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View Full Version : Pitfalls of being an Airline Pilot?! Gotta know!


Flex_Thrust
16th Jun 2005, 01:11
Hi - Looking at an ab-initio course - I've got the cash organised, and passed the aptitude test for a training school. I would be 33 with a CPL, 200ish hrs, and the frozen ATPL.
1) What would be my employment potential? The school are optimistic, though this is nagging me a bit.
Done only 10 hours flying and its the biz. Make my mind up time now but I'm not familiar with the industry or the real life aspects of the job.
2) So once you're in the job, what is/are the most difficult/disliked part(s) of the job? (Is it commercial get-that-plane-back-up-there pressure, hours worked, time Pilots spend away from their familys, flying in bad weather with close spacing on landing, dealings with Airline Management?) Am I mad to even consider this step with such scant information?? The big bucks and 5 days on 3 off is whats really drawing me apart from the *perceived* fun of commercial flying.
Thanks
:D

Mooney12
16th Jun 2005, 03:47
Thats all pprune is..a description of the pitfalls of the job. Just read a few random threads...every aspect of the job is moaned about.

How about starting a thread on the good aspects of the job?! That would be a refreshing change...

A and C
16th Jun 2005, 06:06
It always astounds me the way pilots slag off there jobs , flying is without doubt the best job that I have ever had and each time that I have my doubts I remind myself about the two weeks that I spent eight hours a day in a Boeing 707 fuel tank with a rivit gun and an air drill.

hasell
16th Jun 2005, 07:01
Just a quick question...
Did you get your class 1 medical?

Rgds.

Has.

G SXTY
16th Jun 2005, 10:51
The school are optimistic, though this is nagging me a bit.

Nagging feelings are a good thing, they can sometimes prevent expensive mistakes. It’s hardly surprising that the school are ‘optimistic’ - being cynical, their aptitude test merely confirms you’re suitability to give them a huge amount of money. There’s a surprise. :)

It’s good that you’re considering the downsides of the job at this early stage, and there are plenty to choose from. This isn’t an exhaustive list, and in no particular order:

Fatigue
Short Haul, you could be flying 6 on 1 off, with minimum rest periods in between, Long Haul will give you more time off, but you’ll have constant jet lag to cope with. Either way, you’ll probably spend most of your life feeling knackered.

Family Life (Or lack of it)
Forget weekends, or kids’ birthdays, or Christmas, etc etc. If you are young free and single it’s less of a problem (as long as living out of a suitcase is your thing), but if you’re married with children, the job can place an enormous strain on relationships.

Health
Spending your working life in a space the size of a downstairs loo, at 8,000’ cabin altitude and 10-20% relative humidity, is not particularly healthy. Expect colds, dehydration, stress, back problems, etc etc. And, of course, your career depends on your medical (every 6 months once you turn 40). Lose your medical and it’s all over.

Management Pressure
Sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle, and in fairness it exists in most jobs. However, without sounding too melodramatic, management pressure in this job can kill you. Think about pressure to take minimum fuel, extending duty periods, working on rest days, accepting aircraft with marginal defects, landing in marginal weather - it’s a long list.

Job Insecurity
Again, it exists in many jobs, but the flying can be a risky game to get into. Airlines come and go, small airlines get absorbed into larger ones (often on worse terms and conditions – think of the pilots going from Air UK > KLM UK > Buzz > Ryanair). There are no jobs for life in flying.

Lack of Control
Another one that applies to many jobs, but it’s more extreme in aviation. Your life will be run by the rostering department, and you will constantly be running to someone else’s schedule. If that schedule involves 25 minute turn-rounds, it’s difficult to feel like you’re in charge of your own destiny – more like a glorified hamster turning a wheel. Commercial aviation is a very different world to bimbling around VFR in a Cessna.

My perspective is as a 100 hour wannabe, but although I don’t have any direct experience myself, I’ve been around long enough, had enough jumpseat rides, and broken bread with enough current airline pilots to have a good idea what the lifestyle is like. (Despite the many downsides, a lot of those pilots will still tell you it’s the best job in the world, and that they wouldn’t want to do anything else.)

All you can do is ask as many questions, and get as much information as possible, and then decide for yourself whether it’s all worth it.

Simon_Sez
16th Jun 2005, 16:00
New Kid, are you gonna do your training at an Irish FTO or overseas somewhere?

