Need opinions
I have been having an awfully tough time trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up. I have a degree in accounting and 2 years of experience under my belt. At the turn of 2007, I decided I wanted to fly professionally, so I got a job at a flight school and built some hours then got hired by a regional airline flying the ERJ-145 and just got off IOE a few days ago. The problem is that it isn't as satifying as I thought it would be. I am so used to going up in an airplane and just enjoying aviation, some steeps turns, some practice approaches, etc. Flying the jet doesn't even seem like flying to me really - sort of a compromise between a desk job and flying. And after the takeoff, all we really do is program the flight director/ autopilot until about 1000 feet above TDZE, then land. That really isn't piloting to me. I'd rather have a stick in my hand and actually FLY the airplane.
Couple that with the prospect of being away from my wife and home so often and living out of a crash pad, and dealing with reserve and nasty schedules and working every weekend when my wife is off and it just doesn't seem like something I want to do anymore.
I've been thinking of going back to school to get my CPA (an accounting credential) and working hard on running my own business. In 5-8 years I can create my own schedule, more or less work from home, be my own boss, etc and not have to deal with being a pawn on the airline's chess board.
I would flight instruct on the side just to keep the urge to fly satisfied because I thoroughly enjoy flight instructing and at the earilest time I could afford it would buy my own airplane to work on and enjoy without the demands of the airline world and schedules weighing down on me.
I think about when I have kids how tough it is going to be to disappear on a trip for 4 or 5 days and miss all the little league games and stuff.
Flying the jet is pretty cool, but I feel like I am trading my life in return and depriving my wife of her husband and ultimately my kids of their dad.
Owning my own business in 5 or so years and controlling my own destiny starts to sound pretty damn good.....
Thoughts?