Where has my passion gone?

[notepad]

Hello. Since I was less than 10 years old, I had a lot of passion for airplanes. I wanted to be a pilot for many years. When I was about 17 years old, I started taking lessons torwards the PPL license. I have around 22 flight hours, including my first solo. For some reason, lately I feel like I'm just not enjoying the experience, and it bothers me. Sure the view is nice, but I used to have a passion, a poison in me, all I wanted to do it fly. Now I stopped having feeling torwards flying, and I don't know what to do. Should I just stop flying? Should I make myself fly, and hope I'll enjoy it once I start flying by myself? It does cost a lot of money, and so I don't want to continue unless I am sure that's what I want.

What's more, I used to be sure that this is what I want to for life. Now I consider it only a fun activity, something that I don't want to make a living out of.

Any insights?

[Jan Olieslagers]

One thing is clear: to make a living out of flying, you would need to be prepared to some serious compromises. Such as going to live in Indonesia or sub-Saharan Africa, and/or live on a very modest income.

OTOH, I think every new pilot has at least one period feeling like you describe, and the weather doesn't help. Don't give up too lightly, you have invested a lot of money AND effort, don't throw that away!

Perhaps you could consider taking up an unknown aspect of (non-commercial) flying? Gliding is just one possibility, is inexpensive, and really does make you a better pilot of whatever you fly.

Also, as you seem to have recently flown your first solo, you should be aware you have had little occasion for enjoying your flights. There were so many things requiring your attention. From now on, you will get more and more relaxed with every flight (though of course you should never get TOO relax) - the time for enjoying flying is before you!

BTW what the missus (if any) thinks may have some importance, too, but I will NOT speak out on that very delicate matter!

[robin]

Been flying since I was 14. Had lots of 'long dark nights of the soul' but they go - as long as you can find a reason to continue.

Just keep looking for new challenges and all will come right

[Dave Wilson]

I agree with what Jan says. I moved into power from gliding and there has to be a reason for me to get in a power aircraft. For me it's visiting new airfields and meeting new people. For the sheer joy of flight I would take a glider anyday.

If I can doff my old man hat and be philosophical for a moment; sometimes the dream is better than the reality. It's your job to ensure that the reality matches up to the dream. How many times when you were young (sorry you still are!) did you chase after the girl of your latest dreams and when you finally got her it wasn't what you expected? Not that it was worse but not what you expected. That's what life is like. As you get older you accept that the picture you have in your mind of something doesn't match the reality.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Have you read 'A Gift of Wings'? Richard Bach encapsulated exactly my feelings when I was learning in the C150.... "as I pushed the high winged cabin into the sky, I thought 'this isn't how I thought it would be, but if it's flying, I guess it'll have to do". That was exactly how I felt.

Then, just after qualifying, I flew the dHC1 Chipmunk. "Ah, REAL flying at last! This IS how I'd imagined it!". Bought a share. Never looked back!

[longer ron]

I got bored with power flying fairly quickly...whereas gliding is always a real challenge - you can find out a lot about yourself when you are 100 miles from home base and down to 500' struggling to stay airborne :ok:

[Pace]

At the end of the day an aircraft is a form of transport like a car and has to have a practical use or it becomes an expensive indulgence.

OK if your a very wealthy guy who can afford expensive indulgences :E take weekends at European destinations or have a business which justifies the use of your aircraft!

I went through the same. What do you do with the hours flight you can afford?
After you have been round the local area a few times showing what a top gun to all your mates you are you need new challenges!

You go into shared flights to extend your range to places further afield but then after a number of flights are cancelled due weather you again question the practical utilisation of an aircraft!

You now need an instrument qualification and an aircraft capable of flying bad weather? More cost, more effort! Ok if you can justify that or are wealthy enough to indulge yourself.
How many get twin ratings just to get the notch on the gun but then have no money to fly twins?

At that point you either have a practical use for an aircraft or fly for someone who does at their expense and in machinery that you could never afford and hopefully you are actually paid to fly them.

Now it has a practical use to you as you are actually earning some money flying nice machinery for someone else.

But yes I do understand your predicament as I am sure many of us have been there before and will be there again.

Pace

[AdamFrisch]

We all have different aspects of what excites us in flying. You probably haven't found yours yet.

