Some advice I shared...I should probably share it here too.

[Northern Skies]

Someone on another forum asked for advice about an aviation career, and I replied. I will share it here in case someone may benefit from it. Enjoy.

I'll give you a few quick answers, everything I am about to say has an important lesson, each being separate yet connected. Although I am rarely in a position to give life advice to someone because I don't have my all of my own answers figured out (who does?), these are matters in which I know what the hell I am talking about. Listen and heed.

The stories you hear about "a looming pilot shortage" are absolute garbage. This saying has been around for over 50 years, and is always spoken by those who stand to gain financially by it. There will always be people growing up wanting to fly more than anything else in the world, and whom are willing to stab each other in the back and sell themselves out for it. This will always be the case. There is a great deal of bullsh*t in the world, and aviation is no exception. Question everything.

Being afraid of debt is a good thing to an extent, you have the opposite standpoint from what causes many people's problems. I am the same way. But you will also come to realize that it is better to borrow and make something of it than to be stuck in a rut and have nothing at all. What you need to do is assess if you can make something of it. There is a risk involved, but that is part of being a pilot. Skillfully handling an airplane is a minor part of a pilot's job, the real job of a pilot is to assess and mitigate risk. On the one hand, you need to have the balls to take a risk. On the other hand, you need the judgement to be able to forsee whether it is likely to put you in peril.

Judgement is the product of knowledge. Knowledge is the product of experience. This experience is either your own or that of others. In aviation you can only learn a lesson the hard way once, so it is better to learn the experiences of others. This is why pilots religiously read accident reports. In your case, you need to surround yourself with successful people who seem to have things figured out more than their peers, and find out what makes them tick. Find out their life story, and what they learned along the way. Understand their ambitions and note bother their fears and lack of fears. Don't be put off by a bit of complaining about simple things - everyone does that - but see whether they are happy or not, and why. With that knowledge, look past their status and possessions and evaluate how fulfilled they really are by their lives, and ask yourself if you want to be in their shoes. You will find both happy people and unhappy people both in aviation and out of it, and you must avoid a pitfall which produces most of the unhappy people in aviation.

Say you meet a girl for the first time, and think about her constantly afterward. You take the things that you don't know about her, and fill in those gaps with your own fabrications. In doing so, you place her on a pedestal, and are so blinded by it that you cannot look at anything else. When you meet again and get to know her, you either act in a repulsive manner to her and she leaves you, or you are turned off by her shattering your dreams with reality. You know you have done this before, everyone has and so have I. The same thing is done toward a career in aviation. You will tell yourself that it is the only thing capable of making you happy. You will judge other careers with ignorance, and shun the possibility of other opportunities. You will reject and downplay any possible negative aspects of that path, and will forget that you will have to deal with them someday. You will surround yourself with peers who feel the same way, and your resolve will become strengthened by the mutual convictions of the group.

This attitude will drive you to incredible acts to ensure that your path goes as planned. But for every one of these acts, for every bit of lust, you inflict another increment of harm upon yourself. You understand that you need to prove yourself in order to break into the aviation industry. But what is most important is that you believe in what you are trying to prove. Professional pilots as a whole tend to act like immature children and rely on their status as a crutch to make them who they are. They hide behind it instead of being what they have the potential to be. The arrogance they are famous for is the product of a void in other aspects of their lives. They think about their limitations instead of their full potential, because they told themselves to ignore that a long time ago. I am speaking in generalizations, but they are very often true. Realize that while you will have to prove your worth, that you truly are worth something.

I am not trying to dissuade you from a career in aviation. I mentioned many negatives, because you already know many of the positives. Learn them both, and reflect on whether that would fulfill your life not now, but for what you need in the future. Then do the same impartially to all of the paths ahead of you. If you are capable of succeeding in avation, you are capable of being successful in any professional career, or even creating a new type of career of your own. You long for the adventure of flying, and that adventure is a fantastic ride. But understand that you can have that adventure with any career you take..... I have met private pilots who were on journeys that I never dreamed of.

Find a mentor, then find your mentor's mentors, and then spend some time with their mentors (your flight instructor doesn't cut it). Learn the lessons they have learned in their lives. I hope that by reading this, you will be able to recognize the common pitfalls along this path. I wish you the best of luck.

(the quote in this post is the intellectual property of the person writing under the pseudonym "northern skies". Any use, in whole or in part, requires the express permission of the author.)

[SunWuKong]

Thanks for sharing.

[SunWuKong]

Double post.

[I WAS Birddog]

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SunWuKong...You alright dude?

[Tim]

notherskies, i think your post is great.

sounds to me like SWK is pissed off at something and wants others to be pissed off with him.

this quote from your post seems to describe him.

Professional pilots as a whole tend to act like immature children and rely on their status as a crutch to make them who they are.

for some reason the sound advice you gave made him angry. don't sweat it.

[SunWuKong]

Great post Northern Skies!

[Sulako]

I know this will be a challenge, but let's try to keep things on topic please. I have toasted a half-dozen posts that don't relate to the initial post.

[slam525i]

Northern Skies, I'd like to say thanks, and suggest we sticky this to the forum. God knows, we get enough of those questions every week. Yours was well written and well thought out. Much appreciated.

(I wouldn't put any thought into people criticizing it when the critiques are baseless with questionable English. I also think we need to stop feeding trolls.)

[complexintentions]

Back on topic...I thought the article was well-intentioned but that didn't make it any good. It lost me pretty quick at the attempt to put a pseudo-psychological spin on aviation as it relates to happiness/unhappiness.

Realize that while you will have to prove your worth, that you truly are worth something.

Uhhh....right, then.

