Jump to content

Is this really a good career choice?


eagle5

  

66 members have voted

  1. 1. If I could do it all over again, I would...?

    • Still persue a career as a pilot.
      47
    • Do something else for a living, and just fly as a hobby.
      19


Recommended Posts

Becoming a pilot was one of the best things I’ve ever done!

 

Trying to become a career pilot (on the other hand) is at the TOP of the list of, The Ten Worst Decisions I’ve Ever Made to Screw Up My Life!,…next week on Letterman. :D

 

About a year ago I finally got a job offer! It was to dry cherries in WA, not much, I know, but he said if things worked out, he’d send more jobs my way. So, I thought, "finally, after 6 years, I’ve found my way in!" A few days before I was to start, the pilot I was set to replace crashed the helicopter (he walked away fine) and they went out of business! :o :(

 

So, I’m gonna go with "do something else for a living, and just fly as a hobby".

 

10/4 good buddies!

See you in another year,

- Big Rig Butters

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yo Eagle Five,

 

Is it a good career choice? How do YOU know until you try. There is no such thing as a bad career choice, only people that don't fit certain careers. Don't let these guys get you down about second guessing yourself, you'll get there, and if you don't, hopefully it is because you found what you really want to be doing.

 

In the last two years I have spent almost $80K of money I had in my pocket to become dual rated and am just finishing up my Heli comm/instrument. I have second guessed myself the whole way. (i could have paid for half a house, could have gone to graduate school, could have, would have blah blah blah) But even if I never make it to the big leagues of aviation (I will, Alaska 2014), I can still call myself a pilot and I know that I tried it, saw it, and decided there was something better.

 

You only get one life, you can always make money some another day:

 

Live the Dream - Be A Legend!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some people just don't have what it takes.

 

Of course, it doesn't really take that much. It's a blue collar job, after all.

 

We all have what it takes to DO the job, its getting the job that takes the special skills which not all of us posses,...and I ain't talkin' bout' piloting skills!

 

You only get one life, you can always make money some another day:

 

Flying isn't about money!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

For me, it's not a career choice. No choice about it. It's an obsession.

Love to fly. Pathetic creature.

After a week of flying, maybe 35 flight hours, a ba-zillion take-offs and hopefully an equal amount of landings, I get home. I hear a choppy coming over, and I'm stumbling over the cat on the way out the door to see. Frantic haste. Wifey gets mad. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? You fly all week! This is your first day home! You knocked over the chair! You stomped on the cat!...." Etc, etc.

How do you explain? But... but.... I want to see the make. Model. Height. Speed. Company... Wanna SEE him! :wub:

And then I get back to work. First load of passengers. Walking out. Butterflies! BUTTERFLIES! Caution, Excitement. Impatience. Just like an alkie. FIRST swig of the jug. FIRST smell of burned Jet A. First upward nudge on the collective.... AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhh......! Yummy.

 

1) A chopper-holic and an alco-holic have much in common. Right down to the tremblies, when you see that "first fix" coming your way.

2) Do you like to ride? Motorbike? I do. Gimme a steady V-twin, good road, and I'm away in a world of my own. Still can't get tired of biking. Very similar steady beat and dream land to your choppy.

3) Do you fly single pilot or two pilot IFR? I have flown both. Much happier being a single pilot. Two crew interrupts my reverie. Too much like hard work. Forever checklists. And if he's a freak who is obsessed with talking about his Crysanthemums... (I had a Captain like that)... or if he's a hair-trigger, irrational, psychotic screamer (yep, had several like that)... it's zero fun. Are single pilots more contented? More relaxed, anyway. Yes? No?

4) Do you see the fundamental Absurdity of Man? Pompous, vain, noisy, incredibly short-lived little creature, who thinks he kens it all, when in fact he knows bugger all? Obsessed with piling up Gold and useless shite that he can't take with him anyway? Sure, you need money, but it's just a tool, for goodness sake. You gotta eat. But when filthy lucre and position and status and career become your be-all and end-all God, you are in serious need of watching the YouBoob video called "The Pale Blue Dot" (Carl Sagan). You see that distant, tiny, insignificant pale blue dot? Somewhere, some tiny little fraction of a pixel, that's you, you dumb schmuck, fretting and worrying, nose to the grindstone, piling up bangles. Dude... are you gonna stick yourself voluntarily in a tiny cell? A little cubicle? Why don't you stick a cardboard box over your head, while you are it, with two peep holes, and declare yourself the Master of your Cardboard Universe?

 

To me, it's all about "getting your ticket's worth." Ride, brother, Ride. Cast your tiny mind all around the Universe, and make sure you don't mire yourself in the mud. Star in your own play. Be the hero in your own movie. And keep your middle digit well exercised.

