For me the sheer joy of flying just for the fun of swooping around some fluffy cumulus clouds on a summers morning looking down on the English countryside made all the training worth while.
Yup. Been flying in one form or another for 25 years and I never get sick of doing just that. As a kid I used to watch the bigger birds thermalling and basically just going where they wanted to, I always wanted to be up there with them. Now I can do it and the elation is just the same as the first time I did it. We're not really supposed to be up there and flying to me is a privilege that I never tire of.