I also got bored flying around the pattern in a rented C152 every 3 weeks. In fact, I got so bored with it I let my Swedish licence lapse twice before I finally redid it 16 years later in the UK. What's exciting for me is travel, long xcountry's and seeing new stuff and visiting new places. If I can avoid going by airlines, or use it for my business trips, then even better. But for this kind of flying to work you need a decent income, your own plane and a capable plane. Renting doesn't work.

I can say one thing - owning a plane is the best thing I've ever done. That was what opened up flying for me and unlocked it. And I'm more in love with it than ever.

[flarepilot]

loss of passion

first off, tell us if you are tall or short

and what kind of plane you have been flying

I've seen so many people learn to fly in the most uncomfortable type of plane and they lose passion.

you may also be growing up to the reality of money...if you leave flying, do you have to come back? no.

but if you do, it will be with passion.

so leave. don't fly for awhile. I mean until summertime lets say.

do you get headaches from flying? maybe you have an underlying sinus problem.

pain does reduce passion.

or flying does not live up to your expectations. maybe get some money together and fly a really nice powerful plane (with an instructor).

or, just rent a good movie like "FLYING TIGERS" With john wayne and see if that's the kind of flying you really want.


and those glider guys...well, I guess they have a right to their views.

;-)

[notepad]

I'm 5'11, and fly a C-152. I'm not too uncomfortable in the Cessna, I guess. I'm also fine with a little G's (in fact, I love it - I turn very sharply on purpose). Maybe I should be a fighter jet pilot? :8

[Heston]

I'm not sure from your OP if you mean you thought you wanted to fly professionally (for a living) or if you are talking about flying as a leisure activity. The two are VERY different.


I notice in life that activities that some people do for pay are activities that others pay to do. Folk are very odd it seems.


There are lots of cheap and exciting ways to fly for fun. But if you've lost the drive to fly professionally then I think you should be grateful that you've learnt that about yourself this early in life, and find another career path.

[teknow]

Wow, feeling for you here.

+1 for gliding. I started there on a 5-day course in April 1995. Wonderful and had a brilliant instructor. But after qualifying, found it hard to maintain as family life took over. It was tricky to find a whole day on the weekend to go gliding. Gliding is not only a hobby, sport, call it what you will but you are expected to help out, drive the winch, retrieve gliders, wash them ... Not just turn up and fly.

Why not do more dual flying with instructor on-board? Do a night rating, instrument flying etc. even if you have no appetite to fly for a career you can still learn the skills - forget the exams for now, if the passion returns there will be time for that!

You could do the CPL theory exams as self study, just to learn more and keep amused. If you feel confident, go sit the exams!

I think just remove any pressure and get back to enjoying flying. For what it's worth, I had a big gap in my flying, am almost current again and plan on mixing solo flight with trips out with the instructor and slowly chipping away at further qualifications. I'm too old to fly for a living, and my 2014 promise to myself is to self study the first 4 CPL exams and pass them! :ok:

[Maoraigh1]

As you haven't yet got your PPL, don't worry. I've never really enjoyed being instructed - drive, sail, ski, canoe, fly. The enjoyment came once I could do them on my own. (I wish I could enjoy driving now - or not have to do it.)

[AlexF388]

Hello there :)

I myself am in the middle of PPL training (29hrs, 5.2 solo), I've always wanted to fly, just like yourself, but not for a living. Did a lot of gliding with the Air Cadets.

When I started training it was literally the best thing ever, however, about 5 or 6 hours in the pressure was gradually increasing to the point at 16 or so hours just before my first solo, I didn't even want to get out of bed in the morning! However, once I overcame that obstacle, the fun and passion has come back.

I would suggest that you carry on and complete your PPL, even if it does mean taking a break for a few weeks - it's a super thing to have on a CV no matter what you do. And then, just enjoy yourself. Instead of setting myself one massive challenge, I've set myself little ones culminating (hopefully) in a big achievement - PPL to taildragger to aerobatic to complex to hopefully displaying a t-6/Harvard one day! Hopefully that may have given you an idea or two.

Good luck!!

[DB6]

EASA has that effect on a man.

