Unhappy pilots
Join Date: Apr 2008
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"So in which of these 2 categories would you say does someone fall who flies with a PPL for fun ?"
Mmm...lets think about this...
"As for two types, people who live to fly and people who fly to live" - so if I understand this correctly - if you fly for fun, you don't fly to live, which puts you into the "live to fly" category?!?!?!
Mmm...lets think about this...
"As for two types, people who live to fly and people who fly to live" - so if I understand this correctly - if you fly for fun, you don't fly to live, which puts you into the "live to fly" category?!?!?!
Join Date: Mar 2001
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For those who fly for fun, ie a PPL, you dont tend to fall in to the 'live to fly' category as I see it because you have some other string to your bow which allows you to pay for your flying.
I said, 'They tend to be people who have never done anything else in life'.
I said, 'They tend to be people who have never done anything else in life'.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Happy or unhappy?
What on earth is a happy pilot?
I am sad to say but I have still to meet one.
They are always looking at bigger and faster aircraft to fly - always looking at new ways to show their skill (or lack of it) in an aircraft.
One thing we need to realise is that a pilot that is not unhappy is not necessarily a happy one - You can remove all the issues that might make a pilot unhappy - and he will still not be a happy chappy.
The unhappy breed of pilots will be with us as long as pilots are not all flying the fastest and the biggest jet?
Stirred?
VG300
I am sad to say but I have still to meet one.
They are always looking at bigger and faster aircraft to fly - always looking at new ways to show their skill (or lack of it) in an aircraft.
One thing we need to realise is that a pilot that is not unhappy is not necessarily a happy one - You can remove all the issues that might make a pilot unhappy - and he will still not be a happy chappy.
The unhappy breed of pilots will be with us as long as pilots are not all flying the fastest and the biggest jet?
Stirred?
VG300
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South Africa
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" What on earth is a happy pilot? I am sad to say but I have still to meet one. "
I try to visit the cockpit of every flight I am on when the flight has landed and passengers disembark. Let me say that 95% of the time I speak to guys up font they are all extremely passionate about what they do. You can see the pride and enjoyment on their faces. They always tell me they love what they do and would do nothing else. This ranges from First Officers with 1 year experience to International captains with 35 years experience. I really can understand in no job you will always be happy all the time - I can understannd like with any other job you have your **** days or weeks. And I understand you can (and probably mostly will be) overworked. I also understand that from the outside it looks like a perfect job (grass always looks greener on the other side).
But come on guys, do you really think you will be happier sitting in some **** office, every day looking at a PC screen and not seeing the outside world? Coping with Affirmative Action and Employment Equity and other office politics. Having to be content flying nothing more (ever) than a Cessna 172 for 60 minutes once a week? Having to get permission from the wife, kids and dog to go on a cross country flight which will take you away from home for the whole Saturday. Having to get "permission" (consent?) to spend 40% - 50% of your monhly budget on flying lessons. Having sleepless nights because the sky-high oil price is threatening to destroy your passion in life?
I guess what it comes down to is being passionate (not neccesarily happy) about your job. Surely you got involved in aviation because you love to fly?
I try to visit the cockpit of every flight I am on when the flight has landed and passengers disembark. Let me say that 95% of the time I speak to guys up font they are all extremely passionate about what they do. You can see the pride and enjoyment on their faces. They always tell me they love what they do and would do nothing else. This ranges from First Officers with 1 year experience to International captains with 35 years experience. I really can understand in no job you will always be happy all the time - I can understannd like with any other job you have your **** days or weeks. And I understand you can (and probably mostly will be) overworked. I also understand that from the outside it looks like a perfect job (grass always looks greener on the other side).
But come on guys, do you really think you will be happier sitting in some **** office, every day looking at a PC screen and not seeing the outside world? Coping with Affirmative Action and Employment Equity and other office politics. Having to be content flying nothing more (ever) than a Cessna 172 for 60 minutes once a week? Having to get permission from the wife, kids and dog to go on a cross country flight which will take you away from home for the whole Saturday. Having to get "permission" (consent?) to spend 40% - 50% of your monhly budget on flying lessons. Having sleepless nights because the sky-high oil price is threatening to destroy your passion in life?
I guess what it comes down to is being passionate (not neccesarily happy) about your job. Surely you got involved in aviation because you love to fly?
Join Date: Feb 2002
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What a croc a ______
South Coast Touche Mate!
