It's all about the glamour.

It's that moment at the end of a short 14 hour day when I finally get the helmet off, and it wreaks like athletes foot, while I wait the 20 minutes or so it takes to get my knees to unbend enough to get over the canopy rails and dismount the aircraft, and sit in my salt-white sweat soaked flight suit and think how fortunate I am to be the envy of all the cool kids.

Then I remember that the cool kids have no idea what I'm doing and don't care because let's face it, they're doing something cool. The perk is knowing that I have that glamour all to myself, and it's wonderful.

The line girl is kind of perky, too, which is nice.