Do you love your job?
Moderators: lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, I WAS Birddog
Do you love your job?
How many of you commercial pilots still love your job, salary aside, and would do it over again?
Also if you hate it, why? If you don't mind, can you state how long you have being flying commercially.
Thanks.
Also if you hate it, why? If you don't mind, can you state how long you have being flying commercially.
Thanks.
Last edited by 172pilot on Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- JohnnyHotRocks
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1084
- Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:18 am
I love my job...salary is respectable, but there is always room for improvement...yes I would do it again.
Currently flying a corporate jet averaging around 200 hours per year to nice destinations, flying well maintained new equipment. On call for around 20 days per month...away from home around 7-10 days per month (although I have been gone alot this winter with some extra duties...self inflicted of course)
Been flying commercially for 12 years.
No desire to change from corporate to airlines.
Hope this helps you,
John
Currently flying a corporate jet averaging around 200 hours per year to nice destinations, flying well maintained new equipment. On call for around 20 days per month...away from home around 7-10 days per month (although I have been gone alot this winter with some extra duties...self inflicted of course)
Been flying commercially for 12 years.
No desire to change from corporate to airlines.
Hope this helps you,
John
-
- Rank 7
- Posts: 669
- Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:49 am
Love my job. Salary is good, but as Johnny mentionned there is room.
Also flying corporate, did 225hrs last year and less then 50nights away from home.
I have been flying since 1984, making a living at it since 1987 and commercialy since 1991.
I would definately do it all over again in a giffy.
Cheers,
F
Also flying corporate, did 225hrs last year and less then 50nights away from home.
I have been flying since 1984, making a living at it since 1987 and commercialy since 1991.
I would definately do it all over again in a giffy.
Cheers,
F
- JohnnyHotRocks
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1084
- Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:18 am
Been flying for about 5 years, coming up on one year commercially. I still love every minute of it. Of course it has it's problems but I find that is more to do with the company than actually flying. The pay sucks but I'm young and in for a pretty good raise in the next few months.
So far I can't imagine myself doing anything else, we'll see how I feel in a few years but I don't see a change coming. The biggest thing, being pay low and working conditions. I feel that starting young by the time I'm ready to settle down I'll be making okay money and be able to have an okay schedule if I want it.
So far I can't imagine myself doing anything else, we'll see how I feel in a few years but I don't see a change coming. The biggest thing, being pay low and working conditions. I feel that starting young by the time I'm ready to settle down I'll be making okay money and be able to have an okay schedule if I want it.
-
- Rank 8
- Posts: 896
- Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2005 12:12 am
- Location: Cyberspace
I love my job, I get to work around Airplanes All day, I get to fly, Ya there is some BS that goes along with the job, but when you pull those floats off the water all the BS is left behind you. There is alot of little cry babies out there that went threw some cookie cutter colleage coarse who think they work to hard for what they payed for a license but @#$! them. If you dont like it get out of it, If you call yourself a colleage grad because you a a Commercial Pilot license then you are a Gaylord. 

Womens Brains Are a third the Size of ours, Its Science!!!!?
Whoa, BTU its great that you enjoy your Job as I do mine I would not have done it any other way. But the question was not about how retrded Collage grads are. You need to chanel that emotion in some other fashion, this is a friendly Post we cant start cutting one anothers throats like that.
Never Question Bruce Dickenson!!!!
/agreedMeathead wrote:Whoa, BTU its great that you enjoy your Job as I do mine I would not have done it any other way. But the question was not about how retrded Collage grads are. You need to chanel that emotion in some other fashion, this is a friendly Post we cant start cutting one anothers throats like that.
