To pro pilots.
- Thread starter flyindrumminpilot
- Start date
flyindrumminpilot
New Member
Whenevr I am flying the night before I cant sleep, whenever I fly I want a diversion so I can see new airports and get more takeoffs and landings. I spend all my time thinking about flying and wanting to go to the airport watching planes, I think this is like my calling, but will I still like it so much when I get there? And I hope flying is everything I think it is.
Parabellum
New Member
Back to the origional topic. I believe that the biggest factor that determines whether or not you'll enjoy flying for a living and succeed in doing so is your attitude. I don't yet fly professionally, but I do know that the few times flying has ever stunk for me was when I viewed my flying as a "job" for getting the next rating. Aviation sucks when the only thing you think about is where you want to end up.
Its also important to put things into perspective. I guess the best way to put it is that having a flying job isn't an escape from real life. If you decide that flying is how you're going to earn your money, you're going to have to work for it just like you would any other job. A lot of people in the general public outside of the aviation community truely and incorrectly believe that a majority of airline pilots are living "luxorious" lives, are millionares, and that they "never work." When you start getting into the mindset that you can get money without truely working for it, that's when you're going to start fitting in with the boys who run Amway type of scams.
Whether your job is to fly or not, the truth of the matter is that we live in a world that places demands and limitations on us, many of which are completely arbitrary, and some of which make absolutely no sense at all. What is also true, is that we don't have much control of our limitations or what is demanded from us. We only have control of how we respond to them. Therefore, I don't think its fair to say that airline careers cause high divorce rates because at least half of all couples in this entire country who get married eventually end up in divorce. I'm willing to bet that only 0.00001% of all those cases involve a pilot in the family. So when I hear people advising pilots to marry a woman who can be independent and not count on you for her happiness all the time, I seriously have to wonder if pilots are truely the only people who need that advice.
Again, it all boils down to attitude. For example, my sister is happily married to a man who isn't a pilot, but has a job that requires he be gone from the house just as much. Does my sister wish she could spend more time with him? Absolutely. But would she ever leave him for a man who could "be there" for her? Absolutely not, because she knows that the work he does, while it does create somewhat of a burden on the family, and while the man doesn't always enjoy it, is certainly for the family's best interests. Because they have the right attitude, they're probably one of the happiest and best functioning families I have ever seen, and I know that there are pilot families like that out there as well.
I guess what I have to say last, is that your love of flying, whether you do it for recreation or as a profession, has to come from within yourself. There's nobody out there who can make you love or hate flying but yourself. Even if you love flying more than anyone else in the world, however, you are still going to face hardships at times. Sorry, but that's life.
If you're in a position of being paid to fly, just think of how lucky you really are. Sadly, very few people in this world have such opportunity. What's most unfortunate is that most people in this world live in third world countries where the type of work they do is entirely focused on just how to even SURVIVE. Either that, or they're being exploited by companies like Nike, who pay workers in third world countries 35 cents an hour to make their stuff in sweatshops, all so that greedy corporate executives back home can make higher profits and sit on them. And do you see that these greedy executives who make their money off of the backs of the world's people are having any fewer family problems than everyone else because they don't have to work as much doing that hard labor? I don't see that they are, because their attitudes stink.
Just my 2 cents...
Its also important to put things into perspective. I guess the best way to put it is that having a flying job isn't an escape from real life. If you decide that flying is how you're going to earn your money, you're going to have to work for it just like you would any other job. A lot of people in the general public outside of the aviation community truely and incorrectly believe that a majority of airline pilots are living "luxorious" lives, are millionares, and that they "never work." When you start getting into the mindset that you can get money without truely working for it, that's when you're going to start fitting in with the boys who run Amway type of scams.
Whether your job is to fly or not, the truth of the matter is that we live in a world that places demands and limitations on us, many of which are completely arbitrary, and some of which make absolutely no sense at all. What is also true, is that we don't have much control of our limitations or what is demanded from us. We only have control of how we respond to them. Therefore, I don't think its fair to say that airline careers cause high divorce rates because at least half of all couples in this entire country who get married eventually end up in divorce. I'm willing to bet that only 0.00001% of all those cases involve a pilot in the family. So when I hear people advising pilots to marry a woman who can be independent and not count on you for her happiness all the time, I seriously have to wonder if pilots are truely the only people who need that advice.
