Pilot Life

[matmacwc]

I highly disagree with that. I was airsick on every flight in IFS and the first 3/4 of T-6s in UPT. Eventually I got over it; almost everybody will get over it with enough flying, but it sucks in the process. Don't let airsickness get in the way if you really want to "wear a machine around the sky and kill people with it." That said, if flight (even in a 172) just seems so-so to you, then being a pilot probably isn't worth a ten year commitment.

Should I make a joke about an airsickness kid killing things in an AWACS? Naaaaaa.

[pcola]

So I went on a discovery flight yesterday. It was exactly what I feared, not terrible but not amazing either. It did not make me want to be a pilot any more or less. I am going to go on another one with a different company next week. After the first one I had a mild headache but I figure that's just because my body is not used to the movements. One thing I did like though, the view from the sky.

Did you get any stick time? If you were a pax only, I can understand the so-so attitude. If you got to fly the plane, i.e.. attempt to accomplish the basic maneuvers (level turns around a point, final to low approach, constant rate climbs and descents, etc.) and didn't love the challenge, you might be headed down the wrong career path. Kind of like Rainman said, but from a herbivore view: if you can't imagine yourself loving the art of mastering the machine around the sky, you might not have a love for flying.

Some of us just knew we were born to fly. For those on the fence, you need to put more into it to discover the passion. Depending on your desires, there can be a lot more to flying than just the love of being airborne. Do you want a workplace that challenges you both physically and mentally? Do you want a constantly changing work environment? Do you want to potentially solve a new and possibly un-thought-of challenge each time you step to the jet? Do you want to have the ability to make autonomous and potentially life-critical decisions relatively early in your career? If any of that sounds rewarding, pursue at least your PPL where you will learn a better understanding of the nature of the flying business (but it is still just the tip of the iceberg, if even that.)

FWIW, I used to be an engineer. I dropped that shit and haven't looked back.

Edited April 3, 2012 by pcola

[nsplayr]

...the art of mastering the machine around the sky...

So that's what you guys are doing up front when it gets real quite for a while.."mastering the machine."

For those on the fence, you need to put more into it to discover the passion.

I think this line also works on girlfriend/wife-types WRT trying anal...

[pcola]

So that's what you guys are doing up front when it gets real quite for a while.."mastering the machine."

I think this line also works on girlfriend/wife-types WRT trying anal...

Abso-fucking-lutely. But it only worked on your girlfriend. My wife is Catholic.

[nsplayr]

Abso-fucking-lutely. But it only worked on your girlfriend. My wife is Catholic.

Come on now, no need to discriminate against good little catholic girls, they can play too

[CuryOsity]

Did you get any stick time? If you were a pax only, I can understand the so-so attitude. If you got to fly the plane, i.e.. attempt to accomplish the basic maneuvers (level turns around a point, final to low approach, constant rate climbs and descents, etc.) and didn't love the challenge, you might be headed down the wrong career path. Kind of like Rainman said, but from a herbivore view: if you can't imagine yourself loving the art of mastering the machine around the sky, you might not have a love for flying.

Some of us just knew we were born to fly. For those on the fence, you need to put more into it to discover the passion. Depending on your desires, there can be a lot more to flying than just the love of being airborne. Do you want a workplace that challenges you both physically and mentally? Do you want a constantly changing work environment? Do you want to potentially solve a new and possibly un-thought-of challenge each time you step to the jet? Do you want to have the ability to make autonomous and potentially life-critical decisions relatively early in your career? If any of that sounds rewarding, pursue at least your PPL where you will learn a better understanding of the nature of the flying business (but it is still just the tip of the iceberg, if even that.)

FWIW, I used to be an engineer. I dropped that shit and haven't looked back.

The IP briefly let me steer the aircraft, if that's what you call it. But I was pretty much just keeping the plane in a line towards a distant landmark. Do I think I love flying or have a passion for it? Probably not. Do I yearn to be challenged on a regular basis? Absolutely. I think that I'm attracted to being a pilot for the challenge and prestige rather than for flying itself. Luckily I don't have to make a decision until the Fall so I am just going to take lessons until I decide I love it or hate, or am willing to sign a 10 year contract for it. If they let engineers actually engineer in the AF I would do that but from the "engineers" I've talked to, you're just a manager. All the long nights studying information just fades away. I've talked to very few pilots that didn't like the job so I conclude its probably worth it.

