- 2 days ago
What is your life really like at every rank as a pilot? ✈️
In this cinematic story, you experience the full journey from your first flight as a student pilot to your final chapter as a retired captain.
☕ Support the channel & suggest my next video idea: https://ko-fi.com/masterpov
Chapters/Timestamps:
00:00 The Student Pilot
04:01 The Private Pilot
06:15 The Instrument Rated Pilot
08:29 The Commercial Pilot
10:06 The Certified Flight Instructor
12:26 The Regional Airline First Officer
14:32 The Major Airline First Officer
16:16 The Captain
18:34 The Check Airman
20:38 The Retired Captain
This video explores the progression, pressure, and responsibility of a pilot rising through every rank from beginner to veteran.
It’s not just about flying.
It’s about discipline, precision, and making the right decisions when it matters most.
🎭 Cinematic storytelling inspired by real aviation career paths
🎬 Immersive POV experience
✈️ Focus on growth, responsibility, and life in the cockpit
If you enjoy aviation content, career progression stories, and “Your Life as Every Rank” journeys, this is for you.
Subscribe Master POV for more “Your Life as Every Rank” episodes.
In this cinematic story, you experience the full journey from your first flight as a student pilot to your final chapter as a retired captain.
☕ Support the channel & suggest my next video idea: https://ko-fi.com/masterpov
Chapters/Timestamps:
00:00 The Student Pilot
04:01 The Private Pilot
06:15 The Instrument Rated Pilot
08:29 The Commercial Pilot
10:06 The Certified Flight Instructor
12:26 The Regional Airline First Officer
14:32 The Major Airline First Officer
16:16 The Captain
18:34 The Check Airman
20:38 The Retired Captain
This video explores the progression, pressure, and responsibility of a pilot rising through every rank from beginner to veteran.
It’s not just about flying.
It’s about discipline, precision, and making the right decisions when it matters most.
🎭 Cinematic storytelling inspired by real aviation career paths
🎬 Immersive POV experience
✈️ Focus on growth, responsibility, and life in the cockpit
If you enjoy aviation content, career progression stories, and “Your Life as Every Rank” journeys, this is for you.
Subscribe Master POV for more “Your Life as Every Rank” episodes.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Level 1. The Student Pilot.
00:02You show up to a small airport on the edge of town on a Saturday morning.
00:06The building is not what you expected.
00:09It is not sleek, or modern, or impressive.
00:12It is a single-story structure with faded carpet
00:15and a front desk covered in logbooks and pamphlets about introductory flights.
00:20There is a vending machine in the corner that hasn't been restocked in weeks.
00:24A ceiling fan wobbles overhead.
00:26Instead, you are 19 years old, or maybe 35, or maybe 52.
00:32It doesn't matter. Everyone starts here.
00:36Everyone starts in this same fluorescent-lit lobby,
00:39filling out the same forms and handing over a credit card
00:42for the first of many payments that will quietly rearrange your entire financial life.
00:48Your instructor is a 23-year-old kid who has 400 hours of flight time
00:52and is using this job as a stepping stone to the airlines.
00:55He doesn't tell you that.
00:57He shakes your hand and walks you out to the ramp,
01:00where a Cessna 172 is parked.
01:02The plane is older than you are.
01:05The paint is chipped.
01:06One of the wheel fairings is cracked.
01:09It smells like avgas and vinyl and decades of nervous sweat
01:13from people sitting in the exact seat you're about to sit in.
01:16You climb in.
01:18The cockpit is smaller than you imagined.
01:21The instruments look like they belong in a museum.
01:24Your instructor runs through the pre-flight checklist like he's done it a thousand times.
01:29Because he has.
01:30You taxi to the runway.
01:32Your hands are shaking.
01:34He tells you to push the throttle forward.
01:37The engine roars.
01:38The ground blurs.
01:40And then the wheels leave the pavement and you are flying.
01:44And for about four seconds, everything in your life makes sense in a way it never has before.
01:50That feeling costs you $180 an hour.
01:54You will chase it for years.
01:56You fly twice a week if you can afford it.
01:59Sometimes once a week.
02:01Sometimes you go three weeks without flying because rent was due,
02:04or your car broke down,
02:05or the weather was bad for nine days straight.
02:08Every gap costs you.
02:11Skills decay fast in the beginning.
02:13You spend the first 20 minutes of every lesson relearning what you forgot since the last one.
02:18You practice takeoffs and landings until the pattern feels like a prison.
02:23Climb to pattern altitude.
