When people learn that I used to be a naval aviator, they often ask me if I had considered being an airline pilot after I graduated from the Navy. As long-time readers may remember, I even toyed with the idea when I’d hung up my naval spurs for the last time – flying is in my blood. Went so far as to get an airline transport rating on my pilot’s license, out at 20 and into the commercial gig.
But 9/11 got in the way of that, then I made captain and by the time I’d retired last summer the idea no longer made much financial sense. Even with the increase of airline pilot mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65 a year or two back, I just didn’t think there was enough runway ahead of me to make captain and spend enough time in the left seat to make up for who knows how long as a co-pilot on reserve flopping down in a shared apartment in Atlanta or where ever, waiting for the phone to ring, flying the routes those more senior to you avoided on days they’d rather spend with their families.
Two weeks work a month sounds good until you do it, but it adds up to six months a year, which if it is not quite the same as a going on cruise every year isn’t so very far away either. And truth be told, that whole cruising at 35,000 feet on autopilot with your legs propped up was boring in a fighter. If it wasn’t for the occasional prospect of hurling myself at the ground at 500 knots to drop ordnance or the opportunity to jump into the middle of an eight ship air combat fur-ball, I don’t know how long I would have lasted, and it doesn’t matter how much they’d have paid me for it.
So yeah, you get spoiled. But there was another thing too: I always felt that the Navy – maybe not the corporate Navy, but the Navy all around me – valued my contributions as a person. That it mattered if you were good. That we all competed, in a friendly way, to be the very best we could be.
You have to cross thresholds of psychological stability, intelligence, performance and experience to get picked up by a major airline. But once you’re hired and clear probation you’re a number on a list and you advance by seniority. Guy ahead of you retires, and you move up one notch. Gives you the right to get off reserve, bid on a line, take a couple of days off over the holidays, eventually move to a different domicile or the left seat.
I used to put it to myself this way: If you were the very best airline pilot in the world – barring a landing in the Hudson after a bird strike – no one would know, or frankly care. And depending upon the company, you’re seen less as an asset and more as a cost driver.
I’m not judging those that went that way, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t for me.
This guy’s example is a part of the reason why:
He is now in the co-pilot’s seat in the 50-seat commuter jets he flies, not for any failure in skill. He wears his captain’s stripes, he explains, to make that point. But with air travel down, his employer cut costs by downgrading 130 captains, those with the lowest seniority, to first officers, automatically cutting the wage of each by roughly 50 percent — to $34,000 in Mr. Lawlor’s case.
Lawlor did it the hard way, paid for his own flight time, probably dragged banners up and down the beach or gave flying lessons. Eventually he got picked up by a commuter line and even made captain relatively quickly. But now he’s been sent back to the right seat even as others have been furloughed.
It’s a tough break, but it comes with the business model.
If y’all aren’t familiar with http://pprune.com (Professional Pilot Rumor Network) you might wander over there for some inside scoop.
But watch out for trolls, bloggers, big city press know nothings, and others who feel compelled to add their two cents or try to bait someone into saying something inflammatory and quotable–and hugely devalue the dialogue in the process.
Still, there are those that know what they’re talking about on the site, and they often have interesting insights into the life and times of someone flying the big iron and even those flying night freight. Or, for that matter, passing out pretzels in the back.
Not uncommon when an accident occurs to have someone who saw it happen, or was landing behind the ill-fated aircraft to chime it with straight skinny.
The business model you speak of is more prevalent than you think…..
Take me for example – I am a guy who started out in college and left before completing due to financial concerns. I had to go to work and decided that I would come back to complete the degree…someday…
Started out in retail and worked alot of god-forsaken hours humping goods on to shelves and ringing a register. Busted over to regular business and worked many sweaty hours in a warehouse/on the loading dock. Eventually got to run the warehouse and supervise a crew. Moved into Operations and managed a larger crew.
In the middle of this, join the Naval Reserve to learn more Leadership and serve my country. Found I had missed out on something that I should have taken up earlier in life but had the chance to do the duty and benefit from learning about what a privilege it is to wear the uniform. Really, Really enjoy the service…even with the occasional knuckled headed shipmates that you wanted to shove over the side….14 years service and two tours in Iraq Freedom….including Fallujah.
