Why do you fly?

[Cat Driver]

Just read a post by Hedley on the flight training forum and like Hedley I fly only because I like to.....but the flying has to be interesting and and allow me to actually fly the airplane.

The only real difference between us is I don't have another career to fall back on to make the money to fly interesting airplanes and do really interesting kinds of flying.

I lucked in and found the fun part of flying and for me that was getting paid to fly rich peoples toys.

I'm sort of retired now and only have a few flying jobs that I hope to do before I quit for good....the most interesting is Steven Speilberg was planning on making a movie about the Berlin Airlift and I'm hoping to fly a DC3 in it and the other job is going down to Australia to give some guys training on their PBY6A when they get it home from Portugal.

As to flying the big jets here is how I feel about it, my last flight before I left Holland was in a 767 Amsterdam to Turkey and return. Then the next morning while waiting for my flight back to Canada I pulled the Super Decathalon out of the hangar and did about a half hour of fun flying over the canals and wind mills of Holland.

The 767 was as boring as watching a haircut, one can only oooh and ahhh about the view from 401,000 feet for so long before your eyes go back to the PFD willing the next waypoint to scroll down the screen faster so you can get out of the thing.....but aerobatics even in a Decathalon is freedom...fun freedom.

Why do you fly?

It would be interesting to hear everyone here chip in and tell it like they feel it.

[AuxBatOn]

Combine fun and work, why not?

AuxBatOn

[Cat Driver]

Combine fun and work, why not?

Exactly, in fact I would love to be the quality control manager in a whorehouse.

[xsbank]

I gave up fun flying for the PFD-type and I'm fed up with it. The only problem is that the fun-flying doesn't pay like the pfd-flying, for me. I'm actually going to rent something soon and see if I still have the fun part in me. If I don't I will give it up gracefully and just earn my living. Had plenty of excitement doing it when younger and I cherish those memories. There ARE other things in life, believe it or not.

[MichaelP]

one can only oooh and ahhh about the view from 401,000 feet for so long

I think it will probably be quite tranquil up there... Why built the Space Shuttle when a 767 can already do it?

I would love to be the quality control manager in a whorehouse.

I wouldn't... There's a lot of these in China masquerading as bath houses and massage parlours, and I wouldn't touch anything being offered there!
There are some places one doesn't want to go if someone else has been there before

The answer to the question

I flew for 18 years as a Private Pilot and as such I flew a wide variety of aeroplanes, did some film flying, taught aerobatics and tailwheel. But I flew in a country with a lot less regulation than this one!
At 17 I got glasses and I knew then that I could not be a commercial pilot... I didn't know, and all the feedback I got at that time was negative.
At 19 I found myself at Exeter Flying Club for a £4 trial lesson in a Fuji FA200-160 Aero Subaru... I enjoyed that!
I was offered the same price as a Cessna 150 if I wanted to learn in the Fuji. Retrospect: this was a brilliant idea, but I thought I was returning to Canada and so started on the Cessna! Then I was told not to come back to Canada!

I learned to fly because it is in my blood... I built all kinds of model aeroplanes, crashed all the ones that flew, and repaired them again and again... I shot Estes model rockets into the sky and ran away from the QPP as I was supposed to be under adult supervision doing this!

So I'm different to the vast majority of people who show up for flying lessons... I never imagined it to be a career, rather a way of life.
I'm of a generation who could fix their own cars, build anything, and who were eager to learn... Money wasn't the prime objective, and work was secondary to living.
Today, people of my age then (19) are very aware of the need to earn money from what they do and at that age few 'kids' consider doing something this expensive for pleasure.
Dare I say pleasure? It's probably not the correct word... Doing something from the heart perhaps.

I still regard flying as a way of life.
It has cost me a lot of money, and a lot of other things that most people consider necessities in life... Some of these things I myself consider necessary, but time passes and expiry dates on many life things come and go.

In return for considerable life concessions, flying has provided me with fun, excitement, learning, travel, meeting many people, learning different cultures, and an occasional amount of fear.

I've flogged around Europe using a compass, and no radio at all. Now I fly G1000, but I can still do it with a compass and map alone.
I still turn the World upside down, but reserve the aerobatic instructing for Thailand.

If money was my objective in life, I would have done something else... I did try, but flying is my way of life.

