BAe 146-100
Exactly where am I contradicting myself? First you got to be in it, to really know it! For this kind of flying, getting a good base is the most important, as it will take care of the other issues of family life!
I personally know lots of RYR pilots, and not many of them are complaining, they seem also to be making pretty good money - again from the ones I do know, as soon as they got a base close to family, that sealed the deal, there was much less agony left in their minds from than.
Luke SkyToddler, of course I see your point, and believe me, I am not sitting around in the cruise moaning about this stuff, actually not had any problems with any of the captains I have been flying with, rather contrary, even one of them invited me for Christmas when he heard I would be stuck in some xing hotel!
Of course I know, killing the time with studying, but the comes a limit, when you just want to take a few weeks of thinking about studying, when this has consumed your life nearly constantly for the last 3 - 4 years, when you finally managed to reach the first step, you do need a little breather, as specially after doing the line training, every flight being question time, where you have to demonstrate both technical, theoretical and practical skills for various TRI's!
All my TRI's too, was amazing during this period, I found them fair in both their teaching ability, and what they expected from somebody of my level.
What this post is trying to convey, is a couple of things, one is, if you are a late career changer you should maybe be aware of what you letting yourself into, it might not really work with your lifestyle or family.
I knew from the moment I started, I could not be to picky, however some limits I had set myself, some of those was never to do P2F and I would never have moved outside Europe, it would have to be a fairly easy way to commute home!
Besides this, I was pretty much prepared for all. With experience, and getting a better job with better conditions, I would not put these same restrictions in place for a further career, this was the initial step, because I expected that I would be having to come with adverse conditions, and being inexperienced that would be a waste of time, and to far away from family.
magicmick - I know, going on this forums, is a bit like going into the fire with petrol heads, I guess here we are Gasturbine heads, the fact is that so many pilots I have met, who I know have joined my company and other companies, pilots with loads of experience, either military or commercial airline aviation, they do not go around with the attitude of this being their dream job, for ALL of these, who maybe been flying for 5 to 15 years, it's just a job, and you notice that many of these, if they had other ways to make a living of similar money, they would jump at this chance.
But they are locked into this business, not really by choice, but because it is the only skill they have, that will give them a fairly above average lifestyle!
These are my initial observations, even my own attitude during line-training changed, to an attitude that I would do my best, I would not start stressing myself ahead of flights, and go all crazy and getting nervous, whatever happen would happen, either I would be good enough, or not!
I saw others, who was like torpedoes all over the place, constantly reading stuff, studying stuff, running around like headless chickens, nearly with to much stress for themselves, in constant overdrive, and ending up being kicked out of the line-training, due to lack of skills, and this even after the company had paid his TR!
This relaxed attitude I picked up from a few ex-military pilots I met, of course we study, but with so much information, it is a limit of what you can do before things can be overdone, which I sometimes did in my earlier training!
I do understand your situation "magicmick", of course all does depend on our past experience, I can recall when I was around 23 years old, vow.. long time, I used to drive long haul HGV trough Europe, in the start I found it fun, I got to see many places in Europe, but after 6 months sleeping in the Cab all the week, I would have jumped at anything to get away from it!
Flying is not anything, it was what I wanted to do since I was about 11 - 12, and I started when I was 17!
It seems to be very bad thing of me to say that prior to flying I was making very good money, and also now during my work, I get back to UK, and sometimes I make in one evening more than I make with one months work of flying!
Anybody who says we don't do this for the money also, is a fool, because the passion that drives of course is not inspired by money, but the attitude that we should not do it for the money, is the attitude that destroys the industries TC's!
You should not need to go and do a second job to survive, when doing this job, and I blame the current establishment for allowing this to happen, fact is that the minority actually gets a job in the end, and of us who are older, even a smaller minority gets a job!
I am not sure how many here also have children, however this does make a big difference, if you are just a couple, it is much easier to adapt wherever you think can be good, but as soon as children are involved, it is a much more complex picture!
2.5 months I got nearly 200 hours, by end of summer I probably have close to 700 - 800 hours, so of course, the prospects are hopefully promising. The question in the end, with who you want to spend the majority of your time, alone in a hotel or with your family?