Some time ago, I promised Panzerrat a quote from Ernest Gann's "Fate is the Hunter". I finally found it (after I got back on my meds). It's a short bit on what makes a pilot tick. Here it is.
"Separation of the dedicated from the merely hopeful has been a crafty affair performed mostly by the line's chief pilots. ...they do what they can to see within an applicant. They try to picture him a few years hence, when he may find himself beset with troubles aloft.
How will he behave in sole command, when a quick decision or even a sudden movement can make the difference between safety and tragedy? Yet the chief pilots do not look for heroes. They much prefer a certain intangible stability, which in moments of crisis is often found among the more irascible and reckless."