[Flyingmac]

Over the years, I've flown, raced horses and cars, sailed, dived, shot, driven power boats, ridden to hounds, rock climbed and pot-holed, etc etc.

My one enduring passion through it all has been............Food.:)

[Andy_P]

When I was about 17 years old, I started taking lessons torwards the PPL license. I have around 22 flight hours, including my first solo. For some reason, lately I feel like I'm just not enjoying the experience

I am curious as to how old you are? I read this as you are still quite young?

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

......complete your PPL, even if it does mean taking a break for a few weeks - it's a super thing to have on a CV no matter what you do.

Hmmm, not sure about that. Useful in anything aviation-related, but the 'non-pilot' potential employer with no idea what a PPL entails and who knows nothing of aviation might think 'self-indulgent and over-indulged playboy' if he hears you have a PPL.

Whether to reveal it or not in an employment application needs thought.

But I'd agree you should complete it if you can. It's a great confidence-booster!

[Pace]

My one enduring passion through it all has been.........…Food.

FlyingMac

Naah food makes you fat and then I pity the poor horse ; ) The aircraft will be over gross weight.you won't fit through the holes pot holing, the sailing boat will sink and if you chase anything hounds or otherwise you won't catch them:E

I have been very lucky! crossing to the USA and to South Africa., Saudi, India . Far East and into most airports in Europe in some very fast and tasty machinery. All paid and paid for! And so many sights and memories most will never see or have! So i consider myself lucky to have had those flying experiences.

Had that not been the case would I still fly ? Probably yes but some sort of low cost VLA or maybe gliders and still hanker over a Husky in a field to tinker with and take up a sunny summer morning :sad:;)

You have to put a purpose to your flying whatever that is ! If it's just goals once you achieve them and without a purpose or means to finance it all goes flat.
Even if your purpose is being around the flying environment at least you have a purpose :ok:


Pace

[magpienja]

Never did any tuition in fixed wing GA but used to fly a lot with a mate in his PA28...never though I would get bored doing just that but I did after a while,

Had a dabble with flexwing microlights around 10 years ago...still excite me to this day...and they are very affordable to own...

I get just as much enjoyment from owning and maintaining my own a/c and feeling that I am part of the very environment I'm flying in with my wind in the face flex....no they are not sexy but....

Just a thought....

[Sir George Cayley]

Well going solo in under 20 or so hours suggests aptitude so a good reason to believe you'll succeed.

Cessnas are good - they can flatter your landings and are generally a good class room.

So is it the school/club that isn't helping you stay positive? Is your instructor not really on your wave length or vice versa?

Changing instructors in a school isn't pleasant (which is why I've always advocated not being locked into one) so maybe changing school club?

Are you able to cast about in the locale? Would you be willing to chuck a few quid into bacon butty run with a fellow pilot?

Just a few thoughts I hope help you.

SGC

[Echo Romeo]

If you really have lost what passion you had for flying and you can't reconcile why you do it, then pack it up and spend your money on something else, would be my advice. Sorry for being blunt.

I would add, that I recall the odd occasion whilst I was doing my PPL when I felt like I didn't want to be within 100mts of an aeroplane, usually when I was struggling with a particular exercise. But I never once questioned why I was doing it, my goal was to learn to fly, which was for the love of it. And I'm still as passionate for flying, 13 years on.

[funfly]

I have to admit that my best flying times were while I was under instruction, first with a microlight, then with class A then the Instrument rating.

I loved it all. I even bought my own aircraft, well three in all.

But when you have learned, what then? As said before an aircraft is a mode of transport and, to be honest, flying straight and level is not the most difficult thing to do.

So do all the prep work, then fly to another airfield and treat yourself to some fatty food then fly back. Flying distances like France, Channel islands can be interesting but consists mainly of sitting there doing very little.

I have said before that the most fun I had was with my little X-Air microlight which was fun to fly and as safe as houses. Flying classA is pretty boring and I always regret making the change. Petty flying clubs don't help.

It's a few years since I have been at the controls and to be honest I don't miss it a bit.

FF

[JAAFAA]

Losing the passion for flying must have a reason, can you be more specific ?

