I've been really bad....

I'm trying to resurrect this blog again. It's been a few months. Maybe I should rename it "Confessions of a Bitter Airline Pilot." Basically I've avoided writing because I've been so bitter. Getting furloughed, just as I was really starting to get into the groove of airline life, just as I had hit that point when you fly a new airplane that you "get" it, was tremendously hard on me.

It was really bad for a while...I'm living at home with my parents, and I think that if I hadn't been here I would've had a hard time avoiding drinking myself silly.

I actually did ok there for a while. For the first month or two I was absorbed with supporting my boyfriend as he was in new hire training with Cape Air in Massachusetts. But one day it just hit me. I was flying home from visiting David in Cape Cod, and left the day before he started IOE. The landing in TPA was something I would've loved...beautiful clear night, unrestricted vis, light xwind. And it just hit me as we touched down how much I desperately missed flying the bus, how much I missed the lifestyle. How much I hated having to put my liquids in a plastic bag and not being able to use the crew line. The loss of being able to chat up a flight crew without them thinking I was crazy. The pride I had being a 25 year old woman sitting in the cockpit of a jet with 150 pax behind me. I felt so empowered...and then all of a sudden, here I was, a 25 year old woman with no job prospects and no self-worth.

I don't think I felt better until around the holidays. David's the one who saved me, who got me out of this stupor I was in. I was working on my CFI so that I could flight instruct, and passed my checkride on Dec. 19th. I felt much better, had a bit of my self-esteem back.

Unfortunately, it's now a month later and I'm still unemployed. I'm trying to get my CFII but I'm having a difficult time staying motivated. I planned to have it done by now so I could be working. But I've applied to flight schools in Tampa and Ft. Myers/Naples, and no one's hiring. Most have a surplus of instructors. Same goes at Embry-Riddle. There's rumors they'll have to furlough, too. And what does a furloughed CFI do for work? McDonald's?

Everyone knows that your job plan changes every 5 minutes, but here's mine:
Keep trying to get a flying job, whether it's instructing or survey or banner towing.
I'm applying to Cape Air, but I'm below their minimums. Hopefully I'll still get an interview.
But if that doesn't happen, in May, I'll move up to either Maryland or Massachusetts with David, depending on if he's based in HYA or BWI. If it's HYA I'll try and CFI up there and work at Cape Air Ops or be a ramper, if it's BWI I'm sure I can get a ticket agent job at BWI.

All my hopes and dreams rest on Cape Air now...I'm such a Cape Air fangirl now, I want to work there so bad!!!

MochaHagotdi!!