We're all 'nutters' in our own ways...

[unregistered]

I fly big jets around at FL400 and I enjoy the management aspect of it all.

Believe it or not I enjoy the paperwork,

I enjoy watching the numbers on the "Progress Page" count down,

I enjoy offsetting a few miles to miss some weather,

I enjoy the view of the West Coast of Ireland coming into sight - knowing that I just navigated the Atlantic,

I enjoy raising the nose a couple of degrees at 20 feet and bringing the thrust to idle - hoping that it will touch down nicely,

I enjoy comparing the flight planned burn to the actual burn on the ground and considering the accuracy of the initial flight planning or congratulating ourselves for saving a few hundred kilos of fuel,

I enjoy knowing that I delivered hundreds of people to their destination safely and professionally.

But most of all, I enjoy the challenge of managing 90 tons worth of aeroplane momentum from top of decent to the runway . . . and for anyone who's never done that, it's an eye opener the first time around.

I guess there are a few different types of us out there, but for me, flying big jets is as about as fun as it gets. But it's not about leaning the mixtures, setting the props or fancy stick and rudder work. It's about energy management, organization, accurate flight path planning, good layovers, good looking flight attendants and an unlimited supply coffee!

Cheers.

[MichaelP]

unregistered's reasons are why most people want that job...
But I see so many moaners in that profession... Perhaps they are only happy as moaners... Captain Marvins.

UK airline pilots were different on average... These chaps used to buy little aeroplanes to keep their stick and rudder skills if you want a PC reason, or just for the joy of it if you want the truth.

National differences in character... Example:
There are few Canadians by birth and schooling who fly gliders... There's a lot of Europeans here who do!
You can't call glider flying a profession, it's art!
Few natives here do anything for passion.

[Hedley]

Most pilots start flying because they just love it.

But they keep flying, as they get older, for the money.

If the money doesn't materialize (eg they don't get the
union job flying the heavy iron) it's time for a career
change, sooner or later.

There are a lot easier places than aviation to make
money. In my life, I have seen an awful lot of people
work very hard in aviation to make a marginal amount
of money. Warren Buffet, who probably knows more
about making money than anyone else here, has a
hilarious quote about aviation.

At the risk of being burned at the stake for heresy,
I suggest earning money in some other field, and
spending it in aviation. It's a lot easier that way.

In simple terms, at any given airport, a dentist will
probably own the nicest airplane

When someone asks me why I fly, I can only
reply, "What makes you think I have a choice?"

[FICU]

I enjoy taking 107,000 pounds of airplane into 5000 feet of gravel in the arctic and flying all over Canada with the odd trip to the US for my paycheck. I also enjoyed flying a Learjet over most of the planet and inuit patients in and out of the arctic prior to my job now. I have time in a Harvard and a wide variety of GA piston machines.

Today, for the first time, I went for a ride in a Challenger advanced ultralight, low and slow, following ravines and watching deer run through canola fields at 50 feet... I may have to build one now.

I grew up on airforce bases all over Canada and in Germany and when I decided I wanted to fly airplanes my goal was to experience as much of aviation as I could and I'm well on my way and loving it all.

I fly for the challenge, the fellowship, the freedom, and the pureness of not being bound to the earth.

[FICU]

But most of all, I enjoy the challenge of managing 90 tons worth of aeroplane momentum from top of decent to the runway . . . and for anyone who's never done that, it's an eye opener the first time around.

In the old birds we fly we have to manage the descent with mental math.

Doesn't the computer in your machine do all the work for you?

[Rockie]

Except when it doesn't. One of the fallacies of aviation is that automation makes a pilot's job simpler. Automation's job is to make the airplane more efficient, not easier. And when the fancy integrated, automated systems stop automating it can get really complicated, really quickly. It is a breath of fresh air to fly an airplane that doesn't do anything unless you make it.

[lazyboy]

I fly because....I am to lazy to work,and too nervous to steal

[200hr Wonder]

I have never once in my life landed a plane safely and thought, thank god I never want to do that again!

I just went for the proverbial $100 hamburger today and damn that was great!

Every step I take in aviation challenges me. Every flight challenges me. I learn all the time. The day I know everything about aviation is the day I quit.

