On another note...

On another note, I wanted to shout out a congrats to my cousin Anthony, who is most of the way through his IOE as a brand new FO with Silver Wings (used to be Gulfstream.) He busted his ass to get there, like so many of us have. Dealt with all kinds of crap, debt, you name it, but he persevered, and now he is flying for a living.

All the pilots already know this (so do their spouses, too,) but it takes a little bit of almost masochism to want to get involved in our job sometimes. Starting out, the pay is rancid... really not good. I think I have told this before-- flew through the night, snowstorm, heavy winds, no visibility, rain, hail, etc, from Chicago O'Hare to Kalamazoo, Michigan. 50 passengers, none of whom even glanced in the flight deck. We pulled up our arrival time, and it was an hour, exactly. I said to my Captain "I just made $19.90, pre-tax."

Thankfully he has a supportive wife, because it takes an even stronger partner to put up with what a pilot goes through just to do this goofy job.

But a better job is damn hard to find.

I know it is 'just' a Beech 1900, but welcome to the big leagues, Tony.

Congrats,

Scott