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Your Work History—In Aviation!

A forum about lifestyle: toys, gadgets, fine food, drinks and smokes.
 

Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 01 Apr 16, 21:55Post
A lot of us have aviation experience! Without needing to give away info that is too personal, I thought that explaining our history with aviation (as work) would be cool.

Here's mine:

-Went to flight school briefly while I was working 911; realized that I didn't want to be away from home too much. I loved aviation, but being a pilot wasn't as awesome to me as my vision of having a family that I came home to every night.

-For a while I did other stuff—trains, the oilfield, and other junk.

-After a bit, I signed up to do ATC. I went through the Guard, got top grad (x2) & honor grad, then trained at CYS, which is actually wash-out central.

-Since I became fully rated, I've worked at CYS and AGR! I have two CTOs, but am looking at other job opportunities.

And finally, I now have a job opportunity in a place that I like to hike, still working ATC!
vikkyvik 02 Apr 16, 04:13Post
I don't work in Aviation, but do work in Aerospace...

Did my undergrad degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

My first job out of school had nothing to do with aerospace (medical devices).

Second job had something to do with aerospace - was a Manufacturing Engineer for a company that made pyrotechnic devices (separation bolts, initiators, detonators, etc.) that, among other uses, went into missiles, rockets, ejection seats, etc.

Current job is working for a large aerospace firm which is a supplier to Boeing, Airbus, etc. I'm a Liaison Engineer, working on parts for the 737MAX. Sit in a room with a bunch of Boeing people (they have a large presence at our facility).

My grandfather and two of my uncles were/are aerospace engineers by training, and my dad was a space scientist until he retired, so aerospace is in my blood.
PA110 (Founding Member) 02 Apr 16, 05:35Post
Got hired part time with AF back in 1980 at JFK (passenger services) and then went full time with SN in reservations. Jumped ship to the travel company under contract at the United Nations, then moved out to SFO, and worked for an adventure tour operator, managing airline and GDS contracts for 25+ years. Now in charge of digital marketing for a luxury tour operator and part time supervision of air bookings.
Look, it's been swell, but the swelling's gone down.
bhmbaglock 02 Apr 16, 11:18Post
Degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

Worked with Boeing primarily doing Structural Dynamics work (that's predicting natural frequencies and vibration levels) mostly on the V-22 and a bit on the SF version of the CH-47.

Went to grad school and did some research on some new ideas for missile bodies for the Army Missile Command.

Got into skydiving, became an instructor, rigger, etc. Eventually ended up working at SSE Enterprises which was an early innovator in parachuting both for civilian and military applications. Steve Snyder had dozens if not hundreds of patents, brilliant guy but the guy running day to day at this point was really a pain. Worked on autonomously guided parachutes there - powered and unpowered.

Got out of the aerospace thing and decided to work for the family business in computers. Unfortunately, engineering in AE involves either sticking with a program all your life and mostly doing boring support type stuff or changing jobs and usually locations every 2-4 years.

I do still get to work with some cool clients in space/Aviation like Planetary Resources, Amadeus, etc.
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 02 Apr 16, 13:57Post
None. {vsad}
Make Orwell fiction again.
mhodgson (ATC & Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 02 Apr 16, 14:36Post
Trained as a pilot, gained full frozen ATPL status and had interviews/assessments for a few jobs but was unsuccessful; and was also unfortunate enough to graduate just as the worldwide recession hit in 2008.

Briefly worked in the control tower at MAN as an Air Traffic Assistant in 2011, which was an amazing job but it was only ever a short term contract whilst they brought in electronic flight strips - and sadly it lasted about 2 months.

Since then the closest I've come to working in aviation is driving buses and trams to Manchester Airport :))
There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 02 Apr 16, 15:51Post
Ops-desk monkey at a flying school in Scotland for my first four years after school; BEST JOB EVAR and it's all been downhill since then.

A brief spell in flying school records was like watching paint dry, and thankfully I was soon back at the ops desk taking bookings, handing out planes, pranking customers, and drinking 40 cups of coffee a day (I counted one day, and cut it down to 30). Some of my happiest memories are of putting the planes away after a long summer evening's flying, chopping up the weather (it came out of a telex machine on a big roll) in ATC, and navigation discussions with my instructor degenerating into drawing turds on the whiteboard while it snowed horizontally outside.

