Is It Worth It Anymore?
I've been a visitor for at least 6 years now to pprune and back then it was very much my plan to be an airline pilot. I've been in a position to apply to airlines now for about 2 years and have been rather selective in who I have been applying to for various reasons, but to no avail, not even an interview ! However, I am having serious doubts as to whether I really want this anymore ! Which is my reason for this post - I wanted to solicit thoughts from those of you who are in the industry to help me make reach a decision one way or the other.
It seems to me that many many pilots are not happy with their lot (and I don't know if it's just me but it seems to have gotten more negative on here in recent years), and I know that can be said for many industries, but I have heard some pilots say 'if I knew now what I knew back then I wouldn't have bothered !'. Conversely, there are those who seem fairly happy with their lot and dismiss pprune as being just full of negative people. The way I see it is I have a lot to lose and although I feel I would always be able to return to my current career as an engineer I don't want to make that final leap of faith only to find myself after 2 or 3 years in disillusioned and even more worse off financially than before I did flight training. Some info on me to set the picture straight, I'm early 40, married with 2 young kids, work 4 days a week and earn around £65k (weekends off). Now I know it's not always about the money and there are some airlines that pay FO's a fairly decent starting salary, but let's say a TP operator, rosters 6/2, forget xmas (got kids), starting FO salary wouldn't even allow me to make mortgage repayments, however, my wife also works (part-time) so we could do it, but it would be tough ! I guess I always knew it wouldn't be easy but time has moved on and I'm reasonably happy with the status quo, but still have this nagging itch - should I give it a final crack !?
I know at the end of the day, it's horses for course and everyone's circumstances are different. What do you think ?
Thanks.
AR.
BTW - Although I can afford it I am against paying for a TR. I just think it's wrong and would rather spend the money paying off my mortgage !!