Do you really LOVE flying ?

[ClearRight]

I'm a >4000 hr RJ pilot and sitll love to fly. There are things that happen outside the actual piloting of the aircraft, but I see it as all part of the job- that's what I'm paid to do and I love to do it. I gladly accept the BS of being a commercial pilot- it's in my blood. Taxiing around LAX, SFO, DFW looking at all the other cool airplanes around me.

I love my job- It's awesome!

 

[Whirlwind]

Why do guys with their heads in the clouds keep their minds in the gutter...?

Eh? My head is in the clouds because her's isn't...

It's 11am, I need a beer...

 

[TurboS7]

I love flying and the travelling but all the other bs I hate. Flight attendants, big pain in the butt, as people they are great, as politicians they are terrible. They will literally cut off their foot to prove a mute point, as a captain you get caught in the middle. In charter ground handling is very difficult but a challange, most operators respond well if you help them out when they get in a jam. TSA, they will make me quit before too long. We had 7 agents the other day in BGR waiting to check our crew after going through customs.They made us wait 10 minutes till a supervisor arrived, crazy. Then they checked 116 Army guys for weapons........we had 150+ on board the airplane.......... chuckle chuckle. Coming back to the states is like coming back to a police state at the airport.......bad news. I just flew some guys back from Iraq, I did the "tail-end Charlie part" it was great to get them back home. Things like that make all the craziness of the business worth it all.

 

[cessna_driver2]

Im just a low timer. Hell Im still scraping the velvet off my spikes.

Don't know if this helps, but I thought I lost the love of flying not to long ago. It was over the winter, not flying, bad weather, and needed a new instructor. I finally got back into the saddle and love every minute of it. It's just the rush and a serious sense of freedom that I get out of it.

I remember my first solo, x-c, second solo, and all two of my ratings. I not happy unless I get to fly.

I sell a/c parts full time, so I get to hear all the stories from people and mechanics that call in. I've met some intresting people. That is another thing that keeps me going.

Just .02 Good luck, and most of all have fun.

 

[KickSave]

I'm still new at this, but I still get a woody every time I yell "clear prop" and start her up. Sometimes I even yell that in my bedroom with my gf, just to get things going

As for the military guys, I find it hard to imagine how one could go from flying an F/A18, an A-10, or an F111 or some hot rod like that, to flying a 727 full of crying babys any whiny businessmen. It would seem like going from driving an Indy car, to driving the rental car shuttle bus at the airport. I wouldn't want to give up that kind flying until they dragged me by my toenails out to pasture.

 

[SquirrelDog]

Its not a job, its a state of mind

Flying is the greatest thing know to man. (besides women of course). Flying for yourself or on time off in a cessna though is 180 from flying for a career. I have had some of the most stressful times in my life flying but never thought of leaving; poppong out of the clouds with the sun gleaming makes it worth it ever time.

Flying isn't for everyone, and especially for a career, beleive me I know, I was an instructor. Saw all kinds!

If your heart is not in it then your in this profession for the wrong reasons; 1. you will always be unhappy and 2. you may not stay in it long.

In college at my first ground school class I had an old instructor that said, "look around, half of the people next to you won't be there to the end." He was wrong, only about a third made it to the graduation. Whatever the reason, if your not in it for the flying its going to be a bumpy ride.

Why I Fly:

Because I hate the ground

To see the world from a different view

Aiplanes are cool

The power and freedom of flight

The industry and the commoradory of people in it

...and they feeling I get after being off a few days for the passion of getting back in the air.



Squirreldog
flyhappy

 

[Purple Haze]

Love it - love everything about it. What else comes close? I cannot imagine the drudgery of a real job.

I especially love the part where instead of me paying to fly the plane, they pay me (or for now, they pay me to watch someone fly it). As for mil vs. civ: Now I have work rules - they don't "own" me. If I bid right, I can go where I want to go and be home when I want to be home. It does not suck.

Who'd a thunk it.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

When it comes to recreation, flying is one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. I've done the motorcycle and boat thing and flying wins hands down although bikes and boats are still pretty neat. MOST of the people I've gotten to know through flying are a pretty good group of people.
Pity the poor folks who are into golf. A frustrating lesson in anger management.

 

[PacoPollo]

I really really Love flying..To bad I work for a **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**t* azz company!!

 

[migio]

Like many of you other guys said on here,you love flying,but hate all the bs associated with it in commercial aviation,i couldnt agree with you more.Even though there is tons of bs to put up with from one job to the other,those of us who are fortunate enough to be flying commercially understand that flying is worth dealing with all the political bs and then some that we get on the ground on a (sometimes)daily basis.

