To wonder why 'pilots' agree to fly planes when they could crash. Why don't they become train drivers (like me)?

[Greythorne]

I have never seen a post wonderingwhy people become pilots / actors / F1 racing drivers / PR managers / air conditioning installation people.

Why are MNers so fixated on why women people become SAHP?

You should see the existential angst on PilotsNet :o

I think it's because they get the opportunity to chat up air hostesses.

cos they are jealous that they can afford to

...chat up air hostesses and walk across hazy tarmac in slow motion in navy suits to some bellowy music and then use a gillette blue whatever it is>

I just don't get it.
Driving a train fulfills me, I get paid handsomely (but I work bloody hard) and I get out of the house (saves my sanity, that does). I would go slightly mad if I didn't have the chance to drive trains.

What do pilots do all day? Automated navigation systems, co-pilots and automated pilot technology makes me wonder what the point of being a pilot is?

My friend's DH is a pilot. Nice guy, ordinary, don't fancy him in the slightest but I went round one day just as he was leaving for work in his uniform

Do you get Pan Am (tv series) in the UK? Captain Dean....now there's a lap I'd like to sit on in the cockpit.

DH reads the newspaper and eats too much when he's flying (but don't tell him I said so)

What do pilots do all day? Automated navigation systems, co-pilots and automated pilot technology makes me wonder what the point of being a pilot is?

Come on Grey, train drivers don't even steer. Ok there are more buttons but isn't train driving similar to the toy verson? i.e. Green light? Put hand on Dead Man's switch, train moves forward. Red light? Person on track? Take hands off switch :o

I don't mean to belittle your job - I agree that airline crew are just glorified train drivers/waitresses - but I couldn't resist a little poke at your self-importance.

But don't train drivers get tired of being stuck in the same country all day every day?

Well, if you're happy to take people to work and on dull trips to sidcup all day, that's your prerogative. Meanwhile, your handing responsibility for all those wonderful cultured foreign travellers over to a well-qualified automaton in a uniform. And you are missing out on the little things, like the joy on the passengers' faces when they alight the tarmac for the first time, breathing in the balmy summer air...

I prefer being with the same train crew every day. There's so many precious moments. The jokes we tell. The pranks we play. If I wasn't with my crew, I would miss out on so much.

Pilots miss all that camaraderie, stuck up in the cockpit.

They can't possibly feel the friendship and closeness I feel for the stoker and the conductor.

What do pilots do all day? Automated navigation systems, co-pilots and automated pilot technology makes me wonder what the point of being a pilot is?

Shag the stewardesses of course, in the cockpit (its not called that for nothing you know....).

That's why they never come when you ring the bluddy bell....

Grey - We don't need to know about your 'closeness' with the guy that stokes your fire :o

fredandginger - my DH is a pilot and that's a fairly good description of what he does.

I disagree, and having been both a pilot and a train driver, I know exactly what I'm talking about. You don't get the sort of quality blue sky thinking in the train driver's cab that you find in the cockpit. Pilots don't just sit there when the inflatable pilot is in charge - they give serious consideration to the meaning of life.

Pilots are less likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of someone jumping out in front of their plane to commit suicide. Could that be a factor?