By this time (13 years since leaving school), I get an oppotunity to switch to HR (yes the evil HR person). Another great opportunity where I wind up working for the last 14 years. Along the way, I go back to school, get the degree and work for some interesting companies along with some good & bad(i.e. exceedingly stupid) managers.
Where am I going with this?? Here – 25+ years of management experience, bachelor’s degree, US Navy Combat Vet and it is likely when I get off unemployment and gain a new position, I’ll be the one taking a MAJOR paycut because the BEAN CONTERS know that there are many others out there who will take the job and they DON’T need to pay me the six-figure income I SHOULD be getting for the job I am going to be offered….or the exceedingly high quality work i will perform for them…at discount wages.
I feel for the Pilot but it is no easier for those of us on the ground either….
The new business model is more like a scene out of BEN HUR –
We see a new commander, Quintus Arrias, take over his fleet and reviews the slaves who power his flagship. He speaks to Ben Hur and takes an interest in him as he has survived on the Galleys for over three years (no small feat based on how they treated slaves back then.)
Quintus Arrias addresses all of the slaves with the quintessential summary of his Leadership vision;
“ Now listen to me, all of you. You are all condemned men. We keep you alive to serve this ship. So ROW WELL & LIVE.”
There you have it. He has set in place the mission statement for the people who accomplish the daily tasks of making his ship successful. And this is the model businesses will use going forward….Do what we say or it is over the side…there are plenty more galley slaves where you came from.
Had one of my fraternity bros & college room-mates who was a Bongo driver out of Barksdale get out to fly the airlines in the early seventies just in time to hit Nixons wage & price feeze and the fact airlines had over-bought Jumbos. They were fuloughing everyone back to Aug 69, and Skip was one of them. A single guy, he was Al Bundy before there was an Al Bundy; selling shoes in Atlanta (said it was ABSOLUTELY AWFUL–totally demoralizing–warned me to starve first) before he got on with Eastern–only to see Eastern go under.
Further trials and tribulations after that. Timing is everything. Guys who got in in early 50s lived like Kings. Even as late as 66 one IP at Del Rio was hired even though most of his time had been in O-1s as a FAC. Now you’d better have 10,000hrs of tanker time–forget that 2600-4000hr fighter time, dual engine, center-line thrust ATR rating thing–it ain’t happening. TIMING.
Heard tonight that they had increased the min. flight hours from 250 to 1500 for first officer on commuter flights as a result of the NY state accident. That’s a lot of time towing banners.
I don’t know what it is about airline pilots or their environment. While in the reserves, I flew with a lot of airline pilots, and they tended to be the biggest whiners – even when their circumstances were absolutely favorable. They tended not to be happy about their work – even if by nature they were happy persons.
Cooker – Ironically, these are times when good HR people are worth their weight in gold. But it tends to be first cut and last hired back at a lot of places. It could be worse – you could be a banker – most of those guys will need to restart from scratch doing something completely new. Your skills will be valuable to most companies – but you gotta focus on the glass half full and what you can do to help.
With the looming debacles of tax increases and higher medical insurance costs, employers are simply not encouraged to hire people back, even if activity is turning up. We are coming closer to the European model I’m afraid – lots more government handouts and permanent double-digit unemployment.
Or, you could come to work for us. We just bought a DC10-30F and will have it in service by January. The three DC8′s are old birds but they fly as good as they did 40 years ago. Each airframe gets about 100 hours a month.
We just finished a DC8 trip that went YIP-DFW-ONT-HNL-PPG-HNL-PPG-HNL-PPG-HNL-YIP. The crew had 6 nights in HNL with four trips to Pago-Pago. Each HNL-PPG-HNL was about 10 hours flight and 14 duty.
The only scheduled trip wehave is YIP-YQX-SNN-GYD-OAIX-KDH-SHJ-SOF-SNN-YQX-YIP each week. Crew rest in SNN-SHJ and SNN again – 18 hrs each time. The guys who fly the line like the scheduled trips becuase they know when they will be home. All the rest of our flying is ad-hoc. Mostly DoD related. We specialized in DG’s and when the charter brokers need a US Flag, 121 Carrier that will do the job right, on-time and on budget, we get the work. It pays well to be good at what you do.
So, Lex, I’ll flip you the name of our DO (USAF Academy grad, C-130 Capt. Master’s in Aeroautical Engineering and all around good guy). You would fit right in if you want to get some interesting flying for a few years with a bunch or winners.