From a science point of view there is (for instance) Epstein et al, 1999 'Some basic issues regarding dual process-theories from the perspective of cognitive-experiential self-theory.' According to that 'cest' model (cognitive experiential self theory) people use two modes to process information; one is the reflective or rational, that is the higher cognition or 'just being rational', the other is the experiential which is a (very fast) automatic process, or 'just to see for your own an wait what's going to happen next.' Obviously, the rational mode needs more time. Whenever people get older, their mood may shift more to the rational side. Or they develop some maladaptive experiential system because of dropping their mood.

It's just an idea, it just needs more input.

[Jan Olieslagers]

one is the experiential, ( ... ) , the other is the experiential

{{clarification required}}

[Armchairflyer]

That should probably read "One is the rational ... the other is the experiential". But I am admittedly a bit unsure how this theory would be usefully applied here.

[JAAFAA]

Sorry, i will correct it; the two possible ways one can opt are the reflective or cognitive way of thinking, the other is the experiential.
This has been layed out in the cognitive experiential self theory. People make their decisions that way, either they think carefully and choose the best option, or they choose right away without careful thinking.

Loosing the passion for flying may have many other reasons, this is just an idea. When people grow older, they get to become more and more rational. So that may affect a lot of things.

[Maoraigh1]

'Some basic issues regarding dual process-theories from the perspective of cognitive-experiential self-theory.'

For leasure activities, you do ones you enjoy. Or one someone you want to be with enjoys.

Thank God my 3 years of university psychology preceded "Epstein et al" by many years.

[Pace]

When people grow older, they get to become more and more rational

JAAFAA what the heck happened to me then? Still a 27 yr old in an older body :E Rational does not come into it :ok:

I have read a better theory! Basically our lives are very mundane! Think what you did june 27 2011 you will not hold one memory of that day.
You will remember events or markers like weddings, deaths holidays etc ie anything which breaks the mundane and creates a marker. The more markers you create the more full and intersting and yes exciting and passionate your life is. Not all markers are positive some are painful yet they still add up to a rich life of experiences rather than an empty, mundane life :ok:

Get away from an aircraft for a minute and think car. When we learnt to drive a car the whole thing was a new experience! frightening, pleasurable, exciting!
We probably drove a ford fiesta but thought it was the bees knees :ok: We could not work out how to co ordinate the clutch brakes and accelerator never mind the gears! But it was all new exciting and a marker. Probably in those early lessons we got a high which carried us through to the next lesson a week later?

Then we got good and no longer had to think about driving the ford fiesta! We no longer got the high a marker, the adrenaline rush! The fiesta became boring, mundane so we wanted something more challenging to give the lift we used to get and got a more powerful car or took skills in motorracing.

The same with aircraft! The Cessna 150 was initially exciting as was a first cross country but then they become mundane. How many flights do you remember and which ones stick in your memory?

Why do you think men and women chase after new younger models when their partner becomes mundane! Markers! The adrenaline rush. the excitment and passion.

Gawd what a load of rubbish I am writing :E Anyone know how I can take up Red Bull air racing :ok:

Problem is when we have explored every avenue of getting that lift we either walk away and look elsewhere or settle for simpler pleasures and the mundane but that is not always age related but more the type of character we are

Pace

[abgd]

Perhaps you could be a little more specific. Or perhaps the problem is that you simply can't...

I certainly found that flying was very different from how I expected it to be. I grew up with fighter jets bombing about overhead, and my childhood impression of flying was a vision of skimming down the valleys at 100 feet. I'm sure this is a valid impression of one type of flying, but it's far removed from anything the vast majority of us do. I've found that there's a lot I enjoy about aviation - but not necessarily the vision that drew me towards it in the first place.

A big thing is learning to live with risk - some people deal with it by ignoring it; others give up; some - perhaps rather few - are able to look at risk and honestly decide to accept it. Quite a few people give up when they start to think a bit more deeply about the risks are running. This is fine.

I will say that flying hang-gliders was one of the most formative things I've done in my life. Learning to make important decisions quickly, and learning to ask that question 'is it worth it' in an environment where attention to detail is critical and where sometimes the answer is 'no' and you pack up and go home again after a long journey to the slopes. I also found it much closer to my 'flying dreams' than anything else I have experienced. There's a moment in Chuck Yeager's biography where he realises that he is the fastest man in the world, yet feels himself to be motionless, many miles above the earth. It's not a feeling I've ever had flying a hang glider down a slope, scraping for lift. Paradoxically, the more sophisticated aviation becomes, the less it actually seems like you're flying.

