With a plethora of friends at SWA, FEDEX, Netjets and Delta, there is one common theme in their comments about their work.... "it is just a job"..... If the most tedious task in your daily flying life is how hard it is to land in bad weather when the jet has been coupled up from 1000' on the way up to 500 feet on the way down, when you've got a good divert and at least 5 more looks before you HAVE to put the big bitch down, it will never compare to the trick or treat 25 minute late pitching deck night recovery 4 v X self escort strike Level IV SFTI hop. HAL, you know this, even though you haven't done it, you've watched. We have to think, and sometimes get lucky for the 1.something hours prior to the CATII/III equivelent task at hand.
As a pilot, I can honestly say that what lies behind the cockpit door only mattered when I was trying to justify my own importance in the world... it never mattered with bernoullis on the wing, besides flying smoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooth, self preservation and doing your job better than the dude sitting to my left or right reigned supreme.
There is no comparison. Guys leave the military because almost all aspects of the airline gig are easier, not vice versa. What makes the "aura" of the show the "aura" of the show is that many folks join the military to get an airline gig, plain and simple. Guys like me quit quitting after a taste of it. After doing the C-9 IOW TAC thing (domestic and international overwater), it is boooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring. To each his own, the airlines aren't for me either. I'll try my hand at teaching high school in a few years.
