Cori Military pilots I knew of all aircraft were very innovative people and do not spend much time on the tarmac waiting for something to happen. Your cousin may experience a short dip but he will be doing something most considered wild and crazy shortly. The difference is the sense of purpose he gets in the military vs civilian. Take Care
"All I want is a weeks pay for a day's work" Steve Martin
GGB and cac4. You guys are talking about flying. I liked airplanes as a kid (4th grade and up to 9th grade) and built many models from balsawood strips (model kits from $0.79 to $1.29) and covered the wood models with paper. I even had a .049 glow plug engine that cost $4.95. No money to do anything more. Sure, I wanted to fly but reality faced me everyday so I didn’t get to do much of what I dreamed of at the time. Bikes and lawn mowers took over, then cars.
One thing that peaked my early interest in airplanes was I lived 10 miles form a Naval Air Station and watched the planes come and go that were on a flight path over our one house. The Willow Grove Naval Air Station had some dirigible / Rigid airships trrafic and the house wasn’t too far from Lakehurst, New Jersey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship
I did watch a series “learn how to fly” “building an experimental/kit air plane” and “build your own helicopter” on one of the “Learning Channel” TV network. I also watched almost all of the “History channel” programs about aircraft, aircraft companies and designers, and all of the history programs about helicopters and experimental aircraft.
This summer the B-17 Flying Fortress, “Sentimental Journey” was in town and I crawled/walked through it. Twenty minuet flights were ~$400. I just stuck with the $10 tour and souvenir book.
I have a neighbor that works for a bank and he flies the bank’s “Citation.” He offered to show me the plane he flies and maybe go on a short run.
My question for the people that do fly/pilot a plane is, before I go, I want to know how things work. Some people see the outside of things. I want to know how things work.
If you had an interest in flying and small jets, what you want to know before seeing the plane or flying in it? What questions would you ask once you learned some of the information how things work?
Chrom I agree, but that can be hard to do. A lot of the people who have had adventurous lives have had to spend a lot of their lives training and preparing skills to even have that adventure. It is hard to give up once it is over. I had this trouble (giving up working as an auto mechanic) when my back was hurting so much in 1986. Post 1986, I felt like I was mostly wandering around. I didn’t feel connected very firmly to my community and to people. When I couldn’t do auto repair work full steam and full time, I wasn’t grounded or connected like I had been.
Auto mechanics isn’t as exciting as flying but I spent a lot of time, effort, and money buying my own tools to carry out my trade. To have to give the 25 years I spent getting there was like losing an arm.
That is FWIW and general information about why guys live and breath what they do for a living.
(GGB smiles), yup, that's "the disease", LOL. Rarely does the person who has it even realize he does it. S14 has had it since he was a baby. S2 has it too. The others, not so bad. Based on my observation of my 5 boys, I don't think it is a boy thing, rather it is just an affliction that could strike anyone (actually I know a few female pilots who have it too). For the record, S14 is currently gathering plans to build his own airplane, and his career intentions are aeronautical engineering. He's even got his top picks of colleges already charted out, and he's only in 9th grade.
This isn't a military thing or an ego thing or even a political thing... and Cobra, you missed it. NHS gets it, but he has BTDT. My cuz knew that one day, all this would happen. Just because you know it is going to happen doesn't mean it isn't going to hurt. He is not impervious to pain.
The reason why he flew longer than most is because of his discipline and philosophy... he understood very well that those F14s weren't built for his amusement, he did/does look at it as a privilege, and he saw his fair share of combat fighting.
My step-father was a thrill seeker, and lacked the discipline of calculated risk vs needless risk. He died flying an ultra-light airplane he had modified. The modifications were unnecessary and foolish.
My cuz will be okay.
I'm talking about this because Cac said... I am a pilot that can't fly. Which made me stop. My cuz has never used the word 'pilot' and 'can't' in the same sentence.
Which made me wonder if Cac is not stuck in his 'mourning' or grieving period. The same discipline that gets you to that pilot status is the same discipline that gets you through grieving. No, you don't like it... yes, you miss it.... Cac seems stuck to me. (Kind of like what Chrome was talking about). Others have faced the exact same thing, so I'm not accusing him or bashing him if he is stuck. If I am remembering correctly, though, it has been quite a long time... ???? so... that is why I think he is stuck.
