Working for airlines sucks what else should I look into

[Eugene_goostman]

Being gone over half the month. Low to moderate pay to start. Eventually make good money but then you are married to your company. Hanging out with people you barely know. Hotels suck. Flying is pretty boring if you are honest. Eating out sucks. I liked things better when I was a 703 pilot and actually flew airplanes and made decisions besides how I want my coffee.

Should I get out of the airlines and go back? Is there another line of work such as corporate that is okay or does that suck as well?

[North Shore]

Grass is always greener, man..
I'd suggest fire suppression, but then that's poor(ish) pay to start, you're gone 3/4/5 months, hang around with the same people for days on end..

[atphat]

"Made decisions besides how I want my coffee"

Who do you work for? I highly doubt you are an airline pilot with that attitude. If you are...the bush is probably where you should be anyways.

Edit. No need to be specific. Mainline? Regional? Charter?

[Rockie]

Being gone over half the month. Low to moderate pay to start. Eventually make good money but then you are married to your company. Hanging out with people you barely know. Hotels suck. Flying is pretty boring if you are honest. Eating out sucks. I liked things better when I was a 703 pilot and actually flew airplanes and made decisions besides how I want my coffee.

Should I get out of the airlines and go back? Is there another line of work such as corporate that is okay or does that suck as well?

You're focusing on the negative without considering the positives, plus you should ask yourself just how "negative" the negatives are compared to the 703 world. Also consider how your perceptions of both jobs will change as you age which is inevitable. I'm also presuming you're in the right seat now and don't like that position very much, perhaps your opinion will change once you're back in the left seat making considerably more money and once again making decisions.

[altiplano]

Do you really have to decide how you want your coffee?

I mean don't you just know how you like it?

[goingnowherefast]

Shhh, don't let the secret out. There are many good 703/704 companies around. Usually you just hear about the bad ones.
Only down side is you won't be able to live in a major city unless it's corporate, but then you are back into over-nighting with the jet while the owner/client does their thing.

705 companies usually offer much better job security long term.

[linecrew]

Do you really have to decide how you want your coffee?

I mean don't you just know how you like it?

Well considering the moderate amount of boredom being experienced by this aviator, perhaps to mitigate said boredom he/she chooses a different way to to have their coffee each time. You know, to keep sh!t real.

[Kosiw]

Being gone over half the month. Low to moderate pay to start. Eventually make good money but then you are married to your company. Hanging out with people you barely know. Hotels suck. Flying is pretty boring if you are honest. Eating out sucks. I liked things better when I was a 703 pilot and actually flew airplanes and made decisions besides how I want my coffee.

Should I get out of the airlines and go back? Is there another line of work such as corporate that is okay or does that suck as well?

An honest opinion.....finally a realist

[frog]

Lots of 705 jobs depend a lot on your seniority. So if it is your case, your quality of life is just going to improve from now.
Also if you for a 705 like transat or sunwing, a lot of the flights are round trip down south.
So each day gets you around 8 to 10 hours credit. Typically a month is 80 to 90 hours credit.
In another words, you are not even working half of the month unless you want OT or gdo flying.
Also, 703 flying may be more fun, I agree, but could be scary !

[Gilles Hudicourt]

It's a matter of personal choice and taste. Two people will do the exact same job, one will love it, the other will hate it.

I've seen people join Transat, work a few years and then quit, to join Transport Canada, work for the Quebec Government, go back to a 703 Operator or even go back to work as a Helicopter pilot.
Some quit just because their wives didn't want to live in a big city and they were tired of driving for hours before and after every paring.
Some can't recover from jet lag and are always sleepy when its time to work and wide awake when its time to sleep.

The majority are content, not about every aspect of it, but who is 100% content about anything in life ?

It's personal. You have to pinpoint exactly what it is you can live with and what it is you can't.

Then you can't put all 705 operators in the same basket.
Pilots at Air Transat, Air Canada, Jazz, Westjet, Enerjet, First Air, Sunwing etc all lead somewhat different lives from each other. Within each of these companies, pilots lead different lives according to the equipment they fly, the seniority they have, the position they have.

Some fly long haul and spend a lot of time away from home, while others do nothing but turns and sleep at home every night. Some do a lot of night flying, others never. Some eat in restaurants very often, others never. Some do long term overseas contracts. Some never leave Canada. So although you may hate working at a certain 705 company because of the lifestyle it provides you, you may love the lifestyle of another. Or your lifestyle may change by just changing aircraft within the same company. Or by giving training, or taking an office job with minimal flying duties. To each his own. None is better, none is worse. Its all a matter of personal choice, personal family situation, personal taste and tolerance.

[Zaibatsu]

It sounds like you want a job that pays well with good stability/security.. but you want to have adventure and challenges. Those two are usually (but not always) mutually exclusive. Women are the same way.. they want a man who is daring and adventurous and who will sweep them off their feet... but is home all of the time, has a stable good paying job, and only sweeps her off her feet when SHE wants to. Maybe that's why divorce is so prevelant in aviation?

Anyways. Some people enjoy the boredom. I've been scared enough in dumpy clapped out 703 machines that I don't ever care to log another hour in one. I've spent enough time in filthy crew houses eating KD that I don't mind having a quiet hotel room and a decent meal out. You can get creative too and use per diems to buy your own stuff and make your own meals.. a lot cheaper and better for you too.

I'm not sure corporate would be better. If you're working for a fractional or charter company, you're still going to be flying all over the place on airline type schedules as companies seek to maximize the useage of their planes and pilots. If you're in a corporate department, you're first on the chopping block if the company starts doing badly and you spend a ton of time doing nothing.. hanging around the FBO waiting for the owners to finish their golf games or business meetings or waiting for them to even go in the first place.

