Aviation career that is.
After 25 years plugging away in the wonderful world of aviation, I sold the last bit of paraphernalia I had left (a Jeppesen Whizz Wheel circular slide rule). All the rest sold, donated, given away, or just thrown out. I gave my father the last of my Jep chart binders, and a week later, he too retired after 45 years at it (TAA, Australian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Jetstar).
All over. I love flying - as in stick and rudder (I do a lot of aerobatics as well as flying vintage stuff), but I LOATHE flying as a job. I even taught airline cadets for 3 years near the end, and it scares me to know that half of them wouldn't know how to fly if you forget to keep putting coins in the computer game - I wouldn't send my family up in a dark stormy night with most "pilots" these days. They know how to work the computers, do what they are told and what is in the book, but when all that goes out the window, well... spine shivers (shades of Air France...).
Plus the fact my first daughter did not even know me for the first 9 months of her life, and my wife saw me 3 times a week if lucky (or unlucky). I'll keep current in a recreational way, but won't even bother with Class I medicals, let alone IR renewals.
Back to lab work. I think I'd rather play with
Pseudomonas aeruginosa than do a SID or shoot an ILS any more