[Masshole]

The IP briefly let me steer the aircraft, if that's what you call it. But I was pretty much just keeping the plane in a line towards a distant landmark.

My first hour consisted of takeoff and basic attitude flight. Nothing really exciting. In fact, it was not all that exciting the second hour either, but you should be thrilled once you start doing slow flight, stalls, crosswind landings, and steep turns. If you have not learned to love it at that point, it might not be what you want to do for at least ten years. Progression all depends on your CFI and flying is very rewarding once you do the landings without the instructor's help. I am in the same boat as you: testing the waters to see if this is really what I want to do. The only difference is I have a clear passion for it, but you need to find yours.

[Guest]

The only difference is I have a clear passion for it, but you need to find yours.

That passion to wear a machine around the sky is what will get you past the bullshit you will have to endure. Lose that passion and lose everything.

[Ram]

That passion to wear a machine around the sky is what will get you past the bullshit you will have to endure. Lose that passion and lose everything.

Mother fucking TWO.

[Hammer]

Progression all depends on your CFI

False, progession all depends on your ability to not suck. In the civilian world if you do not have the time and/or money to dedicate to flying on a regular schedule you can lose what you learned and have to spend extra time picking it back up.

Flying is the most rewarding thing ever. The sense of pride and accomplishment after a good landing while reflecting on a successful flight is awesome. However, that brief sense of euphoria can only make up for being going 200+ days a year for so long...

[Danger41]

I have never been one of those dudes that loves aviation for the fact that it is aviation. However, flying an airplane with "US Air Force" painted on the side is the coolest thing ever.

Where you said you enjoy challenges, that makes me think that you would love to be a pilot. You'll go through UPT and think that starting the airplane is going to make you bleed from the ears at first. Before long you'll be doing aerobatics and flying in the weather off of some goofy looking drawing on a piece of paper they keep calling a "plate". And right about the time you get the hang of that, they'll add another airplane into the mix. Once you get the hang of that, you'll move onto a faster jet (usually) and it starts all over. Then when you're mister shit hot pilot dude, you'll realize that all that stuff you just learned for a year is just how to get to/from the actual work in the airplane and you really don't know a damn thing.

Repeat the same process through IFF/RTU/2 FLUG/ ACUG/ IPUG/Airdrop/ whatever. Very rewarding and constantly challenging.

[Masshole]

False, progession all depends on your ability to not suck. In the civilian world if you do not have the time and/or money to dedicate to flying on a regular schedule you can lose what you learned and have to spend extra time picking it back up.

Flying is the most rewarding thing ever. The sense of pride and accomplishment after a good landing while reflecting on a successful flight is awesome. However, that brief sense of euphoria can only make up for being going 200+ days a year for so long...

Understood. All things being equal, I heard from some people that some CFIs will let you solo with fewer hours than others.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Masshole

[PSYCH]

It's not insecurity there fella. It's the fact that for everybody like you......there is someone else who would give an important piece of his/her anatomy to jump in and let you have your desk job. Something to think about.

In extremely late on this one- but this is the stupidest argument anyone could make. I don't think anyone here is going to say "being a fighter pilot sucks." Everyone is saying that all the other bullshit massively outweighs the 1.2 in the airplane. If there is someone else who wants to get rid of some anatomy, then he is more than welcome to do better in college, get a pilot slot, go to pilot training, make it through IFF, pass RTU, grunt through MQT/2FLUG/4FLUG/IPUG.......and then find himself having to argue with X base agency (finance, MPF, Vehicle Ops) about why they can't help him that day. I bet you dollars to doughnuts that this now footless/armless/dickless man will say that the job sucks every bit as much as I can do.

Everyone (non-pilot dreamer) who thinks that being a fighter pilot is awesome should save themselves some time and beat off to Kelly McGillis.

[Jughead]

Everyone (non-pilot dreamer) who thinks that being a fighter pilot is awesome should save themselves some time and beat off to Kelly McGillis.

