What is this job to you?

[ppragman]

I’ve loved airplanes since I was a kid and one way or another I’ve been lucky to make a living with them for something like 17 years. I love all of it. Single pilot IFR in a Navajo in southeast alaska, crap weather at 2 AM flying medevac, chasing down a tough troubleshooting problem on an engine, tearing out an entire instrument panel and putting in clean, well labeled new wiring, switches, and circuit breakers, tearing a landing gear down to its component parts and seeing it work smoothly again after putting in all shiny new parts, cranking and banking to make tourists think a Cherokee 6 is an F-16, operating an airplane packed with 180 people into places like ORD and JFK, staying in downtown hotels with an easy walk to awesome food and the best museums in the country, taking a hotel bike to a frisbee golf course I’ve never played before, etc.

I will say, as @Soku39 points out the airline life does do its best to grind all of that out of you. At the medevac gig, by the time 2 weeks off was coming to an end I was always excited to go back to work early on the first day, rock out to some tunes in my headphones while doing a preflight, make myself a latte in the base espresso machine, and go say hi to my friends in the daily briefing. I’m commuting back to work today after 16 days off and idgaf about it, I’d just as soon stay home. As above my risk tolerance for things like single engine pistons has gotten a lot lower over the years. Also, the modern airline training programs (at least at Eskimo) do a good job of squashing the curiosity that had me drawing electrical and fuel system schematics for a Duchess or a 172.

This fully validates me in my post-aviation life. Thank you.

 

[ppragman]

Has anyone ever read the Dark Tower series of books? In it there are these people called the Breakers. The Breakers were telepaths and even though they didn’t know why when they were doing the job of “breaking” all was right with the world. They would get in this groove and everything else would just melt away and the only thing that mattered was “breaking.” Almost like an addiction. An addiction to the action of breaking.

That’s me. Insert flying for breaking. When I’m flying all is right with the world. I get in a groove. Things make sense. The world is easy to comprehend. Flying is all that matters. Then I land and chaos ensues. And then I long for the next time I get to do the job of flying again.

Psychological flow.

Flying did it quite well. When I learned to sail last month, I could get into a flow state (but not as good as flying, especially bush flying), and if I'm working on a particularly interesting math problem or programming task I can get close, but still nothing compares to flying. Addiction is a fine word.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Came for the airplanes. Love airplanes. I also love the time off vs. money equation in this job.

 

[CFI A&P]

A little from all of the above.

Over the years I've had a dozen or so roles/ jobs within aviation, some of them overlapping. Also had equally as much experience outside aviation in other jobs and trades, but there is something different about aviation. While there are certainly dirt bags in this industry yet far more the outlier than the norm like in other industries. Plus, aviation is so broad that there is always a new aspect of the industry to get into. Mike really highlighted the path on how some get stuck in the rut and disenchanted because they don't know any better. If all you've done is regional flying, then to a major with hub & spoke - it'll get old quick.

Certainly a passion for it, I do fly GA in addition to flying semi-professionally, as well as participating in other parts of GA. I look at up at every plane I hear overhead. Being active in GA opens up so many opportunities that you won't get sitting in the flight levels going from SID to ILS. I don't know how many times I've done something at the airport, like fly a round robin trip that would not be achievable by car, but be home for dinner and drinks with friends.

Personally, with how hard the barrier to entry is, and constant oversight why anyone wouldn't get into this industry without some form of passion for it.

 

[Maurus]

That sounds like work outside of work. I know a few people who have awesome flight sim setups. I can’t hate it especially if it makes them happy.

That would be exactly what it is. I honestly think it helped him escape reality a bit since he was going through a crap ton of bad stuff.

I don't blame people for having awesome sim setups. I say go for it. I just don't think it is a great option for people that do it in real life already

 

[luke3]

For me it's the intersection of everything I enjoy doing. It involves problem solving, operating complex machines, managing people, travel, and every once in a while gets your heart rate up. When I put on the uniform I get to be the version of me that most closely matches my own idea of myself, if it makes any sense. Plus we get to see and experience things that "normal people" will never be able to.

To me aircraft operations are the most fascinating thing there is. I've designed airplanes, done safety studies of aircraft operations, worked to certify new models, and have flown them from both seats. The more I learn the more I'm drawn in, and the more it feels like magic. I try not to dump information from previous type ratings because I just enjoy learning the various philosophies and how the manufacturers solved the same problems with the constraints of their design.

