Airline Pilots: Is Anybody Interested in Being One?

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. I think your (1) pretty much says it all and can be plugged into any career classification.

Here's an example that's as far from piloting commercial airliners as it is possible to get.

For two years, until 2/10/11, I worked as a "Zipline Tour Guide". I'm 51 now. Our zipline was high in the moutains and was a fucking blast. For work, I ziplined every day, either in front of or behind as many as 16 customers per tour. I'd zip down in front of them and catch them, or stay behind them and send them down the lines. I ziplined hanging upside down, spun so fast I got dizzy, pretty much did anything I could to entertain customers while they were in our care. We had 9 lines. I was at least twice as old as all but 1 of the 20 employees the company had.

Now, there are lots of other things involved than just ziplining here. There are bathrooms to clean, ziplines to inspect and equipment to sort, inspect, and store, vehicles used to transport customers to inspect and clean etc.

How easy was it to get the 20somethings to perform those tasks? About as easy as flapping your arms and flying to the Sun. They saw "Tour Guide" as just that, and nothing more. "I don't clean bathrooms, I use them." is what I heard one kid say to another. "My MOM cleans the bathroom at home" I heard in response to the first statement. Clouds? "It's going to rain... can I call the office and cancel the days tours?" Trash? "Why don't the CUSTOMERS take care of that after the tour? THEY made the mess..."

Me and the other guy my age regularly ran tours by ourselves on weekends because the kids couldn't drag themselves out of bed.

I worked there because at the time I didn't NEED a full-time job with benefits. They saw it as some kind of career choice and voiced their plans to build ziplines of their own in different places.

A sense of entitlement. That will be the downfall of society as we know it.