The Furlough

Well, that was a fun 2 weeks at my first jet job. I got signed off IOE in 2 weeks, and then the following week before rotation I get a call from my buddy saying "hey man — I think we are getting laid off tomorrow." I just woke up from a nap so I was confused on what he was talking about. He told me to check my email for a pilot call via Teams meeting in the morning. My first thought was nah, these pilot calls are a normal thing. He told me to look at the list of names, and he was right — almost all of the pilots were either low seniority or new hires like us.

The next morning from 10:00 to 10:04 we were briefly told "you have all been eliminated." While this wouldn't have been my choice of words, I can respect the straightforwardness. At 10:04 on a Tuesday I was told I no longer had a job with the company. Along with an estimated 10% of member operations and an estimated 50% of pilots.

In this moment I had 2 options. The first (and easier) would have been to go talk to my family and bitch and moan about the situation. Worrying about my new Corvette I just bought, and my flight school loan payments.

But instead I chose option number 2. I gave myself 30 seconds to sit and think. Then I told my mama and my stepdad the news. Immediately got on the computer and updated my resume. By 10:20 that day I had a new resume. By 10:25 I called my flight chief at my Air Force National Guard unit and told him what happened. He was a great flight chief and leader and he asked me how I was doing and said he felt bad for me. I said "sir, I need to come on orders so I have some form of income to pay my bills." He saw I had a few extra AT days, as well as could get me some more orders for the rest of the month. The following week I was working at the base to have income.

During that time, I knew I needed to do two things. One, finish up my last bit of hours so I could be at 1500 total time. And two — get my ATP written exam done.

I then bought the study material and started studying for my written test, scoring a 91% on the ATP written exam a week later. During this time I also knew I had to stay focused on my aviation goals as the military was simply just providing a (not very large) paycheck. I called my mentor and asked for some advice. I created ZADE AVIATION LLC, where me and my buddy started offering contract services and repo flights for people needing their planes delivered, whether it was fresh out of maintenance or just needed a new home. This allowed me to get flight hours as well as extra income and survive the next few months. I had no experience in owning my own business or even knew what to expect — hours of research and learning how to document finances was a curve, but we got through.

After a few months went by, a friend of mine that used to fly in the navy flying club with me got me a job at a new charter company. Bigger jet, better group of people, and better pay.

The moral of the story is a lot of people will say "it will get better" or "everything happens for a reason" — which I believe both are true. However, I gave myself 30 seconds to recoup, and then immediately started doing whatever it took to make things happen. Don't wait around because things will get better. Do what you have to do, force things to get better. Then once they are better, you can sit back and say everything happens for a reason.