This is my life

It doesn't have to be flying, it can be anything he finds release in- probably with either himself or someone he trusts deeply in control. Kink could do it- but I suspect he'd have a non-kinky alternative when it wasn't available, if he wasn't in a long term relationship or didn't have a really excellent relationship with a professional. (Rodney as a professional dungeon owner... has that been done?) He could go top or sub, really, he'd be after the endorphin rush. Rollercoasters, biking, paragliding, surfing, any of it could work- and on a darker side, if he was introduced to the concept slowly and never wanted to be a pilot, I could see him as a drug addict, actually.

His defining element is that he doesn't believe in going along with the herd when it doesn't suit him, or when he thinks it hurts people. I could see him as an accountant in the daily numbers crunching grind, but not so much in the abiding by the IRS laws part, or in the telling needy people the government can't do anything to help them part. (Accountants aren't evil, but they make their job by knowing the rules, not by making or changing the rules.)

All of this is bound by his sense of justice- the reason he broke free was because he eventually realized that not only did he not want to go along with his dad, but that it was *unjust* of his dad to demand he be miserable for the rest of his life in order for his dad to be (marginally, superficially) happy.

I'm actually not very good at writing him- unless he's in ProtectRodney!mode, which is just fun. I'm fonder of Rodney, and identify much, much more with him. But I admire John's lack of intellectual elitism (which Rodney lost over time in Atlantis- at least somewhat- I really can't stand the fics that posit that being brilliant means always being right, ethically), his sense of justice, and his drive to be a decent person, even when that means going against his first instincts. (He might want to say some of the stuff Rodney does, but he doesn't.)

Wouldn't want to be married to him, though. Oy.