...why can't it be both??

[whodat]

Another thing to keep in mind; alot of the fighter guys will tell you how awesome flying a jet is, and that may all be true or a matter of prospective, and you might get sold on the 'top gun' stereotype. But no matter how bad you want a fighter, if that truely is your dream job, come assignment night your going to get what your going to get, and that could be an AWAC or a KC-10, etc which isnt exactly your dream F-16. Don't go into UPT wanting a specific type of aircraft, because you very well could end up very dissapointed.

[Larry Sellers]

Everyone (non-pilot dreamer) who thinks that being a fighter pilot is awesome should save themselves some time and beat off to Kelly McGillis.

Who's first?

[Guest]

Everyone (non-pilot dreamer) who thinks that being a fighter pilot is awesome should save themselves some time...

Interesting.

[brabus]

Everyone is saying that all the other bullshit massively outweighs the 1.2 in the airplane

"Everyone" might be just a bit of an exaggeration.

Interesting.

2

[Day Man]

Another thing to keep in mind; alot of the fighter guys will tell you how awesome flying a jet is, and that may all be true or a matter of prospective, and you might get sold on the 'top gun' stereotype. But no matter how bad you want a fighter, if that truely is your dream job, come assignment night your going to get what your going to get, and that could be an AWAC or a KC-10, etc which isnt exactly your dream F-16. Don't go into UPT wanting a specific type of aircraft, because you very well could end up very dissapointed.

This makes me "dissapointed."

[Ram]

Holy fucking shit...the whining in this thread makes me want to kick a crate of kittens down a flight of stairs.

Second to watching my baby girl's birth, flying fighter jets (specifically the F-16) is the coolest mothafuckin' thing I have ever seen or done. I am a fighter pilot, and no amount of mind-numbing queep, bullshit, or organizational ineptitude can take that identity away from me. Nor can anyone take away all those hours in the vault, hours spent sitting alert, hours spent boozing at the bar with the most incredible group of human beings I've ever met, and - most importantly - the hours I have in that hot, sexy bitch of an F-16 I've strapped to my back for the most amazing years of my life.

You either like it or you don't. Until you can buy a crystal ball, sack up like a man and make a decision. No amount of internet message board nerdery can absolve you from a decision YOU have to make.

Holy fuck, the whining. Fuck.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Ram

[Beaver]

No amount of internet message board nerdery can absolve you from a decision YOU have to make.

I've had a post about this very idea percolating for a couple of weeks. What's the fucking deal with so many random people seeking advice/validation/ego stroke/whatever from a bunch of strangers on the Internet? I get asking people you trust, but if you just throw it out to the masses you're going to get 50 different opinions.

[Karl Hungus]

I am a fighter pilot, and no amount of mind-numbing queep, bullshit, or organizational ineptitude can take that identity away from me.

I wonder what Porkchop, TAMInated, or the others sent on a one-way trip to UAVs think about this.

[TAMInated]

I'm still a fighter pilot and will be 'til the day I die.

Edited April 5, 2012 by TAMInated

[CuryOsity]

No amount of internet message board nerdery can absolve you from a decision YOU have to make.

Thank you, I had no idea that I had to make this decision.

I've had a post about this very idea percolating for a couple of weeks. What's the ######ing deal with so many random people seeking advice/validation/ego stroke/whatever from a bunch of strangers on the Internet? I get asking people you trust, but if you just throw it out to the masses you're going to get 50 different opinions.

First of all, I am well aware that I am going to be getting people's opinions, which I posted in the very first post of this thread. Secondly, as for asking people I trust, I trust my father more than a stranger but guess what, my dad is not a damn pilot so I'm really not concerned with his idea of what the career is like. If I'm interested in a career field, maybe its a good idea to interview/ask people in that career field their opinion on the career, not people I trust that have no earthly idea about the topic.

[Danny Noonin]

Listen tough guy...if you come on here asking dudes to take their own personal time to give a perfect stranger (i.e. you) advice, then you should accept that advice along with any criticism, smart ass comments, direct spears, etc WITHOUT COMPLAINT. Now shut the fuck up and listen or take your business elsewhere.