Originally Posted by
smores
JamesNoBrakes, you are exactly right! Personally, I just love being able to fly when I want and to have control of the cockpit. You made a good point though because I don't necessarily NEED to be an "airline pilot". I guess it is somewhat assumed that all individual need to become airline pilots in order to support a family given the low salaries; which is probably the case if that is ALL your going to do.
I am definitely considering just gaining my PPL and Instrument just to go up and enjoy ... and still have a full time job elsewhere.
Can you imagine a better adventure than building and flying your own plane, like an RV-7 or something with some performance and capability? It's fairly economical (less than 100K vs. 400+K for similar performance with a new production aircraft)?
The best part about this is that if you choose the right career path, you can still be neck-deep in aviation and doing fun and interesting stuff. Maybe working in aviation insurance, aviation financing, aviation safety, aviation regulation, aviation and aerospace engineering, aviation and aerospace production, aviation and aerospace testing, aviation maintenance, etc. If not, you can STILL enjoy and be deep-in flying, on the weekends, getting type ratings for fun, instructing, advanced instruction, etc.