Since I last posted an article here on PA, I was informed that the flight school that I work for is closing its doors. I am still under the impression that my seemingly bad luck in this department is merely coincidence and not something else. I seem to leave a trail of dead businesses behind me. Effective yesterday, the flight school I worked for closed shop for lack of financial sustainability. A flight school is a tough business to operate successfully and my respect is due to the owner for running it as long as he did (nearly 3 years, I believe. Though, I only worked there for less than 2 months since resigning from the airlines).

The first flight school I worked for in Winter Haven was on its way out before I even signed up. I enjoyed 3 months or so of fairly lucrative work before it slowed to a crawl. I quickly realized that the slow pace of things there wasn’t helping me reach my goals, so I joined up with Trans States Airlines and jumped over there just in the nick of time. I found out that the flight school had closed their doors less than a week after I left.

Trans States, again, proved fruitful for a good while and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. What scared me away more than anything was the lack of career growth in an increasingly ill industry coupled with the fact that my days at home were reducing due to my increasing juniority as others were being furloughed. Just like at the Winter Haven flight school, I got while the getting was good at the airline and held on as long as was feasible considering many factors. Even though I have long since been gone, my login information still logs me into the company website and I can see what my life would be like right now if I was still there. I want nothing to do with it! I’d be sitting reserve in IAD right now with minimum days off, commuting to reserve, with my furlough inching closing everyday. Trying to commute 800 miles, with a reserve schedule, and living out of a crashpad in IAD (STL crashpads look like luxury comparatively) = NOT FOR ME ANYMORE!

So, I resigned in good standing to pursue the CPA. This is undoubtedly the smartest possible thing that I can be doing right now, regardless of where my professional life ultimately takes me. To mentally compare side by side the opportunity to be doing this studying for school, excelling as I am, and moving the football down the field towards a known and objective goal, as compared to sitting in a crash pad hundreds of miles from home waiting for my phone to ring and otherwise wasting away in a crash pad as I contemplate life post furlough, the decision is clear. I pat myself on the back for making that decision when I did, because it was NOT an easy one to make, just ask my wife.

It became my objective to find away to stay in the air a reasonable amount as I worked toward the CPA, so I got on with a Lakeland flight school. I knew things were slow, but admittedly, didn’t see this closure coming as quickly as it came. With the hurting economy right now, the slow down of flight training at the part 61 schools, etc, it just wasn’t financially feasible to keep the school running as a going concern. As an accountant, I am aware the of difficulties when the numbers just don’t add up.

So, another one bites the dust. All three companies that I have worked for thus far as a professional pilot are either out of business or struggling desperately to stay afloat. United Airlines just posted their 2008 operating results and posted a $5.35 BILLION dollar loss!!! Do the math and that is $14,500,000 per day flying out the door – literally!. $14.5 MILLION dollars a day in the hole. That is $605,000 per hour, just over $10,000 per minute, or $170 per second!!!! My condolences to all the great guys at United Airlines. What an awesome company that place used to be. RIP.

Adding to the struggle closer to home, Trans States has lost all their American Airlines flying, and as such all their eggs are in the United Airlines basket. If I was relying on another company to keep my company afloat and that company was losing $10,000/minute everyday of the year, I’d be VERY nervous.

Welcome to the new aviation industry for the next many years. Will it bounce back? Yes. But it won’t be any time soon. Aviation for the sake of aviation is a tough business. This doesn’t mean you can’t make it as a pilot, but I believe the safest companies to be at right now are the companies that utilize flying as an incidental to a non-aviation business. IOW, corporate flying, or fractional ownership, etc.

So my thought is, diversify myself. If non-aviation businesses are the primary crutch for the remaining few secure pilot jobs, I might as well finish my education in a non-aviation related field. I believe the CPA is as worthy an endeavor as any.

So, I am back to networking around trying to find some flying. The reduction in income from the closure of the school isn’t going to materially effect me. Its more of a matter of my sanity to find an avenue into the sky. I am still working with a local student in his personal airplane, so for now I am still up there a little bit. But worse case scenario, I don’t fly at all over the next year as I finish this CPA. I doubt that will happen. But if it does, I need to remember that I logged 800+ hours in 2008, more than enough to hold me over until this CPA is done.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 10:26 am and is filed under Airline Life, Career Advancement. 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.