What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Show us your day job!

Shooting a line

Quite right Mike I shall say no more. I am a lucky boy!
Spending much of my time avoiding 2 engines for Long Haul
b9a9a037.jpg
 
One for the boring guys out there.....

So this is one for all of us that do everyday jobs and don't do cool things like what Steve has just posted.

This is me as BPM Visions National Sales Manager, I travel around Australia talking to people about Software.

I like working with technology, its why Avaiation is so cool.

Just an everyday guy doing his thing
 
Last edited:
Day Job

6zasd4.jpg


This is an infrared image of an exo-atmospheric kill vehicle intercepting and destroying a target simulating a re-entry vehicle. This may be the most worthwhile job I've ever done.
 
Well let's see. I own an RV trailer & motorhome dealership in eastern Quebec. I also own a private 930 acres estate with my father, on which we operate an outfiting company specialized in trout fishing all inclusive 4* plans. We have 5 private lakes, 15 km of trails and a 2km sea frontage with a private beach to play with. :) It's located in eastern Quebec also, in the Apalachian mountains, and it's skirted by the St-Lawrence river.

23421_108282202532989_100000536294796_161407_427846_n.jpg

23421_108282195866323_100000536294796_161406_4035895_n.jpg

23421_108282209199655_100000536294796_161409_1742348_n.jpg


I'm an ultralight and experimental enthusiast - builder of a Challenger ultra light and owner of a 2010 RV-6A. Right now, I've been working on a private airstrip at the estate, so we can acomodate pilot who'd like to come and visit us! ...And it's for me too!! My 40 X 28 hangar is now completed on the side of the strip. Still about a year to go before an aircraft will land on it.

Cheers.
 
SilverEagle2 said:
I am a Senior Systems Analyst/AVP for a Credit Card Bank. Been here 11 years. General MIS, SQL, JavaScript, XML guy.

I also volunteer for CAP and current billet is the Deputy Chief of Staff over Operations for the State of Utah. Does not pay the bills, but it fills the log book nicely. Feels like a second job.



I have been known to fly around those! ;) Have we met/chatted?

JLENS-1-cover1small.jpg


That's me in the left seat.
Click to expand...

I just got this issue in the mail...

2nd Lt. John Ford
SWR-OK-074
 
Retired

FBI agent 23 years. Retired 1995 been building RV's since. Spend winters at 3L2 living with my RV6A. Summers near Bend Oregon golfing. Still haven't figured what to do when I grow up. Goal in life is to live long enough to have been retired longer than I worked. Prior to FBI research engineer Lockheed Aircraft destructive test L1011, S3A, and Cheyene helicopter. Fun job.

Stationed
14 month Denver
10 years Portland, Ore.
5 years D.C.
8 years Las Vegas
 
My Day (Night) job? Flight Simulator Tech at Delta North. "My" 747-400 full-flight simulator:
My_Day_Job001.jpg


My_Day_Job008.jpg


My Night (Day) job? Senior Tech at SteinAir.

If I had to choose only one it would be tough...
 
Law Enforcement, (State)

Always interesting and mostly fun Career.

Eligible retirement 2013

More time, may do an RV8
 
I really have a good chuckle when I hear people talking about what they will do when they retire and have more time.

Good luck with that.
 
What you say mel?

Mel, please enlighten us. My dreams of building when I retire gets me through the soccer games and gets me through being an errand boy for the fam.
 
My Dad retired at 56 and afterward always wondered how he ever had time to go to his day job (airline pilot, when they still had a decent retirement). I'm 56 now and looking at 7-10 more years to work. I wish I now had the problem he had then...
 
Yes Mel,
every one I know that has retired is now busier than when working. I will likely be one of them.

Regards
 
johnny stick said:
Mel, please enlighten us. My dreams of building when I retire gets me through the soccer games and gets me through being an errand boy for the fam.
Click to expand...

Before I retired, I got off work in the afternoon, I was off on weekends and holidays.
Not any more!
Like others have said, I don't know when I had the time to go to work everyday.
 
I built this parachute harness/container system:
stratos_25022010__1__03.jpg


Everything we make is 100% custom, just usually not to the level required for a 120,000+ foot jump! :)
 
I pretty much do the same thing as Kurt W., for the same company as Mike R. Thank you, gentlemen, for saving me all the typing.

