This thread is certainly discouraging.
For those that don't personally know me, I have been beyond fortunate in my timing. I came on property at my regional at the very beginning of explosive growth and have been privileged to choose my schedule ever since. That said I could not imagine working at a regional without being able to mil leave it whenever the hell I wanted to. I am beyond lucky to be flying for a guard unit in my hometown. My aging parents live 15 minutes down the road. I live in a community and have real roots here, friends, family a girlfriend with a normal job, save for depolyments every 2 years I'm basically living a normal life of a young "white collar" professional. The airline base is a 3 hour drive and I've been driving to both my jobs for 6 years, it just doesn't get any better. Living where my guard unit is has been the best choice of my entire career and I do not think I could stomach being employed at a regional without being able to fall back on the guard for sanity.
I am now 33, the light at the end of the tunnel was there, I would've been sitting in class at one of the big 3 last April. That is unlikely to return for a very long time if ever and now people like
@BEEF SUPREME are telling me that it's still not worth it. I am highly interested in many fields outside of aviation; nursing, economics, technology, hell I would love to go work at the State Department if Biden so chooses to rebuild it as my application there is always current. It's not a fear of leaving, its a fear of leaving a seniority list that I'm #108/2100 on and not being able to come back, I only have one GI bill, and I sure don't want to blow it. When I leave this regional it will have to be upward or out of the industry. I am not going to the bottom of the list at another regional. I refuse, not after 2 regionals and 8 years and I am not going to go fly for Atlas, ATI, ABX Southern, or anyone else that parks on the East side of CVG, the thought of 15 day tips, multi time zone, what day is it, endless 12 hour flights with min rest in China sound like a special hell that I am not quite sure how anyone deals with. That is that spot where the cool factor of flying a plane for a living becomes 110% not worth it.
@Screaming_Emu all the respect in the world for doing that work.
I will say it is telling that our non line qualified/non seniority list sim instructors all tried other things after Comair collapsed but came running back. Those guys tried every career and job under the sun but they all came running back to aviation when the opportunity presented itself, even if that meant running the box at midnight 4 days a week, at a regional airline that was growing like a rocketship, but now might not be around in 18 months. I will grant that this is a flawed sample size as guys that left and didn't return... well they didn't return, so how would I have met them?
I do find it frustrating when
@SlumTodd_Millionaire ,
@chrisreedrules @BEEF SUPREME @TWP etc (not call outs as one of them literally offered me a job on this website a few years ago) or anyone else here or otherwise mentions alternative jobs in vague manners with nary a detail to be found, I don't think people understand how frustrating that is from the readers perspective. If I had a concrete idea of a job that paid 120k/yr in mind I would be aggressively pursuing it just like I did aviation as a freshly minted 19 year old CFI. If I had an end goal for grad school, I'd already be in it. If I had an idea for a business to start, the LLC paperwork would have already been filed. For the most part, pilots are not stupid people and could be successful in other endeavors. That said most of my other late 20s/early 30s friends are just as miserable or moreso as the average line pilot at a regional. I have witnessed people be on zoom calls talking about strategy and sales goals from 8 in the morning until 6 at night. I have a friend who is a medical doctor who gets home at 8 PM every night and feels utterly trapped by his med school debt. I have witnessed people in event planning, entertainment, restaurants and sales lose everything they've ever worked for in the blink of an eye. I'm not sure if or where there is greener grass, but I sure wish I knew and I will definitely need to know before I leave the guard.
The benefits of aviation have been enviable but at a different company, with different seniority or pissing away time commuting somewhere would have made the experience 100% different than the one I've had. It has certainly afforded me adventures, experiences and travels to places I would never have otherwise gone. Hiking in Nepal, riding motorcycles in the Swiss Alps, frequent quick vacations to wherever I could find a cheap hotel in the Caribbean in the dead of a Midwest winter, first class seats to Paris and Rio for the price of taxes, plus all the exotic locations I've gotten to experience while flying the C-130 around the world. You simply can't put a price on this, but I know I'm one of the luckiest SOBs with regards to timing there is. Over the same time period, had I been sitting short call reserve with min days off and no movement not one of those trips would have happened. I wouldn't have had time during my days off to utilize the travel benefits, let alone keep a girlfriend, have a normal workout schedule or had time to volunteer around town. The seniority system can certainly be a harsh one and that is not lost on me as the largest negative to the airlines.
I don't even know what I'm trying to say. I am terrified of being trapped at a regional/in a bad aviation job/or staring at the wall in various Hampton Inn airport locations 14 nights a month for the rest of my life working weekends while the rest of world passes me by, I'm sure there's greener grass elsewhere but I'm not sure where that is or what it would be and I certainly don't want to fall into the greener grass trap if I don't need to. We'll see what the next 12 to 24 months hold, that might make it more clear for all of us here.
I joined this website in 2003 when I would have been a Sophomore in High School and look at me now, so with this thread at least one thing has remained constant JC has always been a great place to discuss the ins and outs of this profession. Thanks
@Derg
