Unemployment Sucks

It's unfortunate that self worth goes hand in hand with employment, and that we place such emphasis on what we do to define who we are.  Perhaps pilots more so than most.  Unemployed for an extended period, one's compass begins to drift, and the precarious threads binding one's self to one's career stretch and stretch.   A palatable sense of irreconcilable vagueness drifts over us.  There's a lot going on in our heads, and too much time to dwell on it.  We become addicted to the challenges that our chosen profession provides.  There is a sense of self-worth from contributing our specific set of skills and experience to the varied world of aviation.  We are a confident lot, but when those challenges are removed, doubts arise, and it's frustrating to say the least.  Of course, we also lament the loss of a salary to provide for our needs, and this is no small matter, depending on your situation.  Perhaps it's the loss of control that irks?  However absurd the concept of control, we do exercise some semblance of dominion over our fate, and it's discouraging when that tenuous grasp starts to slip through your fingers.  It's not easy.  For myself, I was unemployed for only six months, but it was the longest six months that I can recall.  Even now, the future is uncertain, but I'll take it for now, and I find myself far more relaxed.  People are still losing their jobs.  I still have friends emailing and calling claiming they just got the notice, one more only yesterday.  I have friends who have been unemployed for far, far longer than I have, looking for any lead or straw of hope.  The market recovery has not been quick.  It's dragging along painfully slow.   I keep my ear to the ground.  I pass along any lead that I find.  I look forward to the day when we can all get back to what we do best.

I'm back home, all recurrent and checked out on the AW139 once again, waiting on paperwork for a post overseas, and on salary.  VISAs and FLVs take time depending on where you are headed, but at least I am headed somewhere.  I made some bone head mistakes in the sim, but it cleared the cobwebs and it all came back quicker than I had hoped.  I'm headed down to the New Jersey AW139 simulator to help out next week, and I wish they had more for me to do while I wait for the paperwork to clear.  But I'm back....

Please check out my New photography collection......

(yet another product of all my free time)