waisiefare

hello, i'm a new member here =)

I would like to know, how is an pilot life exactly... I am 24, finishing my B.S. Degree and planning to get into flying... and marrying at 35+. I had been thinking, if you, single guys, are happily living with your jobs ?

DaveP2

I think the first thing you should expect from the responses is that a pilot's life is 'exactly' different for each pilot depending on their situation. Some are away from home a lot for low pay, some get a LOT of pay; others manage to stay home quite a bit, again for both low and high pay. You've got the right idea though, ask a lot of questions up front and make sure that your future wife also is in on the Q&A, you don't want the "you never said it would be like THIS!" line to come up and bite you in the butt.

Congrats, by the way!

SkyHigh

It can get old to waste your days away in hotels. The glamor kind of fades after you have seen the same Hampton Inn for the 20th time. Usually you are on a tight budget since you will not earn much as a pilot. Top ramen in the lobby microwave and perhaps a can of beans in your room is a typical highlight of the layover. Rules against drinking mean mostly dry nights. After spending a frustrating day with grouchy crew mates the last thing you want to do is to spend more time with them. Then 6 o'clock rolls around and you have to force yourself to sleep since you have a 2AM wake up call while the trucker in the next room yells at his girlfriend over the phone. You can fill in the rest yourself.

SkyHigh

Slice

Man, SkyHigh, you are one jaded s.o.b. By reading your posts here, if I had your life, I'd have hanged myself by now!

HeavyDriver

In the past 10 years I have flown all over the world...Tahiti, Hawaii, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong...All over Europe...Too many places to name...I've stayed in great hotels and I have stayed in dumps...I've had great schedules, and I have had schedules that totally sucked...It's all part of the job...It's like anything else in this world...It is what it is, and what you make it....Good luck with your choices and career...Cheers

waisiefare

Dave, thanks for the concern, i really wanted to see the difference in each other's life, besides, I won't think about supporting family, like someone said before, to be old and wise, one must be young and stupid. I've been

Skyhigh, doesn't airlines pay for the meals and for the day expenses ? I imagine, that that will save up a bit of cash, besides.... staying in 20 different places, is better than staying at 1 place all the time, right ?

HeavyDriver, do you regret your career ?

You see, guys, I got a B.S. Degree in Accounting, i'm thinking about going into big auditing firms, they earn 50k or something starting, but doesn't have much life, I was in an internship where I:

woke up at 6am, prepare breakfast and change until 7:30am
go to work at 8am until 5:30pm.
But since Accounting jobs do works to finish on schedule, they have to stay until 6pm+ everyday, including saturday, and maybe sundays. some people stays until 11pm during peak periods oh, and NO overpay.

so that is 12 hours work, 8 hours to sleep, that leaves 4 hours, which 2 hours is for commuting, so in reality, that leaves 2 hours of daily life.

And a Chance to take a vacation for three weeks, for one year, how will I expect to see all the world ? even thought I had the money, where do I use it?

NO overpay, people don't like accountant, no social life
less than 3 hours of personal life
women doesn't look upon accountant
neither do kids

so, I'm thinking, do you guys have freedom ? I'm thinking about having a marriage and start a business at 35 years old. and then leave the airplane industry [and hope to save along the way]

Any of you guys, regret what do you do ?

FlyerJosh

Don't regret it at all. I love my job and it's certainly had it's ups and downs. It is what you make if it though...

Skyhigh might be a bit (okay a lot) jaded, but he does provide some balance to the always sunny folks that love to fly for a living.

Truth is that reality is most likely somewhere in the middle, and if you have a realistic understanding of what the industry is BEFORE you get into it, then you're more likely to be happy.

Some overnights suck. Others are great. You'll fly with some great people and some people that you count the minutes until the trip ends.

Personally (in 7 years and 4000 hours of professional flying), I can count one one hand the number of pilots that I flew with that I didn't care for, and on two hands the number of overnights that I really didn't enjoy.

If your single and adventurous, I think it's a great job. Travel, see new places, meet new people, and see humanity at its finest and its worst. The best thing is that no day is ever the same and the scenery is always changing.

Odds are that you will never make the money flying that you would doing some other jobs (like accounting), but for me it's not all about the cash. Personally I could never work a 9-5 office job. It would drive me nuts. But then again, I enjoy being on the road.

Just be prepared to be flexible and get used to change. And remember- if there's one thing that is for certain in the aviation industry it's that nothing is for certain... what seems the norm today, might not be tomorrow.

Good luck!

flystraightin

FlyerJosh, I love traveling and being on the road, but do you have a plan (if and when) you want to settle down and have a family? Thats my question, do you know what you're going to do in the future?

This is a big reason why I'm still questioning flying for a living. For now, it would be the best thing going, but what will happen when I've got to leave my wife and kids for 20days a month.

FlyerJosh

flystraightin,

Actually things worked out really well for me. I've got the best of both worlds and I fly just enough to enjoy my job plus I've settled down and we're working on that whole family thing (so far I've gotten to wife and dogs)...

I will wholeheartedly admit that I have one of those one in one thousand corporate jobs that everybody craves. I'm very fortunate in that I'm home just about every night, fly about 1-2 days a week, am treated well at work in regards to pay and respect, and when I'm not flying I don't have a lot of BS work to do.

I also believe that while luck/devine intervention definately played a part in landing this job, that each individual's attitude plays a tremendous role. I've always been enthusiastic and positive and I don't hesitate one second in believing that it has helped me land jobs (first as a walk-in flight instructor, later as an airline applicant with 660TT/55ME, and most recently as a furloughed regional jet captain).

flystraightin

That sounds great, do you mind me asking who you work for? I'd love to have something like you described. You are one lucky man!

Cheers