A long time ago in a land far away I flew for a few years... Picked up my private ticket, multi ticket, and was working on my commercial when I decided to stop. It was a blast but even in the mid 70's it was a very expensive hobby. I stayed primarily with Cessna tri gears.
I had a friend that learned the same time as I and owned an old Piper Cub J3 tail dragger.
In my opinon. it's easier to jump off a 10 story building with a pogo stick and not bounce then to land that thing with without coming back up into the air at least once!
Anyway, my friend went on to fly DC3s on midnight cargo runs out of Love Field in Dallas to Minneapolis area and back. I think he was paid about 15K a year back then. Did it for years and logged 30K hours... ended up losing his family to long hours away from home...
His big break came when he borrowed 10K to get 10 hours in a 737 and his flight ticket. When United's pilots went on strike years ago he crossed the picket line and got a job. Now he's in the capt seat running Denver to LA to Far East (Tokyo) route. He bought a hanger and lives in the upstairs at Love field. Catches a flight to "commute" to Denver to make his run! Piper long gone, now he has a twin engine downstairs...
BTW, he never tells his peers when he hired on!
One more thing, I rode Co-Pilot with him once in the DC3. Sitting still you are HIGH in the air in that cockpit! As the tail lifts the nose drops and you lift off. A great flight...
