OE, but most did 6 months in the sim and 6 on the line, in 2 month clusters. A lot of variety.
I will say that I mostly worked with new hires, and they were universally pretty great, highly motivated and we worked hard to set them up for success.
I did have a few come though that weren’t on the “turn the page where you hear the bell” program, or just seemed to focused on making things harder than they had to be, and they were always hard to figure.
Highly rewarding, thought, if you’re into it.
trafficinsight
Well-Known Member
But if you're itching to get out it *is* a feather in your cap.
I fly 2-3 times a month. I could easily fly more, but unlike the retirees that fly with the airline, I still have my full time job, plus my fire contract work that I work somewhat often. There’s still a few guys from the Convair days around. They’ll talk your ear off about the CV-580,
drop an app here if you feel like it. There’s been four Alaska retirees hired on in the past two years, and one of them and one retired SWA guy will be aging out at 65 in about 6 months or so. One of the current guys even commutes down from ANC for a week to fly this job with whatever flights come up for that week.
Guy I used to fly in the AF with flies for them there in PHX.
When I was growing up there in PHX, it was Garrett AirResearch and then Allied Signal before becoming Honeywell. The 757 replaced the last flying Boeing 720 which was retired and scrapped on-site by order of company lawyers. For turboprop engine testing, they had an On Mark A-26 Invader, N25GT, that they would attach the test engines to the nose on. This bird was retired in the early 2000s and now sits at the South Mountain High School aviation program area. Was way cool seeing that thing taking off and landing back in the day….taxiing out in the early mornings with flames spitting from the stacks of the recips.
It’s not a tough decision as you can see. I can blow you away, or you can ride with me…
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
I had to have a whole ‘nother career and a masters’ degree to wash the regional funk off for no apparent reason.
Boots2Wings
Just happy to be here.
Got reminded of something an instructor at the zoo said today… “There’s no perfect airline, but there may be the perfect airline for you.”
Everyone should find their happy place.
Everyone should find their happy place.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
I was probably dumb enough to apply and start work on the old contract, but I have been pretty pleased with the changes in the last year and a couple three months. But I also came here knowing I could make more money somewhere else, specifically somewhere that involved months in an ATL hotel, and after that, non-revs/JS to ATL every time I needed to hit the sim. And the possibility of sitting reserve in NYC for a decently long time. I agree that the compensation is satisfactory, and not eye watering, but I think it is enough for me and my personal situation.
That all being said, I have never had a "you have your apps in?" CA who seemed to cast any judgement upon me. I think they all honestly wanted to give their best advice, based on their own experiences. This place is absolutely not the right fit for some people.......specifically people who don't want to live on the west coast, or people who want to do WB/international (though I guess that part could change now).
ZapBrannigan
If it ain’t a Boeing, I’m not going. No choice.
The zoo? Are you a veterinarian?
Matches my life situation exactly. I could have made a boatload more money elsewhere, but at what cost? Shoot, originally I moved on from a well paying non-flying career of 23 years to fly piston twins for $24K. I certainly didn’t make the move for the money. I wanted to fly airplanes and enjoy my life.
Don't get the wrong idea, I knew I couldn’t stay at that crappy pay forever, and we had contingency plans in place. But once I got to the place where I was flying nice equipment and making a “livable” wage (a very personal criteria for sure) I got very picky about moving jobs without taking into account all the factors. Shoot, back in 2008 I had an application in at NetJets, and they called and offered an interview opportunity. I thought about it long and hard because the salary increase would have been substantial, and the 7/7 schedule would have been working fewer days per month by a substantial margin, as we were working 6/3 at the time. I ended up declining the interview.
Here was my thought process at the time:
1. While the schedule sounded more appealing on a days-off basis, the reality of what we were doing was a lot more fun for me. With NetJets I’d be gone from home for seven days straight. With my current position there were seldom more than one or two RONS in a row, and the rare multi-day trips were often spent lounging in very nice places. Company policy was to keep the plane with the customer when possible, so spending some “free”days in places like Aspen or St. Thomas popped up from time to time. NetJets flies to those places too, but often don’t get enough time on the ground to really enjoy them. I probably averaged twice as many nights at home than I would have at NetJets.
