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4 Answers

Wondering if I should quit aviation as a career

Asked by: 17374 views , , , ,
Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor, General Aviation, Private Pilot

I'm a CFI, worked my way up through the Private, Instrument, Commercial, CFI, CFII, MEI, and just got my VFR 135 compitency check done.  But I have a dilemma, I'm not happy with my performance as either a pilot or CFI, and am now just thinking about exiting aviation as a career path.

My first problem is failed checkrides, both personally myself and students.  Of me personally, with the exception of the CFI intial that I burned out on (too nervous, did not eat, no sleep, etc), I've busted three other checkrides, all for something stupid, like forgetting to actually verify the gear was down on the multi cause the DPE pulled the "gear lights" breaker, forgetting to reset the "SUSP" on the 430A on the CFII checkride while in a hold, and on the VFR 135, the FAA inspector failed the attitude and heading indicator on an approach, then tower switched the runways on me-the fast paced mix up caused me to go full scale deflection on the approach-bust. 

Of my students as a CFI, I've had a 50% pass rate, some passed with high markings and praise from examiners, and others busting on stupid things (like holding the wrong alititude-why, she never did this in training? and another getting lost even though our check pilot/CFI and I said he knew lost procedures and VORs at the back of his head).

Seeing my students bust when they scored with praise on their pre-checkride stage checks reminds me of my own personality and my shortcomings.  I'm not sure what my personality problem is, but something about my faults is rubbing off on my students.

Just getting really tired of the failures on both my and students' ends, and I know that for future career aspects, checkride failures are viewed like getting convicted of a felony, good luck trying to get a job with one or more. On a more personal level, I demand absolute perfection from myself and multiple failures just makes me feel worthless.

My second problem is that I take a look at regional airlines and small charter company hiring minimums, and some seem so ungodly high for such low pay and a terrible lifestyle, the combination of these factors above just make me want to throw the towel in aviation and find something else. And I am not low time either, 1300TT and 70 multi, been CFI'ing for 2 years.  I already got no life now as a CFI, putting in 75 hours of unpaid "duty time" a week, only flying and getting paid for about 15 or so hours week. 

Any advice or words of encouragement?

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4 Answers



  1. Nathan Parker on May 26, 2012

    “Any advice or words of encouragement?”
     
    I offer you my regards for your honesty.  I’m sure it must be painful to itemize what you view as your shortcomings.
     
    One thing you might consider is to get some vocational testing performed by a professional. Your failures in the aviation field might translate into failures in other fields that require, for instance, attention to detail or a steady head under pressure. You might, for instance, be ideally suited for a career in sales.
     
    On the other hand, you may be ideally suited for an aviation career, but simply haven’t learned how to compensate for the shortcomings we all have.  Coping strategies, in other words.  For instance, if you’re sending students for checkrides at 40 hours, that suggests to me insufficient paranoia.  Likewise if you went to your own checkrides with minimum times. 
     
    Still, do consider the vocational testing.

