Hi all, U.S. citizen here,
I “retired” out of a very short career (less than 9 years) in mechanical engineering. It started off ok at my first company, then gradually got worse as I got new bosses and switched companies. Endless CAD drawing work, and less and less creativeness allowed, even as my salary increased over time. Finally, my physical and mental health broke down a year and a half ago at my last job, and I was forced to quit.
No unemployment, but I was fortunate to have good savings, and found a private clinic to help with a physiological condition that became intolerable for quality of life. Insurance-sponsored healthcare would likely have failed based off my research, so did not dare to try that even.
Anyhow, my completely worthless, useless skill is in designing, building, and flying walkalong gliders over the past 18 years. Yeah I'm sure you're wondering “WTF are those!?” Best to look it up, a full explanation here would be an even taller wall of text. I used to demonstrate them at a science museum in the Midwest (volunteer) before the pandemic, but recently moved out to the west coast to stay with a friend.
My gliders are fancier than normal, with multiple spinning propellers, contrarotating props, streamers, things like that. I've made slot-together multi-piece gliders and air deflector boards, giant models including a successfully-flown 5-foot span (1.5m) flying wing glider, a crude little “spruce goose”-type model with 8 spinning props. One of my favorite models is a flying wing “bomber” with six props that tows a couple delta-wing kites on short threads. I was invited to perform at a kite festival a couple years back and it was a blast! It was the most alive I felt in years, to be honest. Way bigger and crazier models are quite doable. The laws of physics allow for such based on my experience. Think 10-ft (3m) spans, 3-D printed crazy mechanisms, and the like.
Anyhow, it seems all of the above is completely USELESS to society at large, my dream would be to somehow make a living doing the above, but I'm not really sure what the best option would be to start.
I've considered YouTube videos, advertising at malls, school demonstrations, birthday party demonstrations, and even got super-close to volunteer-hosting a build and fly event at a Midwest science museum, foiled when the activity director had to quit and also due to the pandemic. I always make excuses to not pursue these options and need to stop making excuses and just try. I just started volunteering at a local science museum and hope to weasel in some glider demonstrations but it will be hard to make them fit into the museum curriculum.
Right now my motivation is way too low and I need some encouraging words. I have plane on the brain, and cannot stop the itch. Conventional aerospace engineering would not work for me: I'm afraid of being stuck making drawings for overhead compartment hinge brackets the rest of my life, in a giant soulless corporation, with no recognition or acknowledgement that I exist as a human.
If you got this far, thank you for reading!
TL;DR: been building and flying walkalong gliders for many years, want to do it for a living instead of a miserable corporate job, need uplifting words and ideas so I can make it a reality instead of a tenous dream.