And this gem

Professional pilots as a whole tend to act like immature children and rely on their status as a crutch to make them who they are. They hide behind it instead of being what they have the potential to be. The arrogance they are famous for is the product of a void in other aspects of their lives.

may aptly describe most people who post on anonymous internet forums, I don't know, but it certainly doesn't describe the vast majority of the thousands of professional colleagues I currently have and have had over the years. Maybe I was just lucky. But I'm pretty sure I've been able to cross paths with a fairly representative sample of the pilot population. What I find surprising is how many people seem to agree with this post. Does this mean they see themself in this sort of description? Does the author?

About the only "sound advice" I could see in the entire post was to steer clear of debt. But that's hardly exclusive to aviation.

[sheephunter]

I think it has some valid points and good advise. For those that think it does not relate to aviation, well then I guess it didn't to you as maybe you have made it well beyond the question asking point in aviation but for those still in the infant stages or considering this career path or any other, there is some good all around, sage advice being given... for free. As for not being able to learn one little thing in reading an accident report, well that's cool why did you bother? It does appear that you have hit a nerve with SWK and tend to agree with Tim on this one. Keep posting Northern, I'll keep reading.

[Changes in Latitudes]

Back on topic...I thought the article was well-intentioned but that didn't make it any good. It lost me pretty quick at the attempt to put a pseudo-psychological spin on aviation as it relates to happiness/unhappiness.

Realize that while you will have to prove your worth, that you truly are worth something.

Uhhh....right, then.

And this gem

Professional pilots as a whole tend to act like immature children and rely on their status as a crutch to make them who they are. They hide behind it instead of being what they have the potential to be. The arrogance they are famous for is the product of a void in other aspects of their lives.

may aptly describe most people who post on anonymous internet forums, I don't know, but it certainly doesn't describe the vast majority of the thousands of professional colleagues I currently have and have had over the years. Maybe I was just lucky. But I'm pretty sure I've been able to cross paths with a fairly representative sample of the pilot population. What I find surprising is how many people seem to agree with this post. Does this mean they see themself in this sort of description? Does the author?

About the only "sound advice" I could see in the entire post was to steer clear of debt. But that's hardly exclusive to aviation.

I'm with you on this one. We have a few headcases in this industry, I have run into a couple; but the majority of my interactions have been positive. Avcanada is not a proper representation of our industry and I think NS may be skewed by what he sees here. NS and I know many of the same people and I don't consider any of them immature children. I'm a little disappointed.

NS, its the off-season for you, when you're back in that seat again this spring, look around at your colleagues and let us know if you consider them behaving as immature children.

[Northern Skies]

You know, I truly understand how you feel that way. I posted the comments without their original context, but just an excerpt from another conversation. I also wrote them in a very demanding tone because I was writing to someone who, remembering when I was in his shoes, might not listen when someone is beating around the bush. Communication is a difficult thing, and can be a combination of diction, tone, context, and body language. We don't have all of that on the internet. I think that is why different people perceived the comments in different ways here. You can rest assured that I do not intend to call my colleagues names, my feelings are much to the contrary.

The young man asked me to elaborate a bit, asked what my personal challenges are now, and commented that he doesn't have any mentors. It's not my greatest manifesto, but I just told him from the heart how I felt:

I absolutely understand how it is the most appealing choice. I have had some wonderful experiences so far and learned many great things. If someone asked me, "if you could, would you go back and change it?", no, i would not. At least not much! Where I am now is the point where I can find flying opportunities with ease, but am trying to find a solution to combine it with a decent personal life for the first time. I have been dragging my life all over Canada for years, and spent the first part of that living out of a suitcase and a sleeping bag. Honestly, it is fun. I wouldn't want to have to do it again but I cherish the memories. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it can certainly be a difficult journey in this industry. Making it is very rewarding, but many go down this path without being prepared to face what challenges it presents you. That is why I write about some pitfalls to watch out for.... do not be discouraged, but be prepared.
Note that when I say "tend to", I mean that pilots can feel those tendencies sometimes, it is not who they are. In general, they are some of the most switched-on individuals you can find, with much common sense and a high degree of professionalism. You understand that in this context, we are talking about the things we can and may feel, it is not a comparison with the rest of society. Some pointed out that they feel I am calling them names, and I can see where they are coming from. But the fact remains that there is a little part of those tendencies in us, which we may feel from time to time. I will put it in more clear terms here:

Loving your career is a great thing, it is a wonderful feeling. Here is the key: you have to love what it really is. Sometimes, people lust over their dreams, try to tell themselves they are doing what they dreamed, and may sell themselves short bycontinuing down that path. Flying an airplane is only part of the dream. Doing so while being respected as an asset to the operation, not being burned out by unreasonable expectations of commitment, not being pressured into commiting acts which are contradictory to the responsibilities of the position (safety), and generally being treated like a human being, THAT is the dream.

Reflect from time to time on how what you are doing is helping you to realize that dream. Your decisions should reflect upon that, instead of solely upon which choice has the hottest airplane or whatever similar factor.

As far as finding mentors, this is one of your first tasks to learn about being a pilot. You are going to have to knock on a lot of doors throughout your career, especially at the beginning. There are no "cants" or "donts" in this business, just "probably shouldnts" and the like. The rest are "definitelys" and "probably a good idea's", and networking is one of them. So if you don't know anyone now, that doesn't mean you should settle with that. You mention that you know one pilot, talk to him first and perhaps he can direct you along the way to find a few individuals with many years in the business... ie. more than a few thousand hours (although I hate to use "hours" as a guide). Ask those people about their best memories, their biggest challenges, and the solutions they found along the way. They will certainly have had challenges, but if you ask if they regret their choices, they will probably tell you that they do not.

(the quote in this post is the intellectual property of the person writing under the pseudonym "northern skies". Any use, in whole or in part, requires the express permission of the author.)