The Gods Have Spoken,...!

[r22butters]

So I'm in my car on my way down to Santa Barbara for a job interview. Nothing fancy, just a small one horse operation, and part-time at that (just three days a week for "maybe" one flight hour a day giving rides in a 44) so unlike Helislave I think maybe this could work?

 

However, not long into the journey I get stuck in traffic. As I sit there, litteraly just sitting in the middle of the freeway not moving for what seems like forever, I get a thought. f**k this! I had my chance a year ago and I obviously couldn't hack it, so its time to accept that. So I turned the car around (when I finally made it to the next exit) and went home!

 

Then a week later someone posted this on that other forum:

 

https://youtu.be/VYhYBRLc_Dc

 

Yep that's the place. Even though they all made it out ok (which is great, I mean look at that mess, damn!) since they say it was a mechanical problem (as opposed to pilot error) I can't help but think, "Man, I really dodged a bullet there!?" (excuse me while I knock on some wood, which is difficult when you're on the can,...unless,...?)

 

When I called him up to cancel the interview I said I had decided to no longer persue flying as a career. I really need to listen to myself!

 

,...or what the Universe is trying to tell me!

[Francis Meyrick]

Tisk, tisk. Tisk. Oh ye of little faith. That's a NICE way of saying it. I could also conjure up dark visions of disbelieving heathens, swarming to pagan Baal-type gods, and sacrificing children. Not that some of the screaming, little baskets that haunt modern day temples like "Walmart" don't jolly well DESERVE to be sacrificed to the flames...

I submit you are listening to the wrong Gods. Times are rough right now. For the unloved, bottom of the totem pole, common-as-catshit chopper driver. But that is the way of the crumbling cookie. Into the breech you desert, so many ardent, true believers will swarm. Faces upraised to the stars, illusions like petals unfolding in the early morning light, these faithful will continue to mortgage houses, wives, girlfriends, parents, children and the pet Cockatoo. And, I might add, if they are lucky (real lucky) that long list of mortgagees will include the PARENTS of the girl friend.

 

You'll change your mind. INsanity will return. Here, I'll give you a tip. That, and a dollar, will buy you a cup of that pink yukky looking stuff the big coffee lawsuit is about. When you get a chance, sidle up to some ancient, crockety, limping, one-eyed, mentally unstable, slobbering, retired chopper jockey. Begging for alms outside Walmart. With a cardboard sign that reads: "Please give generously - retired nut". Some suitably qualified imbecile, mindless from thousands and thousands of hours of resonant vibrations, with an IQ in the low double digits. Somebody like me. And whisper (after you've dropped a quarter or two in my begging bowl) the question that matters:

 

"Hey, Mogster! After 48 years in the sky, from first solo to hanging up the headsets, tell me honestly: would you EVER do it again? Same sh*t?"

 

And you know the answer. Dirty big grin. More slobbering. Eyes bright.

 

"FUK YEAH++++"

 

 

[r22butters]

There's one thing I've never experienced in my fourteen years as a pilot, and that's the feeling of being needed!

 

As a truck driver on the other hand, I feel like I have skills someone actually values,...you know guys have actually called me offering jobs!

 

As a pilot no one will ever NEED me, driving an 18 wheeler, I'll always have work!

 

,...until those self driving trucks I saw in 'Logan' start fillng the roads that is! Man that was a depressing end to Wolverine and the Professor!

 

You're probably right though. One day the insanity will return and I'll send out another resume

 

,...but only for a seasonal gig, I'll never be insane enough again to want this as a career!

Edited May 9, 2017 by r22butters

[Wally]

Tisk, tisk. Tisk. Oh ye of little faith. That's a NICE way of saying it. I could also conjure up dark visions of disbelieving heathens, swarming to pagan Baal-type gods, and sacrificing children. Not that some of the screaming, little baskets that haunt modern day temples like "Walmart" don't jolly well DESERVE to be sacrificed to the flames...

I submit you are listening to the wrong Gods. Times are rough right now. For the unloved, bottom of the totem pole, common-as-catshit chopper driver. But that is the way of the crumbling cookie. Into the breech you desert, so many ardent, true believers will swarm. Faces upraised to the stars, illusions like petals unfolding in the early morning light, these faithful will continue to mortgage houses, wives, girlfriends, parents, children and the pet Cockatoo. And, I might add, if they are lucky (real lucky) that long list of mortgagees will include the PARENTS of the girl friend.

 

You'll change your mind. INsanity will return. Here, I'll give you a tip. That, and a dollar, will buy you a cup of that pink yukky looking stuff the big coffee lawsuit is about. When you get a chance, sidle up to some ancient, crockety, limping, one-eyed, mentally unstable, slobbering, retired chopper jockey. Begging for alms outside Walmart. With a cardboard sign that reads: "Please give generously - retired nut". Some suitably qualified imbecile, mindless from thousands and thousands of hours of resonant vibrations, with an IQ in the low double digits. Somebody like me. And whisper (after you've dropped a quarter or two in my begging bowl) the question that matters:

 

"Hey, Mogster! After 48 years in the sky, from first solo to hanging up the headsets, tell me honestly: would you EVER do it again? Same sh*t?"

 

And you know the answer. Dirty big grin. More slobbering. Eyes bright.

 

"FUK YEAH++++"

 

 

 

EFFIN' A!!! I would do it again. Some things I would do different, but the flying part was great, Fort Wolters 1968 to Gainesville GA 2016.

 

It wasn't about being "needed or appreciated", it was ALL internal standards- what could I have done better, what can I learn from that? That's why I listened to everybody involved in my work, from dispatcher, customer/passenger to check airman and everybody in between. You have to throw a lot of shovels of dirt to find a diamond and you never know where it will be.