Does Lex get to choose if it’s the winners or the bunch, or is that up to the DO?
“If it wasn’t for the occasional prospect of hurling myself at the ground at 500 knots to drop ordnance or the opportunity to jump into the middle of an eight ship air combat fur-ball, I don’t know how long I would have lasted…” Gah! I’m definitely on the right side of that cockpit. Hand me a wrench please. Good Lord. I thank God every day there are people like you out there, willing and enjoying living on the edge and keeping us safe.
Or instructing, Boss.
The flight academies, like Flight Safety, and what used to Comair Academy churn out the type the airlines like. With the rise in flight time, I wonder if they will be able to retain a new grad as an instructor long enough to get him hired.
I can remember a time when it was almost required that you have Military flight time before the Airlines would even talk to you. They didn’t care if flew a C-130, or and F-100, they wanted military flight time and training. They were buying judgment and airmanship back then. Now they want someone that can execute procedures. While there is something to be said for that, the Hudson River incident probably would not have ended well for some one without the ability to make a sound judgment on the spur of the moment that the military tends to produce. Towing banners with a Super Cub has never struke me as the sort of time we need in the cockpit of a commercial airliner.
I’ve heard that crop dusters make some good money…and you could do it in Texas…
I know a couple of retired, Ex-mil, UAL pilots. They are glad they got out when they did. They both had a great ride, lots of fun, big bucks, and fine pension. Neither of them would get in the game now. Wouldn’t be worth it, according to both of them, and they don’t know each other.
Also a friend who is an ex-commuter(Horizon) guy who is “f-unemployed”, who has no desire to go back to that life.
It has always puzzled me, who always dreamed of flying for a living, that these folks who have ‘been there, done that’ would never go back.
I guess “the grass is always greener” (oner the septic tank).
Cheers!
ChrisP
Okay, substitute “Over” for “oner”. Bourbon poisoning.
Cheers!
ChrisP
You made the right decision.
The airline profession has gone to h*ll in a hand basket. And this guy Lawlor is not an exception. Even the ‘Hero of the Hudson” Capt. Sullenberger – along with thousands of others – has seen his wages halved and his promised pension eliminated in recent years.
What used to be one of the best professions possible is now populated by the dismayed, if not angry. But it’s still a job, albeit not a good one anymore. And lots of pilots are on the street.
We have a friend here flying for the local government airline as a captain (really babysitting the Arab “pilots”) because his pension literally evaporated over night and his long anticipated retirement became a desperate scramble for a job.
I don’t think he was military first, but it just adds validity to the wisdom of Lex’s choice.
@flit: Dated a gal who was 747-400 Captain, 25+ years, doing the KSFO-Sydney & KSFO-Sapporo routes, and saw her lose 30% in the UAL debacle in ’02. Most her buds were so sideways, financially, in a coupla weeks. The lifestyle cutback pissed her off, but, from my vantage point, the retirement, healthcare, and pay losses were freaking enormous!
Another buddy, Steward from same bus line, lost all the aforementioned, as did his wife who was a Flight Attendant.
@Lex: ya done good…fly corporate, if ya have ta do it, or stay the hell away from that career path. I’ve never seen a bigger professional yo-yo.
PS yo-yo…low-hi-low (think dirt, sky, dirt)
If hurling yourself around at 500 knots is something you miss, you could always take up the precision acrobatics of the sexy little taildraggers in the Red Bull Air Race. Seems like a fair shot at a dose of adrenalin, fame, and flying that doesn’t involve autopilot, boredom, or corporate ass kissing.
I’d come watch you when the circuit comes to Dubai.
I’m sure, if he chose to take that path in the future, the ranks of Lex babes would be legion!
I have serious doubts that would get past the Hobbit. Naval Aviation is bad enough without tempting fate, wing tip to wing tip, If not overlapping, in an air race.
Well, she would be getting to sit with the big grin…the “I got him first” look, as she traveled the world, to those exotic venues for such races.
“Exotic” is just the adjective I would have chosen if it weren’t so overused in reference to the Middle East. *geck*
Follow Kirby Chambliss, and you’ll get a real good picture of what that looks like.
Dude, 9+G an no jeans. Sorry, that’s a bit past me just now.
No kidding. The precision flying is great fun to watch but the cameras in the cockpits are a bit of TMI. Not even Lex would be pretty at 9Gs.
