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Would you do it all over again?

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If someone would have shown me a crystal ball in 99, when I started school at 20 years old, and I would have seen that it was going to take me 7 years to get my income back up over 30k a year. I would have said no way in hell, even if it snowed there. To pay for college I used to work 84 hour weeks as welder and they paid me $2700 for that work. I was able to save eneugh money in that time to pay cash for school. If I had kept doing that job I could have paid cash 150k house, and been working 1 week a month now.

Of course now that I'm here I LOVE my job I just dont like all the poverty I had to endure to get here. I could go back to welding tomorrow, but I've never seriously considered it.
 
I can't see myself doing much else. In order to succeed you have to master your trade, and flying is the only one worth mastering to me.

On the other hand, if I had to pay what today's students are paying, I don't think I would have made it much past the private pilot cert.
 
I did that! It was a popular first job in my town, calling for the special Olympics. I was 16 years old making $400-$600 a week! Part time! dang that was great. Anyway, I was pretty good at it and it was the most stressful job I have ever had. That is when I started smoking :( I made it 11 months and decided there was more to life than calling people during sex and stealing their money and giving 1/3 of it to special kids.

I have also had a regular 8-5 computer IT networking job. Let me tell you, f*ck that.

I had a 8-5 M-F database job, it paid great... once again, f*ck that.

I've worked retail and sales at a few places and I really liked the interaction, but once again.. no thanks.

I was a waiter for 13 days, HAH! Never ever ever again. Not for me.

I worked in a door factory for a month during a summer. I worked in a concrete factory for a month during that same summer. I was bored and wanted some good ole manual labor experience.

Would I do all of this flying stuff over again? Absolutely. There are so many things to complain about in this job, but it is the same as any other job... there is the good and there is the bad. I occasionally find myself regretting my choice, and something happens.. I'll break out on top of a sold overcast layer at night with a full moon. I'll find myself getting chills as the puff ball clouds rush up. I get a huge adrenalin rush hand flying an ILS in poo for weather. The reward of a perfect crosswind landing. The reward of a perfectly executed slam dunk visual followed by a smooth landing. People thanking me for a safe and comfortable flight. Little kids looking at me like I'm a god, and asking me questions about aiwpanes. Hearing a fed or an examiner say that I did an excellent job.

The thing that eats at me the most is that I spend 1/2 my life away from the person I love the most, my wife. We have a great relationship, and she understand my job completely and is fully supportive... but it makes life difficult sometimes.

The pay is not that great, but as long as you work at a decent company you will be doing better than most after 4 years.

All in all, I would not change a thing. The path that I took to get where I am today made me a better and stronger person.

But I do wish I could fly an A-10 and blow sh*t up!!!!!
If that avatar is your wife, I can see why you get so homesick!
No disrespect intended!
 
If that avatar is your wife, I can see why you get so homesick!
No disrespect intended!

LOL :)

Nope, my wife actually has some tits... unlike avatar girl over there. But geez, what an ass.

She glanced on this site the other day and saw my avatar and said "that girl is fu*kin hot." I couldn't bring myself to tell her that that was the picture next to all of my posts :eek:
 
I did that! It was a popular first job in my town, calling for the special Olympics. I was 16 years old making $400-$600 a week! Part time! dang that was great. Anyway, I was pretty good at it and it was the most stressful job I have ever had. That is when I started smoking :( I made it 11 months and decided there was more to life than calling people during sex and stealing their money and giving 1/3 of it to special kids.

I have also had a regular 8-5 computer IT networking job. Let me tell you, f*ck that.

I had a 8-5 M-F database job, it paid great... once again, f*ck that.

I've worked retail and sales at a few places and I really liked the interaction, but once again.. no thanks.

I was a waiter for 13 days, HAH! Never ever ever again. Not for me.

I worked in a door factory for a month during a summer. I worked in a concrete factory for a month during that same summer. I was bored and wanted some good ole manual labor experience.

Would I do all of this flying stuff over again? Absolutely. There are so many things to complain about in this job, but it is the same as any other job... there is the good and there is the bad. I occasionally find myself regretting my choice, and something happens.. I'll break out on top of a sold overcast layer at night with a full moon. I'll find myself getting chills as the puff ball clouds rush up. I get a huge adrenalin rush hand flying an ILS in poo for weather. The reward of a perfect crosswind landing. The reward of a perfectly executed slam dunk visual followed by a smooth landing. People thanking me for a safe and comfortable flight. Little kids looking at me like I'm a god, and asking me questions about aiwpanes. Hearing a fed or an examiner say that I did an excellent job.

