Blunt question...

[skycowboy]

Honestly... Do any airline pilot's (including senior pilots) love their jobs anymore? Do they hate the flying, or the managment and politics? Is there anyone left who has flown the airlines for years who is still enthused by aviation?

honestly...

[calcapt]

You want honesty?

I consider myself one of the luckiest men in the world to do what I do. If you lived my life for 30 days you would have to pinch yourself to make sure you weren't dreaming.

[Captain_Bob]

I seriously have a smile on my face when I'm walking up to my aircraft... even if it's on the hardstand and the captain is saying "Fu#*ing Hardstand again!!" In the meantime... I'm listening to the whine of the turbines, smelling the jet fuel, and totally enjoying it.

That said... I don't fly my pants off each month. I don't look for opportunity to pick up more trips. I don't get involved with management & internal politics. I am always looking at trading my trips for better destinations, or dropping/advertising trips I'd prefer not to fly.

Having more control over my schedule than I ever have in any other job I've ever had makes this an awesome job that I truly love... my parents, my wife, and even my friends have seen a HUGE change in me for the good since I've been flying for a living.

But... that's me... YMMV.

Bob

[t-cart]

I am not nor ever was an airline pilot,but i did fly cropdusters for over 25 years,so i guess you could say that i was the captain. In those years,I saw and experienced some of the best that aviation has to offer,and i also saw the absolute worst. All in all I would have to say that ,yes I loved it then,and i still love it as i am preparing to get into (maybe)instructing and for sure charter and pt. 91 flying. FLY SAFE T.C.

[calcapt]

Originally Posted by t-cart

......i did fly cropdusters for over 25 years.....

You flew cropdusters for 25 years and are still alive? I didn't think that was even possible? Learn something new every day.....

[Velocipede]

Yeah, I'm still loving it.

Or as Steve Martin said:

"Some people go to college for 14 years
Studying to be Doctors and Lawyers.
Some people get up at 7:30 in the morning
Going to work at the drugstore to sell Flair pens.
But the most amazing thing to me is,
I get paid for doing this!"

[ljg]

I am very junior on the totem pole...but: I am truly thankful for the blessing to be able to fly for a living. It gives me a sense of satisfaction that I can't seem to pull from anything else.
Comparably, family, friends and a quality lifestyle mean so much more though. If you could merge the best of both worlds, it would be hard to ask for much else. Just my .02.

[NotCoolEnufToFly]

Originally Posted by t-cart

I am not nor ever was an airline pilot,but i did fly cropdusters for over 25 years,so i guess you could say that i was the captain.
In those years,I saw and experienced some of the best that aviation has to offer,and i also saw the absolute worst. All in all I would have to say that ,yes I loved it then,and i still love it as i am preparing to get into (maybe)instructing and for sure charter and pt. 91 flying. FLY SAFE T.C.

We should chat sometime. That kind of flying seems to peak my interest the most. Cropdusters amaze me. I could sit and watch for hours.

[slushie]

Originally Posted by NotCoolEnufToFly

We should chat sometime. That kind of flying seems to peak my interest the most. Cropdusters amaze me. I could sit and watch for hours.

I remember approaching Oshkosh, flying around that lake with 5 billion other planes in CLOSE proximity, and wondering if I was going to die from a mid-air or fuel starvation....I looked below me and saw a crop duster doing his thing, and I was thinking. "Hey. That's pretty cool."


Then some yellow biplane cut me off and it was back to Vegas road rage.

"Hygmk@#!fn cjihf!!!"

[Doug Taylor]

Originally Posted by skycowboy

Honestly... Do any airline pilot's (including senior pilots) love their jobs anymore? Do they hate the flying, or the managment and politics? Is there anyone left who has flown the airlines for years who is still enthused by aviation?

honestly...

I'm very fond of my job, but I have a philosophical disconnect with loving inanimate objects! I mean I really like my mac, but I'm not about to sit in front of the fireplace with it, gaze lovingly into it's LCD screen and slowly page through Better Homes & Gardens with it on a lazy sunday.

[BobDDuck]

I don't love the job at all. I enjoy it, I like doing this job more then just about any other job I can imagine, but at the end of the day, it's a job. That's all.

[Cruise]

Originally Posted by calcapt

You flew cropdusters for 25 years and are still alive? I didn't think that was even possible? Learn something new every day.....

On topic: I do enjoy my job a great deal. In fact of all the crummy jobs I've had in my lifetime, this is the best so far...hopefully my last career. But, only time will tell how it plays out.

I'm happier now, than I ever was about going to work. Something to be said for that.

[Snuggle]

At first I was starting to hate it, but just lately everything changed and I love my job. When I first started flying here, I flew with some captains who complained ALL the time. It really drove me nuts, especially since I had just started. As time went on, everything started to change for the better. I recently got my base of choice, and some seniority in that base. Life is pretty good right now.

Just today in the gym, I ran into an old friend from high school who inquired about my life.
It always puts a smile on my face when people ask me about my job.

