Other ways to fly...
Now this is what PPRUNE is all about.... a little tetchy at times, but always a great read.
If I'm joining in, I'm a natural wannabe whose chose to follow the alternative route of flying for pleasure rather than work. And I'm not sure this perspective has been covered much.
Yes, I'm like everyone else, my head rises every time I start to hear a buzz or a roar overhead, yes I devour the mags & PPRUNE like everyone else, but I came to a conclusion at 16 years old that to try to become an airline pilot outside of going via the military was total insanity.
My opinion has not changed. Nothing necessarily to do with the job even (you guys are the experts on that...), but it's what it takes to get there. Name me another profession that asks such staggering sacrifices with so few gaurantees??
I chose another career... that of a geologist. Maybe it's because the passions are related, the downsides of the job are not dissimilar. And the rewards too. When I get the rare chance to chat with airline pilots, they get it, they know what I'm talking about.
Recently, I've been wondering in every sense what I get out is worth what I put in to my profession. Pilots, commercial or otherwise, ask themselves the same question too about their vocation. I've concluded I still love the buzz I get from my job.... the views that few others see, the nuts & bolts of how things work, the Big Picture, the mystery of new discoveries.... sound familiar?!?
It will pay me back in time for the broken relationships, the 4am departure lounges, the smiling when I don't feel it, the it's-up-to-you moments....(it better....) Again, sound familiar?!?
To fly is a struggle sometimes, but I HAVE to. I don't care what, but it's a drag I've got to have. Every flying machine can be made to be exciting & can provide a never-ever learning curve. In the end, wings touch air & wheels touch ground.
You can fly like a professional in anything & frankly that's what we should all be aiming for & is a subject that distressingly gets rarely discussed on here in amongst all our rants about paperwork & money & flight schools & the bl££dy CAA....
If you ask me, one of the saddest aspects of the current aviation scene is not so much the lack of communication between wannabes & those doing the job they will sell their skin for but more between Professionals & Amateurs. We all love flying & we can all learn something.
This is why we hang out in spaces like this & we can all contribute to.
Getting back to the original thread, the big question is whether you convert passion to vocation into profession. That's three very different things. It's a bit like fling vs relationship vs marriage I guess. All are possible in aviation.
I still like to think of flying as a continual courtship.
BFA