Addiction
06-19-2009, 08:37 AM
#11
Self Employed.
Thread Starter
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Exagerate?
Well Sky....you certainly let it all hang out on this post didn't know? Do you sit around the house all day just trying to come up with some depressing type of story to share on the evils of aviation? It seems that everything that someone says to you or anything that you read or watch - you purposefully try to find some equation to the fall of mankind connection to aviation. It seems to me that maybe YOU are the one obessed and addicted to aviation. If it were a drug controlling my life like a failed aviation career controls yours - I'm pretty sure others would see it as an addiction too.
I've got an idea. Why don't you find an automotive website with a message board and try spreading this message to the people who spend 30 years tinkering with a car in the garage, pouring money into it and fixing it up and never driving it around the block and see what kind of responses you get. MAYBE he finds enjoying with the process of revamping the 170. Maybe it is a stress reduction strategy?
Btw - what are the house prices around your part of town where a person could pay CASH for a house in just two years on money spent on a Cessna 170? Me thinketh you exaggerate - - - again.
USMCFLYR
I've got an idea. Why don't you find an automotive website with a message board and try spreading this message to the people who spend 30 years tinkering with a car in the garage, pouring money into it and fixing it up and never driving it around the block and see what kind of responses you get. MAYBE he finds enjoying with the process of revamping the 170. Maybe it is a stress reduction strategy?
Btw - what are the house prices around your part of town where a person could pay CASH for a house in just two years on money spent on a Cessna 170? Me thinketh you exaggerate - - - again.
USMCFLYR
I am passionate about aviation. What can I say? APC is about writing and sharing ideas. Mine happen to be different from most.
Skyhigh
06-19-2009, 08:42 AM
#12
Self Employed.
Thread Starter
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Forced out
Almost 5000 posts since you left the industry . . . I'd say you still have to get over your addiction, too If it's so terrible, why don't you just flush it out of your mind and stop thinking about it 
Your 150 should be able to fill that gap, as long as all the negativity hasn't rotted too much away
If it's so terrible, why don't you just flush it out of your mind and stop thinking about it Your 150 should be able to fill that gap, as long as all the negativity hasn't rotted too much awayAfter spending most of my life focused on aviation it is not so easy to "flush it out of my mind". The 150 is nice but it will never be able to take the place of my lost dream.
I am not negative. I merely have lost my optimum bias and can see the side of aviation that most here would like to pretend doesn't exist.
SKyhigh
06-19-2009, 11:59 AM
#13
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: FAA 'Flight Check'
Posts: 13,839
Maybe I exaggerated a little however on another forum a guy admitted that he has spent over $100,000 on his 152 so far. I do not think it is unrealistic to think he couldn't have accomplished a similar bill.
I am passionate about aviation. What can I say? APC is about writing and sharing ideas. Mine happen to be different from most.
Skyhigh
I am passionate about aviation. What can I say? APC is about writing and sharing ideas. Mine happen to be different from most.
Skyhigh
It also sounds like you think that he could buy a $100,000 house for that same price. Since you are in the business - could you PM me some links to houses in your area for $100k? I think that prices are more expensive in the SD area where I am this weekend - but the friend I'm staying with has a 800 sq ft apartment that would sell for somewhere over $300,000. I've been looking for houses in Oklahoma lately where they are much more reasonable in priceand I'm still not finding much in that price range.
Are you sure that your facts are right again Sky or are you trying to manipulate a conveinent story to try and make your point more drastic?
USMCFLYR
06-19-2009, 12:11 PM
#14
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: FAA 'Flight Check'
Posts: 13,839
I was forced out of aviation when my company went under. As pilots we are only as good as our friends are and at the time most every friend I had was also laid off, furloughed or under employed.
After spending most of my life focused on aviation it is not so easy to "flush it out of my mind". The 150 is nice but it will never be able to take the place of my lost dream.
I am not negative. I merely have lost my optimum bias and can see the side of aviation that most here would like to pretend doesn't exist.
SKyhigh
After spending most of my life focused on aviation it is not so easy to "flush it out of my mind". The 150 is nice but it will never be able to take the place of my lost dream.
I am not negative. I merely have lost my optimum bias and can see the side of aviation that most here would like to pretend doesn't exist.
SKyhigh
I saw on the news recently that the lumber industry up near your part of the country was down over 35% and that people with more than 30 years with certain companies were being laid off. I wonder if they would use the same term.
When I quite my job at Wendy's over "a contract dispute" I never would have considered myself "forced out of" the fast food business. Well...at least I now know why I didn't get another fast food job in the past 30+ years.
So admittedly you are addicted to aviation yourself since you can't just flush aviation out of your mind. Has it become that dangerous obsession for you yet that you warned us about in your original post? What do you think will be your own "gruesome end" to your obsession with aviation?
Others see both sides of aviation Sky. You have a bias - you just think it is OK to have a negative bias and wrong to see a single giood thing about aviation.
Please point out the user name of your alter-ego on APC who is as incredibly positive about aviation as you are negative?
USMCFLYR
06-19-2009, 12:16 PM
#15
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: Sleeping in the black swan’s nest.