02:25Turn crosswind.
02:26Turn downwind.
02:27Reduce power.
02:28Add flaps.
02:30Turn base.
02:31Turn final.
02:32Flare.
02:33Land.
02:34Again.
02:35Again.
02:36Again.
02:38Your landings are terrible.
02:40You bounce.
02:41You float.
02:42You slam the wheels into the pavement so hard your spine compresses.
02:46Your instructor grabs the controls more often than you'd like to admit.
02:50You go home and watch YouTube videos of other students landing perfectly,
02:54and you wonder if you're the only person who's ever been this bad at something they want this badly.
03:01Then, one morning, your instructor unbuckles his seatbelt, opens the door, and steps out of the airplane.
03:07He looks at you and says,
03:09Take it around the pattern three times.
03:11He closes the door.
03:13You are alone in an aircraft for the first time.
03:16The right seat is empty.
03:18No one is going to save you.
03:21You taxi to the runway, and your legs are trembling on the rudder pedals,
03:25and you push the throttle forward, and the plane lifts off lighter than it's ever felt,
03:30because his weight is gone.
03:31And you climb into the sky completely alone.
03:35And you realize that no one on the ground can help you now.
03:38You land.
03:40It isn't pretty, but you land.
03:42You taxi back, and he's standing on the ramp, grinning.
03:46And you climb out, and he shakes your hand,
03:48and someone cuts the back of your shirt with scissors, because that's the tradition.
03:52And you stand there in the sun, holding a piece of your own shirt,
03:56feeling something you will spend the rest of your career trying to feel again.
04:00Level 2.
04:02The Private Pilot
04:03You have your certificate.
04:0560 hours in your logbook, maybe 70.
04:08You pass the checkride with a designated pilot examiner,
04:11who asked you questions about weather and airspace and emergency procedures
04:14for two hours on the ground,
04:16and then watched you fly for another hour and a half while scribbling on a clipboard.
04:21You made one mistake on the oral, and two in the air,
04:24and he passed you anyway, because the mistakes were minor, and your recovery was good.
04:29You are now legally allowed to carry passengers.
04:32You are also acutely aware of how little you actually know.
04:37You take your friends flying.
04:38They're excited.
04:40You're terrified.
04:42Not of crashing.
04:43Of looking incompetent.
04:45You plan the flight obsessively.
04:47You check the weather four times.
04:50You brief your passengers on the seatbelts and the doors,
04:52and what to do if something goes wrong.
04:55You taxi out and take off,
04:57and your friend in the right seat says,
04:59this is amazing.
05:00And you feel like a god for about 15 minutes,
05:03until you hit turbulence and your passenger turns green.
05:07And you land at a small airport, and they throw up in the parking lot.
05:11Welcome to General Aviation.
05:14You fly on weekends.
05:15You fly to breakfast at airports with diners on the field.
05:19You fly to small towns you've never visited.
05:21You fly at sunset because the light at altitude is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen,
05:27and no photograph captures it.
05:29You are burning money at an alarming rate,
05:32and you don't care,
05:33because every time you climb above the clouds,
05:36you feel like you've escaped something.
05:39The commute.
05:40The cubicle.
05:41The ordinary weight of being a person on the ground.
05:44Up here, you are something else.
05:48You know this feeling is temporary.
05:50You know the bills are real.
05:52You know 200 hours of flight time doesn't make you an expert.
05:56But you also know that you've found the thing.
06:00The thing that some people spend their whole lives looking for and never find.
06:05You found it at 3,500 feet in a 40-year-old airplane that burns 8 gallons an hour.
06:12And you are not letting go.
06:14Level 3.
06:16The instrument-rated pilot.
06:18You go back to training because the private certificate isn't enough.
06:21You want to fly in clouds.
06:23You want to fly at night without worrying about getting trapped above an overcast layer.
06:29You want to be a real pilot,
06:31not a fair-weather hobbyist who cancels every time the ceiling drops below 3,000 feet.
06:36So you start instrument training.
06:38And it breaks you.
06:40Flying instruments means flying the airplane without looking outside.
06:44You wear a view-limiting device.
06:46A plastic visor that blocks everything except the instrument panel.
06:51Your entire world shrinks to 6 gauges.
06:54Airspeed, attitude, altitude, turn coordinator, heading, vertical speed.
07:00You scan them in a pattern.
07:02Over and over.
