I'm another of those who's desparate to leave my current job (in IT) and fly for a living.
IT has its enthusiasts, you only need to look at the magazine shelf in WHSmith to see that. Certainly I used to enjoy tinkering around with computers in my spare time when I was a student. But since working in the industry full-time, I no longer have any interest in computing outside the office. In the 7 years I've worked in this industry, I have met only one person who still enjoys computing as much as we probably all did before we started doing it professionally.
Then I compare this to flying. I look around my local flying club, and I see that a large number of the guys flying light aircraft in their spare time are commercial pilots. The guy who did my PFA Coaching on my current aircraft flies airliners. One of the co-owners of my aircraft, who also built it, is a retired airline pilot. I see airline pilots giving after-dinner speeches at award nights, or instructors scraping together every last penny to fly their own aircraft after their last lesson of the day.
Ok, so it's only a minority of commercial pilots who still fly privately just for the fun of it. But it's a hell of a lot higher than the number of IT professionals who go home after a hard day's work and tinker with their home computer just for fun.... There's definitely something unique about flying.
FFF
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