Posts: 5,725
You've also mentioned that you were unable to find employment in the late 90's during one of the largest hiring booms in aviation history. If you really want to discover why you were having these problems my strong suggestion is quit blaming the hard cruel world and take long hard look in the mirror.
I've worked for two major airlines and one national heavy jet operator. I sure as heck did not rely on "friends" to get me in the door or through an interview or to help me upgrade. I unequivocally believe that you need to get some counseling to help you with your feelings of remorse over your failed career. If you even ever had one. From some of the things you've said I am starting to have my doubts.
Who did you fly 757's for?
06-19-2009, 03:14 PM
#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2006
Position: DHC-8 SIC
Posts: 634
I remember creating a thread here regarding how my co-workers criticized me because I spent my free time browsing aviation websites at work instead of playing spider solitaire. One of the things SkyHigh said was, I will paraphrase "aviation can be very addicting and can destroy your life if you didn't put some restraints..." Well, I did take your advice and I have found other ways to spend my free time at work. Yes, I have been addicted to aviation since I was 8 years old and I didn't start flying until I was 23. All those, years, what kept me going in high school, 4 years of college, was that addiction. I love aviation as much as I did when I was 16 and I hope to make a career out of it someday. I have read a lot of negative posts here, but I cannot let that stop me and I hope everyone in my shoes share the same.
06-19-2009, 03:37 PM
#17
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2006
Position: Mostly Herks. Soon to be Guppys and FRED
Posts: 280
Over the years I have come to believe that aviation can become a dangerous obsession for some people. We have a young guy at my local airport who has blown his net worth on a dead end Cessna 170. He just will not leave it alone. He put a bigger engine in it. Then he upgraded the radios. It got a stol kit and new paint. On and on he has dumped a fortune into a plane that he hasn't been able to fly much since it is always in the shop. He will never see most of that money again.
Yesterday he announces that he want to sell it and get a Cessna 180. It is never good enough. He and his wife make good money but are living in a two bedroom apartment to support his addiction. Two years ago I heard him promise his wife that they were going to buy a house that summer. With the money he has blown they could have paid cash for a home. I can only imagine what the arguments are like in their 800 square foot apartment. A few years ago thew same guy asked me what kind of plane to get and I told him to buy a 150. It just isn't good enough I guess.
I have seen many others get sucked into bad aviation obsessions. Plenty of my co-workers have burned up their lives constantly choosing aviation over friends and family. Some can not let go of the high the get from taking risks in flight. Others loose sight of balance in their lives and just let flying consume every corner of their lives until they are alone and living in a studio apartment without so much as a houseplant to keep them company or a dollar int he bank to secure their future with.
Sooner or later the obsession leads to a gruesome end of some kind. To me aviation has the power to destroy lives as much as any drug or addiction can. I mentioned this before to a friend and he told me that horse addicts are the same way.
Skyhigh
Yesterday he announces that he want to sell it and get a Cessna 180. It is never good enough. He and his wife make good money but are living in a two bedroom apartment to support his addiction. Two years ago I heard him promise his wife that they were going to buy a house that summer. With the money he has blown they could have paid cash for a home. I can only imagine what the arguments are like in their 800 square foot apartment. A few years ago thew same guy asked me what kind of plane to get and I told him to buy a 150. It just isn't good enough I guess.
I have seen many others get sucked into bad aviation obsessions. Plenty of my co-workers have burned up their lives constantly choosing aviation over friends and family. Some can not let go of the high the get from taking risks in flight. Others loose sight of balance in their lives and just let flying consume every corner of their lives until they are alone and living in a studio apartment without so much as a houseplant to keep them company or a dollar int he bank to secure their future with.
Sooner or later the obsession leads to a gruesome end of some kind. To me aviation has the power to destroy lives as much as any drug or addiction can. I mentioned this before to a friend and he told me that horse addicts are the same way.
Skyhigh
Don't listen to Skyhigh every 6 months he comes out with the same verbal diarrhea. I suspect this has something to do with him getting off his meds.
06-20-2009, 12:09 PM
#18
Stethoscope
Joined APC: Feb 2006
Posts: 308
this dude is unreal!
sky, how do you find the time...? don't you have a "fleet" of rental properties to manage?
sky, how do you find the time...? don't you have a "fleet" of rental properties to manage?
06-20-2009, 12:40 PM
#19
Organizational Learning
Joined APC: Nov 2005
Position: Directly behind the combiner
Posts: 4,948
Y'all need to tell me if anything important was posted after this line, because once I read this, I couldn't stop laughing.
Addiction? A lecture on addiction? From a guy who's addicted to the attention he gets from complaining about aviation, and how it mistreated him? Yougottabekiddinme.
Ooops. I just facilitated the addiction.
Skyhigh -- go wash some diapers, man.
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Addiction? A lecture on addiction? From a guy who's addicted to the attention he gets from complaining about aviation, and how it mistreated him? Yougottabekiddinme.
Ooops. I just facilitated the addiction.
Skyhigh -- go wash some diapers, man.
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