[tecman]

You might be simply growing up, in the sense of realizing that all worthwhile things take effort and that nothing is ever completely positive. Despite the fairy stories, and the dumbed down reality portrayed in the media, real life is complicated. Even the good things are complex!

I'll add a slightly different twist to the 'flying with a purpose' theme. While I fully endorse this advice, and recall that some of my best moments in 30 years as a PPL have been during challenging flights (all over the world), I would also like to put in a plug for the virtues of the simple Sunday afternoon joy flight. In busy professional careers, that's all many of us can manage for significant stretches of time. Despite the fact that I'd really rather be flying around outback Australia or SE Asia, the weekend bimble is still incredibly renewing and valuable, especially if it's mixed with some challenging activity (PFL, local flying competition, etc.).

The gain is magnified if/when you get your own aircraft, as others have said. For me, the flying and aircraft maintenance are precious sanity moments. It's an incredible privilege to be able to take to the air more or less on a whim, and a privilege which a significant fraction of mankind can only envy. But if you really can't see the magic, use the time available to you to find something you enjoy doing. And it could well be that a grown-up choice involves separating the work and recreation components of your life.

[Pace]

TecMan

The old story of the yellow cub pilot looking up and seeing a fast single retractable zooming overhead!

"If only I could fly that I would be truly happy"

The single retractable pilot looked up and saw a fast twin turbo prop zooming over head

"If only I could fly that I would be truly happy"

The twin turboprop pilot looked up and saw a jet zooming over head even higher

"If only I could fly that I would be truly happy"

The jet pilot looked up and saw Concorde

"If only I could fly that I would be truly happy"

The silver haired Concorde pilot looked way down and saw the tiny speck of the yellow cub flying low over the lush green English countryside.

"If only I could fly that I would be truly happy"

Pace

[tecman]

Pace

An oldie but a goodie, and well worth thinking on!

One of the nicest things that happened to me as a newly-minted PPL came from a Concorde pilot. On a sparkling winter morning above Sydney Harbour, Approach advised me (and my mighty C152) to maintain level and heading as climbing traffic in my two o'clock position would be Concorde.

It was a great thrill to watch the BA Concorde pass but what really made my day was when the captain called me and said 'you're looking good SIR'. I guess he had the 152 with the Bridge backdrop etc and, to my eternal regret, I was too speechless to reply with anything very intelligent except a mumbled thanks. But I had a spring in my step for a while.

For posterity, I'll just record that he looked damned good, too.

[Dave Wilson]

Pace's story reminds me of the banker holidaying in Mexico. He's been watching a young man called Juan who every morning goes out on his own in his fishing boat, returning a couple of hours later with a small catch which he sells at the harbourside. Intrigued by the possibilites he talks to Juan:

'Excuse me sir, I'm an international banker and I can't help but notice that with a little help you could improve your lot.Tell me what you do with your time.'

'Well I do a little fishing in the morning ' says Juan 'and then I sell my catch, go home and make love to my wife and then we walk on the beach until sunset sharing each other's company. Then in the evening we sit on our porch and friends drop by and we may have a little Tequila. Why do you ask?'

'Because if you invested just a little money into another boat and hired another fisherman you could increase your catch.'

'Then what?' says Juan.

'Then eventually with a lot of hard work and little luck you can have a whole fleet of fishing boats, and you will be the big man in this town.'

'Then what?' says Juan.

'Well, you float your business on the stock exchange, you become a director in a multi national fishing business and you have many business trips abroad.'

'Then what?' says Juan

'Well with lots of hard work and a bit of luck you get elected vice-president of the company.'

'Then what?' says Juan.

''By the time you are 55, if you are lucky and haven't burned out and been divorced three times you will have earned enough money to retire.'

'Then what?' say Juan.

'Well this is the best bit' says the banker, 'You can retire to a little Mexican fishing village, buy a little boat, do a little fishing in the morning, go home and make love to youre wife and walk on the beach until sunset...'

