Our SIL is a pilot who recently retired from the Border Patrol. He's qualified on a bunch of different planes and helicopters. He's been working for a charter business jet company flying this beast. He says it's totally boring. The plane is like a Tesla with auto pilot. He has to be aware of everything going on and be ready to take over at all times, but the plane flies itself. He doesn't fly it at all, just sit and watch it have the fun. How do you stay awake on long flights like that? He said he just spent 6 hours in a simulator that was a real yawner.
He just got a verbal job offer from a firefighting company flying souped up tanker jets. That one wouldn't be boring. He applied to fly helicopters but the offer is for jets. It's flying at high speed at very low altitudes while dumping retardant. I don't know what model of plane he'd be flying there but he said things happen so fast that you have to have a good grip on the seat with your cheeks. I've seen videos of Boeing 747 tankers but I don't know what they're using now.
I have a friend I went to school with, his family has a couple air tractor crop dusters…. He naturally took over the business….. people always say “wow, that must be exiting to fly every day” he always says after awhile it just becomes a job.
My C-130 unit had MAFFS mission. Dropping retardant. Pilots said it was much more challenging than flying in Iraq/Afghanistan. Was lost a plane and 4 good friends in Idaho. Safe and boring would sound good to them now.
There are old fire fighters, and there bold firefighters. However, there are very few old, bold firefighters... Betting the same applies to fire suppression pilots as well...
Your Friend is flying a bombardier challenger 300, safe/boring …reliable aircraft! corporate flying can be boring, tell him to hand fly it more often :-)
I sure as hell wouldn't recommend it.....but some one has to do it.
Did he have enough time to qualify for helicopters?
Most feds or vets dont.
Snakeskin wtf you been upto?? Me just chilling found some tortilla chips this morning. They moved me to the pit. Where all the garbage trucks go to dump the trash. So funny story how I snagged this bag. The garbage bag ripped when it came out of garbage truck. I’m sitting watching and that’s when I spied this bag of chips, I was like Yahtzee!!! Ok not a funny story but you get it.. Anyhow snake talk to you later!
Sorta off topic. I had to go to an office building Wednesday. These people were there. They sit in padded chairs. There's heating and air conditioning. Cold and hot potable water. There was no dust. It was quiet. No traffic at all. Didn't see anything that could fall, rip, shred, burn, blind, mame, mangle, explode, suffocate... Boring looked pretty darn swell if you can stomach it.
OK... you said "retired". You also said retired from a Federal position..... meaning a pretty good pension usually. Assuming he has saved money along the way, tell him to enjoy his retirement and hunt and fish more.
Having said that, every fly boy I 've ever known has serious "issues" when they can't/don't fly any more.
Don't influence him in any way. Let him and his personality choose his job. And if your daughter asks, tell her to back off and support his decision, let the man be the man. Quite a few men don't do well in captivity, boredom eats at their soul and self respect...causing marriage problems among other things. There are men who do well in factories and offices...more power to them, but there are men who need a little dash of hot sauce in their day now and then. They, historically, gravitate to logging, mining or the sea and are good men to call friends.
Safe and boring would get my vote too. I work with a ton of pilots and various airport admin staff. I bet he can find a small airport nearby to help manage if he wants to stay plugged in to aviation but needs more of a safe challenge. Airport boards, part time ops staff, it all takes people knowledgeable in aviation. It might help scratch that itch without the downsides. I'm not a pilot, but I hear them talk, often about firefighting ops. You think get-home-itis is bad, gotta-save-the-town-itis puts pilots in bad spots too.
I'm a pilot. In the hierarchy of aviation jobs corporate flying is usually pretty far up the ladder, depending upon the company. Aerial firefighting isn't, the companies that do it are usually kind of shady and the aircraft left over poorly maintained hulks of crap that aren't useful for much else. Boredom, or lack of it, is a dumb reason to choose a job. You choose a job because it pays you well, opportunities for advancement, gives good benefits and time off, and gives you a good quality of life. Dumping a good job to take a job with some fly by night outfit (pardon the pun) isn't very smart. If he wants excitement then tell him to take up skydiving or snake handling, it's a poor justification for a career.
I sure as hell wouldn't recommend it.....but some one has to do it.
Did he have enough time to qualify for helicopters?
Most feds or vets dont.
Snakeskin wtf you been upto?? Me just chilling found some tortilla chips this morning. They moved me to the pit. Where all the garbage trucks go to dump the trash. So funny story how I snagged this bag. The garbage bag ripped when it came out of garbage truck. I’m sitting watching and that’s when I spied this bag of chips, I was like Yahtzee!!! Ok not a funny story but you get it.. Anyhow snake talk to you later!
If you are talking about the land fill outside of Anchorage, did you know you can see that thing from up at Site Summit ? It wasn't there in 1976. If it was it was pretty small.
Maybe it's been mentioned I did not read it. Fly a spray planes spraying crops.. that'll test your nuts anyway.. Or maybe a helicopter sawing the limbs on powerline right away don't have a phone signal put the picture right now but that is some awesome s*** and big money.
Sorta off topic. I had to go to an office building Wednesday. These people were there. They sit in padded chairs. There's heating and air conditioning. Cold and hot potable water. There was no dust. It was quiet. No traffic at all. Didn't see anything that could fall, rip, shred, burn, blind, mame, mangle, explode, suffocate... Boring looked pretty darn swell if you can stomach it.
After a couple of mostly outdoor type jobs in my field I tried an indoor job because I was interested in that end of the business. The trips to various facilities in other States were the highlight of what became a very boring friggen job, with too many rules, restrictions on what I could wear (no shorts in a 72F environmnent? My nuts was sweaty all day and no ventilation!) , and the bosses were there all the time too.
I couldn't "stomach it" as you say.
I don't need crashing into hillsides type of excitement necessarily, but something to keep the blood flowing and brain working is important.
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