After 3 years with the airlines (06-09) I hung up the hat and began started a second career behind a desk. After 4 years of sitting behind the desk my itch to fly was growing stronger each day. Like most of my former airline co-workers, I missed the flying, the crews, the hotels, and the airplane. There were a lot of things I don't miss, mostly contract negotiations, the career uncertainty, the russian roulette career choices, and calling crew scheduling to check out after a 12 hour work day.

So about a month ago I finally got my butt in gear, called a friend who owns a flight school, got a BFR, got comfortable behind the controls of a Cessna again, and started putting my commercial certificate to use.

When I was instructing before my airline employment, it seemed like a race to gather as many hours as necessary before moving onto the next gig. Don't get me wrong, the years of my flight training and instructing were some of the most enjoyable flights I've ever done, best variety of airports, airplanes, and $100 hamburger runs. But even still, it was evident that I was working towards something else.

This reintroduction to instructing and small plane operations is really feeding my aviation love. It's all being done on my own time a couple times a week at most. I'm no longer worried about the size of my paycheck from a flying lifestyle. Fly as often or as rarely as I wish, still don't have to pay for it, and am able to get my bit of the fix.

I've noticed that a lot of former pilots really do miss flying, and the cockpit, and some regret transitioning out of the airline life. I'm just happy to see that there is an aviation life after the airlines, and it feels like coming home.