I also love the family that is aviation. I love sitting around smelling 100LL dreaming about what and where to fly. Heck I even love to come here and BS or whine or complain. Sure some days you really don't want to fly and it is just a job. But that is so rare, the view out the office window so good.

Oh and to the other poster, I would like to point out I work and damn freaking hard at flying all the time!

[CYQT]

The 767 was as boring as watching a haircut, one can only oooh and ahhh about the view from 401,000 feet for so long

Thats quite the 767 you were flying...

[ditar]

I fly so that I don't have to pay for a gym membership. Lifting all those boxes of chips, cases of pop, and sacks of potatoes is a workout they pay me for. Well, ok, maybe not the chips...

[Check Pilot]

Today my wife and I went flying in a C-150 and had a super time. It’s been about 30 years since I had the chance to just go VFR in a small aeroplane on my own.

We went from Edmonton City Centre and southeast to see my old home near Edberg Alberta and then over to Camrose for a pee break. The weather was good and the thermals didn’t bounce us around too much. I’d forgotten what a pleasure it is to be able to just go flying and meeting the odd seagull and an occasional hawk (one of which decided we should do a bit of formation with us for a bit).

It was so nice to not have to deal with IFR and clearance junk and flight levels and Centre and all the rest of the usual stuff and just enjoy the view of all the Canola fields and green view that happens this time of year.

A superb day.

And thanks to the Tower guys in CYXD for their traffic advisories and concerns about towers and stuff that they really didn’t have to do if they didn’t want to, so thanks to those guys. I appreciated that a whole bunch.

It’s what flying is all about. It’s so good to get back to the basics sometimes.

[flying4dollars]

I fly because....I am to lazy to work,and too nervous to steal

[FICU]

Today my wife and I went flying in a C-150 and had a super time. It’s been about 30 years since I had the chance to just go VFR in a small aeroplane on my own.

It’s what flying is all about. It’s so good to get back to the basics sometimes.

It sure is and today was an amazing day to go for a flight in central Alberta. My flight in the Challenger was out of Wetaskawin and it had been 10 years since I did some VFR bug smashing.

[W5]

" Money for Nothing, and your Chicks for Free"

[Edo]

" Money for Nothing, and your Chicks for Free"

That has been superseded

"nothing for money and your chicks got VD"

[Lost Lake]

Hey cat driver, interesting thread. Let's see. Many many years ago, my wife sent me out to pick up supper. I flew from Toronto area to St. Stevens NB. Landed my little 150 with trim only on a beautiful sunset evening. Flew back the next day with 35 lb. of fresh lobster.

I was hired to ferry a PA 11 from Blind River, Ont to Soldatna Alaska. Camped over night on a small lake with boy scouts from Texas. Spent 2 nights in Lake Louise and learned about "little fellers". Flew the Eureka Pass and crossed the Turnagain Sound. Then Fished for fresh run Salmon in Soldatna.

I have flown over a herd of caribou stretching from horizon to horizon, with numbers I couldn't even guess.

I have flown the rockie mountains on route to flying over seals, grizzlies and musk ox.

I've flown at 25,000 feet and landed airplanes with Vrefs higher than some single's VNE

I've been paid to fish for Arctic Char, Atlantic Salmon, and hunt caribou.

I've flown over hundreds of moose, bears, and numerous other creatures.

I've soared in ultra lights

I've seen funnel clouds form in front of me, landed in 45 kts on floats, watched storms be born then die, been beaten up by mother nature

And learned something new every day

Why do I fly??

[youngtimer]

I turned to flying when I realized I was too lazy and probably not smart enough to finish off aero engineering/physics in university and decided it would be easier to fly them than design them. Regretted that decision for the first 5 years or so (not the work necessarily, just the returns, monetarily and otherwise) but am now starting to enjoy it more and more after 10 years and finally being where I want to be, lazy and hand held...

[CLguy]

I fly because I don't know how to play a piano.

[AntiNakedMan]

I fly because it is something that is in my blood..... and I enjoy the challenge. Also, I am compensated quite well for what little work I have to do, while gaining some really good experience. A shame that I am moving in a direction that will take me into a very ground based career, but I don't like to be a one trick pony.

[niss]

Chicks dig pilots...

I got into it because I was raised into it. My father always had a love for aviation and was an Aircraft mechanic in the IAF. He started me off building model planes, etc.

I will be the first pilot in the family though.