Agree with the having safe fun thing...I regularly have fun in my
1970 Bonanza ...along lonely stretches of Queensland beaches on offshore islands spotting whales and sharks and waggling the wings at surf fishermen...significantly lower than my day job (actually mostly night
) flying a 767.
I think after 24 yrs, two privately owned aircraft and 11000+ hrs I qualify for the order of the most very advanced anorak....even though 10500+ of those hrs have been 'work'...I still mostly don't look at my job as work...well approaching TOPD BKK-FRA after 12 hrs can seem like it.
I think for many, other than us fruitcakes, it's easy to see why people drop out....the aggravation/BS v reward quotient is very high these days...cost less so in a general sense, although it obviously is on an individual basis...people have proved this...just look at the boating boom of the last 20yrs next to the decidedly non boom in GA...the motorised kite and homebuilt sectors being somewhat of turnaround for aviation lite. People spend a LOT of money on boats!!!
Speaking of fun...I have an Mpeg of some french fellas flying a little French low wing ski plane around the French alps landing on glaciers...can stik or someone who as done it advise if it would be possible to organise some 'dual' doing this if on a 4 day FRA layover? Wha time of year is the weather stable enough to have a fighting chance at organising it and achieving one days flying out of 2 or 3? Approximate cost? Licencing?
This old tropical bush pilot would just kill to do that..landing on skis...got !!!!eloads of tailwheel time and 1000's of hours of very steep one way ops...possible or better do it on some annual leave?
Chuck