2. We really got to know our customers. Our business model was primarily three pronged;
a. Aircraft owned by a single entity.
b. Fractionally owned aircraft.
c. 25 hour blocks of occupied aircraft time.
Those three types of customers kept our fleet busy enough that we seldom went outside of our established customer base for open charter. That means that we were flying the same few hundred people on a regular basis, and we got to know each other and establish actual relationships. It’s hard to describe how much it can add to job satisfaction to be able to provide exceptional service because you understand your customers. We had one aircraft owner that hated turbulence or sketchy weather, and he knew that we knew, and that he could count on us to offer him the best possible conditions by leaving early, leaving late, even waiting a day. Some people feel more comfortable with a personal touch and want to chat a few minutes getting ready to depart, while others are focused on their business and want everything ready to roll and an absolute minimum of interaction. Part 91 corporate operations are similar in this regard, but I think that we had a wider variety of customers without losing the personal touch, which I really enjoyed (along with keeping enough distance between flight crews and pax that we could more easily maintain control of all safety aspects).
3. Quality aircraft. Almost our entire fleet was relatively new aircraft, impeccably maintained. Spotless inside and out, and MEL’s were rare and cleared as quickly as possible. Our planes were coming back through home base every few days and got much better attention than aircraft that are gone 24/7 for months at a time.
4. I was OK with the potential career earning where I was. Would more money have been better? Of course, but at what cost? We could afford the lifestyle, house, and travel that we wanted, and we could fund our retirement at a level that meant no future loss in any of those QOL areas. Again, more money would have allowed us even more of what we enjoyed, but it would be incremental only, and I wasn’t willing to give up current QOL for that next level. I often reminded myself that a took a pay cut when switching careers to do what I enjoyed, and that the trade-off was worth it.
NetJets wasn’t the only opportunity I had to move on. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have moved jobs - no place is perfect and I can think of quite a few operations that I would have gladly jumped ship for - but those pieces never fell into place and that’s ok too. Bottom line is that there is always more to consider than just the money, and I’m perfectly happy with my life path. More importantly, I think it’s imperative to keep the wider perspective in mind while life is happening all around you - primarily to reduce the tendency to fixate on the things that you don’t like about your current situation rather than concentrating on what brings you joy. Life’s too short to be miserable.
Springer
Well-Known Member
59 worked for me, never regretted it.
More proof that it’s not all about the money. 8 years of retirement/freedom instead of, what, $2,000,000?
ZapBrannigan
If it ain’t a Boeing, I’m not going. No choice.
Figuring out your number is the tough part. Used to be they said you could use 4% of your retirement per year after you pull the trigger. Well, 4% of a million dollars is $40,000 a year. Most of us can’t do that. Can you live on $80,000 a year? $120,000? Now you’re up over $3,000,000 and many of us won’t have that in our 50s. 4% is conservative, yet when you’re talking about all the money you’ll ever have left to spend, maybe conservative is a good thing.
DE727UPS
Well-Known Member
Serious thread creep but cool discussion. I got out at 60, as soon as I could access the old skool pension. I was very lucky to be at a place that still had one. It's generous enough that I haven't had to touch the retirement funds and maintain my fairly simple lifestyle. Everything was paid off and going forward I won't buy something unless I can do it with cash. Had it not been for the QOL degradation of the job due to Covid, and the company increasingly making the schedules worse (doing more with less), I might have stuck around another year or two. I must say that I could never figure out why one wouldn't want to shoot for the top and work for a major airline. A friend I trained for his IFR in the 2000's stayed 91 but could have kept going leaving me shaking my head. All I ever wanted was to be an airline pilot and get as close to the top as I could. As I got older, I came to understand everyone's "top" is different.
wheelsup
Well-Known Member
We spend $40k/yr including our $1200/month mortgage. $3.5m in the bank. 42 years old. Just working now for funsies. Legacy CA and wife works in tech.
I was an RJ guy that saved like crazy early on, wife worked but didn’t have a good job until a few years ago. We were on the verge of homelessness in 2008 after the recession due to downgrade and barely making ends meet. It’s really starting to pile up now. Best advice for those looking to FIRE is save early and keep expenses super low for as long as you can. Up until three months ago I was still driving the same car I learned to drive in at age 15.