The thing that eats at me the most is that I spend 1/2 my life away from the person I love the most, my wife. We have a great relationship, and she understand my job completely and is fully supportive... but it makes life difficult sometimes.

The pay is not that great, but as long as you work at a decent company you will be doing better than most after 4 years.

All in all, I would not change a thing. The path that I took to get where I am today made me a better and stronger person.

But I do wish I could fly an A-10 and blow sh*t up!!!!!

Excellent post! (Sorry to dredge up this few day old post by the way).

Let me see, I've done:

-Waited tables for a year at 3 separate restaurants. Made about twice what I do now at a CFI job in about half the hours, but I'll never ever ever don an apron again.
-Sold cars for a month. Again, much better money than flying, but having a boss breath down your neck all the time about your monthly sales just sucks the big one. At least if I'm annoyed at management at my current job (who thankfully are generally pretty good), I don't have to deal with them once the engine is started.
-Loaded trucks one summer for a company while in college. The hell with that.
-Maintained a website for a college newspaper. I now hate computers with a passion.

I've had some really crappy jobs, some of which paid considerably more than what I make now. But, I get to go bomb around in airplanes everyday, and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Having had some really awful jobs has made me realize just how lucky I am to have what I have now.
 
Unreal, you have figured it out, you will be successful. You may not be judged as sucessful because you are accpeting less than a doctor makes, but in your own mind you know who is happy.
 
Unreal, you have figured it out, you will be successful. You may not be judged as sucessful because you are accpeting less than a doctor makes, but in your own mind you know who is happy.

Very true ours is one of the least stressful jobs out there. True success is not how much money you make but if you really enjoy your life. If you do then your life is successful no matter what any payscale or union tells you. We also have very little chance of getting sued unlike doctors. I have yet to get stressed out very much at all at my job.
 
Very true ours is one of the least stressful jobs out there. True success is not how much money you make but if you really enjoy your life. If you do then your life is successful no matter what any payscale or union tells you. We also have very little chance of getting sued unlike doctors. I have yet to get stressed out very much at all at my job.

Amen. Earlier today, I was out flying, bumping along in continuous moderate turbulence, OAT of -10F, student pilot at the controls and generally about 5 miles off course. Surface winds were gusting and providing about a 13 knot direct crosswind (not counting the gusts--I ended up taking one of the landings). I think we were the only ones from our 25+ airplane flight school out this morning. It's funny how it didn't raise my heart beat at all. I really didn't think twice about it.

AND I still caught myself telling the student how it was still a pretty good day to go flying and remarking how good it was to just be out. I know a lot of CFIs, and from talking to them, I always thought that CFIs tend to burn out as time goes on. I'd hear instructors talk "At first it's really cool to finally get paid to fly, but then it's not so much fun." Really the opposite has happened for me--I'm enjoying instructing more than I ever have. I fully intend to keep instructing throughout my flying career, even if it is only one or two students at a time. I really, genuinely enjoy it.

I imagine the next step to a regional will probably be similar; it will mildly suck at first (only mildly--it is still flying afterall, as opposed to actually working) and then just get better and better as I qualify for better and better things in the flying career. I have some good goals that excite me and get me all charged up and keep me working hard, but I stay flexible.

The thing about using monetary compensation as a yardstick for career success is that someone will always make more money than you, and you will always regard yourself as a failure. And you get into the trap of saying "when I make $X, I will be happy." But if you aren't happy now, you won't be happy when you are making $X! I mean sure, there is something to be said about being financially secure and having sufficient for you needs, but trying to "keep up with the Jones's" is probably one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Besides that, financial security is as much about management and allocation of resources as it is about pure income.

Anyway, I have engineer friends, I have accountant friends, I have friends in retail, and friends the sciences. Some of them tell me that they wish they had done what I did. I don't blame them. Some of them are happy with what they have chosen. That's exactly how it should be. Whatever you find in life that makes you truly happy, you should do it. And for me, I've found it. The only thing I would have changed is that I wouldn't have waited until I was 25 to pursue my flying career in earnest. But then again, the things that I did in the mean time were tremendous learning experiences, and I wouldn't be the person I am without them. So I guess it's all good.

-Goose
 
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