so I think that title pretty much gave
it all away but I quit the airline I'm
John from fly 8 Mike alpha see if I
turned airline pilot turn back to see if
I come along in my journey flying Alaska
to Florida and beyond
[Music]
now that painter didn't give it all away
yeah I'm used to be a CFI then I was an
airline pilot like most see if eyes you
know you're see if I and then you become
an airline pilot and then I decided I
wanted to go back to being a CFI which
seems totally crazy totally
counterintuitive and you probably
thinking why on earth would you want to
do that why would you throw away a good
airline career and I'm gonna tell you
why so yeah you might think like oh
you're a terrible person you're an idiot
you studied so hard you worked all those
hours you flew with students for so many
hours you built up your time you became
an airline pilot and you're throwing
away a good career well thanks mom for
that motivational speech but in fact I'm
just starting a new chapter in my career
and I really enjoy teaching I really
enjoy interacting with people and the
people I got to interact with at the
airline we're awesome I mean the
captains I flew with super cool flying
with those fly tents and everything all
the different flight crews super cool I
was just ready to kind of trade that out
and go back to being a regular old fly
at Mike alpha see fi I love general
aviation I love little airplanes and
well the airline life let me just take
you through a regular day right so
what's a normal day in an airline pilots
life so do you want to the trip right or
night before even it kind of starts you
look at your cell phone you're like okay
I got to go to work what am i doing you
look at it you're like okay I got you
know five legs to fly today woohoo it's
gonna be great it's a long day I'm gonna
be flying for that looks like I got 12
and a half hours on duty I'm gonna be
paid about Oh looks about like six hours
five and a half six hours wonderful so
I'm gonna make five and a half hours
times 30 bucks an hour not a lot of
money and I'm gonna have to commute that
morning so I'm gonna have to get up
like gonna have to leave the house by
3:45 in the morning getting a car drive
the airport and then tried to jump seat
so you quick list for the jump seat and
you list and you're like okay I'm number
one of the list I should make it you get
there and guess what flights delayed
it's like okay well now how am I gonna
get to work so now you got to go from
Sarasota to Atlanta on Delta and you got
to go Lana to Charlotte and then you get
to Charlotte and you're gonna sleep in
the Kerr room for a couple hours before
you had to go to work at like you know
1:00 p.m. in the afternoon and then fly
till past midnight but now you've pretty
much burned up that whole time commuting
as a passenger so you've already flown
two legs you didn't get paid for any of
it you were standby you're in the jump
seat on an old mad dog with your feet
just kind of dangling because the way
the jump seat is at least my legs are
too short actually touch the floor I
think most guys are like that here's
kind of dangle there so yeah that's
super comfortable so you get to
Charlotte you quick run across the
airport you didn't bother to call crew
scheduling and tell them you're running
a little late because you don't want to
get in trouble and get there was a
tendons point slapped on you so you run
across the airport no time for food the
lion Starbucks is too long you quit run
down the jet bridge show them your ID
you run down there
you drop your bags off people already
boarding the airplane passwords already
their flight attention on board
captain's already there you run down the
jet bridge you go around the airplane
you do a quick pre-flight you run back
up the last passengers are getting on
board you're quick plugging in your
headset getting out your iPad signing
paperwork getting everything set up
setting up the FMS setting up the
airplane trying to set up your iPad get
all ready and before you know it they're
closed on the door pull the jet bridge
and captain's looking into you like hey
man call for push and you're still just
crazy sent them the box as fast as you
can get in the clearance getting the
ATIS writing everything out and getting
a flight plan and put into the computer
you push off the gate you're still super
pumped cuz I mean you're gonna go fly
jet right so although you had to get up
super early and drive the airport and
you missed that first flight and you had
to jump see all around you're still
pumped I mean still gonna be a good time
and you're excited you go to your first
leg so you fly your whatever you know 45
minute leg from Charlotte to Wilmington
North Carolina and you spend most on the
ground it's like an 18-minute flight or
something and you go out to Wilmington
and back and then you get back to
Charlotte
and you're like okay cool grab my bags
off the airplane we've got a swap
aircraft you got to run across the
airport again you're kind of running
late
the lighten Starbucks is too long you
can't get food now you're hungry you're
starving but you get back on the
airplane and then you fly another super
crazy long cross-country flight all the
way to Greenville Spartanburg South
Carolina about an 11 minute flight you
don't even break 10,000 feet so you
shoot down to Greenville Spartanburg
quick turn twenty five minutes on the
ground dump all the people off you run
around the airplane do a post flight you
get back on your get the clearance
you're getting everything set up again
you get more people on board the
airplane you fly back to Charlotte you
try to fly back to Charlotte but you're
sitting on the ground stop and you're
just sitting in the cockpit eating awful
first-class snacks this stuff right here
I have nightmares about this stuff
that's basically what you live off of
you ever wonder why I'm so skinny yeah
