Working in a flight school environment could give on the impression that in order to make a decent amount of money as a pilot, one must be at the airport for almost eighty hours a week. Even so, the amount of actual flying and thus the amount that the school would actually pay you would be approximately half that amount, and thus one could make more per hour with an hourly job at your local Wal-Mart. I have seen the light. I have seen what happens when you position yourself in a market where you are one of very few (or possibly only) commercial pilots in an area. Suddenly, your services can command two to three times the rate of that at a flight school. And so it has become that in just two days I have doubled my average bi-weekly paycheck from a certain Big 12 school where I tried often in vain to pass along the knowledge and experience bestowed upon me by so many others. It's fun getting paid to fly, it's even more fun to get paid well to fly. One minute I'm sitting on a couch in Conway with a good movie and a great woman and a phone call and a two hour drive later I'm trying to coax a few more knots out of an old Cessna 182 on my way to Baton Rouge. The sky is clear, the stars are out, and it's smooth as glass. Sometimes, this undoubtedly the greatest job in the world. It even gave me a moments thought as to how I could give this up to go to law school given the chance. The answer came all to quickly to me as well. This is not my airplane, it belongs to the nice man sitting in the back. I'm at his beck and call, and although I am thankful for the opportunity, I realize that at some point the weather is not going to be nice, the airplane is not going to be so compliant, and a small voice in the back of my mind is going to tell me to stay on terra firma. The part of me that needs money is going to tell me to go, and I never enjou being in that position. Flying is a passion, and I would hate for it to become work again. I want to put myself in a position where I'm calling the shots, and I don't have to go if I don't want to. Plus, it would be nice to have an office to make a living in, even when the gales of November come early...
I'll figure out in three weeks if I need to take the LSAT again... let's all keep our fingers crossed and contribute to Jeff's Legal Education Fund. Everything you give is deductible* (*from your bank account)
Oh, and Raincheck, don't fret about dropping a class. I, personally, have dropped two and I still graduated a semester early. It's amazing how you barely notice the "W" on your transcript.
Jeff C.
Supply and Demand...