UKwannabe you're definetely right about that green grass thing!
Like you I have now done around 30 years of commercial flying. Starting with single Pilot ops on piston engined twins (without auto-Pilot or Radar) to twin and tri - jets. I have done some management duty, some training and some Pilots association jobs.
Just like any new type of aircraft becomes routine after a while, so does operating in the same geograhpic areas all the time. So you reach a point where the mortgage is paid the kids have left home and you feel like you're ready to move and explore (hopefully) greener pastures.
So you look at your options, you're in your mid to late fifties, retirement age going to 65 so you say how about a change of venue for a couple of years. Consider India or China, the wife says "I'm not going" not the end of the world. Then you see 7 days off per month, not exactly great since you also want to see the country. 10 grand per month, you make that much in your present job so no incentive there. Then you look to the middle east and if half of what you read in Pprune is true then it is not a Panacea either, that leaves you with the Lo-cos operators in Europe and you ask yourself why you should be flying 900 hours in 10 months. Then you say how about corporate? after all that is what I used to do, so you send out a few resume's, hang around the GA section a bit to do some networking and you see the guys sitting around waiting for their passengers and you remember how you used to feel that it was a monumental waste of time to sit around doing nothing, so perhaps it is a good thing when you don't get an answer to your resume because they think you're too old or a spoiled airline prima-donna. Even though it does scratch your ego a bit.
So after a while you realize that despite all the shortcomings of your current job and you forgot how many times you looked down at the Norfolk shipyards or at the Panama Canal on your way to somewhere else, it is not such a bad job and greener grass is not in plentifull supply and that no matter where you go, there will be issues.
So now I have become a bit more philosophical about the whole thing, I'll want to continue working if for nothing else then for my health, (my wife might kill me if I aggravate her too much) but perhaps its time to do something other then going up and down in a metal tube.
fluf