I just love my job. I have to because if I don't, those guys in the white lab coats with that special jacket with the long long arms will come and take me away. I just love working 15 hours a day but just to keep thng in perspective, I only expect and accept pay for 8 hours. Been doing that for 45 years and it works. They keep you around even when you wreck the equipment. Ever notice how much noise comes from under the plane when you forget to put the wheels down. And that big red vein in the bosses neck keeps getting redder and redder and bigger and bigger. Maybe he needs a holiday. And the customers keep yelling and all, and shucks, so I screwed up or something, I mean after all what do they expect. So some boxes got to the wrong place. No big deal because they were 10 days late anyway and they sure don't make cardboard very good nowdays, do they. I mean just because they got a bit wet!!! And the DOM, I mean it was just a bit over temperature and all, I mean you cannot watch everything. Ever notice how ATC no longer have a sense of HA HA. I mean the 747 wasn't that low on gas that doing another circuit was that big a deal. Does anyone know how to interpet Chinese? I think they used some foul language. All this gives me a sense of satifaction, especially when ATC sends out a class One NOTAM every time I go flying, I mean I appreciate the honour and everything but to send alll the other airplane over to the Rockey Mountains just so I don't have to slow down and everything. WOW such caring people, I sure wish I could understand those foreign languages I mean, the Englsh is bad enough but to have people cuss you in a language you cannot understand. I think that is terrible. But that is all O.K because the doctor says I only have a few more years of flying left and that was a few years ago.
Mean while, if you hear the "oldtimer" on the air, well, be careful.
Mean while, if you hear the "oldtimer" on the air, well, be careful.
The average pilot, despite the somewhat swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy and caring.
These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
- Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
Yeh, you know the job is right at the top of the career totem pole when you are treated like you are some mental defect who can't tie their own shoe laces.
I just loved being waned, probed and having every item in my flight bag and luggage tested for explosives or weapons while going through security with ten other crew members all dressed in the company uniforms...you see we as pilots would need weapons and explosives in our posession before boarding the airplane because we are to dense to figure out being behind the controls in flight would give us the weapon that any terrorist needs.
I am so proud that after flying for thousands of miles and ending up on the ramp of the destination airport it is mandatory that I have a follow me truck lead me the final few hundred feet to the gate to be turned over to someone with wands to direct us those last few feet.
But the highlight of my career was the day I had landed after my airdisplay at an airshow only to be confronted by a ramp employee telling me I couldn't walk to the terminal building without a green Hi Vis vest on.....and I'm standing in front of this mental giant in my blaze orange airshow flight suit with all the gay patches and my fuc.in name written right across the left hand upper part of the flight suit...which was such a bright color you couldn't even see his Hi Vis green vest.....yeh those were the days that I can look back on fondly knowing I had reached the top of a pilots career.....
Yup I had arrived.
Ya, just gotta love the game when you get to the point in your career where they assume you are as mind bogglingly stupid as the rule makers.
Cat
I just loved being waned, probed and having every item in my flight bag and luggage tested for explosives or weapons while going through security with ten other crew members all dressed in the company uniforms...you see we as pilots would need weapons and explosives in our posession before boarding the airplane because we are to dense to figure out being behind the controls in flight would give us the weapon that any terrorist needs.
I am so proud that after flying for thousands of miles and ending up on the ramp of the destination airport it is mandatory that I have a follow me truck lead me the final few hundred feet to the gate to be turned over to someone with wands to direct us those last few feet.
But the highlight of my career was the day I had landed after my airdisplay at an airshow only to be confronted by a ramp employee telling me I couldn't walk to the terminal building without a green Hi Vis vest on.....and I'm standing in front of this mental giant in my blaze orange airshow flight suit with all the gay patches and my fuc.in name written right across the left hand upper part of the flight suit...which was such a bright color you couldn't even see his Hi Vis green vest.....yeh those were the days that I can look back on fondly knowing I had reached the top of a pilots career.....
Yup I had arrived.
Ya, just gotta love the game when you get to the point in your career where they assume you are as mind bogglingly stupid as the rule makers.
Cat
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
-
- Rank 3
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:45 pm
I love my job, no regrets. It's been a long 16 years, but I have enjoyed the whole process (and times weren't great in the early 90's when I started).
I have found a company that treats me great, and pays me well.
I can't imagine working a real job.
I will say this though--alot of stuff is what you make it. If you want to be miserable, you will be no matter what you do or where you work. If you want to appreciate how lucky we are, open your eyes and enjoy it.
I have found a company that treats me great, and pays me well.
I can't imagine working a real job.
I will say this though--alot of stuff is what you make it. If you want to be miserable, you will be no matter what you do or where you work. If you want to appreciate how lucky we are, open your eyes and enjoy it.
- Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
B-Rad, I'm pleased you got a laugh out of that rant....
...but the sad fact is it is true..