07:05Your instructor talks to air traffic control while you try to hold a heading within 2 degrees
07:09and an altitude within 100 feet and a speed within 10 knots while also configuring the navigation
07:16radios and briefing the approach plate and listening to the controller give you vectors that you need to read back
07:22correctly
07:22while the airplane is bouncing through actual clouds and you can't see anything outside the window except gray.
07:29It is the hardest thing you have ever done.
07:32You fail constantly.
07:34You bust altitudes.
07:36You fly through headings.
07:38You get behind the airplane, which is a polite way of saying the airplane is flying you instead of the
07:43other way around.
07:44Your instructor saves you more times than you want to count.
07:47You study approach plates until the symbols swim in front of your eyes.
07:51You memorize minimums and missed approach procedures and holding patterns.
07:56You fly in actual instrument conditions and the clouds swallow the airplane and there is nothing outside
08:02and you realize with complete clarity that if these instruments fail right now, you will die
08:08because you have no idea which way is up.
08:11You trust the gauges.
08:12You fly the procedures.
08:14You break out of the clouds at 400 feet and the runway is right in front of you,
08:19exactly where the approach said it would be,
08:21and you feel a satisfaction that has nothing to do with fun and everything to do with competence.
08:27You are becoming a pilot.
08:29Level 4.
08:30The Commercial Pilot
08:33You've hit 250 hours.
08:35You passed another checkride.
08:37You now hold a Commercial Pilot Certificate,
08:39which means you are legally allowed to be paid to fly.
08:43The irony is that almost no one will pay you to fly with 250 hours.
08:48The certificate is a credential.
08:50The jobs that come with it are humble.
08:53You fly banner towplanes over beaches in the summer, dragging advertising banners to the sky at 500 feet while tourists
09:00look up.
09:01You fly skydivers to altitude in a beat-up Cessna 182 with the door removed,
09:06climbing to 10,000 feet, dumping a load of jumpers, diving back down, and doing it again 14 times a
09:13day.
09:14You fly pipeline patrol in a low-wing Piper, following oil pipelines across flat, empty land,
09:20looking for leaks and construction encroachment, alone for hours at a time with nothing but the engine noise and your
09:27own thoughts.
09:29The pay is criminal.
09:31You make $25,000 a year if you're lucky.
09:34You live with three roommates.
09:36You eat ramen.
09:38You are a professional pilot, and you are below the poverty line.
09:42You do it because every hour in your logbook is a brick in the wall that will eventually get you
09:48to the airlines.
09:49That is the goal.
09:51That has always been the goal.
09:53The airlines are where the money is.
09:55The airlines are where the stability is.
09:58Everything before the airlines is the price of admission.
10:01And the price is steep, and it takes years to pay.
10:05Level 5.
10:07The Certified Flight Instructor
10:08You can't build hours fast enough doing banner tow and skydiving runs,
10:13so you do what almost every aspiring airline pilot does.
10:17You become an instructor.
10:19You go back to the same kind of flight school where you started.
10:22The same faded carpet.
10:24The same vending machine.
10:25The same nervous students showing up for their first lesson.
10:29Except now, you're in the right seat.
10:32You teach people to fly.
10:34You teach them the same things your instructor taught you.
10:37How to hold altitude.
10:39How to make a coordinated turn.
10:41How to recover from a stall.
10:43How to land without breaking the airplane.
10:45You say the same phrases your instructor said.
10:48Watch your airspeed.
10:50More right rudder.
10:52You're behind the airplane.
10:53You hear his voice coming out of your mouth,
10:55and you realize that this is how knowledge survives.
10:59It passes from one person to the next in a cramped cockpit at 3,000 feet.
11:04You are building hours.
11:06That is the real reason you are here.
11:08Every hour you teach is an hour in your logbook.
11:11You need 1,500 hours to qualify for the airlines.
11:16You have 400.
11:17The math is simple and depressing.
11:20At 80 hours a month, which is a busy month, it will take you over a year.
11:25Some months you fly 40 hours because students cancel,
11:29because weather cancels, because the airplane breaks.
11:32You track your hours obsessively.
11:35You update your logbook every night.
11:37You watch the number climb, and you calculate how many months are left,
11:41and you try not to think about the fact that you are 27 years old,
11:45and you make less money than a shift manager at a fast food restaurant.
11:50But something happens during this time that you don't expect.
11:53You become a better pilot.
11:56Not because you're flying challenging missions.
11:58Because you're teaching.
12:00You have to explain things you've always done by instinct.
12:04You have to break down complex maneuvers into simple steps.
12:07You have to anticipate mistakes before they happen.