it's not because I'm healthy or I run
it's because this is what you live off
of as a regional fo so ya die Bella did
it'll make you die very young but yeah
trying to munch down on some of that
just to get some calories and you you
finally get back to Charlotte at least
you get to keep that airplane so you
leave your stuff on it you're running
the terminal lines too long but you're
like hey I gotta get food I'm dying and
by the time you get to the out station
to your last flight you've already done
four flights so now you got to go do the
last one everything's gonna be closed
because you're not gonna get to the
hotel to like 1:30 2:00 in the morning
or something like that so you just say
forget it I got to get food then crew
scheduling is calling because hey where
are you like now the flights late and
it's your fault because you had to go
get food so you do all that you finally
get back on and you're like man I've
been on seven planes today you get to
the hotel and you're just beat and
that's day one you got three more days
and if you're lucky then you're probably
Junior and you didn't get a very good
schedule in the backend of the trips not
commutable or day four comes along and
your flight is delayed you've had
whether you've had maintenance whatever
you're trying to get back to base you
walk around you realize the tire is all
messed up and so now you got to call
maintenance at an outstation takes
forever for them to change it maybe they
got a fly a tire out from base out to
the out station and wherever you're at
Des Moines Iowa Austin Texas somewhere
and change up the tire so now you've
delayed several hours
you finally get back to Charlotte and
it's 10 p.m. in the last flight back
home to Sarasota left at 8:00 so what do
you do now you got to go pay for a hotel
out of your own pocket and then try to
commute home the next day so now your
five-day trip that credited a total of
18 and a half hours and your grand
takeaway is 18 and a half times 38 you
got seven hundred and three dollars out
of the deal
- 85 bucks you spent on a hotel you had
618 bucks for basically five days of
work plus you don't really get a very
good night's sleep the first day behind
that so five and a half days or so now
that's not every airline job but that's
the regionals and that's kind of the
true part of it there are some great
parts travel benefits awesome jump seat
super cool anywhere in the country you
can go all over the world I did I went
to Australia Spain and Dora France all
over the place
England Ireland Cuba it was awesome like
definitely take advantage of that sort
of stuff but eventually you get kind of
wore out and eventually you know the
paychecks just not really cutting it
eventually the signing bonus runs out
and that big signing bonus e out in the
beginning isn't really continuing so
they actually make less money year -
they do year one so you're what I made
almost like 60 grand a year - I was
barely gonna make fifty so although it's
a decent wage when you got a hundred
thousand dollars in training costs like
all that debt from back in flight
training you know and then you've got
five four thousand hours of flight time
and you've been flying for six seven
years now like yeah ever over seven
years so 7 years of flying 4,000 hours
of flight time hundred thousand dollars
in debt what more debts do I have to pay
so you got to pay your debt right do you
need a kidney like what what's it gonna
take for me to make like a good wage and
be able to buy a house and be able to
afford a mortgage and have kids and a
family and afford all that at the
airlines oh you just have to sit there
for like the next 10 or 20 years okay
well I'm gonna be kind of old by then I
don't really want to start a family when
I'm 45 or 50 I don't want to be in debt
up to my eyeballs either so I've got to
do something else and it's so they're
gonna be corporate fly
going back to being a CFI obviously
being a flight instructor right now
super lucky there's tons of jobs out
there they pay really well I'm able to
make a living at it and I can also pick
up a lot of corporate flying on the side
that pays really well to just pick up
these one-day quick Outback trips or to
day out and back type trips corporate
flying that's awesome I don't really
have to be in hotels anymore I can be in
my own house kind of on my own schedule
I can get up and run every morning I can
have a routine I don't have to wake up
one morning at 3 or 4 a.m. and then the
next day I have to wake up at noon
because I was flying all night and you
have to constantly change those weird
sleep schedules some of the guys you
look at and you're like hey man you're
getting close to retirement and you know
you're gonna retire at 65 are you gonna
wait all the way till you hit 65 and
they're like I'm 48 and you're like oh
you look terrible you should really see
a doctor or something guys are dying of
cancer just from being up in the
radiation from being up high and also
just from the crazy sleep schedules
terrible diets we have it's really easy
to not take care of yourself at the
airline now you can you can put in the
effort I guess I'm just kind of too lazy
so I didn't really get taking care of
myself or I didn't really do a good job
taking care of myself with the airline
didn't really eat very well got sick a
lot you're around a bunch of people and
it's just not really what I was cut out
to do so I can always go back it's
totally worth it to go back but trying
to make a really good living at it and
there's guys yeah for the most part
you're gonna create like 65 to 85 hours
a month there's 75 to 85 hours a month
and about 38 bucks an hour to start 40
bucks an hour now some guys are like oh
you can credit 110 you can credit 115
but at the company I was at at PSA if
you worked on a day off you actually had
to fill out all sorts of paperwork at