 

"Two men looked out through prison bars,

One saw mud

and one saw stars."

 

or:

 

"I've always loved friends of the way

friends of the way I've always held dear

meeting a traveler with a silent spring

or greeting a guest talking Zen

talking of the unseen on a moonlit night

searching for truth until dawn

when ten thousand reasons disappear

and we finally see who we are."

 

(Han Shan, 8th century Chinese poet) (nothing changes, really...)

 

Moggy :)

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I have not even finished my training yet, only have just over 100hrs so far. I have no doubt that this IS absolutely what I want to do with my life. My wife thinks I'm crazy for wanting to give up a six figure salary and grade A benefits at my current job to one day get paid in bread crumbs and Raman noodles. I LONG for that day. If anything my current job is setting me up financially for that time. Since my first solo in the R44, I have been absolutely addicted to flying and there is nothing else I'd rather do with my life. My only dream is that one day my adventures drop me in the GoM flying something, anything, as long as it can hover.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good career choice? Hmm... I am not really sure what that means or what one would want in order to consider a career choice "good." I think a good career choice should result in happiness. In that case there are two choices in life.

 

1. Find a career that will pay a lot. Get money. Attempt to convert money to happiness during the times when you are not working.

 

2. Be a helicopter pilot. This bypasses the whole money step and results in direct happiness.

Edited by Mad Dog
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I laugh a lot. Sometimes it's just a snicker. Sometimes it's out loud.

Frequently, I laugh at myself. And maybe this answers your question, Eagle 5?

 

Consider TWO sides of the same equation.

 

Side A: I have a stack of Excel files. Bills to be paid in RED. Bills PAID in GREEN. WEIRD, one off stuff, that can screw me up: PURPLE. I can tell you right now, down to the penny, that January's bills are all paid, except AT&T because they annoy me, they're always hitting me up with extra charges (roaming? again?) and we're having an argument. I've been paying my way through February, and I've got exactly $1,820.35 worth of bills left to pay in February. There are lots of "TOTAL" columns, and also columns counting balances down. Thus I can tell you that in March 2016, I will be suddenly $646,74 per month better off.... Whoop-dee-fuk'n-doopty....

 

Important stuff, eh? Well.....

 

You want to know my favorite side? Side B?

 

How about this quote from John Blofeld...

 

"I am soon to become an emperor-ha-ha-ha-ha! I am destined to be a lousy beggar-ha-ha-ha-ha! It's all a game. Any part will suit me fine. You are going to give me a thirty-two course (plus side dishes) Chinese banquet? Thanks, I'll enjoy that. We have only a bowl or to of inferior-quality boiled rice for dinner? That will go down very nicely. We have nothing on which to dine? Splendid, we shall have more time to sit outside and enjoy the moonlight, with music provided by the wind in the pines..."

 

My point is that as aspiring helicopter jockeys, or even as established whoppy drivers, you still spin the wheel and takes your chances. Every day. Nothing is certain, health isn't, career isn't, life isn't. Nothing is certain except just another wave finally running out on a sandy beach, and Big Greedy rifling through your wallet.

 

I've been really well off in an office job, and I ended up hating it. I quit. Along that road, I tasted some real poverty and trubbles. But kept on trudging. Did I doubt my sanity at times? Sure! Am I sorry I trudged wearily on, to where I can look back on flying adventures all over the world? Places I've seen, thoughts I've thunk, nut cases I've met, and conversations that went on until five in the morning?

 

Nope...

 

:)

 

PS: And there was always SOME dude somewhere, cheering me on, when ALL THE REST were jeering...

 

:rolleyes:

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps this would have made a better poll topic;

 

If money were no object, would you still persue a career as a pilot, or just fly as a hobby?

I like this question better. It seems for me that having to do something takes all the fun out of wanting to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of our corporate pilots heli/jet switched to management in our company years ago. He says “you get a lot more money sitting in the back of the plane”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The question is whether you want to…fly to live…or live to fly. Some folks can do both. I’ve tried both and my personal conclusion is to not to mix business with pleasure ever again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be the hero in your own movie.

 

Moggy :)

Movie “The Kid” starring Bruce Willis was profound in that regard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have now completed a serious, cost-benefit, statistical analysis, of the career of a Commercial Helicopter Pilot.. I think this can be regarded as definitive:

 

Here it is

 

Respectfully

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Better compared to what ? Mike Rowe has worked at a passel full of jobs. The dirty jobs he has tackled are entertaining to watch, but I wouldn't be very content in any one of them as a career.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I fly for fun and have spent a small fortune on a hobby that, given the chance, I wouldn't make a career out of it. That would ruin the fun.

