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Several-Village5814@reddit

Yea it’s so sexy to fly 4 legs a day and stay in a Hampton inn 😎

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canuck791@reddit

Come to Air Canada where we DH on one day, do one leg another and stay for 48 hours in Raliegh, Productivity is not AC's forte.

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JasonThree@reddit

Hope you got some good trip rig at least?

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canuck791@reddit

Hahahahahaha...

4:25 min duty day (no ADG) and 4:1 TTG. It sucks.

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JasonThree@reddit

Oh yikes 4:1. We used to be that but changed to 3.5 last contract. Made almost every 3-5 day trip pay off that.

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canuck791@reddit

Yeah it's rough. Our last contract we got some ADG at 4.5/day but not implemented until Jan of next year (3 years into the contract) because of "staffing" (which is 100% not a problem rn).

I can only dream of a 5hr ADG and 3.5/1 TTG. Everyone here works 16 days from 5% to 95% on the lists. 16 is a max day cap on the NBs. It's all bullshit, some of the worst if not the worst scheduling rules in North America.

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JasonThree@reddit

We dont even have ADG. Ours is straight min day @ 5 hours. Seems to be pretty rare outside the regionals. Cant believe they have an implementation schedule for 3 years in.

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canuck791@reddit

Yeah we've been trying to just get a straight up min day, but nope.

I sit for like 24-30 hours regularly in places like LAX, YEG, YYC, YYZ, YUL, EWR (DT NY layover, don't mind this one) and others. I get the outstations but our Canadian hubs makes no sense. Basically a ton of donut pairings all over.

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CarminSanDiego@reddit

Have you tried not working for a broke company?

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Several-Village5814@reddit

I stay in some nice places as well, depends how big the city is lol

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carl-swagan@reddit

blessed

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Flytheskies81@reddit

Better than a days inn

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Ancient_Juice_1127@reddit

La Quinta

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Head_Big3036@reddit

Spanish for “behind the Denny’s”

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Weasel474@reddit

Cries in Red Lions

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velosnow@reddit

Hi SkyW. Or perhaps Horizon.

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Ancient_Juice_1127@reddit

I'm sitting at my apartment on reserve as I type this (mostly short haul, 121 US major), watching some TV and I'm probably going to try the Chinese place on the corner for dinner if the company doesn't use me today. Getting paid to just hang out is nice sometimes, so it isn't a bad life but I could certainly make it look really glamorous if I was creative enough. I like flying but its sort of a job to me at this point. I do not do social media anymore for reasons of my own.

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canuck791@reddit

I went 6 weeks once without getting a call on reserve. It was amazing.

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Ancient_Juice_1127@reddit

covid?

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canuck791@reddit

Nope last few months.

Been slow up in Canada ever since orange man took over. Less people flying, and plus a shit economy.

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patriciiuss@reddit (OP)

Thank you!

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TheBuff66@reddit

Pros and cons. Some days rock and you get to see cool parts of the country, ending in a desirable town with stuff to do. Other days you’re in a hotel on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere. 7 on/7 off is great for my lifestyle but undeniably you start feeling drained by day 5. Definitely beats my desk job days but it will feel like work too

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Ancient_Juice_1127@reddit

I did the 8/6 for years and I'm like you. After 5d I was ready to head home.

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Several-Village5814@reddit

High highs and low lows

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ATrainDerailReturns@reddit

I know one student pilot that is a “student pilot social media influencer” kid just failed his 3rd stage check oral out of 5 so far

And yet people follow this kid I guess

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Ancient_Juice_1127@reddit

This is the flying equivalent to those people with big oboxious trucks or extremely dark / murdered out cars etc with their Instagram handle on the glass, but they drive around like fools.

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patriciiuss@reddit (OP)

i cant imagine trying to do social media at the same time as flight school , i feel like you really have to jst focus on the school and dedicate as much time as possible to it.

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ATrainDerailReturns@reddit

It feels like 1/8 our kids in the program focus on ROTC, another 1/8 focus on their frat, 1/4 focus on work, and only 1/2 focus on the flight training

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spacecadet2399@reddit

I thought everyone knew not to believe everything they see on Instagram at this point...

People only post the best parts of themselves on Instagram. For a lot of people, that may be 5% of what their life is really like, or even less.

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BakerHasHisKitchen@reddit

You mean people who post habitually on social media look to have the best life of anyone ever that’s not totally curated and cherrypicked around what real life is actually like? That’s crazy

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patriciiuss@reddit (OP)

i mean i knew its completely cherrypicked and stuff, i js wanted to know the actual reality, so i asked here as there is no way to know it for me and i feel like people here are real

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canuck791@reddit

For 90% of us, it's just a job man.

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canuck791@reddit

No.

It's a solid job and decent lifestyle if you can manage it. But I spent my 20s and most of my 30s chasing this job and my current left seat at a legacy... no wife, no kids... live alone.

I mean I'm just one person but this job def made me take a much different path in life than I thought I would from a family perspective.

