Fascinating thread. I retired at 60 after a few years instructing, a few years in aerial survey and a quarter-century operating a corporate flight dept. I, too, wondered how the time would pass.
Since then I have played a lot of golf, done a lot of motorsport, learned the joys of vegetable gardening, registered with PPRuNe to try to contact some of my former contacts.
I miss the impromptu dinners when you have bumped into old friends in some foreign place; I miss overnight stops in nice hotels and nice restaurants with a nice company credit card in my pocket. I really miss some of the views from the big window at the front.
I do not miss getting up at 0400 on a winter morning, to leave home at 0500, to be at the airport at 0600 for departure at 0700.
I do not miss the extra bulls**t imposed by security measures, however necessary; and I do not miss the old days of waiting on a payphone for the Regulator - remember that?
I'm now 68, having a wonderful time, some involvement at my local grass airfield, and enjoying every minute.
It is going to happen, so appreciate your last years then step into the next phase of your life. If it's fun, enjoy it - if it's not fun, try doing it differently.
Good luck.
Last edited by GHNRY; 28th Mar 2007 at 07:34.
Reason: typos