[rgsaero]

I dimly recall my first "passion" pushed off after a bit of a tiff outside the St Albans jazz club in about 1959. Lost forever! She had great er........attributes, and could dance too!

Aviation? Still with me. You can't lose something which is in the DNA.

Maybe for another year too.

[notepad]

Thanks for all of your comments. I probably should've mentioned, I'm currently 19 years old. I have been on a break for about 11 months (heck, time flies by). After reading all of your comments I think I know the answer for my loss of passion.

First of all, I'll start by saying I live in Israel. Recruiting to the millitary here is mandatory, and happens right after high-school. Because I'm relatively young (in comparism to my classmates), I had an 8-month-long break before I recruited to the military - I started taking the lessons about 2 months after than break had begun. I don't intend to be cheesy, but I believe I was really good at flying, maybe because of simulator experience. Basically, anything that needed to be executed - simply was, if not the first than the second time. After about 8 hours my instructor said I was ready for my first solo, which I couldn't do at the time because of a medical bureaucracy. So I did it after around 15 hours. I really enjoyed flying, every moment of it.

Than came the theories. Over here you have to study, and be tested, for 7 different theories, which include all the "goodies". I kept postponing it, thinking 'it'd be okay', and ended up not doing anything (apart from radiotelephony, piece of cake). Basically, I'd need to study for about 1-2 hours every day for at least a month. Heck, that's more than I've studied in 12 years at school.
And so I recruited the military, which meant that I had to stop flying for a month because of the basic traning. And somehow, it was just forgotten.
About 6 months ago, I took another lesson. It was summer, and here in Israel, it gets pretty darn hot. I sat in the 152, sweating, and had thought to myself: "heck, this is not fun. Why am I not enjoying?" I even got a little nauseated, which never happens to me even when banking sharply at 60 degrees. My tummy had to get used to it all over again.

And so, I just stopped flying.
Gosh, theory's a bitch.:*

[Genghis the Engineer]

Over here you have to study, and be tested, for 7 different theories, which include all the "goodies". I kept postponing it, thinking 'it'd be okay', and ended up not doing anything (apart from radiotelephony, piece of cake). Basically, I'd need to study for about 1-2 hours every day for at least a month. Heck, that's more than I've studied in 12 years at school.

That's at least as much as you'd have to do for a PPL anywhere in the world - realistically rather more study for most people in most places.

One theory is that it's a test by "life" to find out if you want to be a pilot enough. If you do, you'll push through the exams, carry on, and not be phased by it.

G

[SidT]

(Please forgive a little self-indulgence here...)

Of passion and love of flying...

I received my PPL aged 18 back in 1987 thanks to the RAF Flying Scholarship scheme with thoughts of joing the RAF and being a pilot.

For various reasons that didn't pan out and I went out and got a "normal" job and a fairly normal life.

I didn't do many hours of flying as I couldn't afford much and I got into the "been there, done that, slightly bored" frame of mind... so I guess the "passion" had gone a little, but as the rest of the story will show, not the love.

In 1990 I bought my first property and paying for that property meant that I couldn't carry on my flying.

Every year since I have said to myself "can I afford to go flying again?" and every year I came to the same answer "not yet". But I would still dream of taxiing out and would still go through the radio calls in my head, fly the circuit, fly local, fly away.

This year I finally was in a position to say "Yes I can go flying again". 23 years later.

After sorting out my medical and some hours with an instructor (at the same club I used to fly at)... I now have re-validated my license and am back in the sky... simply loving being up there, in command, taking everything in.

During my 23 years "out in the cold", away from flying, there wasn't many months that went by when I didn't look up at a light aircraft thinking "I'd rather be flying". Often I would close my eyes and think about doing the pre-flight, taxiing out, doing the radio calls, doing circuits, flying local or landing away.... so much so that when I started flying again, I still remembered the tower and approach frequencies of the airfield I flew out of and that I hadn't used for 23 years... just a shame the freqencies had changed in that time lol!

The passion is back because the love never went away.

Sometimes, with whatever in life, if you do something a lot especially in a short period (my PPL was done in a month, with my ever-lasting gratitude to the RAF) then you can get over-load and lose the passion for it, but often the love remains.