The pay was abysmal, and I gave them half of it back in exchange for some phenomenally cheap aviation. Basically, bring 'er back full, which translated to £15 an hour for a Cessna 150 Aerobat or £20 for a Warrior. Still kicking myself for not doing a twin rating while I could get my hands on some gorgeous Cessna 310Rs for £70/hr, but I did more than enough Mull runs in the Warriors and far more than enough mumble with the 150s in the wilds of the Scottish highlands to make up for it. (I'm so glad GoPros and YouTube weren't a thing yet, because jail already was.)

Of course, it had to end. I failed the Class 1 medical, a blessing in disguise because it saved me from taking out a massive loan for a CPL and handing the whole lot to my employer shortly before they went under.

By that time I was already trained as firefighter and refueller, and I spent the summer of '96 doing exactly the same job and then some for a new outfit that started up with the same planes and some of the same instructors.

One day I overheard my boss talking about one of my colleagues: "So if he likes aeroplanes, why are we paying him?" Next day I phoned the local college and got the hell out.

Not before hitting the pinnacle of my career to date, though... but that's a whole other post.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 Apr 16, 20:51Post
DANG!!! There's a stinking load of knowledge on here.

So Shanwick...what's the pinnacle of this career thing? Tell us more. :))

Shy, haven't you done CAP at least?
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 04 Apr 16, 21:03Post
There was this fire hose, see, and there was this catalogue model...

And there was awesomeness. Work has never been so much fun, before or since.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 Apr 16, 21:17Post
Lucas wrote:Without needing to give away info that is too personal


I would genuinely have to kill you if I divulged much of what I got up to for over eight years, so it's best that I don't ;)

The other five years of my time in aviation/aerospace (by which time I had picked up many skills as a by-product of my previous assignments) I was in procurement specialising in the certification and schedule management of rare materials required for a major civil aircraft family that now numbers over 7k frames. There are still major contracts in place that I had a hand in that are integral to Europe's flagship manufacturing program.

After leaving, when the demands of caring for a disabled child and leading a large procurement team became an impossible balance, I had some very non-aviation jobs (and a brief stint at the lower end of ST best sellers list) before returning as a contractor facilitating the supply of materials to a remote assembly site, but the love for the industry was long gone and I found myself distracted by the greed and politics of an industry poorly served by those whose egos have dulled the progress of what was once the world's most dynamic industry. I will never again work in the aviation/aerospace industry, that I can say with absolute confidence.
A million great ideas...
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 04 Apr 16, 21:39Post
Lucas wrote:Shy, haven't you done CAP at least?

Oh yeah, I've got that. {blush}
Make Orwell fiction again.
GQfluffy (Database Editor & Founding Member) 05 Apr 16, 13:18Post
Little po-dunk airline that lived off of bad decisions and EAS for quite a while until deLeeuw thought flying for DL out of BOS was a great idea...and presided over the folding of the airline.

Anyway...

I worked for GQ, Big Sky Airlines (Big Scare- Tubes of Terror in the skies)...the good ol' Metro Fairchilds...Flying Texas culverts...I loved that beast of an aircraft...the Beech 1900Ds that replaced them were probably a more capable machine (they were)...but they weren't as fun to fly in or work around...

I did everything but fuel and fly (Ramp rat, front desk, Secret Gate Agent, Complaint Department, Bar Bouncer, Ops Desk, De-ice...miserable job if you aren't in a closed in box attached to a truck)...I miss those days every once in a blue moon...but that feeling goes away quickly.
Teller of no, fixer of everything, friend of the unimportant and all around good guy; the CAD Monkey
miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 05 Apr 16, 13:25Post
Lav juice cart driver. Tin pecker. Driver.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 08 Apr 16, 01:22Post
Sooo.....

Which one of us has the coolest job?

I was wondering...but then I went and remember all of Miami's trip reports...


and then I remembered our very own:

PA110 wrote:Got hired part time with AF back in 1980 at JFK (passenger services) and then went full time with SN in reservations. Jumped ship to the travel company under contract at the United Nations, then moved out to SFO, and worked for an adventure tour operator, managing airline and GDS contracts for 25+ years. Now in charge of digital marketing for a luxury tour operator and part time supervision of air bookings.


And suddenly I was all irritable. {silly}

Also, I wish I were smart like BHM and Vik.
vikkyvik 08 Apr 16, 04:27Post
Lucas wrote:Also, I wish I were smart like BHM and Vik.


I wish you were too.
Fumanchewd 10 Apr 16, 03:06Post
I started cleaning the hangar and floors of the Motorola private aircraft hangar when I was just 14....After being born with the bug and watching airplanes constantly as well as being an Air Explorer.

