Flying for Fun and for Money

Is that like saying a girl is a little pregnant? I don’t know. As soon as I wrote that headline I realized how nonsensical it is.

But it’s fitting. I haven’t blogged in months and it’s because I’ve been pretty ridiculously busy. I miss blogging though. So here goes an update…

Flight instructing is a lot like farming. During the good season, flight instructors have to work sunrise to past sunset to keep up with the demand. Then, in the winter, business naturally gets a little leaner, if for no other reason than the lack of ample daylight to train in.

So that’s what happened to me. During the peak of the summer I was at the airport 10, 12, sometimes 14 hours/day, working Mon-Fri at the flight school, with another 9 or 10 hours every weekend flying skydivers at the dropzone on Sundays. I moved in with a couple new roommates at a new apartment during this time and they honestly didn’t see me for 3 days straight one time. I was always up and out the door before they woke and didn’t come home until they were already in bed most nights.

In July, the owner of the flight school talked to me about restructuring our whole system. He asked me to cut back on my flying in order to take on more of a manager/recruiter/chief instructor role at the school. I talked it over with him for a while and ultimately decided to go for it. It meant higher pay, more stable pay (salary!), and in the long run, a better schedule of something other than the 10-14 hour days I’d been putting in recently.

The thing that kept my life so crazy was my plan to not abandon any of my current customers. Although I immediately stopped accepting new students, I still billed out 100-120 hours/month in an effort to finish off all of the people I was in the process of working with.

By August I started my final semester of college and finally started seeing a drop in the hectic pace of flying. Then my problem became balancing my class load with working 40 hours/week as the flight school manager. In fact, that’s the issue I’m still facing as I type this blog.

I have to be honest. I’m torn about how much I like this position. On the one hand, it offers higher pay than I could get at almost any other job at this point in my life. It’s made me seriously consider becoming a career instructor. I work with great people, fly nice planes, and I’m home every night. I never have to worry about getting furloughed or having my base closed. It’s an all around good, secure job that affords a comfortable life. I feel like I’m finally viewed as a true professional as opposed to “just” an instructor, out looking to build time and collect a pay check before moving on to the next great thing.

The downside is that I’m so worn out right now. I’m always running. I can’t remember the last time I left the office before 7 p.m. and a lot of times it ends up being 8 or 9 p.m., or even later. Part of me says a job that allows me to be home every night isn’t worth much if I’m only home for a few hours. I hope that’s just the fatigue talking and I’ll think much better of the job once I’m done with college in December and can have a more relaxed schedule.

Another issue that scares me is the fact that this actually is a good spot to be in, yet I’m still not certain this is what I want for my life. There’s a big world out there with a lot of opportunities in it. That little voice in the back of my mind sometimes says, “This is it? This is the best you can do? Manage a flight school in Nebraska? That’s how you want to spend the rest of your life?” I can’t help but wonder what I’m missing out on. At the same time, I know the grass is always greener on the other side. And I don’t want to mess up a good thing, chasing after the next big thing that might not be so great after all.

Hmmm…lots to think about. I’ll post more later, including stories and pictures from my trip to Tucson, Oshkosh, Denver, and all kinds of other entertaining things I’ve crammed in to the past several months. At least you know I’m not dead yet. Thanks for reading!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 2:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.