Crap!
Unfortunately, due to the
terrorist attacks of September 11 and in part the weak economy, I have been
furloughed by Continental Express. I’ve
actually known for a couple of weeks but have not gotten around to posting an
update until now. We have been very
busy rearranging our lives to account for this little wrinkle. Our plans now are to bag Cleveland and move
to Las Vegas instead. Might as well
wait this thing out in the fun and the sun.
I can’t express how
disappointed I am. After working this
hard and long for something it is very difficult to have it taken away from you
by a sudden tragic event. All I can do
now is wait for a call to come back.
The bigger problem is that our union convinced (read: bullied) the
airline to let the Continental Airlines pilots take our jobs from us rather
than being furloughed themselves, so not only do I have to wait for all the
CoEx pilots who are senior to me to be called back, I also have to wait for the
Continental guys. I have no problem
with the Continental pilots who used to work for Express being able to get
their old jobs back, but they are also letting guys who have never worked for
Express fill our positions, which I don’t understand. I anticipate this will last a year if not more. Much of that will depend on the economy
picking up and people putting away their fears of flying. At least they can’t hire any new pilots
without first giving me back my job.
So we are looking forward
and I will use this time to build my software consulting business as much as
possible. I view that as a challenge
that should hopefully occupy my time and result in some income to keep our
heads above water. I will probably not
find another flying job in the meantime so I instead I will try to become
active in Nevada Civil Air Patrol and get a couple of flight students to keep
up my skills. I’m looking forward to
flying in a new and beautiful area.