12:11You have to stay calm when a student does something terrifying.
12:15You develop patience you didn't know you had.
12:17You develop judgment you couldn't have built any other way.
12:21The hours are the currency.
12:23But the skill is the real payoff.
12:26Level 6. The Regional Airline First Officer.
12:29You hit 1,500 hours.
12:32You apply to regional airlines.
12:34Endeavor. Republic. SkyWest. PSA. Envoy.
12:38The names don't mean much to passengers,
12:40because regional airlines operate under the brands of the majors.
12:43You fly a Delta Connection flight,
12:46or an American Eagle flight,
12:47or a United Express flight.
12:49But your paycheck comes from a company most people have never heard of.
12:53You go through training,
12:54ground school,
12:55simulator sessions,
12:57a check ride in a full motion simulator that costs $20 million
13:00and makes you sweat through your shirt.
13:02You earn your type rating in a regional jet,
13:05the Embraer 175,
13:07or the CRJ 700,
13:09or whatever the airline flies.
13:11Your first day in the right seat of a real airliner,
13:14a jet with passengers behind you,
13:16is surreal.
13:17You've spent years in single-engine propeller planes,
13:20and now you're in a cockpit with glass displays
13:22and an autopilot and a thrust management system,
13:25and you're responsible for 76 lives in the cabin.
13:28The captain next to you has 12,000 hours.
13:31You have 1,500.
13:34He knows it.
13:35You know it.
13:36He watches you without watching you.
13:38He lets you fly and corrects you gently,
13:40and you learn more in the first month
13:42than you learned in the previous year.
13:44The schedule is brutal.
13:46You are on reserve,
13:47which means you sit in your crash pad apartment
13:49waiting for the phone to ring.
13:51When it rings,
13:52you have two hours to get to the airport.
13:54You fly four legs a day sometimes,
13:56short hops,
13:5745 minutes up,
13:5945 minutes down.
14:00You see the inside of 15 different airports in a week,
14:03and they all blur together.
14:05You are away from home 15 to 18 days a month.
14:08Your crash pad is a bedroom shared with three other pilots
14:11in a cheap apartment near the airport.
14:13You sleep in a twin bed next to a stranger
14:15who flies for a different airline and snores.
14:18The first year pay at a regional
14:19is around $60,000 to $75,000.
14:23Better than instructing.
14:24Still not what your college roommate makes in finance.
14:27You remind yourself this is temporary.
14:30This is the last step.
14:32Level 7.
14:33The Major Airline First Officer.
14:35You get the call.
14:37Delta,
14:38United,
14:39American,
14:39Southwest,
14:40one of the big ones.
14:41You've been at the regional for three years,
14:44maybe four.
14:44You have 5,000 hours.
14:46You pass the interview,
14:48the psychological evaluation,
14:49the background check,
14:51the simulator evaluation.
14:52You are hired at a major airline
14:54and you feel like you've just been accepted
14:56into a different country.
14:58One with better pay
14:59and better schedules
15:00and better hotels
15:01and better everything.
15:03Training takes three months.
15:05A new aircraft type,
15:07the Boeing 737
15:08or the Airbus A320
15:10or whatever the airline assigns you
15:12based on seniority.
15:13And your seniority is the lowest in the company
15:15because you just got here.
15:17You are a new hire.
15:20You fly the least desirable routes
15:21on the least desirable schedules.
15:24Red eyes,
15:24holidays,
15:25back of the roster trips
15:27that senior pilots wouldn't touch.
15:29But the pay.
15:31The first year pay at a major airline
15:32is around $100,000
15:34to $120,000.
15:36By year five,
15:38you're making $200,000 or more.
15:40The trajectory is real.
15:42The career you've been building
15:44for a decade
15:44is finally paying off in a way
15:46that feels proportional
15:47to what you sacrificed.
15:49You fly longer legs now,
15:51cross-country flights,
15:52international flights
15:53if you're on a wide body.
15:54You see cities you've never visited.
15:57You eat hotel breakfasts
15:59in Denver
15:59and Phoenix
16:00and Boston
16:01and Miami
16:01and you start to lose track
16:03of where you woke up this morning.
16:05The job becomes routine,
16:07which sounds like a complaint
16:08but isn't.
16:09Routine means safe.
16:11Routine means predictable.
16:13Routine means you can finally plan a life.
16:16Level eight,
16:17the captain.
16:18You've been at the major airline
16:20for eight years,
16:21maybe 12,
16:22depending on how fast
16:22the airline is growing
16:23and how many people above you retired.
