I'm Getting Old

[Colonel]

There have always been two different kinds of professional pilots:

1) Those that love to fly, take pride in their skill and
knowledge, and almost always have other aviation
interests, and continue to fly after retirement.  Often
described as a "great stick".

2) Those to whom it is just a job, and they grudgingly
meet the minimums.  You know - "four bars".  You know
that after they retire, they will never, ever fly again.

It might just be me being a crotchety old revisionist,
but as the decades go by, I see the percentage of
group #1 decreasing, and group #2 increasing.

I am lucky enough to have many good friends in
group #1, I might add  :D

Whenever I have to fly in the back of an aluminum tube,
I hope that there is at least one group #1 pilot in the
front two seats.  Bad things can happen if something
goes wrong and you have two group #2 pilots up front.

[Slick Goodlin]

What really blows sometimes is identifying with Group #1 but not having any real idea how to get ahead by standing out from Group #2.

Damn seniority based world...

[ScudRunner-d95]

It's funny when I explain to folks that if I went to Air Canada or Westjet I would have to take at least a 50% paycut, then sit their and wait for my number to come up to get back to the left seat as Captain.

The next words are usually something like "that's insane in my field of Law/medicine/sandwich artistry my pay is merit based and leave for less money?

[Colonel]

Nothing beats a good corporate gig, which
can be defined as working for a good guy.

Youngsters might be surprised that it
doesn't really matter what you fly.  Might
be a 421, might be a Citation XLS - what
matters is the personality of the guy in charge.

I won't mention Ron Joyce.

[img]http://i.cbc.ca/1.2177870.1382506259!/h ... -crash.jpg[/img]

[ScudRunner-d95]

Amen Brother.

[Gravel Digger]

[size=3]
[font=verdana]I never got what I wanted in aviation, the shiny jet, exotic destinations...probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me.[/font]
[font=verdana]I sat to the right of a lot of guys like you, Charlie (sometimes I read your posts and wonder if one of them WAS you). I ended up in a pretty decent place thanks to guys like you. I'll try my best to pay it forward. I am finding it tough to do some days.[/font][/size]

[Liquid Charlie]

Well trog if you spent anytime at Austins or 7F that covers me for about 36 years up until 4 years ago then maybe we did cross paths --  ;D  and if you go back further I was pounding around NWO and Manitoba before that

[ScudRunner-d95]

I have said it before , I really believe that the art of being a good mentor is lost these days.

New guy on the bird had never started a turbine let alone a jet, nothing fancy about it at all of course  (I would be hard pressed to start a piston banger these days). It was like it was some magic only a guy with my time could conjure,  he was suppose to be monitoring me and the engines during start but had never took it out of cutoff.

So I let him start it up and taxi it (tiller only on the left side) while positioning it at an uncontrolled field this summer. Guy had been flying turbine and jets for 4 years in the right seat.  :-\ To you skippers out there take a look at the guy beside you and start mentoring.

Which brings me to a new guy a number of years ago when I was driving a 1900, he was about to get his upgrade and asked "how do I be a good Captain?". I actually had to think for a second he was nervous at the thought of command I guess but a good pilot. I came up with this nugget, "Which Captains do you like flying with? emulate them.

I like the expression "give them just enough rope to hang themselves"