One of my fellow aviators once said something very profound to me.
"JB, as pilots we all suffer from an aviation disease"
Oh my, how true that is. To show you what he means, I want to show you the stages of typical pilot's career:
Stage one- Dreamer
During this stage, the future pilot yearns to get out of the office and into the sky. On airline flights, he admires the uniformed pilots marching confidently to their sleek, shiny jets about to zip off to who knows where on who knows what adventure. During stage one, our pilot-in-embryo may frequently refer to himself as 'Goose,' or 'Iceman.' He looks up every time an airplane flies overhead and says "I wish I were him!" He subscribes to AOPA, maybe gets the Sportys and King Schools catalogs. At some point, he'll buy the study at home DVD courses to learn the ground knowledge needed for his pilot certificate. The more he learns about aviation, the more his excitement builds, and he begins to search for flight schools.
Stage two- Student Pilot
Our future pilot finds a flight school, makes a plan, takes out a loan, and gets started with an instructor. He absolutely loves his first flight. He feels the aviation drug kick in and he's absolutely hooked. He accomplishes all of his homework assignments and eagerly awaits the next flight lesson. He makes some friends down at the local FBO and quickly becomes an airport junkie. He tells all his friends about how he soloed an airplane on his own. The student pilot stage continues well after he earns his private pilot certificate, which fuels his passion for aviation, and through his instrument rating.
Stage three-Commercial Naivete
This is about the time when the pilot begins to search the internet for pilot job listings. He looks at the corporate jobs, unfortunately they all require thousands of hours of multi-engine turbine time as pilot-in-command before they'll even look at his resume. The regional airlines, however, require a modest 1,000 total hours with about 100 multi-engine hours. No problem! He thinks, I'll get those hours by getting my commercial single and multi engine certificates, and all my CFI certificates. Then I'll hour build until I can send in my resume. He also begins to read forum threads from disgruntled airline pilots complaining of such things that he has never heard of before during his pilot training like furlough, scab, union dues, and upgrade time. The blinders slowly begin to come off his eyes and for the first time he gets exposed to some of the real-life hardships that airline pilots face on a daily basis. 'Gosh', he thinks, 'airline pilots are all so negative! Nothing could ever get me to not want to fly. These guys are all just a bunch of whiners, I'll never be like them.'
Stage four- Indentured Servitude
The pilot is now a fully rated CFI working on that thousand-hour mark. He's filled up his first logbook and purchased a thick professional pilot logbook with his name in gold letters on the cover. He's over fifty thousand dollars in debt to some woman he's never met named Sallie Mae, and after burning through all that cash, he's landed himself a not so lucrative job at the FBO earning $15 an hour. His wife works part time to make ends meet and now she's beginning to wonder why she agreed to support his plans to get into this business in the first place. The "get hired" date that they set as a goal has come and gone, and he's still working at the local airport. At this point, he's spent so much time and money getting his ratings, that there is no honorable way out but forward. In a sense, he's reached the point of no return. How could he justify quitting and going back to school for a different field when so much has been invested into what was once his dream? At this point in their careers, some pilots throw in the towel while others press on into the muck and hope for their lucky break.
Stage five- Hired
He sweated through the interviews, the sim rides, the written exams, and he's finally made it- he's a first officer. His paychecks are about the same or less than they were as a CFI back at the FBO, but hes so dazzled by the glint of the sunlight streaking off his jet that he doesn't care. Back home, his wife who celebrated his graduation to the big boys with him only months before, now realizes that not only are they making less, but they see eachother less as well.
Stage six- Furloughed
Things didn't go too well for the economy and management had to make some cuts. He's back on the street looking for another CFI gig to keep the bread coming while he waits for an undetermined period of time, akin to limbo, to go back to work at his airline.
Stage seven- Upgrade
He's flying left seat now and enjoying the pay raise that only seniority can offer. At this point, he's just happy to bring in a paycheck- the majesty of the clouds racing by the cockpit doesn't capture his awe like it used to. It's just a job now, nothing more. His thoughts turn mostly to the poor decisions of the MBA's at corporate that will most likely cost him his job again if they can't get things together soon. It seems to him that the executives feel around in the dark. If only they saw things with the same clarity as the rank and file line holders below them. He chuckles to himself- they must have encountered some IMC on top.
Stage eight- The Majors
Commanding tens of thousands of hours worth of experience, the lives of about a thousand passengers per day, and a highly experienced crew, our captain has finally earned some respect for himself in the aviation industry. He leads his airline's chapter of ALPA and fights to preserve his pay and benefits. Forty five years old, he finally gets to spend the holidays at home, but his kids are all grown up and gone. He wonders why he spent all those hours as a young man practicing chandelles, s-turns, and lazy-eights when he doesn't touch the controls but to taxi, and take off.
Stage nine- Retirement
Tough times again. To avoid destruction, his company reduced pay, benefits, and cancelled retirement pensions across the board. If he is prudent, our pilot started a separate IRA with a reputable bank back when he was a freshly minted CFI and has been making regular contributions. If not, he's living on social security and whatever money he had in the bank when he turned 65.
Stage ten- Retrospection
Hind sight is 20/20. If he could do it all over again, he would have gone into a field where the pay was better, the job hours more regular, and the family life less non-existent. He would have insisted on a career that allowed him to see all those little league sporting events, piano recitals, and school functions. He would have avoided the disease altogether.
In short, he would have gone corporate!