I try very hard to not make it my identity though, and generally won't bring it up unless asked, but you bet that in my alone time I'm reading or watching something aviation related. Sure there are the bad parts of this job, but compared to the grind of the 9-5 office work I used to do 5 days a week, it's not that bad. Sure after a couple of rough trips I don't want to touch a plane for a few days, or sometimes weeks, but after about 2 weeks off I'm browsing open time looking at where I might end up next as being the perma-reserve that I am.

 

[🦈💜]

I flew with a couple of pilots in the last month or so, and during the course of conversation I would point out a unique or rarely seen airplane come to find out they couldn’t identify it. Nothing crazy, a Dornier Jet, a Metroliner, a Vision Jet…
Later on, we get to talking about general aviation and they admit they don’t like it, have no interest in ever pursuing it as a hobby, and to them it was just a means to an end.
Both used the same words to describe how they ended up as airline pilots - “This was just a business decision for me. I don’t have a passion for aviation.”

This floored me. I’ve been doing this for a living for almost 30 years. From crappy jobs, to PFT, to furloughs, bankruptcies, mergers, check
rides, medicals, crappy hotels, food stamps, being gone for holidays and birthdays, flying odd hours, eating Thanksgiving dinner from vending machines or gas station convenience stores… and even living in my car for a while. But I never stopped loving airplanes.

Sure it’s a crappy job and a horrible profession sometimes, but it’s that passion for aviation that keeps me going. I don’t see how anyone can put up with all the awful stuff if you don’t love it. If you don’t get excited to see a 727 in the wild. Or wistful when you see your very first commuter turboprop taxi out in front of you in some field in Mexico. Or geek out about Derg’s space age widebody, or the latest high tech biz jet. I don’t get it.

It took me 20 years to get to the job I have now, so maybe I can’t wrap my head around the one job wonders who made it here 5 years after starting to learn to fly. Maybe when things go that quickly with no speed bumps the allure of big money and (what they perceive to be) small sacrifice makes it worth the gamble. But these people haven’t read hard landings, can’t identify a DC9 two out of three attempts, and couldn’t care less about that cool Tupolev we saw rusting in the sun in Havana. Make it make sense to me.

My opinion? The current system is built for them.

Aviation is on track to lose its unique and fascinating culture entirely.

Breaks my heart.

 

[BEEF SUPREME]

I loved airplanes. I was obsessed as a kid. So of course I gave professional aviation a try when I was old enough to start a career. I think the reality of the lost decade broke me. I can't get excited about aircraft ownership. I think the next disaster will strip everything I've earned away. Any good news is a scam to make me work harder.

You know why I think that way? Because it's the way I've been treated. Absolutely nothing presently or prior to this moment has given me the slightest amount of hope that things will get better.

Do I talk about aviation this way on a website where we share our opinions about aviation. Why yes. Yes I do. Do I share my opinions about aviation with my coworkers. No. Unless they ask me directly. I'm still gonna cover van tips. Still gonna pay for the entire crews tab for happy hour at the bar. Just did tonight here in Toronto. Every day I try to make this industry more bearable for the people I interact with. PDX FO too on the Toronto trip, so my big WhatsApp fan club can hear about how their most hated captain is horrible at being a pilot but actually an OK guy.

Anyway. Sorry this career broke me and my love for airplanes. It's too bad that I can't entertain you with my passion. If I could retire tomorrow I would. I'd never touch an airplane again and I'd be fine with that.

 

[derg]

I really enjoy the job, but I have a philosophy that doesn’t really let me ‘love’ an intangible without a heartbeat. I really like flying airplanes and seeing the world.

I don’t like that it’s become a prop for likes, shares, subscribes and people seeking constant validation.

I loooooooathe entitlement, some of the personalities that don’t ’choose kindness’ when in doubt and the level of poor mental health that the FAA won’t let pilots address until it’s too late in many cases. The ‘troll first, help last’ is also sadly endemic.

 

[MikeD]

 

[drunkenbeagle]

I don’t like that it’s become a prop for likes, shares, subscribes and people seeking constant validation.

Is that really unique to aviation though?

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Is that really unique to aviation though?

Not at all, but the last 4 years have created some insufferable creatures.

 

[Soul Brotha']

Not at all, but the last 4 years have created some insufferable creatures.

A couple of trips back the FO was V-logging and told me he was just starting out and this was going to be his first one.
In my mind I was like that Ben Affleck meme dealing with pain of existence.

 

[drunkenbeagle]

A couple of trips back the FO was V-logging and told me he was just starting out and this was going to be his first one.
In my mind I was like that Ben Affleck meme dealing with pain of existence.

I've done enough somewhat interesting stuff with airplanes that it crossed my mind to put some of it online. But like anything, when I thought about how much time and effort would go into producing quality content, I decided that there were other things I would rather be doing.