Lex and you other aeronauts… You might be interested in an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, written by Sullenberger’s co-author, on Sully’s new book which is about to come out. It’s not a precis, nor a critique of the book. Instead it’s an intriguing reflection on Sullenberger’s character and motivation. Very well done. Can’t remember the title, but it’s in today’s Journal, so all you computer geeks should easily be able to find it.
Since America is not a genuine warrior culture, although we consistently produce great warriors, there is this recurrent difficulty for our warriors of what to do “after.” Swords into ploughshares just doesn’t cut it in today’s technological world. And you highly trained and talented warriors just really miss what you have learned to do better than anyone else. I remember that in one of the letters we received from Chuck Pfarrer while he was writing Killing Che, that he noted the country spends more than one million dollars training one SEAL. And I imagine that we spend close to that, or even more, in training naval and air force pilots. I can sense the love and nostalgia all of you have that Lex expresses so poignantly in his post. In a way, even civilians like me feel it when we find some vivid memories to hark back to, memories of when we were triumphantly at the top of our game, doing those things we had a real talent for doing.
Now that I’m at my present point in life, I see this in the eyes of many of my contemporaries. And I understand it so clearly, so much better than I ever have.
I wish I could talk one-on-one with each of you, and get a vivid sense of the best parts of your lives. To illuminate mine.
Marianne
@MM The crazy, if not utterly insane, difference between SEAL and Aviator, Marianne, is that SEAL & other SpecOp operators can get jobs doing things very similar to what they were doing in uniform.
Aviators don’t really have that option (insofar as I know), unless they’re rotary wing drivers flying for Blackwater (or likewise) in Kuwait and the Af. Red Bull is about as fun as it gets. The movie ‘Air America’ was almost farcical in its screenwriting, but, truthfully, most military aviators I’ve met secretly crave that kind of environment; doing something useful for *fill in the blank*.
Keep that thought about sitting one on one with these folks. There’s a book and mini-series out there somewhere in all of that. Way beyond Winds of War.
Mongo/
Did you ever read the book “Air America” about the *real* Air America? A good read. Having known, drank and flown with some of those guys as a young tyke in SEA when some of them were already 20,000/hr IN-THE-SAME-SERIAL-NUMBER-AIRCRAFT types, I can vouch that the book captures much of the flavor.
I’ll pick up a copy.
Good call, Lex. I briefly looked into a career change to professional pilot 18 years ago when I got my private ticket, but a survey of the available career literature indicated that my eyesight would consign me to a lifetime of night freight runs in Metroliners (if I was lucky), so I stuck with the thrill-a-minute world of accounting. Not really sorry now, when I see how much the flying profession has become devalued.
Lex,
After a hard day of retirement and mopping up after all the rain we had yesterday here in Coastal California, I wandered into town to check the P.O. box and get a cup at Starbucks and relax. Found a copy of the NY Times that someone had tossed and sat down to read it (would never pay for a copy).
Anyway, read the article you reference, and as I started reading your post, thought that I should send you a link, and then found out that you were ahead of me (no surprise there).
As Flatlander mentions above, he’s noticed that commercial pilots can be whiners. That is exactly what was going through my mind as I read the article. No mention of pride in what he was doing, but a fair amount of ego in being “in command” of the aircraft — whatever that entails beyond his apparent desire to be important. Thought that he might be smart to see what might be available in the Navy Reserve or the Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard for a pilot. Perhaps nothing, but until he checks, he never knows. Should he get lucky and find a slot, he might even learn to take pride in what he does — as many of us did/do.
Being Army, I don’t know what goes through a pilot’s mind — except for Vietnam era chopper pilots whose minds seemed to work in more dimensions than I could comprehend and had more situational awareness than I’ll ever have (and who saved my butt enough times that I instinctively respect them) — but this guy needs to learn that the world is not all about him.
You probably made the right choice, but Airmail’s above offer sure sounds enticing to this ground pounder who doesn’t know the first thing about flying as other than a passenger.
Despite the recent article in AOPA regarding upcoming pilot shortages, right now there is none. For every job there are hundreds of resumes which continues to place downward pressure on salaries. It’s strange to think that we have pilots flying multi-million dollar aircraft for 34K a year (and less) given level of responsiblity and the welfare of passengers based on their skill. Will airlines continue to attract the best talent if candidates can’t make a living wage (Colgan Airlines comes to mind)? Sometimes you get what you pay for.