So I guess the question you need to ask yourself is "do I only have passion (which at the moment I've lost)? or do I have love for flying?".

If you only had the passion and excitement then maybe flying isn't for you... if you have the "love" then keep with it... the passion may come and go, but the love will go on.

:)

[Whirlybird]

You want excitement? Try helicopters. Just go for a trial lesson and see what you think. Er....that's what I did, and see my profile.....

[sharpend]

Flying is the opposite of Sex. The more you fly, the more you want to fly. The more you have sex, the less you want sex, well that is true at my age!

Both have one thing in common, both better to do than to watch:)

[sharpend]

I quite like the analogy of loving a Ford Fiesta, the getting bored with it and loving your MX5, then getting bored etc etc. But for me aviation is different, I have circumnavigated the World, flow faster than the speed of sound... at low level!, and have gone to war in my jet.

Now, I just love to tootle along in my little Bulldog at 100 kts, on my way to Kemble or somewhere just for lunch.

Is there anything wrong with that?

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Sex? I suppose flying is like sex, in that even when it's bad... it's still quite good. :E

[RTN11]

Flying is the opposite of Sex.

Could not be more wrong!

I'm with SSD on this one, any flying is better than no flying, exactly the same as sex.

I think you need to take a very close look at your priorities!

[Fantome]

apart from 'Shaggy' there has been no talk here as yet about the wealth of wonderful literature at our disposal concerning flight and fliers, and how this for many pilots is a tried and proven way of keeping the flame alive, may I butt in with some thoughts about Richard Bach?

Bach is a widely read man, himself, and by those reading his books.
He once wrote an evocative essay that he called 'The pleasure of their company'. It became a chapter in 'A Gift of Wings'. What he has to say is based on his reading and his insights into the characters of the fliers whose books most inspired him. They, everyone one of them, helped him to retain and rekindle his passion. This is something that our young wavering pilot of nineteen might care to look into.

Bach opens his account by imagining flying with David Garnett, an English pilot of great sensitivity and an author who in his book 'A Rabbit in the Air',
encapsulated his passion. Bach goes on to say that he has done a lot of flying with this soft-spoken fellow, that "in this day of few real friends, when a man is fortunate to go past three counting them, David Garnett is a real friend.
We like the same things: the sky, the wind, the sun; and when you fly with someone who puts his value on the same things that you do, you can say that he is a friend. Anyone else in that Gipsy Moth, bored by the sky,would no more have been a friend than that businessman twelve rows down the aisle of a 707, though we share our flying a thousand times."

"In a way, I know Garnett even better than his own wife knows him, for she can never quite understand why he wants to throw hours away in that noisy, windswept biplane that sprays oil back into your face. I do understand why.
But the most curious thing about David Garnett is that though we have done a lot of flying together and though I know him very well, I have no idea what the man looks like, or even if he is still alive. The talks we have had and the places to which we have flown have all been between the battered covers of his book 'A Rabbit in the Air', published in London in 1932."

Bach concludes by reflecting that "the David Garnetts and the Saint Exes and the Bert Styles, ('Serenade to the Big Bird'), are not flesh and are not paper.
They are a special way of thinking, much like our own way of thinking, perhaps, but still, like the little prince's fox, unique in all the world.

And meaning? These men, the only part of them that is real and lasting, are alive today. If we seek them out, we can watch with them and laugh with them and learn with them. Their log books melt into ours. Our flying and our living grows richer for knowing them.

The only way that these men can die is for them to be utterly forgotten. We must do for our friends what they have done for us - we must help them to live. On a chance that you may not have met one or two of them, will you allow me the honour of introductions?"

Bach then lists the books of twelve authors of aeronautical note.

[Heston]

Great post. To the OP - you should read "A Gift of Wings" and then reflect on your passion or lack of it. If reading it doesn't strike a cord in your heart then you really have lost your passion for flying...

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

As no one has made a post here yet about the wealth of wonderful literature at our disposal concerning flight and fliers, and how this for many pilots is a tried and proven way of keeping the flame alive, may I butt in with some thoughts about Richard Bach?

Errrm.... didn't you read post 5 in this thread then, Fantome? I not only made a reference to aviation literature, it was to Richard Bach!