I wouldn't do it all again - not because I didn't succeed in getting where I wanted to be (I'm now flying longhaul jets in the arab gulf), but because I got here and found that it wasn't worth tuppence of all the years of hard work it took.
The joy that used to be found in the actual craft of flying the plane, pretty much all wears off after the first decade. These days, mostly it feels more like being a sales rep driving his 20th trip of the month down the M6 in the mondeo. I admit I still do enjoy going on a few of the "destination" trips and getting out and about, but I find myself becoming increasingly despondent at missing out on so many precious moments of my kids' childhood, and the fact that on the whole it's just as much of a rat race, as it is working for any other big horrible soulless mega-corporation run by accountants and computers. And once you've got your head around it, flying these big modern jets is about as intellectually challenging as scanning groceries at Tesco. Sad but true, the 21st century airline pilot has more in common with David Brent than Chuck Yeager or Antoine de St-Exupery.
Basically at the sad old age of 35 I'm now seriously trying to save enough money to have a mid-life career change and get OFF the jets and into a more interesting and less stressful occupation. At the moment my plans are alternating between a diving instructor in fiji, or a trance music DJ in Goa
