My Dad and College

Here are my thoughts on blog posts:

I very easily google the big stories on the world wide web about all things relating to flight. Takes almost no effort. We have also been learning so many "facts" about flight in this class, that I would fear becoming redundant. For that reason, I have decided that this will be an opportunity to tell stories. Personal ones. Ones that share my family's experiences (or my own) with flight.

Given that, I have chosen to write this one about my dad.

My dad has worked in the aviation field for most of his career. He attended Embry-Riddle in Florida, which is an aviation focused university. I asked him some questions about his college decisions, and this is what he had to say:

When I asked him why aviation, he said he wanted a mechanic type job that paid well. To him, that meant either planes or ships. When he weighted the options, he realized that ships are more limited location wise, and might have to travel more. Wanting to be more flexible, he decided to go with aviation. At the time, aviation mechanics were paid well, so it seemed like a good decision. "Airplanes have always seemed to outpace other technologies. Maybe not anyore, but they did at least through the 1980s."

College decisions are often a big deal to high schoolers. When I asked him about how he made his, he said that Embry-Riddle had the best reputation of any aviation school, and offered 4 year degrees. To him, that seemed like the best choice to have a future beyond being a mechanic. His favorite things about it were the location and technical classes. He loved living in Florida (he hates snow and everything cold). He also thought the classes were pretty interesting.

Finally, I asked him what his dream job before entering the industry was and how that looked as he graduated. This was his response: "at the time, I wanted to work for Delta in Atlanta. The industry was relatively stable until mid way through college. People got on at an airline and retired from there. Pan Am and Eastern airlines both folded while I was in college,  flooding the market with experienced people. High supply, low demand. Pay rates drastically fell. Deregulation changed the industry." 


(Blog post #1)