Worked in a few FBO's as a ramp rat in California and Arizona. Somewhere in there I managed to get my FAA Commercial/Instrument- Multi. Towards the end I was a shift manager who would tow close to billion USD in private jets in one shift, organize the ramp set up for a busy airshow, and order the fuel loads for the next day. (I shall not mention the honey pots and lav stories as it makes the job less cool ;) )

Worked as a scheduler/sales/marketer for an aircraft management and charter company with a good sized small and large private jet fleet in the US and Asia. Its probably better that I left when I did because Landmark bought them out, laid off half of the staff, and then after being sold again, fired the other half of the staff.

Before that went south though, I was recruited by another management and charter company owned by the Mormon mafia which changed personnel every year and went through management every six months (the owner tried to run the company by himself). I was let go after the manager who hired me ran away after causing much melodrama and fires. Not to mention the chief pilot/DO was lying and distorting information to the owner for his own gain.

After a long period of no gainful employment during the recession I got a job as an ambulette dispatcher which is irrelevant to aviation but which helped my transition to my current job.

I now work for a company that specializes in remote medicine as well as many many other aspects of the aviation and maritime industries. Spent a year in one of our Asian departments before they broke my contract and they closed the whole shabang there on the brilliant whim of a new manager who was to be fired 2 years later. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love the comic Dilbert?). I am very unhappy with the current company and my perception of my possibilities there, but my DUI history from my alcoholic adventures seems to keep me from going anywhere else for the time being
(have been sober for little bit tho).

I generally have a negative view of the aviation industry (similar to JL) as full of egotistical pilots and managers more concerned with making themselves look good than creating anything meaningful. My father was laid off 5-6 times that I can remember as an A/P mechanic and I have seen countless lay offs and political terminations in the industry. When my father was with Motorola the Chief Pilot/DO tried to get him fired by lying about the actions of my father so that he could replace him with a friend. My father documented everything and eventually won an arbitration which forced the Chief Pilot into some negative circumstances, but somehow he was still able to get my father fired later.

I have my own faults and issues in my aviation work history, but I've always been a hard worker who tries to treat people with honesty. My unsolicited opinion, pilots are either the coolest people you've ever meet or the most arrogant and egotistical pricks that you'll ever step on after it rains. In short, I love airplanes but aviation is a bitch.

I wish I had become an electrician. {bugeye} :))
"Give us a kiss, big tits."
FlyingAce (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 10 Apr 16, 04:57Post
Let's see... airline reservations agent (outsourced, but still...). Moved up to supervisor, then had to leave due to personal reasons (i.e. family despised my crazy schedules {bored} ). This job was what sparked my love for aviation, by the way.

A couple of unrelated jobs... then landed a gig as travel agent. The job itself was fun, but the workplace sucked. So I went back to airline res at the same place it all started. That job rocked. {cheerful} It was all fun and games - then the airline was bought out by a larger airline (merger my arse), and they decided to keep the larger airline's vendor. So my employer moved me to another account, with an online travel agency. Which was not bad, but they pretty much cut my paycheck in half -- and managed to get away with it legally, the bastards...

I was fresh out of training, when I left for a brick-and-mortar corporate travel agency, hoping to improve my financial situation. And I did - just barely. It's a challenging job, and I definitely learned a lot. But I was certainly not being compensated accordingly, as you may recall from my many postings in the 'state of the job' thread.

So after a couple of years, I did what every former call center employee swears they will never ever do -- I went back to the call center business. (Hey, it's a different call center, at least...) The client is an online travel agency, and we handle corporate accounts. As an aside, it's the same one I worked for at the previous call center, only those were leisure bookings.

I landed a promotion after six months, and now I do customer support -- basically, when a customer has an issue, I have to put my detective hat on, find out what/where/when/why/how things went wrong, and solve the issue. Quite fun, actually, even if sometimes I feel like slapping people upside the head. :)) I can say this is the best workplace I've had so far. The salary is great, the benefits are better than average, I'm doing what I like for a living, and with a good work schedule to top it off...

