"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:3gULe.251379$x96.181434@attbi_s72...
[...]
It was with a heavy heart and a feeling of dismay that I bid our guest
farewell. Perhaps it was for the best that he quit flying, but I couldn't
help but think that he had given up too soon, and that with a little extra
guidance he could have made a good pilot.

He probably would have. I don't think many students, having just soloed,
would have done as well as he did during the bean field incident.

That said, not every ex-pilot's situation is the same, and just because you
can't imagine quitting flying over something more mundane, that doesn't mean
other pilots wouldn't either. We are NOT all cut from the same cloth, as
numerous off-topic discussions in this newsgroup ought to demonstrate quite
well.

Speaking from my own personal experience, flying is something I've always
wanted to do. Ever since I was a little kid, but it never occurred to me
until after college it was something I *could* do. Then I dove right in.

I still love flying. But my life is different these days. I've got a plane
I can hardly find time to use. I never did fit my lifestyle around it the
way I wanted to (it's an amphib, that hardly sees the water these days). On
top of that, other than the majority of the 600,000 or so pilots in the US,
the rest of the country is doing everything it can to simply end general
aviation. (And I find it sad that even some of that group of licensed
pilots are helping this "cause" to end aviation).

I'm normally capable of being a pretty stubborn guy, but especially as I get
older, I find I am less able to be stubborn about as wide a range of things
at one time, and I do have plenty else in my life to be stubborn about.
Quite frankly, between my own personal circumstance and what I view as a
trend toward making aviation just not worth the trouble, I have had thoughts
about just giving the whole thing up.

I relate all this simply to point out the wide variety of individual
situations that may lead to a person quitting flying. Granted, I haven't
done it yet...but I sure feel closer to doing so than I ever have, and
that's counting when I had my medical issues a few years ago (when major
surgery was the only way for me to get my medical back). Nothing's scared
me, and I feel I'm every bit a pilot as anyone else I know. But it's just
hard to see how flying fits well into my life right now.

If this "conversation" is anything like any of the others we've had in the
past, you won't understand what I'm feeling or thinking here either.

I think it's highly unlikely that your "sense" of a hidden, "life-changing
event" is accurate in most cases. I suspect that most people tell you what
they believe to be the actual reasons for giving up flying. It's just how
life is...not everyone feels exactly the way you do about flying, even
though they may be very good pilots themselves. Just because you can't
relate to their reasons, that doesn't mean their reasons aren't just as they
say.

Pete