Do you really LOVE flying ?

[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.

 

[Kaman]

Hello,
I've been very fortunate to have seen a broad brush of aviation. Carrier-based flying in the Navy in helicopters as an aircrewman, working the ramp for a commuter, sweeping the hangar as a teenager to pay for my PVT and now as a flight instructor and soon to be freight dog ( I hope!).
To sum up what I read in one of richard Bach's books, we are the sum total of our life experiences. It doesn't matter how much money we have, how many things we've acquired or what our status in society is. It comes down to our families and the precious memories of our life. This is why I love flying, and why I love aviation in general. Sure it has it's share of BS, naysayers and sacrifice. However, time and again when I'd be pissed about something in the Navy or loading bags in -10 degree weather. It was and still is worth it.
The folks that I feel truly the most pity for are the pilots that are living a "lifestyle" that airline flying brings and yet truly dread going to work. I guess there are more than a couple of people like that flying around. We all have our individual reasons for getting into aviatio. And, even more importantly staying in aviation. It's a tough way to make a living, but I wouldn't trade it for any other job...

Regards,

ex-Navy Rotorhead