I flew military for almost a decade...it wasn't an F-16 or any type of fast, sexy fighter. Every plane I flew was big, slow, heavy, and ugly. I flew tired, sick, hungry, and shot up. Long hours...try flying Washington to Macedonia with one crew. I carried supplies, explosives, ammunition, food, fuel, armoured personnel carriers, artillery, tanks, paratroopers, and anything else that the loadmaster could strap down. I also was falling asleep driving to my house in Western Germany travelling at 130 km/h. I only got U.S. captain's pay, which isn't much. And I loved it.
And anytime I started to feel sorry for myself, I just thought about some of the guys that I went to college with that were serving in the infantry, the artillery, the MP's, or any number of hundreds of jobs where they were on the ground in the deserts, the mountains, the snow, in Africa, the Balkans, Saudi Arabia, Iraq...with crap flying at them. At least I could fly away.
Now I'm civilian and I'm just getting into the big show. I suppose that I don't mind the shuffling of schedules, I'll move if they want...hell, I moved 4 times in 10 years for the AF. I love to watch the sun go down at altitude. I like to take off in the desert and land in the snow. There's still nothing for me like shoving the throttles forward, hearing the roar, and getting to it.
Besides, there's not a whole lot of ground fire coming at me anymore, there's no tactical ingress or egress, and the flight attendants are much nicer and better looking than my old crew chief. Even the food is better. (Of course, anything is better than an MRE thrown at me by a mean, ugly Tech Sgt.)
I suppose that it's all on the perspective of the pilot. In another ten years, maybe my thoughts and feelings will change. But for me, right now, I still get to look at the guys that I went to college with and see them in their offices, at their desks, in their cubes...all staring at the computers and wondering what sunlight is like. And I get to shove the throttles forward and fly away.
Yeah, the industry may be scum, and the "old pilots" are telling me how bad it is now. I'll just nod understandingly, smile, and walk out to whatever plane they want me to fly. I'll do my job that millions of people would kill to do. I'll sit in whatever seat I'm in and when those throttles go forward and that roar starts, I'll smile and love it.
Hey, man...It beats getting shot at.
