There must be a few pilots out there who are rather envious .
This brief thread reminds me of a story I’ve heard told a few times over the years:
A young man walking pass a small airport looks up and sees a bright yellow J-3 Cub struggling with the gusting winds on approach and thinks to himself, “Now that’s some real flying there, I wish I was doing that.”
He works hard and puts aside some money and starts taking lessons in that very same J-3 Cub he saw the previous summer. Soon he’s a licensed pilot flying regularly out of that small airport. Everytime he’s at that airport though he sees the small band of flight instructors as they tell stories of flying and are continually flying new/different airplanes. “Now that’s some real flying, there, I wish I was doing that. Someone would be paying me to fly!”
After a year or two that same man was fully rated and found himself as a flight instructor at the same small airport. Now he was the one sharing the stories of bad students and great flights with others. He was the one flying a multitude of different GA airplanes. The money was enough to live but that was about it. One day a small twin engine airplane arrived carrying cargo. The pilot of that airplane unloaded his packages and was quickly on his way. “Now that’s some real flying, I wish I was doing that. No more awful students or getting bounced around in the afternoon thermals, plus the pay would be better!”
After logging a few hundred more hours he found himself the pilot of a twin engine aircraft flying boxes and people across the region. It was long days and even longer nights of fighting winds and weather. The pay was a bit better but what extra money he had he wasn’t home to either spend it or enjoy it. One day he was sitting at an airport far from home waiting for his passengers to show up when a large turboprop airliner taxied past. He watched as the bags were unloaded by the rampers and gate agents aided in the deplaning and embarking of the passengers. The co-pilot made a quick walk around of the airplane and they were back on their way. “Now there’s some real flying, I wish I was doing that. No more waiting for passengers for hours on end. No more working at all hours for days on end. No more getting bounced around in the weather, you could climb above it, plus the pay would be better.”
Years later that same man, a bit older now, found himself as a captain of a similar turboprop airliner. Sure he could get higher than he could before but the tops of the weather always seemed to be a bit out of reach. The schedule was better but he was sleeping in hotels in small rural towns. The pay was better but it didn’t seem worth the amount of work it took or the time away from home. Manuveuring his airplane around an airport took him near a large jet airliner. “Now there’s some real flying! No more of these small towns or low altitudes. It would be only be state of the art equipment and distant, exotic destinations. Man the pay would be outstanding. I wish I was doing that!”
After years of hard work that same man, quite a bit older now, found himself as a captain of that same large jet airliner he had seen so many years ago. Sure enough, he had the most state of the art equipment at his figure tips, the overnights were in exotic locations and the pay wasn’t bad either. He was at the acme of his profession and his career, all the hard work had paid off. One day while while waiting on the taxiway for traffic to clear he noticed a strange visitor to this airport making it’s way towards landing. Ahead he saw a small yellow J-3 Cub fighting the winds as it approached the runway. Quickly that senior jet captain tapped his co-pilot on the shoulder and pointed out the J-3 Cub on approach. “You see that there? Now there’s some real flying! None of this fancy equipment, just a simple machine to navigate by sight across the land. I wish I was doing that!”
I probably didn’t do the story justice but you get the idea.
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