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  2. Lucas on May 27, 2012

    I only have one question for you: “do you love flying?”
    I was a computer programmer in Europe until the age of 25. Was getting paid 5k plus a month, which 15 years ago was a ton of money. My mother noticed I was not real happy with my job and decided to trick me into aviation. She brought me on vacation to Daytona Beach with the excuse that she wanted to get a pilot license.
    Ok so a month vacation in Daytona Florida. I obviously said yes. The day of her intro flight I was with her and the sales rep asked me if I wanted a free intro myself. Again I said “sure”. As the instructor pretended to let me take off and climb to altitude we reached the beach at 2,000 feet. It was then that I asked him: “wait, wait, wait a moment here, you are telling me that you actually get paid to do this?” He answered: “well not much at all but yes”.
    The next day I opened a bank account and wired all my savings to the U.S. From there I got all my ratings over a year and started teaching for that flight school. I was working from 6 am to 10 pm most days and got paid probably around 1k a month. It didn’t matter at all, every time I was on a soaring airplane, all the problems of the world just seemed to go away. I loved and still love flying more than anything else.
    I did all my training under part 61. The night before a check ride, like you, I would not sleep and during the ride I was as nervous as could be. I Passed my Private with flying colors at 41.2 hours, failed my instrument with flying colors with 3 times as many hours. As I took off for my commercial with a soft field take off, the examiner failed me immediately because my wheels touched the ground after take off, but he asked me if I wanted to continue with the rest of the tasks. I said “what the heck it cant go any worse”. I never did such a perfect lazy-eight or chandelle in my life (the pressure was off). I flew so well that at the end of the ride he let me repeat the soft field take off which I did perfectly. Needless to say he passed me.
    I also failed my CFI initial check ride, I forgot to pull the gear up after take off (LOL). I remember at the end of all of my check rides I had problems breaking after landing because my legs shacked so much.
    As a flight instructor, while in Florida, I probably had close to a 50-60% passage rate with my students and started to get to the same conclusion you arrived at: is this really for me?
    And this is why I asked you the question. “Do you love flying?”
    I did and do, and because of that, I didn’t give up and pressed on.
    When I got to about 2,500 hours I finally realized that the wording on my license ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI, etc meant absolutely nothing. I was completely clueless and was probably never going to have a clue. I now have more than 10,000 hours, mostly of teaching, over 8,000 hours of dual given, and probably 15,000 hours of ground instruction given (I did work for continental for a year but didn’t like it at all, (I loved flying and teaching, not driving a bus).
    I now realize that all aviation certificates are licenses to learn and you never stop learning not at 1,300 hours and not at 10,000, but isn’t this why aviation is so great? You never stop learning, IT NEVER GETS BORING.
    There are plenty of pilots like you and me out there that are never satisfied nor never happy with their results. We strive for perfection but can never achieve it. Again that’s one of the reasons that makes aviation so great.
    Let me ask you: “how do you feel when your student comes back from a check ride with a big smile on his face and tells you, Thank You?”. I know for me it is incredibly rewarding and that smile puts the light of a million suns on all the other “bad things” in my life.
    If you want to become rich, I would suggest changing careers, but if your student’s smile makes all the difference to you as it does to me, than keep at it, and keep loving flight.
    I hope these words have a meaning for you and I hope they help you with your struggles.
    Lucas
     

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  3. Mark Hoffman on May 27, 2012

    I am a 777 First Officer for a major airline who came up through the civilian ranks just like you. I am also still a CFII and MEI. I have some thoughts to share that may not be too popular, but from my perspective are very accurate.
    I started flying in the 1980’s when there was still the hope of fairly rapid progression to a major airline and when the majors still had very high pay. Both of those propositions are much less true today. I have lived through 9/11, bankruptcies, greedy executives, poor management, stupid govenrmental regulations, the change in the mandatory retirement age, and many, many other negative influences on my career. While it may seem to you that I am near the pinnacle of my profession, it is not at all the career that I had hoped for. I have not had a penny in raises in over eleven years and I am searched like a criminal every time I go to work. I still enjoy the actual flying of the aircraft and I would not be being truthful if I said there aren’t positive aspects of my job, but overall would I do it again if I knew then what I know now? Honestly, I don’t think that I would. As an airline pilot, the ONLY thing that you will control about your career is the aircraft itself. Other than that, virtually every single other factor is in somebody else’s control who has zero concern for you. That’s not a happy place to be for an intelligent, motivated individual. 
    I had the opposite experience that you have had through my civilian training. I never failed a check ride and my students exceeded a 95 percent pass rate. I agree with the previous poster that you might benefit from some vocational testing. Just because you enjoy flying doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right career for you. 
     
    In short, you actually are fairly low time and it’s not too late to make a change of direction. You really still don’t have the flight time required to secure a good job and you’re right when you say that the life at the regional airlines is miserable (I did it for five years). My advice is find something else that you can make a good living at that you also enjoy, where you have a bit more influence on your career. After you’re making decent money at that, buy your own airplane and have fun flying that. 
    The last thing I’ll say is that if you ask any airline pilot if they would want their son or daughter to follow in their footsteps and make a career in aviation, 99 percent of them would say no. That should answer any further questions you might have. 

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  4. J.L. Hibbert on Oct 14, 2014

    Like you, I have a private, commercial, instrument rating, AGI and tail dragger endorsement.

    However, I chose to provide for my family by maintaining my automotive business. This allowed me to own 2 airplanes over the years and give my family what they needed.

    My wife was a 20 year flight attendant. This was all the airline work that we needed. Our kids grew up thinking it was normal for people to fly.

    I volunteered for AOPA’s mentoring program. This has allowed me to encourage and help a few others that are smarter and more adapted for the airline industry than me.

    With your background, you could teach for an aviation college or a private flight school.
    You still have choices, do not quit, just look harder. There are still opportunites out there.

    J. L. Hibbert

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