Success is a relative term. What is success in regards to aviation? Flying a big jet? Buying a huge house? A new CFI might consider me as a success in aviation given my accomplishments however I do not see it as such since I did not meet my goals.

In aviation you really do not know if you have been a success until retirement day. Few really are safe. A pilot might have 15 years of seniority by 45 years of age at the major airline of his dreams only to open the paper one day to see that everything he had worked for has gone down the drain.

Unlike other professions success in aviation largely relies on luck and circumstances. I was never very comfortable with that. Often a pilot never knows if he is the next Randy the Ram until it is too late.

Skyhigh