GauleyPilot

Flying is not a job for comfort or glory. Wealth is something you are going to be lucky to find in aviation. It is one of the top ten statistically dangerous jobs as reported by the government. You will know several pilots, some good friends, who will die in an airplane. You will miss family events that are good and bad. You may be thanked with nothing but a cold shoulder for your efforts. Economic uncertainty is always looming.

Flying is a calling. It has to be in you or it would be a horrible job. Flying will take you places you may never have gotten to go. Flying lets you see nature like few people see it. There is a tremendous satisfaction obtained by controlling a complex machine in a complex enveronment. It is a rush to go someplace without any visual guidance from the earth itself. At the end of the day, even though you are tired, you will have to spin down from flying. You will make friendships that are solid. You will feel good when a passenger thanks you, when you deliver the organ for the transplant, when you bring the part that keeps the assembly line going. You played a part in something, no matter how small. You may find yourself mowing the lawn that flying made it possible for you to buy, and find it pleasing. You get tired of talking to everybody outside work about airplanes, but you still do it.

Start the engines, feel and hear the power come to life. Wave to the lineman as you taxi out. Feel the wheel come alive in your hand as you rotate. See the earth fall away.

YOU ARE A PILOT. THIS IS WHAT YOU DO. THIS IS WHO YOU ARE.

You will become disgruntled, but it still boils down to that. Even with all the missed events and sacrafices, you think it is worth it.