But you know how merger-crazy the travel industry is... and it turns out this online travel agency was bought out by a bigger agency... and they are consolidating vendors... I think you know where this is going now. {sigh} We were told just this week that the client is not renewing the contract with the call center. We still have several months left, and then it appears we will all be transferred to a new account, so it's not like I'll be out of a job. But still, it feels like history repeating itself. {vsad}

So come August, who knows? Word on the street is that the new account is related to air cargo -- something new to try, I guess. For the time being, I intend to stay put until I get my college degree, which should happen in a year or so. Then we'll find out what will be the next chapter of this adventure :))
Money can't buy happiness; but it can get you flying, which is pretty much the same.
vikkyvik 10 Apr 16, 07:57Post
Fumanchewd wrote:have been sober for little bit tho


Congrats. Keep it up, life's much easier and more worthwhile.
IFEMaster (Project Dark Overlord & Founding Member) 12 Apr 16, 01:06Post
Was a junior developer for a small telemetry software contractor in Scotland, right after graduation. A group of us started a side project playing with ideas for IFE. That developed in to a small business which I then went full time with in early 2000. Most of our business was stateside, so I became sole proprietor and moved the whole operation to CA. Spent the next 6 years building the business, designing and installing custom IFE systems for various individual and corporate jet owning customers.

Sold the business and licensing rights to our patents to one of the major commercial IFE big boys at the beginning of 2007, and then spent 12 months working for them as a "consultant" (I spent a lot of time golfing during that year), waiting for my non-compete contract to expire. That 12 months was enough to deter me from the commercial IFE world for good for various reasons, and so I turned to another form of entertainment - video game development. And I've been doing that ever since.
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
graphic 24 Apr 16, 23:26Post
Was an instructor at "harvard of aviation" for almost 5 years, got to the point where I was a check airman with the school.

Now fly medevac.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 25 Apr 16, 03:00Post
graphic wrote:Was an instructor at "harvard of aviation" for almost 5 years, got to the point where I was a check airman with the school.

Now fly medevac.


I can vouch for him. He checks out. Very polite pilot.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 25 Apr 16, 03:01Post
FlyingAce wrote:Let's see... airline reservations agent (outsourced, but still...). Moved up to supervisor, then had to leave due to personal reasons (i.e. family despised my crazy schedules {bored} ). This job was what sparked my love for aviation, by the way.

A couple of unrelated jobs... then landed a gig as travel agent. The job itself was fun, but the workplace sucked. So I went back to airline res at the same place it all started. That job rocked. {cheerful} It was all fun and games - then the airline was bought out by a larger airline (merger my arse), and they decided to keep the larger airline's vendor. So my employer moved me to another account, with an online travel agency. Which was not bad, but they pretty much cut my paycheck in half -- and managed to get away with it legally, the bastards...

I was fresh out of training, when I left for a brick-and-mortar corporate travel agency, hoping to improve my financial situation. And I did - just barely. It's a challenging job, and I definitely learned a lot. But I was certainly not being compensated accordingly, as you may recall from my many postings in the 'state of the job' thread.

So after a couple of years, I did what every former call center employee swears they will never ever do -- I went back to the call center business. (Hey, it's a different call center, at least...) The client is an online travel agency, and we handle corporate accounts. As an aside, it's the same one I worked for at the previous call center, only those were leisure bookings.

I landed a promotion after six months, and now I do customer support -- basically, when a customer has an issue, I have to put my detective hat on, find out what/where/when/why/how things went wrong, and solve the issue. Quite fun, actually, even if sometimes I feel like slapping people upside the head. :)) I can say this is the best workplace I've had so far. The salary is great, the benefits are better than average, I'm doing what I like for a living, and with a good work schedule to top it off...

But you know how merger-crazy the travel industry is... and it turns out this online travel agency was bought out by a bigger agency... and they are consolidating vendors... I think you know where this is going now. {sigh} We were told just this week that the client is not renewing the contract with the call center. We still have several months left, and then it appears we will all be transferred to a new account, so it's not like I'll be out of a job. But still, it feels like history repeating itself. {vsad}

So come August, who knows? Word on the street is that the new account is related to air cargo -- something new to try, I guess. For the time being, I intend to stay put until I get my college degree, which should happen in a year or so. Then we'll find out what will be the next chapter of this adventure :))



I would like to import you and export an American in your place.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 25 Apr 16, 05:10Post
Lucas wrote:I would like to import you and export an American in your place.

Guatemala won't take him just because you say he's polite {duck}
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
graphic 25 Apr 16, 05:20Post
I'm not sure if I like where this is headed. Uh... Request deviations left of course for weather?
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 25 Apr 16, 05:25Post
Unable ref 14K-foot obstacle/wall. Flow program for FCAXXX in effect, expect higher next sector, expect 8-year delay, time 2328 and 1/2.

:))
 

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