But mainly I just lurk around VAF wishing I had the coin to build the planes and go to the places that y'all do. One of these days...
 
Mike S said:
...you are right about the lurking:eek:
Click to expand...

Unfortunately 2+ of those years involved working way too hard and being completely out of the aviation world. I'm back in it now though, and back up in the air, so hopefully those dark dismal non-flying days are behind me :).
 
I have the best job!

You guys ALL have cool jobs, but since I spend every day working with you guys I feel like I have the best job. Most of you have already seen me at my summer office...

CleavelandBusPhotoedit.jpg


And my office the rest of the time pretty much looks like a cube in an old pole building.

It truely is an honor to work will all the talented builders out there. I wish more could feel the sense of joy, pride, and fulfillment that this hobby and subset of society brings.


P.S. Love the ATC pictorial!!

-
 
excellent and

Outstanding TKATC.:) As a pilot I really do appreciate what you do. It has been a long time ago but a guy just like you vectored me out of REALLY bad storms in St. Louis, with a really heavy load in c206. In those days we didn't have all the nice weather stuff we do now.

bird
 
Not rocket science but....

I have worked at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for the last 39+ years. I am an electronic engineer and Deputy Division Head.
www.fnal.gov

and no we can't teleport you!
Paul
 
Mechanical Engineer for a USAF (and commercial) contractor you've never heard of. We do aging aircraft support. I've spent a BUNCH of time on this:
Rainbow%20joint.jpg


Which is the center wing/outer wing joing on a C-130. The center wing fitting is a piece of junk that has to be replaced regularly. I designed the tooling that the USAF Depots will be using to replace this part, hopefully faster and with fewer mistakes.

I also do structural testing, up to 250,000 lb on something up to 15 ft long. We've done wing joint parts for military and commercial companies (Piper Jet, which got canned right after we finished our testing...), composite stringer panels for a commercial jet maker, BIG bolts, 4" wide titanium friction plug weld coupons...you name it, I've broken it.

Also design and analyze aircraft components including lately a LOT of stuff for the MC-130W (now renamed AC-130W, so yeah, that means guns!). Mostly REdesign actually, to fix other's mistakes. I don't understand how some people sleep at night knowing they design airplane parts while being such awful engineers... :)

ac-130w-stinger-88-1306.jpg
 
Last edited:
1:1 Scale said:
I built this parachute harness/container system:
stratos_25022010__1__03.jpg


Everything we make is 100% custom, just usually not to the level required for a 120,000+ foot jump! :)
Click to expand...

Kelly simply builds one of the best engineered skydiving rigs on the market today. It's great to have him as part of the RV community...
 
Kittinger

pierre smith said:
Reminds me of the book.."Come up here and get me" by the guy who almost went past Mach 1 from over 100,000 feet!
Best,
Click to expand...

I will never forget one of my first Sun-n-Fun events. At that event, there was an older gentleman serving as a volunteer, helping folks get on/off one of the biplane rides. Most folks probably did not notice a little sign that explained who he was: Col. Joe Kittinger - the guy who almost broke mach 1 with no vehicle around him. Never mind the fact that wasn't even close to the hardest or scariest thing that guy did for us in his career.

Good reminder never to let the gray hair and handicap sticker fool you. Might just be a total bad-a$$ right there in front of you.
 
Yep

dhall_polo said:
.......Good reminder never to let the gray hair and handicap sticker fool you. Might just be a total bad-a$$ right there in front of you.
Click to expand...

As I walked out of the restaurant yesterday, an acqaintance (sp?) walked in with a slightly hunched over gentleman and said, "We were watching you spraying the other day, because my Dad here, is a retired Naval carrier pilot!"

I thanked the older gent for his many years of service to our country and invited them for a ride in my -10.

Best,
 
Tram said:
Being an airline pilot was a miserable career choice, so now I'm running a nuclear reactor. ;)
Click to expand...

Maybe your quote should say "Being a commuter airline pilot was a miserable career choice,....someone wise once said "Life is like a box of chocolates..."
 
My story

I was an auto mechanic for 22 yrs. Then changed to I.T. as an application repackager (modifying standard installs to fit in with various environments for the MOD), 10 years. Now in printing, 18 months.....Don't like it :( so will be looking for something else.
 
jmbrwn said:
Maybe your quote should say "Being a commuter airline pilot was a miserable career choice,....someone wise once said "Life is like a box of chocolates..."
Click to expand...

