Becoming a career aviator is rough!

[mcjohn]

At least for me it has been. I love flying more than anything but I can't believe all the highs and lows I've been through to get my ratings, maintain steady work as a CFI below the poverty line (gave up on that!), and now to keep my sanity as a banner pilot living in a travel trailer with 2 other pilots. Now the icing on the cake is that I freakin pinched a nerve in my back or neck or something handing proping my plane the other day and my entire right arm is numb so now I have to run around (instead of flying) to figure out how to fix it. Oh, and my wife called last night and told me that she lost her job back in North Carolina and needs me to send more money. Does anyone have any interesting stories of their rough times they dealt with to get where they are today? The doctor I was with today regarding my numb arm had some interesting stories of near starvation and tough conditions he faced to get through med school. I figure most pilots have had it rough so let's here it. It will only help.

 

[uwochris]

Here's my story so far:

After graduating from University, I started to work as a dispatcher at my flight school, with a promise of an eventual instructor job. After 1 month, I was offered a flying job as an aerial photographer elsewhere, which I jumped on the opportunity. It was a fun job, albeit it was seasonal and I didn't fly too much, but I really enjoyed my time off. I lived closed to home and was living in an awesome city (London, Ontario, Canada).

After a year of that, I took a job with an airline in northern Canada. I'm not flying, and haven't been flying in a year now. Many smaller airlines in Canada hire low time pilots in a non-flying job, then, after 1-1.5 years, they upgrade you to FO. I thought it would be a good idea. Only time will tell if this was the right move. I should be in the metro groundschool in a month or so, so I'm looking forward to getting back in the air.

I haven't been home in 1 year now, I live in low-income government subsidized housing (rent is only $185/month), and I hate the city I live in (800 km north of North Dakot/Canada border), but, this experience has really helped me to appreciate what I had back home. Oh yeah, I make $11/hour, but with the low cost of living, my bank account is doing very good!

When I read stories of people in the USA who get on with an airline within a year or less of their graduation, it sometimes really makes me jealous. I think some people have it a lot better than they really realize, including myself. Even though we think we have it rough, there's plenty of others out there who have it wayyy worse.

 

[Midnight Flyer]

After graduating from University...

And let me guess, if you get injured, you go to Hospital?
LOL, I'm only teasing.

 

[uwochris]

And let me guess, if you get injured, you go to Hospital?
LOL, I'm only teasing.

I'm Canadian, we capatilize everything here!

 

[Midnight Flyer]

I'm Canadian, we capatilize everything here!

I've always kinda wondered, why don't they say "going to the hospital" as opposed to "going to hospital".
-or-

"Graduated from the University" instead of "graduated from University"

Not pickin' on ya, just genuinely curious. (also sorry about hijacking the thread)

 

[uwochris]

If I put "the" in front of University, then it would have made it specific (i.e. people would wonder 'which University"?). By omitting "the," it makes the statement general (i.e. I graduated from a University, and I didn't state which one). I think that's the correct reasoning!

 

[mcjohn]

Interesting. I've never heard of that kind of set up you speak of in Canada. Sounds like your plan may really pay off if you fly the Metro. Good luck. I'm looking at getting the 135 IFR mins and most likely hauling checks which is good PIC flying but most of the operators only have piston equipment which is not very valuable time for moving on to the bigger and better paying jobs. Ameriflight would be the best single pilot 135 operator to work for because you upgrade to turbine equipment quickly but the pilot domiciles tend to be very far from any area I'd prefer to live. Air Cargo Carriers is the other unique operator that gives their pilots the opportunity to upgrade quickly for turbine PIC. I'm eligible to interview with them again in Novemeber. I just need to go buy MSFS 2004 and learn how to fly the Baron a little better on that querky sim. Oh yeah, you can ad that to the list of things that are really bumming me out. Oh well like you said, there are folks out there that have it waaaay worse. I'll stay positive and look forward whatever the next challenge is around the corner.

 

[Say Again Over]

I don't think it was that tuff for me, being in the right place at the right time worked a lot for me, my only advice is to treat every very good and it will come back to you, that lineman might be your boss someday!

 

[avbug]

In the course of developing a career, I never worked less than two jobs at a time. I moved frequently (more times than you would find believable). I did a lot of different kinds of work. I lived on the road for extended periods. I performed jobs which burned me, cut me, knocked me unconscious, left me stranded in unusual and often inhospitable locations, required me to fix what broke under often trying field conditions, and often payed little. I've lived everywhere from tents to a hangar to a tiny trailer on a muddy runway in the middle of nowhere. I've seen unbelievably poor and falsified maintenance, flying conditions that are probably worse than any nightmare you've ever had, and employers that ranged from fair or generous to a few that were so far off their rocker as to be criminally dangerous.

I completed a specialty school that gauranteed job placement. Upon graduation, (after six months of hell that pushed one classmate far enough to purchase a firearm with the intent of killing the school owner, and who sat in the owners chair when he was out and shot out runway lights to practice), I was told to buy a car and begin traveling and ask every operator I encountered for a job. I was told that eventually someone would hire me. I used the few funds I had left to buy a car, for four hundred bucks, and began driving. I finally ran low on fuel and got two flat tires in a small town. The engine wouldn't start. I had enough money to eat, or buy gas to get to the next town. The local operator hired me and put me up in his house. That was my first commercial job, right out of high school.

I've been shot while flying. I've been hospitalized in intensive care after equipment malfunctions. I've been run over by an aircraft. I've lost hearing to aircraft. And so on.

When trying to get a foothold in the industry, I worked side jobs, often second full time jobs, that ranged from working in a candy factory to a rubber stamp factory. I scrubbed supermarket floors, was an armed gaurd, packed parachutes, repaired aircraft, cut logs, dug ditches, wrote technical manuals, and spent time at an answering service. I worked in a green house. I mixed chemicals, drove a tractor, cared for horses, scrubbed aircraft, and cleaned up vomit. I flew air ambulance by day (and night), and maintained a full time job cleaning theatres by night that paid more than the ambulance duties.

Twice while gone for extended periods on flying duties, the house I was renting was sold and my pregnant wife with small kids in tow had to move on her own. Once in the field my wife accompanied me and developed a life threatening condition; we had no insurance, I was on a tight relief schedule that had me moving town to town every two days. I've quit jobs because of the maintenance, because paychecks were bouncing, because of excess politics of poor company management. I flew for one national operator that in a single year, experienced every emerergency in the aircraft handbook plus a number that weren't listed...in my hire class alone.

All just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sorry for your plight, but there's a lot more to paying your dues, or potentially paying your dues if there is indeed such a thing, than you've yet experienced.

The day will very likely come, far off for you yet, when you will look back on your time now and realize that this has been a time of some of your best learning, some of your best experiences, and quite possibly, some of your fondest memories. When those days come, though I'll probably be long gone, remember that I was the first to tell you "I told you so." This too shall pass, but the day will come when you will come to appreciate that wouldn't go back and change the past, or trade these days for anything. Enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[pilotyip]

But notice, Avbug kept doing it, that is the nature of this job.