Jaxofmarlow, thanks, I'm glad we are more on the same terms now! I hope things have settled and you've had some luck with the easy application.
Cgwhitemonk11, It's not for you to measure what I know about the raw love of flying. Who do you think you are? And at 26 whole years old! I didn't say 20 mile final approaches - I said visual approaches, rolling wings level at 4 miles, 7.5 degree approaches, managing the energy, tail wind following you around, VFR traffic from a light aircraft airport which is at exactly 8 miles final on a sunny saturday afternoon and rotor effect at 500 feet all compound to make for a challenging and enjoyable approach - I'm based at an airport in a mountainous area!
If you fly the A320 you'll know that the '7 modes of protection' don't do much for you normal ops - having a flap overspeed, alpha floor, pulling the wings off in a turn or breaking air rules doesn't help you keep a job or curry favour with your colleague in the flight deck. Doing it well and having a 'nice job' from the captain as you grease it on in the touch down zone, on the centreline is rewarding, fulfilling and meaningful - to me!
My job is everything I say it is. It's an extremely responsible, qualified, fulfilling, enjoyable, inspiring, beautiful job and I'm grateful to be doing it - not at any cost I'll hasten to add. The earlies and lates are not ideal, the sitting down all the time can give me a bad back and the crew food and uniform are poo! But who cares when I get paid well and enjoy my job - I take it seriously and revise regularly - as should every pilot. Some FOs don't though (perhaps because they are from club 2-4
), get by on naff all knowledge, perform averagely at best and think the job is a joke - when in fact, they're the unprofessional joke - they're again the subject of many a captain's rants. Fortunately, as an FO, I very, very, very, very rarely have to fly with these types. My mates from training, across many airlines across the world do however take the job the same way I do and I put that in part, it pains me to say, down to the way CTC trained us.
I've flown the king Air into snow covered scandinavian runways and piss wet through 750m, 25m wide VFR runways too, thanks. I'm sure it's not quite raw and manly enough for you though.
4468, I became a pilot for those reasons. I justified it because of the income and ability to sustain a career in it for 40 years (offices frustrate and bore me). Many of my pals who decided to stay in the AAC for 8-10 years are at a loose end now with 2000 hours on a lynx. I'm sure it was fun but once you've left, which all want to do, it doesn't qualify you to put food on the table, buy BA holidays, flown by you, to the Carribean or allow you to be established early enough on - as we can see from how rapidly things are changing, please forget how it was back when you left the military 27 years ago and joined BA!
This thread isn't about tme - I enjoy my job, I'm grateful (but could walk away from the job and industry and I intend to make myself robust in this respect.) and I know that the skills, qualifications and ability needed to have a long successful career will mean people sink or swim. I reiterate, it's people's choice to spend what they will on their futures - it could be a lot worse - this could be America!