Wilco/
And sometimes that which at first seems the cheapest is in the long-run the most expensive–and visa versa–but you’ll never convince the bean counters of the commercial lines that–until the next airborne disaster, that is….for maybe six weeks.
It sucks, but it beats the desk.
Almost went that route a few years ago. It was right at the peak of pilot hiring. I actually flew down to (then) Comair Aviation Academy and spent a day poking around, flying the simulator and thinking. The math just didn’t work out.
From where I sat at the time (250-hour private pilot), it would have been $70-80,00 in tuition, flight-time and living expenses to hopefully recycle and fly for a year as an instructor making $13,000 and then get hired by Comair into the right seat of a CRJ for $20,000. It would have taken 3-4 years just to get back to my previous salary of $40,000 and then I could work forever and never make more than $90,000 (before their strike and new contract).
So I stayed on as a pastor, entered the chaplaincy and here I am having a blast helping young Marines. Pay is great as an O-3 and it just gets better from here. My airline pilot friends are hurting and are very angry.
But I still look up sometimes and wonder…
After the last hang-up of the zoom bag off to airline interviews it was. 5500 plus with ATP and CFI. First was Cont in Houston. Got the invite thanks to the gouge on Will Fly for Food, altho any normal person without a constant twitch can get picked up. But turned them down for the business route. 9/11 a short 19 months after and I would probably have been a furlough casualty. Now my challenge is to get my team to understand that there are revenue producers and revenue consumers. The admin weenies – consumers. The techs and engineers – producers. We put all on a 20% pay cut and oh the whining. From the consumers. The producers (5 are ex-mil, 2 are pilots) all know that to succeed meant picking up the pace. The whiners come to me and complain about not being able to pay bills. I told my HR gal to start sending me resumes cuz they is a lot out there looking, and now is a good time to cull the herd. One was a just-out ex-USAF C-17 driver with BS EE. Couldn’t live on retired O-4 and commuter pay – which was something ludicrous like 21K for first year. No invites from the big boys. Didn’t have telcomm skills, hadn’t done EE in 20+, but sharp. We talked flying and difference between air force and navy cockpits, and airlines. He only saw himself as airline capt making big bucks and hauling trash-n-pass just like the old times. He never planned for anything else. Dejected he left. Lesson therein.
There’s apparently a growing shortage of air traffic controllers…I wonder if it would make sense for the FAA to recruit unemployed or underemployed pilots for that role. Surely the normal training could be reduced at least somewhat for people with extensive experience flying in an IFR environment.
The current maximum age for beginning controller training is 30; obviously this would have to be changed.
One option is corporate. My son flies for a major defense contractor. Flies maybe 20 hr/mo. Can stay home aside from that and be with his kids. Destinations constantly vary, not like an airline bus route. The execs treat him great, stays with them in only the best hotels. Excellent money.
A sub-option of corporate is flying for one of the fractional ownership programs like NetJets.
Andy Grove wrote an excellent business strategy book a few years ago called “Only the Paranoid Survive”. The last chapter, which is entitled “Career Inflection Points,” is particularly relevant to our discussion.
“Career inflection points caused by a change in the environment do not distinguish between the qualities of the people that they dislodge by their force…”
“You have to steel yourself to recognize that it will take a while before you rebuild your career support system, experience and confidence to the same level that you had before. Part of the support system you will miss is the identity – a brand – your employer gave you. Whether you join another company or go out on your own, you have to let go of one identity and build a new one.”
When I left VT-28 as an instructor I took one interview with Northwest. Could not believe what assholes the hiring guys were and walked out in mid interview. Went to Grad school and everything worked out great. Most my friends from VT-28 and 31 went to the airlines around 1985. Things worked out great for them in terms of seniority but their pay and pensions have been destroyed. Everyone of the is completely miserable. These are smart, capable guys that could have been successful doing anything. Now they are in their mid fifties and screwed.
I never was interested in flying a bus for the airlines. Corporate may be OK and, at least, you get to fly different places rather than a repetitive run.
For about 5 years the Airlines were going great guns and scared they weren’t going to be able to put hardware in the air because of a shortage of pilots. That’s pretty much gone now. I doubt we will see a real pilot shortage for awhile. As retirement for the Boomer accelerates, the need for flights will diminish and so will the need for air crew. Most of those headed to Flight Safety Academy, or the Former Comair Academy, are making a sucker’s bet.