16:26Seniority determines everything
16:28in the airlines.
16:29Your schedule,
16:30your aircraft,
16:31your base,
16:32your seat.
16:33You bid for captain
16:34and your seniority number
16:35is finally high enough.
16:37You go back to training.
16:39The upgrade from first officer
16:40to captain
16:41is the most significant transition
16:42in an airline pilot's career.
16:45You are no longer
16:46the person who assists.
16:47You are the person
16:48who decides.
16:49The left seat feels different,
16:51not physically.
16:53Physically,
16:53it's the same cockpit.
16:55But the weight is different.
16:57Every decision is yours.
16:59When to divert.
17:01When to refuse a runway.
17:03When to call for an evacuation.
17:05When to tell 180 passengers
17:08that the flight is canceled
17:09because you don't like
17:10the way the weather looks,
17:11even though dispatch is telling you
17:13it's fine.
17:14Your name is on the flight.
17:16Your certificate is on the line.
17:19If something goes wrong,
17:20the investigation starts with you.
17:23You make $350,000 a year.
17:26Maybe more,
17:27depending on the aircraft
17:28and the airline.
17:29You fly wide-body jets
17:31across oceans.
17:32You eat dinner in London
17:33and breakfast in New York.
17:35You command a crew
17:36of 10 to 15 people.
17:38Two pilots,
17:398 to 12 flight attendants.
17:41All of them looking to you
17:42when things get complicated.
17:44You've been flying for 20 years.
17:46You have 15,000 hours
17:48in your logbook.
17:50You've flown through thunderstorms
17:51and ice and windshear
17:53and mechanical failures
17:54and medical emergencies
17:55and passengers who tried
17:57to open the cabin door
17:58at 35,000 feet.
18:00You've seen everything.
18:02And you know that the moment
18:03you think you've seen everything
18:04is the moment you become dangerous.
18:07You train new first officers now.
18:10Kids with 1,500 hours
18:12and wide eyes
18:13who remind you of yourself.
18:15You let them fly.
18:16You correct them gently.
18:18You tell them stories
18:19about your regional days
18:21and they laugh
18:21and you don't tell them
18:23about the parts
18:23that weren't funny.
18:24The loneliness.
18:26The poverty.
18:27The years of wondering
18:28if it would ever pay off.
18:30You just tell them
18:31it's worth it.
18:32Because it was.
18:34Level 9.
18:35The Czech Airman.
18:36The airline asks you
18:38to become a Czech Airman.
18:39A training captain.
18:40This is the highest operational role
18:42a line pilot can hold.
18:44You still fly the line,
18:46still carry passengers,
18:47still bid a schedule.
18:49But you also evaluate other pilots.
18:51You sit in the right seat
18:53while captains demonstrate
18:54their proficiency.
18:55You sit in the simulator
18:57while first officers
18:58attempt their upgrade to captain.
19:00You watch them fly
19:01and you decide if they're ready.
19:03If they're safe.
19:04If they have the judgment
19:05to sit in the left seat
19:07with 200 people behind them.
19:09This is an enormous responsibility.
19:11You are the gatekeeper.
19:13The person who says,
19:14yes, you're ready to be a captain.
19:16Or, no, you need more training.
19:19Saying no is harder
19:20than anyone outside aviation
19:22can understand.
19:23You are telling a pilot
19:24who has spent
19:25their entire adult life
19:26building toward this moment
19:27that they are not there yet.
19:30Some of them take it well.
19:31Some of them don't.
19:33Some of them appeal.
19:35Some of them improve
19:36and pass the next time.
19:38Some of them never make it.
19:39You lose sleep
19:41over every failure
19:42because you know
19:43what it costs them.
19:44And you also know
19:45that putting an unready captain
19:47in charge of an airplane
19:48full of people
19:48costs something far worse.
19:51You also serve
19:52on safety committees.
19:53You review incidents
19:54and accidents.
19:56You study what went wrong
19:57and you help design
19:58the training
19:58that prevents it
19:59from happening again.
20:01You sit in rooms
20:02with engineers and regulators
20:03and other Czech airmen
20:04and you argue
20:05about procedures
20:06and standards.
20:07and you know
20:08that the boring
20:08bureaucratic work
20:09you do in these rooms
20:10saves lives
20:11that will never know
20:12they were saved.
20:14You are 55 years old.
20:16You have 25,000 hours.
20:18You have landed
20:19on every continent
20:20except Antarctica.
20:22You have been struck
20:23by lightning twice.
