My flying is plenty fricken exciting. I was born for this job and love it. I would discourage anyone with a casual interest from going into aviation but there is a subset of folks, as Golfer and Wolfala alluded to above, for whom flying is a passion, and to those I would say: Go for it. For what are we even on the earth for if not to be fully invested in something we find worthwhile? At its best aviation can be inspiring and ennobling. At its worst it can be pedestrian and hazardous.
The following is the sonnett that the immortal John MaGee might have written if he had flown Air Tractors instead of Spitfires:
Low Flight
Oh! I've slipped through the swirling clouds of dust,
a few feet from the dirt,
I've flown the Pawnee low enough,
to make my bottom hurt.
I've sprayed the deserts, hills,
valleys and mountains too,
Frolicked in the trees,
where only flying squirrels flew.
Chased the frightened cows along,
disturbed the ram and ewe
And done a hundred other things,
that you'd not care to do.
I've smacked the tiny sparrow,
bluebird, robin, all the rest,
I've ingested baby eaglets,
simply sucked them from their nest!
I've flown through total darkness,
just the other guy and me,
And spent the night in terror of
things I could not see.
I've turned my eyes to heaven,
as I sweated through the flight,
Put out my shaking hand and touched
the chip detector light.
Apologies to the anonymous F4 driver from whom I ripped off much of the poem.
