I just renewed also, have been using the American Flyers FIRC-for-Life since around 2002. Every two years, coinciding with my renewal, I get the 'aviation bug' once again, visit the forums to see how the job market is, then bow my head and shuffle away in silence - I left the career in 1996 with USAF, Part 135, and CFI experience under my belt, was fighting to fly left-seat in a Navajo for $200 bucks a week and finally got sick of the whole industry. Two years between renewals is usually enough for me to forget all of the misery and remember nothing but the great times in the clouds, then I come to the forums and snap back to reality... I'd like to instruct, but I live in the cloud-ridden economically-crashed northeast, so even the CFI business has dried up around here. Still, I keep renewing and hope for blue skies...