20:24You have lost an engine
20:26over the Pacific
20:26and brought the airplane home.
20:28You don't talk about
20:29these things
20:30at dinner parties.
20:31You talk about the weather
20:32and the hotels
20:33and the layovers.
20:34The real stuff
20:36stays in the cockpit
20:37where it belongs.
20:38Level 10
20:39The Retired Captain
20:40You fly your last flight
20:42on a Tuesday in October.
20:44The airline knows
20:45it's your last flight.
20:46The crew knows.
20:47Your family is in the cabin.
20:49The gate agent
20:50makes an announcement.
20:51The flight attendants
20:52say something over the PA.
20:54When you land
20:55and taxi to the gate
20:56the fire trucks
20:57are waiting.
20:58They arch water
20:59over the airplane
21:00in a ceremonial salute.
21:01You shut down
21:02the engines
21:03for the last time.
21:04You sit in the cockpit
21:05for a moment
21:06after everyone
21:06has deplaned
21:07and you look at
21:08the instruments
21:08and the switches
21:09and the view out
21:10the windshield
21:11and you try to memorize it
21:12because you know
21:13you will never sit here again.
21:15You walk through
21:16the terminal
21:16in your uniform
21:17and people you've never met
21:19shake your hand
21:19because someone told them
21:21it's your last day.
21:22You smile.
21:23You thank them.
21:24You feel something
21:25you can't quite name.
21:27Not sadness.
21:28Not relief.
21:30Something that lives
21:31between the two.
21:32You go home.
21:33The house is quiet.
21:34Your wife asks you
21:36how your last flight was
21:37and you say it was good
21:38and you sit down
21:39and you don't know
21:40what to do with your hands.
21:42Tomorrow there is no alarm.
21:43No crew scheduling call.
21:45No pre-flight checklist.
21:47No runway.
21:48No rotation.
21:49No climb.
21:51No cruise.
21:52For the first time
21:53in 35 years
21:54nobody needs you
21:55to take them anywhere.
21:56You have 30,000 hours
21:58in your logbook.
21:59You have flown
22:00800 different airplanes.
22:01You have carried
22:02a million passengers
22:03to places they needed to be.
22:05Weddings.
22:06Funerals.
22:07Job interviews.
22:08First dates.
22:09Last goodbyes.
22:11You were the invisible person
22:12in the cockpit
22:13who got them there safely
22:14and they never knew your name
22:16and that was fine.
22:17That was the job.
22:19You wake up early
22:20because your body
22:20doesn't know how to sleep
22:21past 4 a.m. anymore.
22:23You drink coffee
22:24on the porch
22:25and watch the sky
22:26and you see a contrail
22:27at 35,000 feet
22:28and you wonder
22:29where it's going.
22:30You know the route
22:31by the direction
22:32and the altitude.
22:33Probably transatlantic.
22:35Probably heading east.
22:36The captain up there
22:37is doing the job
22:38you used to do.
22:39They're monitoring
22:40the autopilot
22:41and reviewing the fuel numbers
22:42and talking to
22:43Gander Oceanic
22:44and they have no idea
22:45that an old man
22:46on a porch in Virginia
22:47is watching them fly over
22:49and remembering
22:50what it felt like
22:50to be up there.
22:52Somewhere right now
22:53a kid is sitting
22:54in the lobby
22:54of a small flight school
22:55at a small airport
22:56on the edge of town.
22:58The carpet is faded.
22:59The vending machine
23:00is half empty.
23:01A ceiling fan
23:02wobbles overhead.
23:04They're filling out forms
23:05and handing over
23:06a credit card
23:07and their hands
23:08are shaking slightly
23:09because they know
23:09they're about to do
23:10the thing they've dreamed about
23:11since they were 6 years old
23:13watching airplanes
23:14climb out of the airport
23:15near their house.
23:16They have no idea
23:17what the next 35 years
23:18will cost them.
23:19The money.
23:20The time.
23:21The missed birthdays.
23:23The loneliness.
23:24The exhaustion.
23:25The years of poverty wages.
23:27The slow grind
23:28from a single engine trainer
23:29to a wide body jet
23:31crossing oceans
23:31in the dark.
23:32They have no idea
23:34that this career
23:34will hollow them out
23:35and fill them back up
23:37with something
23:37they can never fully explain
23:38to anyone
23:39who hasn't lived it.
23:40But they'll figure it out.
23:42They always do.
23:43The cycle continues.
23:45They always do.
23:45use.
23:45The
23:45use.
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