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-   -   Chucking it in (https://www.pprune.org/pacific-general-aviation-questions/546659-chucking.html)

whentostop 31st Aug 2014 10:05

Chucking it in
 
As the title suggests I have had enough. After years of slogging it out in GA sometimes working 2 jobs to pay the bills (sometimes no flying job at all) it's time to realise that even with a few thousand hours it isn't going anywhere.

Australian aviation is in the toilet and getting hired by anyone remotely ethical seems more based on how many people your dad knows at the company as opposed to wether you can fly an aircraft safely and to SOPs.

I've been asked to work for free, told I'm too old (was 28) and even been asked to pay for my own ICUS. All of this for the chance to fly barely airworthy 30 year old pieces of junk. Worst thing is people I trained with did pay for training and worked for free and some are in much better positions than I am now.

I'm tired of poor pay and intimidation from owners who think they know how to better fly an aircraft than the pilot even though they don't even have a PPL!

I am getting as far away from aviation as possible. Who else is coming?

OnceWasAnAviator 31st Aug 2014 11:44

I made the same decision for similar reasons twelve years ago. Just do it.

sms777 31st Aug 2014 11:46

Hear you brother!
Been there, done it, walked away 12 years ago and have'nt looked back. I have done all the steps like everyone else, got nowhere. Last resort I have bought an aeroplane, started my own charter business, got paid to see almost every airfield and airport in Australia had lots of fun, almost made some money but at the time I did not care because I was flying.....then came CASA. They have realised that I was too comfortable so lets ground him on technicalities. I could not fight them.....I did not want to. I had enough. Sold my aeroplane and went back to my first trade.
Problem is I still run outside when I hear an aeroplane fly overhead my backyard......Damn aviation....:{

Fred Gassit 31st Aug 2014 11:55

I've bailed out after close to 20 years, don't miss it at all.
Im still very much an enthusiast though so I've got my (expensive) hobby back.
Just don't let bitterness consume you, there's nothing wrong with changing careers.

deadcut 31st Aug 2014 12:05

Where to though?
My mates out in the real world aren't fairing that much better.
Also lets keep the anecdotes to a minimum. For example "a mate of mine earns $200k after dropping out of high school with no training"

I'm sure things like that have happened but it does not represent the majority of the working population.

whentostop 31st Aug 2014 12:12

I will probably go back to what I used to do. It's not IT and doesn't pay 200k a year but I get to home every night. I also don't have to justify everything I do to my boss and I get weekends off!

Note it does pay more than an FO gets at Qlink.

deadcut 31st Aug 2014 12:21

I understand. If being home every night and having the weekends off is the most important thing to you then that is what you need to do.

Also anyone who thinks IT is any better shape than aviation (for the employees) is kidding themselves.

I'm with you on the bosses though. Lord knows why so many absolute sociopaths owning GA businesses.

Ultralights 31st Aug 2014 12:29

earn a living outside of GA, buy a nce RAAus aircraft, instead of a new car, and fly for fun to keep your sanity.

thats about the only way left to enjoy flying..

thanks CASA::(

peterc005 31st Aug 2014 12:38

People whine about GA and I keep hearing stories about the mystical mate of a mate who earns $120k a year holding stop signs for road works.

The reality is that it's tough out there.

IT and Accounting are stuffed because of all the overseas visa holders here glad to earn $40k instead of the $4k a year they's earn at home.

Similar situation for manufacturing or retail.

Mining boom has been and gone.

There are way too many teachers, and any jobs are contract or casual.

Quite a few jobs in Aged Care etc, but you'd be wiping wrinkly bums for $18 an hour.

We are heading the USA way, with a shrinking middle class.

Running a GA business is tough, and being mean is probably the only way to survive. Running a GA business would be depressing, knowing you employees don't give a **** about you and are just using you as a stepping stone to the airlines.

whentostop 31st Aug 2014 14:20

Peter,

Not giving a **** can be a two way street. When your getting paid by the flying hour only yet your employer expects you answer phones in the office when your not flying (working for free) the goodwill disappears quickly. This is why many move on at the first opportunity.

Flying wasn't my first job out of school so I am well aware of the difficulties facing the Australian job market right now. Luckily I won't have to wipe butts as you put it.