the end of month and there's really
narrow wonder for you to do that just to
get the money they actually owed you to
make it worthwhile so if you're old pay
rates 40 bucks an hour and they're gonna
pay you you know 1.25 because you worked
on a day off to get that extra 25% pay
to make it fifty bucks an hour you have
to fill out all sorts extra paperwork
otherwise they just won't do it
and they mess up your paychecks all the
time when he had cancellations and I get
it's kind of crazy but I'm just not
gonna pick up my phone on days off when
you guys call up and you're like hey
we're junior Manning because we're short
and how soon can you make just Charlotte
it's gonna be like uh I can't because
it's not worth it and best of luck I
hope you don't cancel the flight but
it's just at some point it wasn't worth
it to go to work it started costing me
more money to pay for a parking pass of
the airport to drive to the airport to
pay for commuter hotels on the front end
or back end of a trip where I had to
commute in a day earlier commute out a
day late and it just didn't make sense
when I could be a CFI or fly corporate
stuff and make a better living and be
able to provide for my family a little
bit more but the bigger thing here what
I think really made me decide to do it
because there's plenty of guys that are
in that same boat and quite frankly I
mean I did love the flying I was always
stoked and excited to go to work it was
just by leg for like five of day one or
say like for like five of day two or day
three you were kind of beat you know if
you're gonna go do like 16 legs and only
credit 18 hours on a trip that's kind of
rough so what really pushed over the
edge for me was exactly what you saw at
the beginning of this video I'm gonna go
fly a Cessna from Alaska all the way to
Florida I'm gonna fly to all 50 states
we're gonna do this trip and I'm gonna
get to meet all of you guys everyone
that's been on this YouTube channel and
been on the ground school tens of
thousands of people on Instagram on
YouTube on Facebook all these people
that we've got to interact with that
you've watched our videos let me get to
fly on the country now and meet all of
you and hang out with student pilots and
other CF eyes and other commercial
pilots other airline guys other
corporate guys just all good people
aviation is full of amazing awesome
people and I'm just an airplane nerd and
a guy that likes to go have fun and fly
an airplane low and slow and see stuff
saying the stuff that we can see it 100
feet 500 feet is amazing and I want to
do that I want to go out and see all the
people that are watching our videos
actually meet you and fly to your home
Airport and see what you're doing and I
want to share that with everyone that
maybe they can't get into flying or
maybe they're just too tied up with
another career or they're already too
far down a path
of having kids and having a family and a
wife and a house and all these things
that kind of tie them down they came and
pursue a private pilot license let alone
an airline career and that's really
their dream and I get to make these
awesome videos and share them with all
of you so I've got a job for you to do
I'm starting a brand new YouTube channel
on nothing but awesome amazing
adventures across America the link is
directly below this video right in the
top line in the description click on
that link subscribe to the new YouTube
channel keep up with what we're doing
where we're at let us know where you are
and comment your home Airport in this
video below we I want you to comment
exactly what airport you fly out of and
I want to make a list of all these
airports that all of our viewers all of
our subscribers fly at I want to come to
every single one of them and I just want
to go fly around with you guys and have
a good time so as long as I can pay the
bills keep the lights on and be able to
put gas in the airplane and do that I'm
gonna do that now while I'm 27 years old
before I'm 50 or 60 and I can barely
drag the airplane out of the hangar
anymore so maybe it's probably more like
65 70 80 something like that but way too
many guys have all these dreams are what
they're gonna do in retirement build an
airplane build a boat sail around the
world or something and they're about to
retire and they dropped it of a heart
attack before they can even retire and
even think about buying a boat or buying
an airplane I'm gonna do all that now
I'll work till the day I'm dead but I'm
gonna retire up until I'm probably about
35 or 40 hopefully and then I can go
back to work in the meantime I'm gonna
have a blast and I hope people to share
all that with you guys and I want you to
give me your opinions your feedback let
us know what you want to see I want our
adventure across the United States to be
educational fun for you to follow
interactive and I want you to learn
something and get something out of it so
give us your feedback definitely comment
your home Airport right below on this
video and please guys go ahead check out
that brand new YouTube channel share
with your friends spread the word we're
gonna be creating some awesome videos
starting up in Alaska working our way
all across the country I hope to see you
guys along on this journey we want you
to come along with us
super stoked to begin this adventure
with you guys super excited that you get
to be my co-pilot on this adventure be
sure to check out the channel below the
links right in the description
we'll also put it right in this card
right up here on the corner of the
screen subscribe to this channel if you
guys have not already give us a thumbs
up on this video share with your friends
I hope you guys get to pursue all the
aviation adventures that you dream of
just like we're doing now remember if
you can't fly a fly up mike alpha comm
we'll see y'all next time
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