Good for you DSB!
If you're being paid well and enjoy the variety and challenge I'd definitely stick with it!
Like anything, airline flying is, at one point, a new and exciting challenge. It still has it's moments, mostly when things break or other problems arise. I still get huge satisfaction from a job well done and there are days when I can't believe I'm being paid to do it. I am the quintessential flying nerd and consumed everything 'flying' before and during training. I was VERY forunate in that I started flying a twinjet pretty soon after getting my licence.
Only 5 years in, having benefited from a good variety of flying across Europe, north Africa, across the pond to Canada and across the Pacific, to a good variety of (variously equipped!) airports, I do have moments, if I'm being completely honest with myself, when I question whether airline flying can sustain me for a career (I'm in my early 30s). I'm not being all doom and gloom or the one that slipped through, got a job, and doesn't actually have the passion for it. I'm a very positive person, always aim to see the best in things and still love all things aerospace BUT...
The industry is tough. After a few years, the rose-tinted goggles clear a bit and you see things you didn't before. I used to care about how much hand-flying I'd got in that day, how slick my descent and approach was, what aircraft I flew, it's systems/technology and how well I knew it, etc. I still care about some of these but top of the list? Days off. Holidays. Pay. Rosters. Weekends off. There has to be a balance between home and work life and it's hard on an airline schedule, especially when you get in to a relationship, want a family, etc.
I yearn to fly, properly FLY, a plane. Maybe even test one. I want to get involved in projects and other things on top of plying the friendly skies between A and B! I want more of an intellectual challenge sometimes. I want variety. I think I want some adventure too!
I am still an FO and have only flown for one company (that said, it is a 'good' company with lots of variety flying-wise) so I do bear in mind that there are still new challenges/changes on the horizon in the airline world and, in the grand scheme of things, I am very new to the industry. I also bear in mind that there are people a lot more worse off than me. I've got command, new companies and new aircraft waiting for me at some point no doubt BUT...
I think half the problem is that's it's stopped being a passion and is now what everyone else does (and complains about) - a job! A very specific job which pays well i.e. one that is hard to leave or branch out of.
I had a beer with a mate who I trained with a couple of days ago - he has flown for two companies (his current being, probably, the UK holy grail in most wannabes eyes) and asked me whether, knowing what I do now, I would go in to the industry again? I told him I wasn't sure I would. He told me he definitely wouldn't. According to a recent BALPA survey, the vast majority of pilots are very proud of what they do BUT...
They wouldn't recommend the career to their children or friends.
Ultimately, like everything, it really is, and must be, what you make of it.
If you do well in the airline industry and get promoted in a good company and make some good investment or property choices then maybe you'll be able to go part-time and fly something fun on weekend adventures!
Bit of a ramble but just a few, off-the-cuff, thoughts! Will keep an eye on this thread with interest...
Edited to say - if you can dig out the parable about the pilot who constantly strove for the next big thing, from Cessna to bizjet, to airliner, to space shuttle orbiter and then full circle, it's worth a read