 

[bart]

Love flying, but there is not enough money in it for me. I still fly for fun, instruct a little and fly on contract now and then. My business is going gang-busters and I will be in the market for a Bonanza next year. There are days when I wish all I had to worry about was flying the plane, but in the grand scheme, I would not change a thing.

 

[whatwasthat?]

Five o'clock this morning I found myself alone in my little bug smasher on the way to Kansas City. It was snowing, it was raining, then a little sleet. Ice began to cover the airplane. It was bumpy too. I turned down the instrument lights to watch blue flames leap from screw heads on the nose and climb the windscreen. Tiny lightening bolts streamed forward into the airstream from the blue glow on the tip of the OAT probe. The approach was to near minimums on a slush covered runway.
I can't wait until tomorrow.

 

[350DRIVER]

I enjoy the flying and the people that I have been able to meet over the years but surely I do not enjoy the rest of the bs and politics that are involved in this type of flying.. It is comical in a way cause you get to meet quite a few people who got here not by what they know, have done, or what they have "accomplished" but because of "who" they know and the amount of a$$ kissin that they have done to tap into this market. Fortunately the "other side" should be a little different with regards to the envir. and type of flying but only time will tell.

c h e e r s

3 5 0

 

[Big Duke Six]

Flying itself, YES

This seems to be a pretty common feeling on this thread - I LOVE the flying part, but the other stuff can be enough to drive you away if you let it.

When they closed my unit in the drawdown of the mid '90's, I was so sick of all the BS, politics and extra work that I left the service altogether instead of moving. Seriously, I was wearing 3 or 4 hats in the squadron, on the road GONE at least two weeks out of the month and dealing with some serious political crap that started WAY before I got there. It wasn't worth it for me.

I even quit flying for few years afterward, which looking back feels like a mistake but at the time I wanted nothing to do with any of it.

When I did get back in, I jumped in with both feet and started flying Metroliners in a single-pilot freight operation. The pay and the brutal hours aside, I still feel that doing that kind of work was some of the most fun I've had in my nearly 20 years of flying. Where else in the civilian world will someone turn you loose, by yourself, in an airplane like that - unsupervised and with no passengers? I did it for 2 1/2 years (it would have been only 6 months but for 9/11), and can honestly say I looked forward to every flight I made. The challenge was a big part of it, and it was a fun airplane to fly too.

So now, having just been hired by a major my attitude is positive. I hope that freightdogging and my military experience have given me the wisdom and perspective to keep my new job fun. I feel it has.

And that's really what it's all about. A job is no more than you make of it, and with the right attitude, most any job is a good one.

 

[bart]

Flying part time is awesome. No BS to put up with, great income (from my real job), and it doesn't get old. Wish I would have done it this way from the start.

 

[Imasafetygirl]

How could anyone not love the taste of sunset, with all of her brilliant colors painted accross the sky, or flights at sunrise in the morning, the sounds of life waking up all around you, and you get to see it first hand. I realize that there are souls out there who fly and feel none of that, or do not see it for that matter. That saddens me from time to time but it makes me hold truer to my beliefs, yeah I love flying, always have...always will


Fly High. Fly Free.

 

[DC4boy]

I go to work every day with a huge grin. I see something different, work in a different state, or see a type of fire I'd never seen before. I love flying and could'nt imagine doing anything else.

 

[empenage]

Do I still love flying? Yep, I do.

Even when the other pilot I'm flying with breaks "Rule # 1".

 

[AA717driver]

We have people on this board with 0 hours and people with 20,000. If we didn't love flying and the people in it, why would we hang around here?

The most fun I've had in aviation was driving around the middle of the country in a 717(pre-9/11). Sure, I've been to Wichita one too many times, but I've enjoyed every trip there. You make it fun.

I'm really tired of commuting and the TSA but not the flying.TC

P.S.--bart, where'd Michael go? If Gina wasn't so hot, I'd change my avatar to Fernando...

 

[flyingwildfires]

Love it?

Yeah, I love it. I loved the first minute I ever left the earth as a passenger, and knew I needed to learn how the hell to do that. I mean, I HAD to. And I feel **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**ed lucky to fly gorgeous country, with every fire different, nothing ever the same, not even when you come around and make a second pass down the same canyon. Winds, smoke, turbulence, they're always changing, but you're still helping the groundpounders (did that too, and it's a blast, but flying through fires is still more fun than beating them to death on the ground, eating tons of smoke). Some of the real wild days grant more grey hair than others, but what the hell, you can watch TV all your life and get grey hair anyway, right?

Lots of things in life are joyful -- for me, flying is up at the top.

Go for it.