I can certainly appreciate what you are saying; I think I would have enjoyed that kind of flying immensely.
I inferred from some of your posts that you did or are doing some airline flying after your military career. I hope I am not mistaken.
I am pretty confident that memories of waiting your turn at 06:30, for a de-ice spray during light freezing rain do not jump to the top of your best days in aviation list.
The military flying was beyond describable fun. The before and after BS in peacetime tended to be an irritating survival effort since it had nothing to do with flying, and everything to do with politics.
Yes, I did 21 years in the airlines after that, mostly in 737s (-100, 200, 300, 500, 700, 800). A short stint in the BE1900 before that. And yeah, just like Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself, the proper use of the trim cutoff switches would have saved those two Max 8s.
Oh yes, the dreaded de-ice pad. As a mostly pm flyer, mine were very late in the evening or the wee hours of the morning. So very frustrating to have a long day of on time departures and arrivals jinxed by having to de-ice before takeoff on the last leg. That was always good for at least 20 minutes late, IF everything was going smoothly getting to the pad, getting sprayed, and out to the runway. The majority of the time, as you know, that didn’t happen very efficiently.