As a regular guy back in coach, please be assured that we little people appreciate a good pilot and co-pilot. Maybe we don’t say thank you enough but our families do appreciate you getting us out and home in one piece.
However….Welcome to the free market. Government jobs are looking like the labor royalty these days but the real world is expand and shrink, good times and bad.
Combat skills are needed (and thank you) but our society runs off the success of our economy. The airline companies have to adjust to survive – and that includes the flight crews.
There’s nothing new about flight crews adjusting to survive. It’s been that way since deregulation for everybody but the majors…now they too, are living it.
I put in over 23 years of military flying then went to the airline life for another 18 years and it was nothing but adjust,…start at the bottom regardless of your experience, fly in Africa and other parts of the third world in the middle of revolutions and other little wars for very little pay, furlough, out of work for a year then start all over again at the bottom with another airline struggling to get a foothold in an ever-fickle de-regulated (that’s a joke) market, paycuts to avoid bankruptcy, bankruptcy and more paycuts,get to sleep in your own bed maybe 3 nights a week, commute 2 or 3,000 miles to work cuz you can’t afford or risk moving and disrupting your family when you can’t be sure of future employment, work 10-14 hr days for average 5+15 flight hour pay, bet-your-paycheck simulator rides every 6 months, sweat passing your physical every 6 months, enjoy dealing with drunk and unruly passengers, sitting on the ramp in a hot aluminum tube for hours with very unhappy passengers due to management incompetency, either had a retirement and lost it or never had one in the first place, hit age 60 (now 65 with strings)and all of a sudden, according to the FAA, your brain turns to mush and you are no longer qualifed to earn a living in your profession and are forced to retire with no retirement but too young to collect SS.
Compared to the military, airline flying is about the most boring flying there is, and the least satisfying yet probably the most unsatisfiably stressful, short of being shot at, or shot off a deck at night.
Nothing at all to whine about, but it’s not exactly the easy life everyone seems to think it is with all that time off and everything, where you get to see your family maybe 3 days a week. 12-15 days off isn’t quite the same when they come one, two, or maybe three days at a time and those are the only days you are home. I know it’s not as bad as a 6 mo. deployment, but you’re not home every night either.
I can’t recommend the airline life, Lex. You would be miserable.
Oldskydog
Wow, thanks for the reassurance. I’ve got one friend out of many that is satisfied. former helo driver and T-39s flying Boeing wide bodies US-UK/Fr and back. That is it. Wife a flight attendant – ‘scuse me, that would be lead in-flight customer service representative. They’re knocking down 250 plus/yr. sure there are others but the anecdotal evidence supports your experience.
You know Lex, your statements about the airline industry are quite accurate; but it has to be viewed in context. My Pops just retired from Continental after a lengthy bit on the road as a 757 Captain…………..he was fed up and tired, but aren’t we all. I work on oil rigs, and the work is hard, tiring, and long…………..23 hour days when problems arise……..not too mention I spend sometimes in excess of 5 to 6 weeks cooped up on the rig, away from the family. Tis a rewarding career and pays aight…………..but there is a lot to complain about. I do it because not everyone can. I would kill to have the opportunity to fly for a living………….been a dream of mine since my TACP days. But, then again, there are many who would kill to have my job, with all it’s idiosyncrasies as well……………all relative.
Also,
PHI and Era Helicopters does a lot of hiring in the Gulf of Mexico…………you know my rigs ain’t goin’ NEwhere.
14 and 14 off……..not too shabby, even for a pointy nose guy.
“When people learn that I used to be a naval aviator, they often ask me if I had considered being an airline pilot after I graduated from the Navy. ”
Lex,
the easier answer would have been: “I like to fly upside down. Which is not conducive to beverage service. Or you ever buying a ticket again.” Thanks for asking. Nobody likes being limited to 29 degrees of bank. As my retired AF F-16 jock cousin said to his waife; “Sorry dear, I have no desire to be a bus driver”. Im sure he did not intend to diminish the job. But I’d imagine that once you’ve tasted the goods of an F designate there is nothing that compares.
If I had ended up in your job I probably would not have left the cockpit until the Navy put a bullet in the back of my head.