Pretty sure I meant what I said. I also happen to know a handful of "real deal" airline pilots who agree wholeheartedly with me, however, they're stuck. Golden handcuffs.

Obviously, being a.. commuter airline pilot.. (nice attempt at a dig, btw.) wasn't my goal, my father is at FDX and I thought one day, I'd fly purple too. However, sometimes things happen. Best laid plans and all that. Shame I couldn't be a "full fledged airline pilot" such as yourself. Oh well.

I had the option to change to a career that came with better QOL than what I had and even what I would have if I made it to "legitimate airline pilot" status, so I took it and couldn't be happier. :D
 
Last edited:
Tram said:
Pretty sure I meant what I said. I also happen to know a handful of "real deal" airline pilots who agree wholeheartedly with me, however, they're stuck. Golden handcuffs.
Click to expand...

Day job for the next 3 years until retirement. Actually I fly a desk at this point, but that wouldn't make for too good of a pic.

6843a701.jpg


Tram, I'd be interested in hearing your advice/experience. When I think what I'll be doing for my "second career," I know it will involve aviation; just not sure in what form. For a while I thought I would pursue the airlines, but not so sure. I know some of the objective things - horrible initial pay, schedule, etc, but haven't talked to anyone recently in the game. One thing is for sure. EVERY time I set foot in an airport, 99% of the pilots look like they'd rather shoot themselves in the face than be where they are. The ones that don't look like that look to be about 21, fresh out of EAU, and thanking God to have landed the job. You can put up with a lot at that age. I guess everything's relative. I'll no longer be living in the desert in a tent for a year at a time right..?:D
 
Last edited:
60av8tor said:
EVERY time I set foot in an airport, 99% of the pilots look like they'd rather shoot themselves in the face than be where they are. The ones that don't look like that look to be about 21, fresh out of EAU, and thanking God to have landed the job. You can put up with a lot at that age. I guess everything's relative. I'll no longer be living in the desert in a tent for a year at a time right..?:D
Click to expand...

That's because most of them had. The career for me, was miserable. A lot of that had to do with the pay. A lot of that had to do with the time away from home and I was pretty senior in my position and base.

For me, it boiled down to looking at the options..

My "plan" was to leave the regionals and eventually go to FDX or SWA. FDX was the goal since my pops works there and it's a 2.5 hour drive from my house.

I refuse to commute. A personal limitation.
I refuse to move. Another personal limitation.

So I started looking at a career change. What could I do and expect a better QOL than I currently have.

When I was considering changing careers I asked every guy who stepped into our cockpit the same question - "If you knew then, what you know now, would you still do this job?" Not one time did I get a yes. Literally. In almost 2 years of asking, no one said yes. The only person I met who thought I was out of my gord for trying to get out was an FO who has AVGAS in his veins and refuses to believe that the airlines are headed in a downward spiral.

My father is a wide-body CA at FDX. He cannot wait to retire. I was recently at a fly-in put on by FDX pilots and one guy made a joke about how "I needed to be nice to him or they wouldn't recommend me for a job there.." and I told the guy I didn't want to work there. Instantly about 6 heads whipped around and looked at me...

"What?"

"I don't want to work there.. I'm getting out of the 121 spiral ASAP."

There was a bit of an awkward pause and this one guy looked at me, reached out his hand and shook mine and said "That is the best thing I've heard all week!" and then it began a moan fest about the airlines and how they all wish they were getting out..

Sure, there are guys who love the job, obviously I stepped on one such fellow's toes a few posts up. His opinion will be vastly different from mine, I'm sure.

I was fortunate enough to be blessed with the opportunity to change careers, gain an instant improvement in my QOL and have the opportunity to surpass my "potential" earnings in the airlines, so I left and I couldn't be happier.

The truth is however, had I not found a viable option to leave, I'd still be an airline pilot plodding through the airport wishing I was anywhere but there. Fortunately I had an option. My .02 from playing pretend airline pilot for the last decade.
 
Lets change it a bit

What I wanted to do is what I call 'bush flying'. You know turning finals at 200ft to a grass strip 300-400yrds long. But still have a civilised 'home', no tents/mosquitos thank you.

But my colour vision wasn't/isn't good enough for a 'commercial'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top