It was about18 years ago that I got the chance of trying my hand at the flying thing. I was scared shirtless, at first(you see I didnt come from an aviaton background, family or connections), then gradually learnt that the trottle lever on a Cherokee works the oppisite way than that of a Massey Fergeson Tractor. ( I learned to drive that when I was 4, had to stand on the gearbox to see wher I was going. It took me a looooong time to go solo. My instuctor( a pmimply faced 19year old boy) got tired of screaming at me:ROUND OUT! NOW! but forgave me when I bought him a beer afterward. Somewhere after that I remember thinking to my self flying back from the GF East on one of those beautiful ECape days, " I cant believe people are paying someone else to do this for them"( I learned why in the last 18 years)
Since then I flew into some of the crappiest places, some of the most beautiful on this earth. Being shot at, being laughed at, being envied and various other verbs.
I am damn good at what I do, it is what I know best, but I do it because it earns me a damn good living.
I am Like my old friend SC of the opinion that I do it for a living because if I did it for pleasure I would have had to pay for it dearly every time I did it.
I cannot think of anything I would rather do for a living, apart from drinking Captain Morgan and Coke in a beachbar in Vamizi in the heat of the day. Flying has cost me a farm, a marriage, and two damn fine women that couldnt stand me being away so much. If I had to do it all over I dont think I would do it again, but most probably choose to make all the mistakes again.
My folks told me on matriculating to become a doctor. lawyer, banker or something, and I did just that. I became a "something". My brother became the lawer and sis became the banker.
When will a pilot be happy? When he grows up and becomes what he wanted to be. If you dont like what you do, then move!
If you want to be a pilot, decide what type of pilot. Try your hand at most of the types of flying. Take all things into account, even the crap pay. Choose one. Then decide to have a life. Make your desicions a round your life, not around your career. Your career is only a part of your life, your life is not part of your career.
If you can do that, people around you will tell you, "I want what you have!"
I also want to be happy!
They will mistake the fulfillment you have, with "having a good job" and all kinds of other things, but you will know that those things only come to you, when you have made up your mind where you want to be.
Thats why you are happy.
And then you can sit back and bitch in peace, with your tongue in the cheek because that is as part of being a pilot as flying is.
It was about18 years ago that I got the chance of trying my hand at the flying thing. I was scared shirtless, at first(you see I didnt come from an aviaton background, family or connections), then gradually learnt that the trottle lever on a Cherokee works the oppisite way than that of a Massey Fergeson Tractor. ( I learned to drive that when I was 4, had to stand on the gearbox to see wher I was going. It took me a looooong time to go solo. My instuctor( a pmimply faced 19year old boy) got tired of screaming at me:ROUND OUT! NOW! but forgave me when I bought him a beer afterward. Somewhere after that I remember thinking to my self flying back from the GF East on one of those beautiful ECape days, " I cant believe people are paying someone else to do this for them"( I learned why in the last 18 years)
Since then I flew into some of the crappiest places, some of the most beautiful on this earth. Being shot at, being laughed at, being envied and various other verbs.
I am damn good at what I do, it is what I know best, but I do it because it earns me a damn good living.
I am Like my old friend SC of the opinion that I do it for a living because if I did it for pleasure I would have had to pay for it dearly every time I did it.
I cannot think of anything I would rather do for a living, apart from drinking Captain Morgan and Coke in a beachbar in Vamizi in the heat of the day. Flying has cost me a farm, a marriage, and two damn fine women that couldnt stand me being away so much. If I had to do it all over I dont think I would do it again, but most probably choose to make all the mistakes again.
My folks told me on matriculating to become a doctor. lawyer, banker or something, and I did just that. I became a "something". My brother became the lawer and sis became the banker.
When will a pilot be happy? When he grows up and becomes what he wanted to be. If you dont like what you do, then move!
If you want to be a pilot, decide what type of pilot. Try your hand at most of the types of flying. Take all things into account, even the crap pay. Choose one. Then decide to have a life. Make your desicions a round your life, not around your career. Your career is only a part of your life, your life is not part of your career.
If you can do that, people around you will tell you, "I want what you have!"
I also want to be happy!
They will mistake the fulfillment you have, with "having a good job" and all kinds of other things, but you will know that those things only come to you, when you have made up your mind where you want to be.
Thats why you are happy.
And then you can sit back and bitch in peace, with your tongue in the cheek because that is as part of being a pilot as flying is.
Join Date: Feb 2002
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Sitting and watching....
South Coast,
My dear friend, and fellow officer and gentleman!
I am still committing aviation in the true sence of the word. If not, I pay my tributes to a Swashbuckle buccaneer drowned in syrope of Cola, while passing my time with a roll in the hay in the arms a sweet young blonde wench that goes by the name of Lola. (Me thinks the name is a nome de Guerre, but I allow her her indulgence!)
CXD
My dear friend, and fellow officer and gentleman!
I am still committing aviation in the true sence of the word. If not, I pay my tributes to a Swashbuckle buccaneer drowned in syrope of Cola, while passing my time with a roll in the hay in the arms a sweet young blonde wench that goes by the name of Lola. (Me thinks the name is a nome de Guerre, but I allow her her indulgence!)
CXD
