Blog-TOWER OF BABEL

I was busier than a one armed paper hangar for Jan - Jun, averaging 16 days per month (do not ask me where that money went). Now, there is only sagebrush in my bank account, fumes and dust from days gone by. I cannot even get arrested and if I did, I would have scrappy nails and roots, due to the choice of grocery over beauty and its monthly price. I now call people I have never met in flight departments and tell them my days free. I throw a few days in for myself so they do not think that I am a total loser. It does not help that Obama, who I VOTED FOR, rambles on and on about corporate jet tax. I can see corporate jets lining up in a sidewalk sale, a 2 for 1, hanging upside down on a metal rack, because they simply..... went out of season.

Where are we going to end up? A temp job assignment and maybe the a/c is going to sold, already is for sale, there is a lien on it, or the company has not paid its bills, or the pilots are controlling maniacs, or the last flight attendant went insane. I cannot blame him or her in this arena. Flying used to be so NORMAL, no backstabbing tolerated, if so, you were fired. Now, they get promoted for the stabbing. How do you know where a job called HOME could be? I thought flying would always be there for me, now I do not know if I can be there for it. Can I ever understand how this muck and mire happened?

How did it get to this final dead end? Has our integrity gone missing?Can I find mine on a milk carton? Half these flight departments, have someone missing the sensitivity chip, the one who was cagey enough to survive all the layoffs. You, have to kiss their -----, but at what price can you stand yourself?
 

I have a Migraine. I have not had one since i was 9 years old. I deposited my paycheck and vacation pay, total over 10,000.00. I wrote checks, i planned a vacation. i paid my credit cards off in advance. it as my final check from company XYZ. It is my layoff tribute check. Before unemployment kicks in. My mortgage, my car insurance, my hope of respite, my swan song check. bounced. I have no recourse or back up, all will  bounce. I do not borrow, and no one has any money anyway. You do not know where i work, but it is a sign of the times, go do something else. Get trained, flying is dried up! Camelot is over. My son asked me if we were broke, I SAID NO. NOT YET.

I CAN REPORT THEM TO THE LABOR DEPT AFTER 7 DAYS. Done. the pain and agony that they have caused me is insurmountable. But. i should have gotten out when the going was good. last year. The expenses are a joke. One pilot is owed 70.000.00. That is 1/4 of a house. They are not paying him. My question is this? can you afford to work for a company that you have to bankroll?

 I cannot get on an airplane to save my life. Are they leaving without a flight attendant or are freelancers just taking every trip that comes along? I can see a lot of a/c in my hangar. It is like the twilight zone has taken over, or it looks like an abandoned movie set. There is no activity, no laughter, not towing in or out of the hangar.
 
It may be time to leave this career, to finally make a commitment to educate ones self into another NEEDED field like dental or nursing. How do you keep your head out of the lions mouth? My son asked me if we are going to be homeless soon. He loves CNN, and have the pulse of the american economy running thru his head. I said "no, we have a lot of friends and family that would not allow that" but I wonder, could this be worse than 1982?

Have you all looked in the want ads lately? What used to be 2 pages in the Sunday paper, there is now a half a column. Flight departments are ridding themselves of aircraft, flight attendants who retire, are not being replaced. The ones who remain work harder and more days. They are happy to have a job.

Aviation has served me well, but at present, it is heartbreaking. We all did love the flush times. So what am I going to do being laid off? I am going to leave it alone for a while. It will come back, I think around may 2009. I have a severance and i am going to learn how to collect unemployment.

I am going back to school and maybe take 1 or 2 trips that I have already committed to. I cannot depend on something that is not there. I have called around and it is stagnant. People NEED nurses, doctors and medical personnel. Flights are leaving with no flight attendants now, the owners do not want to pay the added expenses. Do not wait for the phone to ring, (it may during the upcoming Super Bowl), you have to find something else for a while. any thoughts?

Ah, the holidays............ I had to drop an aircraft in Antigua, Guatemala. We had to commercial back. Our flight was to leave at 3 PM. It was delayed due to deicing. 2 hours. we board. ATC delays. 3 hours - flight attendants do not care. They gave me a customs form to fill out, they would not give out a pen. I asked what I should do, they said "that is not my problem" the aircraft was 30 percent full. There was paper all over the floor, they no longer service the lavatory, once in the AM and that is it - nice.

They gave us a steaming strange sandwich. unidentifiable, I was going to get CSI on it. They woke me up to prove i had my seatbelt on. They ran out of headsets. the coffee was really old. another 2 hour delay into Newark, NJ - no explanation. But I could see that the flaps were not coming down. nice. Then no gate , then we had to get towed in.

When I fly commercial, I should charge a fright fee when freelanced. I fell I am in a communist country and have no rights as a citizen. So what would have taken us 4.5 hours, took 9 hours. Will the owners who are selling, losing their jets be up to this task?

On a side note: Thanks for all your support this year and I wish each and every one of you a Happy Holidays.

The market used to mean good things. profit, gain, a place to meet, to get the latest news, fresh vegetables, fruit, a job, who was the best craftmans.... it all dated back to the 14 century. Now when the market is mentioned, i gasp. does anyone, especailly in aviation, have a plan b when their bread and butter has turned to toast? I do not.

I never had any really rich uncles, my mom died penniless, my brother and sister are teachers, i have no inventions on  the horizon, i do have a morgage, but i have a car payment, insurance, college fund to fill and about 5000.00 in general credit card debt. I have been so broke, i slept in my car in college and have eaten ketchup as a food group.I was 19 and had no fear!

At least the car i lived in for 2 weeks, had a heater and I was too proud to tell anyone I was broke. I lived on cheese puffs, coffee and thank god i did not turn orange from all the food coloring ingesting that nutritious snack, I am healthy and so is my son.

The hair color and manicures have gone, the coupons get clipped, and i try to walk to town now instead of jumping in my truck to go 1/2 mile. I do not buy brand, the yoga class never got signed up for, and i put flyers around the neighborhood for errand running. There is alot of pasta in my kitchen, and I buy in bulk. I pray that tomorrow i will not see another atrocity in the financials. Can I sell a kidney? Can i do without my mad money? will my son get his college fund? Can I ever retire?

No one can answer this.
I can still muster up a starbucks once in a while, and i now need my friends and family closer than ever, which is not a bad thing.

Are we in the wrong business? I saw my 401K lose mucho dinero last week, plus the bailout, plus there is no freelance flying, there is no one on the streets or in the stores, restaurants and ever the parking lots at the dollar store are showing signs of slowdown. No one is buying and no one is flying.

Flying can be rewarding and it can be heartbreak hotel. How do we handle it? Prozac? Vodka? Yoga?...Where did our future go? I am afraid to breathe, I look at my son sleeping in his bunk bed and wonder what type of life will he and his kids and his kid’s kids have?

He knows we screwed up, he knows Bush is week. and he knows the Pros and Cons of Obama and McCain, he is 12. He told me the other day that “We cannot make another mistake with the Presidency” but with the economic downturn, flying tanks, flight attendants have had enough. They are now leaving the field and doing something else that will not be touched too much by economics like Medical, ElderCare, and Dental. Because we always need these services. Any thoughts?