It is just the coolest job in the world.
Two moments that light my fires though.
When you take off in to an overcast morning, pick up some ice and then start to see the disk of ths sun, bust in and out of the tops, and then punch out the aouto pilot, and slow the rate of climb to scud bust in the sunrise just for a minute. You can feel and see the speed. And to see the sun at that time, when the rest of the world is still nose down in its' cornflakes, and probably won't see the sun all day is a feeling that makes your chest swell, and your soul glow with honour and a sense of priveledge and awe. You just feel a kind of chi, and that the world is a good place. It takes about a minute, feels like 10, and lasts all day!
The second moment is on those gin-clear days, when a high pressure system is building, before the haze gets trapped. As you get into the cruise, complete the checklists and plogs and radio chatter, as the cabin crew hands you a coffee and a biscuit, and your view is of the world spread out below like a picnic blanket. In the UK on such days you can see from coast to coast: awesome. The feelings and emotions are the same as previously described, and I can't think of many better. It is spiritual.
So Andy. That's what it's all about for me. If you could bottle it, it would be priceless. If you could use it as treatment for anything at all it would be beyond that. Yes, I enjoy battling a cross wind to minimums on dark and sh!tty nights, and being held up high, and chucking the aeroplane down for a late descent, and all the other stuff, but the moments that make me feel glad to be Alive are those two.