Originally Posted by rcfd13

You can hand fly the plane all you want. Someone who turns on the autopilot 60 seconds into the flight and twists knobs does that because they choose to do it.

I still enjoy flying for fun. Almost every pilot I know at the airlines flies for fun, is involved in aviation groups or owns their own plane and has great stories. It seems that the people on this board most of the time are just the ones who want to complain about the job and the pay and how much they hate flying. I've never had any interest in hanging out with those people.

The career is what you make of it. If you're going to hate flying and make yourself miserable then don't do it. If you're going to hang around with positive people and develop some hobbies then it's a great career. I've had some bad things happen to me in the industry, but I still have never regretted getting into it.