All i'll say to you is good luck, you'll love it! :)

just try to be more realistic about the big bucks for a few years... Check out www.ppjn.com (Profesional Pilots job Network) for a list of salary scales to expect.

scroggs
17th Jun 2005, 13:01
First of all, read this thread (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131649). All of it, and read all the threads it links to as well. You'll find all the answers you need, and quite a few to which you haven't thought of the questions yet.

A and C asks why pilots often 'slag off there [sic] jobs' here. The main reason that there are posts showing the downsides of the job is that many wannabes hold a totally rose-tinted impression of the job of an airline pilot, and they need to get a reality check before they commit to spending up to 100 grand on the training. It is not all sweetness and light, and you wannabes need to understand that.

That said, I still love my job after 28 years of professional flying!

Scroggs

Flex_Thrust
20th Jun 2005, 01:23
Mooney - I'll have a look for the good points on pprune - taking scroggs' advice to check out the archive threads.

A & C - more or less agree with you - theres far worse jobs around, and its an idea not to forget that. The kinds of non-palatable changes happening in aviation terms and conditions is happening lots of other places. And in any job after a decade, you won't arrive at your place of work kickin' yer heels the way you did at first. My current job involves spending 6 months annually away, months at a time, for about €40k - now Thats puttin pressure on home life.

hassell - yup! Got Cl1 Medical - probably the most important pre-requisite. And thanks for pointing that out!

G-SXTY Thanks for the notes. Talked to a pilot from Ryanair today (we were in the same career a while back - so I know his notions of 'acceptable' are comparable to mine) - their maintenance is excellent. They insist on de-icing Regardless of the cause - even if its just after fueling. They grounded a plane when a retractable light of some description was broken by a bird strike - they could safely and legally have flown it but didn't. Not takin' chances with the -200's either - FLS made a mess of trimming some kind of hull pressure seal - by using a Stanley knife to cut it off! It scored the metal lonitudinally, so they consulted Boeing and came up with the solution of adding a rivetted section down the length of the plane. And they're gettin rid of them in November I believe. Don't look forward to the job insecurity, 25 min turnarounds, or 'min fuel' pressures. I know they like the pilots to stay high where its efficient, then drop to the runway. And they maintain a league table of whos the lowest fuel consumer and whos the best time keeper. (Interesting to note, the higher you are on one, more likely you'll be lower on the other)

Simon_Sez Thanks for the website link. Want the reality thing. My Ryanair mate is on about half what I'm currently on for the first 6 months, and has used up all his savings made in the job we 've both done previously. I'll go to Jerez. Havn't heard anything to make me think otherwise, but I'm still trawling on that front.

Scroggs - thanks for the link. Posted this thread before looking at your archive. Baaad NewKid!! (I'll also see what on I Can actually find on the greener side... just to keep the valium dose low as poss at this stage!!

Guess I should go trawling through the archives and we quit this, or, anyone else got any more Constructive/ Objective suggestions/comments/questions?:suspect:

Solid Rust Twotter
20th Jun 2005, 08:03
You'll want to skewer your boss with the fuel dipper, you'll be tired and cold and have no social life but the good bits make up for the bad bits to a large extent.

Good luck.

ZUT
29th Jun 2005, 13:14
To put a more shiny slant on the subect,

Despite the down sides of commercial pressure, cramped space, long hours etc, etc, etc....

I love my job. I spend most of my life in the sunshine, albeit above the clouds rather than on a beach, my office view changes regularly. I'm not stuck in a 9 till 5 groove. I'm challenged with my physical abilities of flying the aircraft, and my mental abilities of the various bits of calculations, management skills, people skills, handling ops and the commercial pressures. The challenges of long hours etc feel more like a feat of human endurance, like running a marathon, rather than a trudge.

All in all, just enjoy.

The biggest bit of advice I can give is.... 1. Reaserch your flying school very well indeed. I was ripped off, and 2. The first job is very very hard to get. the second one is even harder, but your third will get easier.

Best of luck

Send Clowns
29th Jun 2005, 13:20
It's such a great job that people will do it despite being taken for granted a lot of the time by some companies. Hence we complain so much because it is such a fun people will do it despite the complaining. If accountants had so much to complain about no-one would ever become an accountant!

Hey - I think I just proved that we all complain because it's such a great job :p