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.

You, Pete? No way!

:-)

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 hope it doesn't come to that.

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.

Heck, you figured it out 14 years faster than I did. I kick myself daily
for not realizing what was possible until I was 35.

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.

No, what you say makes perfect sense.

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.

I don't know. But I guess if a pilot is able to "give up" flying *without*
some sort of a life-changing scary experience, then, perhaps, they were
never really that hooked on it in the first place? This is another concept
I cannot understand -- how can someone fly without becoming hooked on the
magic of flight? -- so perhaps I'll never be able to fathom these folks.

Flying is *not* golf, nor boating, nor motorcycling, nor anything else.
Quite simply, there is nothing else like it; so quitting -- for me --
someday, is going to be ugly, and entirely involuntary.

To simply relinquish the ability to fly of my own free will is unthinkable,
and -- since it's hard to B.S. a B.S.-er -- I always search for deeper
reasons when someone tells me they quit flying because of "the wife" or "the
job".
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"