[fish4life]

try somewhere like a northway or perimeter style

[Rowdy]

I spent a decade thinking the same way you did. That the airlines would be boring and I didn't want to live in hotels. I put it off and figured I'd do my own thing despite the warnings from my airline pilot family members, and research and make connections in the industry in the hopes of finding some kind of holy grail of a 703/704 op. While they are indeed out there, they are damn near impossible to get on with or are located in some place I'd much rather not live. Theres always a trade off it seems.

That meant a long time in the 703/704 world, mostly for reasonable operators (and one or two complete shit shows). I started flying young. Had my private at 16 and commercial the day I turned 19. Which afforded me the ability to make some mistakes along the way when it came to career path and employers. I don't have any regrets.. okay maybe just one

I'm now in the 705 world, with a wife and a home and the startings of a family. I know that isn't for everyone,but it is the way for most. You're fooling yourself if you think a future partner will tolerate the vagabond 703 lifestyle for long.. anyways... I look back fondly on my time in the bush and around the world, but the rose coloured glasses are long gone. My tune has most certainly changed as I've matured and experienced.

I have no interest in being told I'm working on a day off, or called up at 10pm on a friday "get in here we have a charter" or that if I don't fly that clapped out broken POS back I can find my own way home. I no longer plan my work days around finding a scarce few minutes to eat garbage processed food between trips.. hunt down a hotel in an unknown spot on my own dime or when can I manage a bathroom break on a 14 leg day. I have a schedule I can show my wife without her scowling at me knowing it'll change, so we can actually enjoy days off together and do the things we want to do with our lives and plan it. I have dental and health benefits too. If I was a religious man I'd thank some feigned deity for that now that I've needed a bunch of dental work and ruined my back and shoulder from hucking bags and other shenanigans in the cramped quarters of all sorts of dehavillands and beeches finest. I don't worry about being called up by a chief pilot to argue my reasoning when I've made a decision weather or load wise. There is a deciding lack of immature bullshit. No more coworkers massaging the boss or dispatcher for preferential treatment as seniority rules keep a level playing field. I finally have some say in the times I want to start or end my work days, where I end up and what days I want off. I no longer disappear to some far flung reaches of skeeter infested northlands for the entire summer. In fact, I choose to work 3 and 4 day pairings to increase my number of days off and reduce the times I commute from a place i actually WANT to live. I have a pension, albeit its nowhere near what they once were in this country, but the same can be said for any profession now. I don't share a hotel room on a split duty day.. I could continue onwards but I think you get the point. Its a mature workforce with a solid contract, an actual schedule and no unreasonable expectations with the benefits to support a lifestyle outside of airplanes.

Do I miss flogging around on a crystal clear summer day with mirror calm waters taking some tourists somewhere they want to be? Of course. But I also remember cleaning up the puke from the nervous fliers, unloading all their heavy gear on rickety docks while being eaten alive by black flies and skeeters on a time crunch to pick up the next load before the sun goes down. That doesn't include the bad days of dragging fish guts and moose carcasses in blowing winds and low vis as you stagger along debating landing on some rock or stump infested lake to wait it out.

To each their own I guess

[Saxub]

You couldn't have said it better.

[A V I A T O]

+1 for conceptually missing the North and the adventure it brought.

Now its boring. Autopilot ILS boring. White shirt and tie boring. Same conversation with coworker boring.

Boring is good. Boring is a schedule every month. Boring is flight benefits to europe.

You want excitement? Try flying standby out of a busy hub in europe. During the summer. Have to work the next day. When they call your name for boarding THATS a rush.

[SuperchargedRS]

Flying real (see critical) fixed wing medevac is fun, not sure anyone does that in Canada though.

[Eugene_goostman]

Do you really have to decide how you want your coffee?

I mean don't you just know how you like it?

Occasionally I like dark. Sometimes medium blend. In the morning I might do a triple shot mocha. Most of the time it's an Americano. I'll usually get cups of caffeine 2-3 times a day in different forms.

[Eugene_goostman]

There are positives to the airlines of course. Eventually you get some really good pay at some airlines. The airline I work with has sort of a flat scheduling system so seniority doesn't have so many benefits that way. I worked in 703 for 8 years and my pay scale has not caught up to what I made there. I am figuring on 6-8 years for that to happen. Not all 703 operators pay crappy. They all seem like less stable jobs than what the airlines offer so there is another incentive especially for a guy with a family. You only have to pay for that stability with missing over half your kids lives as they grow up and trying to cheer your lonely wife up again as she puts the kids to bed by herself again.

[Rockie]

You only have to pay for that stability with missing over half your kids lives as they grow up and trying to cheer your lonely wife up again as she puts the kids to bed by herself again.

Flying implies travel and being away, kind of like being a long distance truck driver. No offence, but didn't that factor into your thinking when you chose this line of work?

[PositiveRate27]

There are positives to the airlines of course. Eventually you get some really good pay at some airlines. The airline I work with has sort of a flat scheduling system so seniority doesn't have so many benefits that way. I worked in 703 for 8 years and my pay scale has not caught up to what I made there. I am figuring on 6-8 years for that to happen. Not all 703 operators pay crappy. They all seem like less stable jobs than what the airlines offer so there is another incentive especially for a guy with a family. You only have to pay for that stability with missing over half your kids lives as they grow up and trying to cheer your lonely wife up again as she puts the kids to bed by herself again.

The grass is greenest where you water it my friend. I suggest you make an honest effort in looking at the positives of your job and the long term benefits it provides. If you still come to the same conclusion, pull the plug and water the 703 lawn.