On the other hand, had I chosen flying as a career when I was younger, I wouldn't trade it away. Maybe nothing better than to be paid to do what you love or as one person says "find a job you love doing and never work another day in your life".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was working in a shop on the airfield the other day doing one of my additional duties. We had the doors open and I could hear and see the other aircraft flying around and I had a flashback to before I was flying for a living. I couldn't help wishing that I was sitting back in the seat flying around over the horizon. I might be able to trade this career for something that allows me to fly on my own dime but I think even then all roads would lead me back to sitting in the cockpit for a living.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One's comfort level is a very individual thing; what placates or satisfies one soul might be bland and tasteless to another. At the very early stages of my career, as a teen, I found the occasional rental to be a taste I liked, but it was never enough.

 

I decided very early in my career that I wanted to experience as much as I possibly could in aviation. Simply logging an hour here or there wasn't what I wanted. I felt driven to be absorbed into the industry, and since my mid teens, I have been thoroughly absorbed into work that's allowed me to fly a very broad sampling of aircraft and a very wide range of places to fly them in a rather diverse smattering of operations.

 

I'm far from having sampled everything; I never will. But it was never about checking boxes and doing everything once. I was about becoming a part of aviation as a way of life, far more than simply a job, and that process has been unrelenting in the years since. There is no chance I'd have ever been able to see or do a fraction of what my career has allowed, had I rented here and there and flown for fun. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to earn a living in the cockpit and in the hangar, flying, and turning wrenches. I consider myself so fortunate because in youth, I was far too poor to think I'd ever have the chance. I value it precisely because I was quite sure I'd never have it.

 

It's been a very long road from there to here, and none of it's been straight or flat. I remember every twist and turn, and each is carefully recorded in a logbook somewhere.

 

Today I get paid quite well, and I have advantages to my job that I didn't have for much of my career. A great deal of it involved some measure of sacrifice (which, contrary to the common view of doing without, I view as giving up something good to get something better), and it's had its share of hardship. I wouldn't have missed a moment of it; I'm grateful for the chance, and given the opportunity, wouldn't bypass a moment. I couldn't do what I do on my dime, and I marvel daily that someone actually pays me to do something I like so much...and that they pay me so well to do it.

 

Is it the right thing for you? No one else can decide that for you. I can say that I'm glad I didn't take a different path, and that this one was the right one for me. The only way you'll ever know if it's right for you is if you try walking it for a time. If you feel drawn, one day you may regret not having tried, if you never allowed yourself the chance..

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a pilot yet and maybe this isn't the perspective OP was looking for, but I think it's relevant and other wannabes will read this.

 

I'm a wannabe too. I'm 9 years into trying to get to flight school and I've got a few years yet to go. I started out extremely poor and had to establish myself in a career that could afford the cost. I'm in a very stressful office job now and no way do I want to do this for the rest of my life. I think it pays quite well at just under $50k a year, but I know that's still not much. I've got a few rungs up the corporate ladder and maybe a company change before I will make enough to fund school in any reasonable amount of time. Ie: the current max saving rate will take a few more years.

 

In the mean time I save, work, and study books about my current industry to make progress. I could do this for the rest of my life... technically.. but I would be miserable, stressed out, and discontent the whole way through. We get one time on this earth and then we die. When I die I'm going home, so it doesn't matter to me how poor or rich I am while I'm here. We spend more time awake and working than not, so it only makes sense to try to enjoy it.

 

I'd rather fly for a living and have it lose some of its allure than not fly at all, but I doubt I'll ever lose interest. I've flown once and I've got a talent for it. One that I don't want to waste. I for one, have no plans to stop the pursuit. I have every intention of throwing away the career I've been working so hard to build as soon as I can make flying a reality.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

The reality is that this industry is not for everyone, and not everyone is for this industry.

 

What are you looking for with this thread Eagle? You want someone to commiserate with you about how awful the industry is? Will that make you feel better?

 

Personally I don't think there is any shame in switching careers if you aren't happy. I've known pilots who used to be software engineers, and I've known software engineers who used to be pilots. Fill software engineer with anything else and it will work. Do what makes you happy. Or makes you money. Or both if you are really lucky. If you can't find either, it's time to try something else.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reality is that this industry is not for everyone, and not everyone is for this industry.

 

What are you looking for with this thread Eagle? You want someone to commiserate with you about how awful the industry is? Will that make you feel better?

 

 

 

Hmm, my last post to this thread was almost 3 years ago, and honestly I have forgotten why I started it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...