Proud - sometimes
As an FO three years into the career on a turboprop who wanted to do this all my life and only got into an airliner in his late thirties I am proud of being able to fly, still love powering down the runway and breaking through the cloud into the wild blue yonder. Many of my friends think it's cool etc etc.
However I find my love for it is inversely proportional to how hard I'm working - I enjoy it so much more when it slackens off and I get a balance of time with the family or to do other things.
I also feel somewhat humiliated by the salary I earn which (mid 30k) is less than my 28 year old plumber, the local train drivers and the fueller who fills the plane. Frankly the salary for the training, investment, unsocial hours and skill required is imho a bit of a joke.
I don't want to go back to an office, but I do want a fair wage and I don't feel I'm getting it which leads to a degree of disillusion with the industry.
Proud - yes, happy - sometimes, contented not really because right now I don't feel I'm providing as well as I should for my family. When the market improves I sincerely hope the better carriers out there (BA, Virgin, TC, TF, Monarch, Execjets) enjoy a boom and I get accepted. Then I will be proud - flying a great aeroplane - Boeing or Airbus and being paid a sensible salary to do it.
On the other hand yesterday we carried a 3yr old little girl on her birthday. I made a special PA for her, put her in my seat for photos when we landed and I hope made her and her Mum's day. Apparently the other pax clapped when I made my PA and I must confess I felt proud of being able to give them a great experience. Sometimes I guess you have to appreciate the small things that give you job satisfaction.
One thing I find odd is that air travel is one of the few services that seems to be suffering a huge decline in service standards - even McDonalds is getting better and better nowadays (wifi, healthy meal choices, better decor). I just don't see why airline companies are taking away free newspapers, free drinks, generous baggage allowances and replacing them with swingeing baggage charges, crap expensive food when the cost of doing it right is so low and would add so little to the overall ticket price. Given the quantities airlines buy newspapers and food/drink in it should only add say £5 per head per sector to the shorthaul ticket price. Surely if we reintroduced these things we would become carrier of choice on a given route - provided the price only goes up a little. Once the competition responded you'd be competing again on quality of service and maybe flying would become a pleasure again.
Wouldn't it be nice for cabin crew, customers and pilots to go home feeling you'd given great service today?
Desk-pilot