Last week I was flying with a new hire First Officer and had a senior wide-body captain on the jumpseat.

 After all the nice pleasantries and taking off, our conversation turned to the last year's turmoil - the cost Covid-19 had on the airline industry.

The new First Officer thought he had made it - landed a pilot job with a Legacy Carrier.

 Both myself and the Senior Captain couldn't stress enough the importance of having a secondary source of income - just in case.

 In the airline industry, it's never "just in case." It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when - when the industry takes a nose dive again.

 It seems that aviation is hit with some sort of unpredictable and uncontrollable Category 5 financial hurricane ever eight to 10 years.

 9/11

 The 2008 recession

 Covid-19 lock-downs

 Several airlines didn't survive this round.

 Hundreds of pilots received the dreaded news:

“Due to current unforeseen business circumstances beyond our control, the Company has made the ...

After more than 25 years in the cockpit, Captain Vince Kramer recently hung his wings up. Like so many airline pilots these days, he took an early retirement package from a major airline.

Here he offers some insight into how he found a passion and is pursuing it and hopes to inspire pilots facing furloughs and displacements to find their passions as well.