Happy?
You bet!
First flying lesson in 81...13+ yrs GA (in PNG) all well paid, accom provided etc.
Nearly 10 yrs now in airlines and corporate as an F/O and capt..current 767 F/O...went back to airlines after being stabbed in the back to death while a Corporate CP and Checkie...realistic chance of a command again soonish (a year or so as opposed to a decade or so at QF). Spent a year unemployed between this gig and the last...did some casual in a C441..saw what Oz GA is like...it sucks..and I was flying a flash bit of kit and paid well casually/day!!
Know MANY
VB/Jet* pilots (some VERY, VERY senior)...all are very happy in general terms...working hard for sure but all have been there and done it and have experienced all the highs and lows this industry has to offer...some are 89ers...all great guys...they know, and have experienced, way to much to whinge about the small stuff.
know a young guy who has kept his head down, flown well, learned hard, treated his employers and their aeroplanes well and barely 5 yrs after starting in the Territory flying my Bonanza he is on a dash 8 course at Sunnies...and he'll get jets in the not too distant future if he wants them...his older mates, like me, who have watched him mature and keep his head down will do our very best to help him when the time is right.
Oz GA, and Regionals for that matter, has a lot of young guys who think the world owes them a living...it doesn't and that hurts...poor dears!!!
Between those guys and the very small number of QF cadets who think their **** doesn't stink because the managed to bluff their way past the cadetship selectors...well there are most of your whingers!
But for every 1 whinger on these boards there are 100 out there working hard and having too much fun to bother...they are the ones who will make it/have made it...and have very little to whinge about when they do....just mostly found memories of the 'hard yards'
The main difference between now and 25 yrs ago?
There are good jobs left and right and we have a place for the losers to vent.
Having said all that I am very glad I don't work on the ground for QF (Not unhappy that I don't work for them at all)...that situation sucks...I think GD is a joke!