So, Cac... do you think you were in possession of that discipline I am talking about? Do you know what I'm talking about? And if you do... is it still there?
Each of those things are incredibly different, but what is felt by the people when they lose 'THE THING' they think defines them... is the same. And each and every one of them, as part of the process, will try and convince you why, "no, it isn't like that for me... it's different for me, there is no way you could possibly understand... you just don't get it."
Well...it IS different for me, and you aren't getting it. And I will attempt to explain why.
I think one reason why its hard to explain this whole thing is that the subject of "aviation" is something that very few people know much about...but everyone has an "impression" of it, (how things "work", what its like, etc, etc) and those impressions are mostly wrong. And because its not quite like anything else, its hard to draw analogies...but here goes.
The other examples of "losses" that have been given are not the same, because, as I stated before, what was lost was something that is known to only last for a limited time. They had something that they loved, but knew far ahead of time that it would end. Nobody spends 40 years flying fighters. Beauty fades. Here's another more common one: Many (most?) women mourn the loss of their fertility at some point, but it is a normal an expected passage. Women who have born multiple children, as many as they ever wanted, and absolutely, positively don't want to have any more, become depressed when they lose the mere ability to have more. But those people all "got to be" whatever it was that defined them, for whatever period it lasted. None of these people were "ripped off". They had a "loss" to mourn, but its a different kind of loss. Or, perhaps you could say that what they had is a "passage".
The only thing I can come up with that people might understand is by using a sports analogy. Like flying, its something that very few people get to do, and is very "prestigious", and its something to which most people who do it, aspire from a young age, if they have been born with the appropriate gifts...but unlike flying, everyone understands it, and has even done it, on some level. So, imagine a minor-league pitcher, a "hot prospect", taking the mound on his very first professional game. Before he gets to throw his first pitch, some nut comes out of the stands with an axe, and chops his right arm off. that's it...game over. Career over. But its a career he never really "had", so he can't move into what other ex-jocks do. those things require you to "have been", and he wasn't. Yet, he spent his youth doing lots and lots of "stuff" to get to this point of "almost there", focusing totally on this one goal, to the exclusion of any other. Sure, most of these guys go to college, but what do they study? Of what vocational value is it, should the sport disappear? not much. So, now what? It took a long, long time for me to find another path. But don't kid yourself; nothing is going to replace "pro ball". And thats what flying was, to me. So to answer your earlier question, yeah, I did some flying. kind of like my ficticious pitcher... "I played some college ball". And I was good enough to make the big-leagues, but I was robbed by a freak occurance of fate. (and that feeling of having been "robbed" is probably the source of the anger that you sense).
on the "astronaut" thing: that's different, too. sure, "how do you top walking on the moon"? Sure, I get that, but its dillema of a different sort. First of all, only 12 humans have walked on the moon. This is not a realistic career aspiration for anyone. These guys were all at the top of their field, before they undertook this task. In my analogy above, they were 10 year pro-veteran ball players, and were selected for the "all-star" team. Sort of. they have an all-star game every year, and the Apollo program was kind of a "one time thing". but the point is, they took the opportunity when it presented itself to them, but its not something
Gosh Corri, I must either be clairvoyant (sp), or I am getting this more than I realized. I saw exactly where you were going with it. And yes, I came to the same conclusion.
CAC, while it isn't quite the same, I'm sure you know some local pilots. I think most would be glad to take you flying when they go off for their $100 hamburger runs. I know if I lost my medical, I'd be taking every opportunity to fly with someone else that I could. I've also taken pilots who can't fly themselves any more for flights.
I do not want to minimize your pain, because it is very real. Hell yes it sucks. I'm pissed FOR you.
But I also know others who have been through the very thing you describe... and they only way they fought their way OUT of that endless pit of despair was to dream another dream... and go for it.
Believe it or not... THAT is the discipline of a pilot.
CAC, while it isn't quite the same, I'm sure you know some local pilots. I think most would be glad to take you flying when they go off for their $100 hamburger runs. I know if I lost my medical, I'd be taking every opportunity to fly with someone else that I could. I've also taken pilots who can't fly themselves any more for flights.
LOL! sure, I could go for "a ride". thats not whats missing.
kinda like if you gave my ficticious pitcher some ball-tickets.
um..do you think that would make him feel better...or worse?
(I am, however, going to get 4 airplane rides later this week, and I'm looking forward to that.)
