I wish I’d seen your post earlier Rob, because it really strikes a chord.
I remember my first driving lesson, at the tender age of 17, and having to look where I was going, steer, grapple with the gear lever and work 3 pedals with 2 feet. “Impossible” I thought. “I’ll never be able to do that.” 15 accident-free years and 1 IAM test later, I think I’ve pretty much got the hang of it.
That feeling came back to me the first ever time I turned finals, with a whole hour in my log book. In a healthy crosswind I pointed the nose at the runway, and was somewhat disconcerted to see it slowly drift away from us.
Or the first time I had a go at actually landing the thing. “Impossible” I thought . . .
These days I liken my flying to the early days after I’d passed my driving test. Yes I’m legal and safe enough to go off on my own, but I lack experience and I’m acutely aware that there is no-one watching over me if I get it wrong. In short, I know just enough to be dangerous. That gets the adrenaline going, and the challenge of increasing my experience without killing myself helps to make flying a bit of an obsession.
I take your point that it won’t always be like that, that eventually it will become routine – automatic even - and your comparison with driving is a good one. However, although driving a car is totally routine these days, I still get a kick out of it. I huff and puff about traffic jams / cameras / other drivers / how the roads were much emptier when I were’t lad, but I still take great personal pride in getting from A to B smoothly and safely, in getting passengers to fall asleep when I’m driving, in getting 50,000 miles from a set of brake pads. Silly little things, but they matter to me. Christ, I even do a walkround to make sure the lights work every time it comes out of the garage – how sad is that?
The point is, the challenge of man over machine might have lost its novelty, but I still enjoy it and get just as much satisfaction from doing it well as I did on day one. I accept we’re all different, and I can only speak for myself, but I know I feel the same way about flying.
I’m genuinely grateful for all the advice and the caveats; it’s all valuable information. However, despite all the downsides, in my head and my heart I know where I want to be, and I know exactly why I want to be there. And it aint on a station platform.