Jack Ranga 31st Aug 2014 14:28

Easy calling people whiners Pete when you've never put your arse on the line that these young blokes do. Especially when they refuse to pay for ICUS or work for free.

whentostop 31st Aug 2014 14:53

The line of kids wiling to pay for everything went out the door and down the street unfortunately.

50 50 31st Aug 2014 20:30

Living right under an RNAV approach I see plenty of aircraft, someone must be flying the bloody things!

Desert Flower 31st Aug 2014 22:31


Problem is I still run outside when I hear an aeroplane fly overhead my backyard......Damn aviation....:{
And I thought I was the only one who done that....:{

DF.

Howard Hughes 31st Aug 2014 22:58

I spent 10 years in the aviation wilderness before I finally got my first job. Mostly due to poor decisions by me and getting my licence just before the biggest downturn aviation has seen in my lifetime.

16 years on I'm having a ball.

Before I got a job in aviation I spent a lot of time driving trucks (pretending I was flying), digging post holes (always looking up) and generally just longing to be flying.

If you want it bad enough a good lifestyle is out there to be had, even in GA. Personally I prefer to work weekends, means I get to spend quality one on one time with my kids during the week.

Anyway I'll leave you with this thought: "A bad days flying is better than a good day in just about any other job (bikini inspector and F1 driver excluded)"! :ok:

Jack Ranga 31st Aug 2014 23:34

Yes, that has to be remembered :ok: I bailed but it was a fairly easy decision! Some good mates stuck with it & achieved their goals.

Pete hasn't responded to my earlier comment because he knows someone who'll fly for free, pay for endorsements & buy their way into an airline job :cool:

pithblot 1st Sep 2014 01:34

whentostop, I hear you mate. I've had a good run, got a page full of endorsements without paying for any of them and there were tough times in GA for me too. But, I dread to think what it would be like climbing out of a valley now to be trumped by a hundred others who will pay for endorsements and work for free!

If you've come this far, then you've probably been bitten by the bug so you will be looking up. But reality does bite and you've got to pay the bills. If you do chuck it in, maybe consider keeping your Medical. ASIC and DGA valid? There are good gigs out there and you might get one, but you've got to be prepared. You never know what might happen.

compressor stall 1st Sep 2014 02:54

How different is it now for young (and not so young) ones to the times in the 90s, and early noughties?

Mach E Avelli 1st Sep 2014 04:07

In the nineties and noughties it was probably about the same as it had always been before. A couple of bumper years, followed by several years of drought (sex life can also be like that!).
But it does seem that the drought periods are increasing and the good years perhaps gone forever. The steady erosion of GA can be blamed on- in no particular order:


1. too many companies chasing too little business, cutting prices and consequently snivelling on pilot conditions to try and balance their books - this has always been a problem, but is now the worst it's ever been with pilots sometimes expected to pay for their own IR renewals even though they are employed
2. too many pilots prepared to work for nothing and, as above, actually pay for the privilege
3. 40 year old aircraft which are no longer economic to maintain properly and are no longer acceptable to corporate clients; yet there are no affordable replacements - when the latest Baron sells for over a million bucks, who will pay for that?
4. cheap airfares, reasonable services to most regional airports now and much improved vehicles to get to those airports


So why would anyone charter some clapped-out old GA heap at whatever exorbitant rate per seat (compared with the airlines) when their trusty Landcruiser can deliver them in airconditioned comfort to an airport where a Q 400 or ATR 72 awaits? Not too many GA aircraft even have air conditioning.


In nearly 50 years at the game, I never saw a sustained pilot shortage, whether at GA level or in the airlines. There was a time in the U.K. where the high cost of entry meant they experienced a shortage for a few years, but that is certainly no longer the case there. Here, any shortage typically only lasted about year at a time. No, I do not believe we will ever see a pilot shortage hereabouts. China, yes, the USA maybe, Australia, never.


Move on, requalify in something that will enable you to find a well paid job and as suggested above, buy a nice RA machine if you really must fly.

Donttakeittoheart 2nd Sep 2014 12:35

What to do now?
 
Deleted post as it was taken the wrong way by some. Not the intention at all.


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