Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
By Joe Dell
#1697743
I gave up flying commercially to try my hand as a jump jockey. Less time in the air for more money. Didn't work out. :roll:
Never forgotten how to tuck my shoulder in and roll though. :wink: Ended up crop spraying amongst other things. Quite relaxing with a nicely sprung tractor seat and decent stereo,
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By Ender
#1697763
It can be done, I was 39 when I got my first proper flying job after 2 decades at a desk which had nothing at all to do with aviation.

Its expensive, it takes a while but its fun and you can see the light, once you have your frozen ATPL you are minimum qualified just like every other joe/joanne going for jobs. This is where it becomes hard, very hard.

Just getting your CV on the desk of the right person is a task. It helps to know people in the industry already. You will have to be very flexible and never turn down any opportunities no matter how small. For me it was like a snow ball rolling down a hill, within 2 years of ditching my desk job I had helped run a flight school, become an FI, clocked up 100's of hours in one summer, become typed on bigger A/C and then got the job I wanted.

@BoeingBoy is absolutely spot on and be careful not to turn your joy of flying into something negative.

On the plus side, I loved instructing and although I dont get to do it anymore I have kept it up to date and on my license. Meeting new people building friendships & travelling (at their expense mind!) is all part of the fun being an instructor. I'd advise becoming an FI as your skills increase ten fold and I really believe it is what put me above other candidates for the job I am doing now.
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By Melanie Moxon
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1697770
Wow thanks for the comments so far the wide range of views are most welcome. The bit about not making a job out of something you love sticks out quite a bit as to be frank it is one of my biggest fears with it if I am honest.

Instructing (on a weekend say) does have a certain attraction to it, it gets me flying more, keeps me in smaller aircraft and allows me to really share aviation with people. It might be the right course of action to take.

@TheFarmer I got as far as 3 and jumped straight to 10!
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By seanxair
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1697782
Joe Dell wrote:I gave up flying commercially to try my hand as a jump jockey. Less time in the air for more money. Didn't work out. :roll:
Never forgotten how to tuck my shoulder in and roll though. :wink: Ended up crop spraying amongst other things. Quite relaxing with a nicely sprung tractor seat and decent stereo,


Have ridden a few NH winners myself
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1697792
lobstaboy wrote:It's a mistake to make a career (or to start a business) doing something that you love - it ruins it for you.


On the other hand they say if you do what you love as a job, you'll never have to work another day in your life.

I've always loved telecomms. I still love it, after working in it for 27 years. Part of that though is not being promoted and doing what I still love rather than paper pushing. I have to make do with an engineer's salary though...
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By Waveflyer
#1697796
Did somebody mention tractors :thumleft:

At Nympsfield we’ve got the best part of 100 acres of grass to look after and its a great way to spend a few hours, saves a fortune on avgas :D

Image
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By Melanie Moxon
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1698113
Paul_Sengupta wrote:
lobstaboy wrote:It's a mistake to make a career (or to start a business) doing something that you love - it ruins it for you.


On the other hand they say if you do what you love as a job, you'll never have to work another day in your life.

I've always loved telecomms. I still love it, after working in it for 27 years. Part of that though is not being promoted and doing what I still love rather than paper pushing. I have to make do with an engineer's salary though...


That is what I have been trying to do with my current job, unfortunately I have had the misfortune to be on a number of projects that have been short lived and they have all been different so I have not been able to specialise properly and I have had the misfortune to fall into that cycle due to being available and thinking "yeah if I show willing to take on new challenges it will help", that thought train seemed to be naive at best. I also found myself pigeon holed into a role that I utterly loathed (mainly because of the utterly hideous toolset that we were using) which had me dragged off a project that would have been something to be proud of – that went to another site. It has hampered any attempt at getting the experience needed to become a senior engineer and more recently just as I was getting towards that point on something I had broken the back of and was finally starting to enjoy I heard the words I was dreading "we have decided you need a change" despite not being asked if I wanted one and I was moved teams with no consultation and I now start at the bottom again.

The frustration borne from this situation has left me jaded and cynical beyond my years and it has actually put me in a worse position for technical knowledge than a lot of the more recent ex-apprentices with less than half the years in the company as me as the new software apprenticeships rather than general technical apprenticeships mean they require way less on the job training, I come as do most from my era from an electrical and electronics background, unfortunately when I came out of my time there were no jobs in systems so I was offered one in software, I took it. In reality you could say what has been a second choice career from day one became a second choice within a second choice (does that make it a fourth or third choice).

Naturally I am going to have one last push at getting on before I start the process of jumping ship - which will be a long road anyway it will be several years before I am ready to go for it in real terms as I have other financial commitments that I need to see through first.

I posted this thread to get opinions mainly on whether it was worth trying to find a way of funding going rotary (as I really fancy giving it a go) as it seems a bit more niche and therefore might be a better chance of landing a job post CPL(H) completion :lol: or sticking with fixed wing given the hours already accumulated.
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By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1698119
Melanie Moxon wrote:
I posted this thread to get opinions mainly on whether it was worth trying to find a way of funding going rotary (as I really fancy giving it a go) as it seems a bit more niche and therefore might be a better chance of landing a job post CPL(H) completion :lol: or sticking with fixed wing given the hours already accumulated.


The road to ATPL(H) is more arduous and costly than its fixed wing equivalent, the achievable income a lot lower, the job market smaller and even more fickle than that for fixed wing flying.

That is the reason why few people self fund going the rotary route and most people with ATPL(H) have learned the trade in the military and then moved sideways.

Getting a CPL(H) is less expensive but means, on the whole, doing flight instruction.
By Balliol
#1698132
@Melanie Moxon have you thought about taking a bit of extended leave / sabbatical if able to? Sometimes a month or two off work, do some fun stuff / flying etc just allows you to recalibrate life and go back to work with a fresher perspective. I think we all need that at some point in our career and life.
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By Melanie Moxon
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1698167
@Flyin'Dutch' it's possibly not worth the extra cost and hassle of Helo’s then unless I just wanted to fly them for fun (do fancy it at some point) with a bit of instructing on the side of my regular job.

Unfortunately a military career and then stepping sideways at the end of a commission is beyond me now – Any prospects of a military career (I wanted to follow my Great Grandads footsteps and join the RAF, albeit as a pilot rather than a mechanic) were was shot down in flames before I left primary school due to the eyesight requirements which were much stricter than they are now and my commercial aspirations were killed off by 9/11 and the resulting airline slump – fresh out of college in 2002 I had no hope of self-funding the £85,000 as it was then to get a fATPL and everything that goes with it at one of the established schools and neither did any of my family members.

@Balliol Interestingly not so long ago I had three weeks off using a combination of the way the Easter and early May bank holidays fell and accrued lieu time to minimise the holiday days used (extended unpaid leave is not an option to me I have a mortgage to pay and no other income sources) to deal with my social transition and other than clearing that particular bit of head space and doing a lot of fun stuff (including flying when the weather allowed) it didn’t really make any difference to how I viewed work. Nice Idea though :)

Don’t get me wrong the pay and conditions are pretty good as for the most part are the people (the decision making is sometimes questionable mind), it’s not as if I am getting up on a morning dreading clocking on, far from it. Had they not moved me to another team in January and been left where I was, finally feeling like I had found my niche, it is unlikely that I would even have started this thread.
Last edited by Melanie Moxon on Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.