Again, it all boils down to attitude. For example, my sister is happily married to a man who isn't a pilot, but has a job that requires he be gone from the house just as much. Does my sister wish she could spend more time with him? Absolutely. But would she ever leave him for a man who could "be there" for her? Absolutely not, because she knows that the work he does, while it does create somewhat of a burden on the family, and while the man doesn't always enjoy it, is certainly for the family's best interests. Because they have the right attitude, they're probably one of the happiest and best functioning families I have ever seen, and I know that there are pilot families like that out there as well.
I guess what I have to say last, is that your love of flying, whether you do it for recreation or as a profession, has to come from within yourself. There's nobody out there who can make you love or hate flying but yourself. Even if you love flying more than anyone else in the world, however, you are still going to face hardships at times. Sorry, but that's life.
If you're in a position of being paid to fly, just think of how lucky you really are. Sadly, very few people in this world have such opportunity. What's most unfortunate is that most people in this world live in third world countries where the type of work they do is entirely focused on just how to even SURVIVE. Either that, or they're being exploited by companies like Nike, who pay workers in third world countries 35 cents an hour to make their stuff in sweatshops, all so that greedy corporate executives back home can make higher profits and sit on them. And do you see that these greedy executives who make their money off of the backs of the world's people are having any fewer family problems than everyone else because they don't have to work as much doing that hard labor? I don't see that they are, because their attitudes stink.
Just my 2 cents...
Well, there's not really a cut and dry answer and it depends on quite frankly, how you're feeling that day.
Today was a good day. I got some good visuals in where I was actually able to fly the aircraft in situations where it was more flying than programming automation.
We kept the same cabin crew and for the first time in 6 months, actually didn't swap aircraft every other leg. The flight attendants were good to work with, took good care of the captain and I and we had no passenger or maintenance problems.
It was a much shorter day so I wasn't absolutely dog tired reaching the hotel (like last night) and had fun.
Yesterday, however, was a bear. Had a hotel pickup at 5:15am, ate a bad crew meal, had the sh*ts all afternoon, flew LAS to SLC, traded aircraft & cabin crew, hit the boys room again, flew SLC to DEN with an aircraft with "interesting" MEL items, flew DEN to SLC, swapped aircraft and cabin crew again, waited for a late jet, hit the boys room again, flew SLC to SAN, hit the boys room, had maintenance change a tire, got a rotten clearance from ATC, got pushed in front of a "lifeguard" aircraft and had to diplomatically negotiate with ATC to allow us to use the parallel, thus allowing the "lifegaurd" jet to do what he had to do to expedite, landed in SLC, hit the boys room again, waited for a late hotel van and foraged for food around the hotel.
It really all depends because you have good days and you have bad days. It's a good profession, but unfortunately, being a good profession, there are forces that are out there that will try their best to manipulate your love of the performance of you job for their own political/financial interests (PFT, work rule/wage concessions, etc)
Flying has to be in your blood!
Today was a good day. I got some good visuals in where I was actually able to fly the aircraft in situations where it was more flying than programming automation.
We kept the same cabin crew and for the first time in 6 months, actually didn't swap aircraft every other leg. The flight attendants were good to work with, took good care of the captain and I and we had no passenger or maintenance problems.
It was a much shorter day so I wasn't absolutely dog tired reaching the hotel (like last night) and had fun.
Yesterday, however, was a bear. Had a hotel pickup at 5:15am, ate a bad crew meal, had the sh*ts all afternoon, flew LAS to SLC, traded aircraft & cabin crew, hit the boys room again, flew SLC to DEN with an aircraft with "interesting" MEL items, flew DEN to SLC, swapped aircraft and cabin crew again, waited for a late jet, hit the boys room again, flew SLC to SAN, hit the boys room, had maintenance change a tire, got a rotten clearance from ATC, got pushed in front of a "lifeguard" aircraft and had to diplomatically negotiate with ATC to allow us to use the parallel, thus allowing the "lifegaurd" jet to do what he had to do to expedite, landed in SLC, hit the boys room again, waited for a late hotel van and foraged for food around the hotel.
It really all depends because you have good days and you have bad days. It's a good profession, but unfortunately, being a good profession, there are forces that are out there that will try their best to manipulate your love of the performance of you job for their own political/financial interests (PFT, work rule/wage concessions, etc)
Flying has to be in your blood!