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Vincent-the-great@reddit

Its not a glorious life like its portrayed but im rolling in money because I live 5 mins from my airport and work my duty limits in overtime. Complete financial freedom at the cost of sanity

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Negative_Swan_9459@reddit

95% of the stuff I see on insta is mega glamorized BS turbocharged by the 2022-23 hiring spree.

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Several-Village5814@reddit

Like that frontier pilot influencer saying a career at frontier is better than a career at any other airline. Lmao

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Ok_Truck_5092@reddit

Being a pilot influencer should be illegal.

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Bolter_NL@reddit

If you are that delusional I hope they don't let you pilot a plane.

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patriciiuss@reddit (OP)

i said i dont really believe social media tho, i was just wondering whats the worst as i have no way of knowing that other then asking

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flyfallridesail417@reddit

My life is pretty good, I’m thankful for the good luck I’ve enjoyed in this career but I do remember a lot of the really shitty days I had to gut it out through to get here. I think that painting a rosy picture of the career on social media for likes and clout does a real disservice to those considering going into aviation, and also to those of us who have to fly with disillusioned people who got into it with an inaccurate idea of costs vs rewards.

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Antique-Kitchen-1896@reddit

Sure, no one ever was outside in -20C at 7:30am during their training hoping the lycoming will start after getting frost bite doing preflight.

Everyone gracefully slip off the ice on the steps checking fuel on a 172z in said weather and really nail the landing on their asses.

And the glow on people in summer holding short in 35C in the sun with the doors closed while everyone and their dog are doing PFL in the circuit? That’s just perspiration of happiness.

It’s perfect always! Even the first step.

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UnfortunateSnort12@reddit

I’m a pilot, and I avoid all aviation social media, YouTube videos, etc.

It’s just like any other industry, curated content that doesn’t reflect reality.

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paulyshorebreak@reddit

I do medevac and feel that I have my dream job. How happy you are and how perfect your life is tends not to change a whole lot. Day to day, I don't feel dramatically different from how I did when I was in college, or when I was bartending, or doing entry level flying gigs. When you're at this point, all it grants you is the ability to say, "Alright, I've pretty much maxed out the the amount of fulfillment I can get from my job. If I want more, I need to either help others get to this point or enjoy some of the other things that life has to offer."

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CryptographerHuge682@reddit

Man believe less than the half of things you see on social media, I recently deleted the majority of it since I came to a realisation that everything or most of it is fake, this happened after meeting someone that I followed and he was a friend of one of my closets friends since high school, and he was not happy as he showed, he just cared about looking perfect on the screen in the other side just a shitty person with no type of manners to be seen

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EducationalTea3792@reddit

No

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DefundTheHOA_@reddit

No one’s life is as perfect as they show on social media

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eitilt@reddit

My job was cooler when I was a Search and Rescue pilot, the money and quality of life is better as an airline captain, but I’m typically just enjoying getting to do my dream job rather than trying to make a 12 hour duty day look like the best thing on earth so people smash the like button

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Sleepful_In_Seattle@reddit

I also think it’s important to realize that airlines monitor our social media use pretty closely, so if you work for an airline that even allows you to post about your life as a pilot, they are going to have a tight leash about what you can say before they pull the plug. Good luck telling your audience about how operations swapped you out of your perfectly good airplane into a busted ass one which will take 5 hrs to get airworthy.

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Kein-Deutsc@reddit

Hi, as with all things social media is showing the best of it, not the worst or the bad. Aviation influencers are some of the most annoying people on the internet because they misrepresent everything. Especially the students (one account tried to claim that becoming a pilot was harder than becoming a doctor).

I don’t have any flying career aspirations but my dad who has worked in this career his whole life said that there were a lot of lonely sad pilots. Lots of alcoholics too though this more so depends on the type of work and the age group.

If you can get to a legacy airline it is better I have heard, though it takes a long time and the path there can be tough.

Obviously other people working in the industry will be able to advise you better.

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Easy-Trouble7885@reddit

Hearing all about our Captains 3 divorces really seems like perfect lives, doesn't it

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bae125@reddit

Everyone’s “lives” on social media are carefully curated bullshit

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Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit

Social media is not real life.

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Worried-Ebb-1699@reddit

Yes. Cuz I don’t broadcast it needing SM input.

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chuckop@reddit

No one’s life is as perfect as what they choose to put on social media.

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dumbassretail@reddit

Better, actually.

We don’t post the best stuff to limit the amount of people entering the career.

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oh_snap1013@reddit

…you guys have social lives?

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

Since I want to be a pilot I often come across loads and loads of aviation content. It got me wondering if the lives pilots live are really that perfect as on instagram, pinterest etc. (I am pretty sure theyre not). So i was wondering what is different or harder and now shown on the internet. I dont really care about the pay for example, as long as it keeps me alive its fine (around 24 000€ per year would absolutely be enough for me). If possible, please mention who youre flying for, and if short or long haul. Thanks!

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