For what it is worth, going up north was sometimes crappy pay, but never one second of it wasn't fun. I don't have any idea if doing it is good or bad for a career, but mine didn't really pan out. Bad timing is my middle name.

I for one, certainly hope so. I have at least 3 international trips planned...

You ALWAYS pay for your own training, either through a bond, or low wage to start with. No company is ignorant of the bottom line, or they probably won't be around very long. I am fairly certain, that even in good times, the margins in the vast majority are not very good - probably on par with resta...

And I thought it was going to be about sandwiches. Speaking of which, some of the best hamburgers I've ever had were near, and at YYJ in the 70's and 80's. Met a lot of interesting people through the cafés, several of whom became my PPL/CPL/IFR instructors later on. Many are unfortunately gone now o...

The world is a cruel place and it isn't fair. Everybody in almost every industry is affected badly by this. Aviation was good for many for a little while, and now it isn't. It is just reality.

This was my immediate thought. All the stuff you need to do to get a license, remain current, and generally be a pilot, and taking a few seconds to write down what you do after a flight seems pretty easy. I am rather suspicious of those who "lose" their logbooks, or have no written records. I immedi...

For Ash Ketchum: go to Grad School anyways. You can always go back flying if you really want to. I always wonder what would have been had I gone back after grad school, but alas, I did just fine out of aviation, and 1000% certain that I made more money than I would have in aviation. YMMV, obviously,...

I can't even get FTUs to call me back when I want to book recurrent Instructor training. Business must be good.

The airlines are just doing what all big companies do: when times are good, "...but the SHAREHOLDERS!", and when times are bad, "WAAAAAAA... where is the government to help our poor employees?". It is rotten right now for so many businesses and working people. Everyone is just trying to find their w...

Just for clarity: the looting and burning is all happening under Trump's watch. Nobody else's.

That sounds pretty neat to me!

Um, just another observation: whether anybody gets overtime, or they hire another person, is the realm of the EMPLOYER.

E6B. No batteries required. You need to know your way around them anyways, regardless of what you want to use in the real world. If you are too lazy to learn how to use an E6B, you should not be flying, in my opinion - it is just another strange-at-first thing to get your mind on what is really goin...

In my prime days, the wages were almost free anyways. The cost of living exceeded the pay in many cases. Why do you think I got out of aviation?

The OP asked about type ratings. Go buy one if you want to do it for fun, and you have more money than you know what to do with. An employer won't give you a second look with it. They want to train you their way. However, I personally think it would be a great experience, but it is a lot of intense ...

I sense a troll. If not, this will give you an idea of the cynicism you might expect in this industry.

Somebody mentioned cyclical: in my life, the industry from a professional pilot's perspective, has been down for 36 years, and up for 4.

Absolutely. Your thoughts on it are not unique. We are not supposed to talk about that sort of thing though; kind of an unwritten code or something.

That is a good read. As usual, a lot of factors decided that accident.