The whole system is being made a mockery of by idiots making dumb rules.
...but the sad fact is it is true..
The whole system is being made a mockery of by idiots making dumb rules.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
2008 will mark my 30th year earning a living as a pilot. Do I love flying? Undeniably. Do I love my job? As far a Corporate goes, I think I have the best gig in Canada. Pay and bonuse work out to a similar vintage airline guy so I have no gripes there.
At my age, I find I now command the respect of my executive peers and have outstanding business and personal relations with them. The crew I manage is second to none and I fight at every opportunity to make them as financially secure as possible.
The road getting to my place was not easy. If I had known what it was going to be like, there is no way I would have aspired to a career in Corporate aviation.
I view my current job as my last in aviation and will move on to something else with pride and knowledge that I always did my best and flew in some extraordinary conditions in all corners of the world.
Would I do it again? Not a chance. Too much uncertainty, too many severe egos along the way, too many small people waging petty wars on individual levels, too much time away from the wife and kids and too many years of being at someone elses beckon call living the rich guys dreams, not mine.
That being said, God give me 10 more years!!!
At my age, I find I now command the respect of my executive peers and have outstanding business and personal relations with them. The crew I manage is second to none and I fight at every opportunity to make them as financially secure as possible.
The road getting to my place was not easy. If I had known what it was going to be like, there is no way I would have aspired to a career in Corporate aviation.
I view my current job as my last in aviation and will move on to something else with pride and knowledge that I always did my best and flew in some extraordinary conditions in all corners of the world.
Would I do it again? Not a chance. Too much uncertainty, too many severe egos along the way, too many small people waging petty wars on individual levels, too much time away from the wife and kids and too many years of being at someone elses beckon call living the rich guys dreams, not mine.
That being said, God give me 10 more years!!!

I've been a working pilot for 5 months now and I love it. Perhaps, im still in the honey moon faze but regardless I doubt I would ever change my profession.
I've experienced a lot of the crap gr8gazu described already, but I still feel good after everyday and look forward to the next.
I've experienced a lot of the crap gr8gazu described already, but I still feel good after everyday and look forward to the next.
Last edited by x-wind on Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
- complexintentions
- Rank 10
- Posts: 2186
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2004 3:49 pm
- Location: of my pants is unknown.
I really try to make a habit of not loving things that can't love me back. A job and an airplane both fit that description, which too many people seem quite unaware of.
Having said that, I enjoy my job very much and will do it until it enables me the wherewithwal to not have to do it any longer, at which point I will have fond memories and move on, no regrets.
As to whether I would do it all again if I could, well...I can't do it all again, can I? I did it the way that made sense at the time and it worked out. But if I had done something other than aviation I would have enjoyed that too.
Mostly I just like the people in aviation, good folk or scoundrels it's rarely dull. I have been fortunate to have been able to try a large cross-section of aviation but it always comes back to the people.
Having said that, I enjoy my job very much and will do it until it enables me the wherewithwal to not have to do it any longer, at which point I will have fond memories and move on, no regrets.
As to whether I would do it all again if I could, well...I can't do it all again, can I? I did it the way that made sense at the time and it worked out. But if I had done something other than aviation I would have enjoyed that too.
Mostly I just like the people in aviation, good folk or scoundrels it's rarely dull. I have been fortunate to have been able to try a large cross-section of aviation but it always comes back to the people.
I’m still waiting for my white male privilege membership card. Must have gotten lost in the mail.
-
- Rank Moderator
- Posts: 4614
- Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:38 am
- Location: Now where's the starter button on this thing???
complexintentions wrote:I really try to make a habit of not loving things that can't love me back. A job and an airplane both fit that description, which too many people seem quite unaware of.
Having said that, I enjoy my job very much and will do it until it enables me the wherewithwal to not have to do it any longer, at which point I will have fond memories and move on, no regrets.
As to whether I would do it all again if I could, well...I can't do it all again, can I? I did it the way that made sense at the time and it worked out. But if I had done something other than aviation I would have enjoyed that too.
Mostly I just like the people in aviation, good folk or scoundrels it's rarely dull. I have been fortunate to have been able to try a large cross-section of aviation but it always comes back to the people.
Well put, you saved me the typing..!
STL