Timing is Everything....Next Up....

Old Pete said:
Hey, I agree, but the co. doesn’t.
Finally pushed the F button not to long ago, called crew track and said I wasn’t able to extend IAW part 117.
CT-you don’t need to-you’re still legal.
Uh, you don’t understand I’m not signing the release where it says “fit for duty”
But you’re legal
Me for the record, stated name, employee no. And dropped the F bomb.
Briefed crew, told them to expect a hotel in a time frame that would allow 10 hrs rest, but no more, reclined seat. Zzzs until the passive aggressive crew track found us a hotel.
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Pssst, it’s what the FAA says that matters here.
 
Roger Roger said:
But the right wing Jan 6th base isn’t poor. It’s bored middle class looking for some way to feel important and riled up with tales about how Others (whether it’s other colors, other nationalities, other genders…) are going to take what’s theirs. Poor people don’t do boat parades and try to run a bus off the road in $60k pickups.
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There’s a surprising number of tax cheats in that group too.

Which, sorry, can’t be simpatico to that.
 
Roger Roger said:
But the right wing Jan 6th base isn’t poor. It’s bored middle class looking for some way to feel important and riled up with tales about how Others (whether it’s other colors, other nationalities, other genders…) are going to take what’s theirs. Poor people don’t do boat parades and try to run a bus off the road in $60k pickups.
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I don't know, most of us would be pretty poor after chartering a Piaggio Avanti, and presumably many of them were unemployed since they had time to travel to DCA on a weekday and had to make do with such mean accommodations as the Grand Hyatt. Plus I hear tech CEOs are really struggling these days.
 
Murdoughnut said:
Certainly don't have your perspective, but less about being a Captain and more about being in a leadership role - be it training, corporate, etc. Knowing me, I'd get bored with just flying and would be looking for something with more involvement in planning and corporate matters. Also the idea of being a training Captain doing IOE trips interests me. Not sure how many opportunities there are as a 10-year + mainline FO.
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To each his own really. If someone wants to be a lifer at a regional, so be it. I know some folks at my old company who lived in rural Indiana, and for that company IND was about as stable as it can get. They were able to get a 100+k income and enjoyed the comfort of their seniority. It not what I did, and its not what I would want to do, but I dont disparage them for doing so.

To @killbilly , Get cracking on this right away. I dont know how apps are set up now, but id be firing off resumes already even though you are just short of the ATP mins. "Everyone" is hiring and youll likely find a feeding frenzy for applicants. Being in DC you can find numerous airlines that have bases close by.
 
Kingairer said:
To each his own really. If someone wants to be a lifer at a regional, so be it. I know some folks at my old company who lived in rural Indiana, and for that company IND was about as stable as it can get. They were able to get a 100+k income and enjoyed the comfort of their seniority. It not what I did, and its not what I would want to do, but I dont disparage them for doing so.

To @killbilly , Get cracking on this right away. I dont know how apps are set up now, but id be firing off resumes already even though you are just short of the ATP mins. "Everyone" is hiring and youll likely find a feeding frenzy for applicants. Being in DC you can find numerous airlines that have bases close by.
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Meh. Spent a year in Indiana one weekend. Nice people, good school, but yowsers.

But that’s me, Judgy McJudgerson.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
15 years ago was 2006/2007. I had been a corporate pilot for Walmart for about 2 years, after fumbling through a number of post 9/11 furloughs. I felt as though the job was the best kept secret in aviation. It was mostly Monday through Friday flying with very few overnights and virtually no holidays. In the summer of 2007 I was given the "take it or leave it, no kidding this time" recall to US Airways. Our son was just over a year old and the thought of commuting from Arkansas to Philly (even temporarily) and missing out on first steps... first words... while I sat in a crashpad in Philly made the decision to stay seem clear. The fact that US Airways, whose future had always looked tenuous after the failed United merger attempt, had closed the PIT hub galvanized the decision for me. I turned them down.
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99 Hire?
 
Richman said:
Is it my imagination or did you write a lengthy post on FI about landing in CLT on 9/11 to the scene of all the jets parked and the captain said “you know, there’s going to be furloughs” or something like that?
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Yeah. Good memory. He thought we had gone out of business. He said "this is just what happened at Braniff". We didn't realize until after we had deplaned and parked on 5/23 what had happened.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Yeah. Good memory. He thought we had gone out of business. He said "this is just what happened at Braniff". We didn't realize until after we had deplaned and parked on 5/23 what had happened.
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I don’t know why I remember that post after all this time. Maybe it stuck with me at the time because it seemed that was kind of a dickish thing to say, but probably wasn’t meant that way.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Geez. Definitely my biggest regret.
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I've read your posts both here and on other sites for years and have always appreciated your insight. But you can't do that to yourself. You can't look backward thinking how much better today would be without also acknowledging how bad it would have been then. You did what was best for your family at the time and I hope you take pride, or at least solace, in that fact rather than regretting it.
 
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Timing really is everything, and unfortunately we can't control it. The best thing we can do is make a decision with the information we have at the moment and don't look back in regret. It was the best decision with what we had in hand at the time, and there's no way to predict the future.

I'm struggling a little bit with this myself as someone looking to catch the 121 hiring wave before it's too late, and sometimes FOMO takes the best of me. I had been a captain at my scheduled 135 outfit for less than a year when COVID hit. In order to upgrade I had to change bases, and that would have meant a short commute, but I decided to move back to my hometown and have a long commute since both my SO and I hated the city we were living in. Everything was going great, I loved it, and the commute didn't bother me. Until the furloughs hit, the most senior base closed, and I was suddenly 1 number away from being downgraded back to FO and could no longer hold a commutable schedule. So I took a job with a local on-demand 135 operator, did some of the most amazing flying I will ever do in my career, and made some great money doing so, until the flying slowed down significantly. Now I'm barely getting any hours, the schedule is brutal, and I'm watching my friends back at my old shop get hired at the majors left and right with way more TPIC than me. Some days I regret it, but in hindsight I can't fault that decision. Nobody knew how COVID would have played out and my current job is way more stable although the amount of flying fluctuates. Maybe I would be in class at the majors too now, but how would not being able to come home for months at a time, or not having the beautiful house that I was able to buy in the city I love have impacted my QOL and my relationship? Maybe it would have been even worse. Maybe I'll get lucky with my apps at the ULCCs and this problem will end up not being a problem after all. At least I get to drive to work in the meantime. The thing is we can't base our lives on "what if" or "maybe". Things could have certainly turned out better, but they can damn well turn out worse just as easily. Unfortunately the outcome of this career for all of us, whether 121 or Corporate/135 will depend largely on factors outside of our control. The best you can do is keep your nose clean, be professional, don't burn bridges, and make decisions with what you know at the time. Only the day you retire will you know if that was truly the right decision, but there's no point regretting it since with the information you had at the time, you might has well have flipped a coin.
 
As with most threads, this thread will diverge in whatever direction - and that's cool - I got a lot of good information here. Several of you also reached out to me privately with advice and thoughts and I appreciate all of it.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone participating.

-b
 
SrFnFly227 said:
I've read your posts both here and on other sites for years and have always appreciated your insight. But you can't do that to yourself. You can't look backward thinking how much better today would be without also acknowledging how bad it would have been then. You did what was best for your family at the time and I hope you take pride, or at least solace, in that fact rather than regretting it.
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01f4bfbf41adadbb7a94f5901a5a0a86.jpg

[emoji6] I don't take myself too seriously.
 
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