Why I Left an Airline Pilot Career

SlumTodd_Millionaire said:
But I'd say a solid 80% of the line guys I flew with on a daily basis were just awful people.
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BEEF SUPREME said:
It's a lot more like 20% at my shop.
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Todd, all three places you worked at (but especially the last one) were well known for having an extra large percentage of those kinds of people. Even with that said, 80% seems very high.

I'd say 90% of the guys I fly with I don't have any desire to be friends with outside of work but aren't necessarily terrible people. The 20% number Beef brings up is pretty accurate for "difficult" and maybe only 5% are "awful".
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
It's a lot more like 20% at my shop. Maybe even less. The lack of empathy is pretty strong though. Mostly it comes from the incredibly lucky pilots who never went through a furlough or other hardship.
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Those are the guys alaskan hired. The Virgin guys couldn't be more different - much more aware of the industry and all had a hell of a career journey. TONS of Aloha, ABex, DHL, ATA, USAirways, etc folks. Many battle stars and furloughs amongst the ranks.

I'm friends, or at least acquaintances, with a lot of the folks I fly with, we text and keep in touch. I'm also aware that the way they conducted hiring was very different than other airlines and we're all kinda extraverted like minded people.
 
Skåning said:
Those are the guys alaskan hired. The Virgin guys couldn't be more different - much more aware of the industry and all had a hell of a career journey. TONS of Aloha, ABex, DHL, ATA, USAirways, etc folks. Many battle stars and furloughs amongst the ranks.

I'm friends, or at least acquaintances, with a lot of the folks I fly with, we text and keep in touch. I'm also aware that the way they conducted hiring was very different than other airlines and we're all kinda extraverted like minded people.
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I sit in the airbus jump seat a lot and I have always had a very pleasant experience. I've never had a bad experience.

I feel like I should also qualify my 20% statement. I've only met one odd pilot at SkyWeezy who was pretty odd and one pilot at Eskimo that I didn't get on well with. This to me is pretty incredible as my time at XOJET was a living nightmare. I kind of threw in everyone that Todd mentioned which seemed like quite the broad brush from cringe worthy I can't sit here for another 30 seconds to just not so fun to be around.

Over 3 years in 121 and only have 1 person who I didn't get on well enough with that I had to call friends and ask for advice on how to handle it is pretty incredible really. At SkyWeezy I didn't have a bad experience the entire time. It really was cathartic for me. I'm still very thankful I was able to work there. I just had one guy who got mad I had been hired at Eskimo after being on the property for less than a year. When I asked if he had applied he gave me a very defensive no. I was like well, OK then....
 
SlumTodd_Millionaire said:
You can cut that undeserved elitism with a knife.

Pilots are pilots are pilots.
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Specific airline culture was very real thing, especially pre merger mania. 15 years ago, ask a TWA guy about "captains authority" there versus at American. Ask a Northwest guy about the importance of self image pre and post merger. Ask a USAir pilot about on time departures and then ask a united guy the same question.

I've had three different people tell me the high percentage thing about da Tranny, including you. The other two guys loved it there and thought it was one of the most standardized airlines they'd work for (which you've also alluded to) but outside of an operational point of view, they didn't Iike most of their coworkers. I've never heard a number higher than 50% from anybody else I know at any other airline.

You draw your own conclusions. I've never worked there, and you have. And you threw down the 80% number.
 
killbilly said:
I very specifically remember an argument about the airline life around 10-12 years ago here, where @mtsu_av8er was making the point that if you're happy doing what you're doing at the regional, then that's it and you're good and no reason to bitch about it. He got an inordinate amount of crap from people on this website telling him that he was wrong to be enjoying what he was doing, essentially.

You notice he doesn't post here much anymore. I'm not claiming causation, but I suspect he was ultimately happier not wasting his time defending a decent philosophy that worked for him.
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Ahhh, yes - I remember that discussion vividly. I lost friends over that argument, you know! Some people were very personally offended that I wasn't as miserable as they were. And, you're absolutely right. That discussion was about when I started coming around less. I don't like to surround myself with negativity.

You know, over the years as I trained and worked my way up, I constantly heard from those that had "been there" that I was going to be miserable and hate my life. I've been waiting for it to happen, but it hasn't. I suppose that I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps things are going to change next Thursday.

A lot of people (read: most people) get into this line of work for all the wrong reasons. They're told that if they get some loans and don't get any poon and spend their entire formative years concentrating on airplanes, they're going to be rich when they're 30, sitting in the cockpit of a 747. The result is that I fly with a bunch of introverted, weird, video game-playing (not that there's anything wrong with that - I play too!), virgins that like to talk about how cool the 777 is when they're not complaining about their schedule. It weirds me out. LOL! The reality is that this job isn't for everyone. You really have to WANT to live this lifestyle if you want to be happy doing it.

Me? Life ain't too bad. I fly a cool jet, I average 18 days off every month, I haven't worked a Christmas in 12 years, I'm a line check airman and get to mold "Mini MTSU_Av8ers" in each seat . . . what could be better? LOL!
 
BobDDuck said:
Specific airline culture was very real thing, especially pre merger mania. 15 years ago, ask a TWA guy about "captains authority" there versus at American. Ask a Northwest guy about the importance of self image pre and post merger. Ask a USAir pilot about on time departures and then ask a united guy the same question.
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Operational culture (which I agree, varies a great deal from airline to airline) is not remotely related to pilot character or personality. Yes, each airline has its own "culture" in many different ways. But the pilots themselves? They're all the same. A pilot is a pilot is a pilot. They mold themselves to fit the culture of the airline that they're working for, just like a copilot is a chameleon for the captain he's flying with. But their underlying character is what it is.

You draw your own conclusions. I've never worked there, and you have. And you threw down the 80% number.
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I guarantee you that I'd throw out the same number for your airline, for Derg's airline, for any airline. Hell, I throw out the same number for the people in my current industry! People just suck, dude. But in most jobs you don't get locked in a 6 foot cubed room with them for days at a time.
 
SlumTodd_Millionaire said:
I guarantee you that I'd throw out the same number for your airline, for Derg's airline, for any airline. Hell, I throw out the same number for the people in my current industry! People just suck, dude. But in most jobs you don't get locked in a 6 foot cubed room with them for days at a time.
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You're probably right. But you don't find it the least bit odd that you are pretty much the only person who thinks the number is that high universally?
 
I once had a CA show me a picture of his wife (2nd marriage, younger) in lingerie on their bed.



As if that wasn't awkward enough, later he then told me he told his wife he showed me the picture, and that she wanted to know what I thought of her.





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stroboli62 said:
Well at my measly 900 hours level and and A&P background

Somebody didn't explain too wll the pitfalls of the Shiny Jet Syndrome, either.

College recruiters like Army recruiters will tell you either what you want to hear, makin ya feel all good about yourself

BUT my flight instructor BITD never painted me any pretty pictures about the industry...that was his goal..the airlines.... and he was damn good at it

He lived the up and down of the career and made damn sure I understood it......unlike what this "young" man went through

SJS and bitterness bookending a career that many dream of , is a pretty lousy bedfellow....
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From someone who has told students the downsides of things and warned them about Shiny Jet syndrome, let me tell you it doesn't always go well......sometimes students don't want to hear the truth. It interferes with their dreams. I have an instructor now that is under the impression he will be in ground school at a 121 regional any day. lol
 
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