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An average airline pilot during his career will miss 90% of all Christmases. 90% of all his/her children's birthdays, 90 of all their anniversaries. They will be medically poked every 6 months, with their job on the line. Every 6 months they will spend 4 hours of hell in a simulator with their job on the line. He/she will be away from their homes and family for 17-20 days and nights every month.

That don't sound like a lot of fun. Why not just buy a nice ultra light for about $10,000, fly it when and where you want to, and leave all the BS, whiny passengers and stress behind? I have a pilot friend that did exactly that. He just didn't want to put up with all the garbage that goes along with it. He says life is to short for all the supervisors, egos and regulations.

Great point. With the state of the industry and the degradation of the job in the past few years, I personally know many of our ranks who are doing just that. I have 3 friends had had enough, and just up and quit last month... to go to other jobs making a fraction of what they were making here. They did it for the same reasons many of us think of it... to get our lives back. To spend more time with our wives and our kids. And to once and for all get rid of the highly regulated life... Challenging work is good, but sometimes you want to just go back to a simpler way.