When did you lose "The Itch"
 

The date where we last touched the controls for a paycheck is probably a date that is engraved in the back of our minds.

After we walked away, there is that yearning to get back into a plane in someway or some form. That is what I'm refering to as "the itch".

So the poll today is when it is you lost "the itch" and just stopped caring about wanting to fly for a paycheck.

Personally, it took about four months. I did wrestle with getting a part time CFI job, but the value of off time from my primary job was greater than flying a 172 for a couple hours a week.

Took me about a year. By then, I could afford to travel a lot for fun. Nice to sit in F having a Heineken reading posts about angry pilots mad about this or that. Glad I left, though the itch is always there--just dormant!

For those of you that left, does flying GA still fulfill that itch? Or does nothing compare to leaving turboprop/jet flying?

Flying turbine is a lot of fun but my first love is still light GA VFR flying... its hard to beat it in my opinion. Especially here in FL. So many airports, great views, lots of G Airspace... and if you get hungry just about every airport has either a great restaurant on field or a free courtesy car. Hard to beat. Whenever I decide to leave to career or retire, whichever comes first... I will probably buy an old beat-up taildragger and fly that on the weekends.

I was thinking a few days into the course of antibiotics, but apparently we're talking about something different here...

Still got it. Took a year after not flying before getting the desire to get back into the cockpit again for fun. But the only difference I see between flying for a living and flying for fun is one gets to decide where and when he gets to fly and the other is at the beck and call of a big daddy somewhere.

Miss the dream
 

I miss the dream not the flying. The dream was perfect. The reality not so much.

Skyhigh

I was wondering how long it would take until somebody had to say it! Nice work.

I'm 7 years into getting paid to fly and I still like it. I'm not saying I won't "lose the itch" but for now I still enjoy going to work.

Well put skyhigh.

Still enjoying it. 15yrs, 6yrs for a paycheck, 5k TT.