[GreenDayPilot]

That's good to hear from people with experience. I've been a CMEL pilot for 4 years and I recently felt like it was getting old, but hopefully that was just the CFI thing.... I'm just now starting with Xjet and I'm sure I'm gonna have a blast to come for many years...

...the only thing that concerns me is getting used to 4 days away from home... or at least being low seniority and having practically every weekend away from home...

[Crockrocket94]

Its a tough road to get there, but it's one of the greatest jobs out there!

I wouldnt know, but its been a tough, exciting road so far

[mikecweb]

The day I stop loving this job is the day I stop flying.
There are so many different options out there. Aviation is so diverse. Not everything involves 121 passenger operations.
I'd like to go through the rest of my career flying for operators my family has never heard of.
Flying airplanes and not programming computers to fly airplanes would also be nice. If I wanted to just watch computers do it i'd pay $70 bucks and buy Flight sim and drink beer all day. mmmmm beer.

[JAM]

I LIKE flying, visiting different airports, seeing the world, making new friends, and having one of the most challenging jobs out there. But I LOVE coming home to my family. That's what it's all about for me.

[t-cart]

Originally Posted by JAM

I LIKE flying, visiting different airports, seeing the world, making new friends, and having one of the most challenging jobs out there. But I LOVE coming home to my family. That's what it's all about for me.

Just to be perfectly clear, I love my family more than the flying. FLY SAFE T.C.

[Mr_Creepy]

Originally Posted by Doug Taylor

I'm very fond of my job, but I have a philosophical disconnect with loving inanimate objects! I mean I really like my mac, but I'm not about to sit in front of the fireplace with it, gaze lovingly into it's LCD screen and slowly page through Better Homes & Gardens with it on a lazy sunday.

Oh my ghandi can you say "whipped" ???




I would never go back to airlines. I like being home every night too much. I also like being in control of my own schedule.

Plusses:
1) Flying is cool, flying jets is cooler
2) Chicks dig pilots (lol what a laugh that is)
3) I liked being part of the organization, the rumors, the seniority list moving, etc
4) Upgrading to new equipment, to captain, to jet captain
5) Makes the world seem very small

Minuses:
1) NEVER HOME
2) Never knowing what next month will be like until the 20th of the month
3) Vacation planning? What's that?
4) Hotel work out rooms. Ick
5) Hotel bed covers and carpets - ICK! (who knows who did what to who on those things!)
6) When the seniority list slows down, LIFE SUCKS
7) Sitting on your a$$ in a cockpit all day long is NOT good for the waistline, neither are USAir Snack Packs

[ready2fly]

Good stuff.

After sitting in an office for 13 years (the last three of which were in a corner office on the 18th floor with two walls completely glass) - I wouldn't go back to an office if you paid me three times what I was making.

I love the flying. The view is always spectacular. I enjoy most of our overnight destinations. Staying in a hotel does tend to get tedious. Being away from your family really sucks. But at the end of a trip, I'm done. I don't take work home with me (like I did both literally and figuratively in my former career), when I'm home, I'm home and that'st he best place in the world.

In sum: I love my job. Wouldn't change it for the world.

[n726s]

I'm personally only a student pilot however, flying is what i've always wanted to do. i've never thought of anything else and when people tell me that it must get to be a pain going to fly everyday and take my ground school classes aside from that, i tell them they are wrong, believe it or not ground school does not bother me a bit and flying is probably some of the best fun i've ever had. i can't wait to make it to the cockpit of an airliner.

[FlyChicaga]

I love my job. I just flew a four-day trip, and flying home today looking out the window, I actually said to myself, "I can't believe I get paid to do this."

There are some rough days, but then I sit and realize that I'm living a life that many only dream of. It's a blast. But, honestly: This job is really what you make it.

[EatSleepFly]

Originally Posted by FlyChicaga

I love my job. I just flew a four-day trip, and flying home today looking out the window, I actually said to myself, "I can't believe I get paid to do this."

There are some rough days, but then I sit and realize that I'm living a life that many only dream of. It's a blast. But, honestly: This job is really what you make it.

I went through some tough times early on where I more or less hated life, but once I got through to a decent paying, fun, turbine PIC job... I love it!

[jtrain609]

Once I finally finished my training and got into this career I thought to myself, "Well, I'll do this for a year or two and then head to law school. Just TRAINING for this career sucks, so the whole career gig has got to suck even more."

Then I started flying instructing, and I really dug it, more than I thought I would. Then I got an oppertunity to teach at a higher level in the industry and thought to myself, "Huh, this is even freakin' sweeter than my last job!" Now I'm just starting at a regional airline and so far it's been good!

That's not to say there are not stressful times, but all in all it's been a good two years for me.

I'll let you know what I'm saying in twenty years.

[lostplanetairman]

Having done it for MANY years, I can say it's all about a schedule and a payheck--oh and no heavy lifting! Where else could one get all that?