I have just spent far too long reading this thread from the start
.
I am just about to embark on my ATPL training (at Bristol GS and ESMA in Montpelier), having spent the last 7 years as a conductor in the musical theatre industry. My previous experience is limited to 20 hours in a DA20 Katana from an RAF flying scholarship, and about 8 or 9 hours in Bulldogs/Chipmunks as part of the CCF.
Arguably, I am going from one undervalued job to another, but having looked long and hard at the pros/cons of a) both leaving a career in an industry in which I am established, and b) starting training for a new one at the (relatively old) age of 26, I have decided to go for it.
Some while ago some professional pilots mentioned how frustrating it was to be told that "all you do is push buttons and watch the plane fly itself", and in addition how the attitude of their colleagues towards FD visitors / other aviation professionals did not necessarily help.
Although the comparison may be bad, I can draw parallels to this in the theatre industry. The number of times I have been told
that conducting is "just waving your arms around" and that "any Tom, Dick or Harry [to plagarise a phrase
] can play the piano for a show" is beyond counting, and is also immensely frustrating. I am a highly trained professional doing a job that is not particularly easy, and when we have had, as we do on occasion, visitors "sitting in" the pit for a show, their arrogance and naiveté can be astounding.
(Having said that, my job is rarely "safety critical", and I don't have the responsibility of audience's lives in my hands...!
)
There is no doubt at all that being an airline pilot is an incredibly demanding and difficult job that requires a) a massively high level of training, b) enormous financial and personal commitment to even get the qualifications to apply for a job, and, I am sure, c) a certain amount of luck and applying to the right place at the right time. I mean that final point as no disrespect to any professional pilots/FOs, but it holds true for any industry where there are more qualified people than jobs...
So yes, being stuck behind a locked door for 12 or 13 hours a day is something I am willing to tolerate to do what I want to do. It may indeed get wearing, but the 500th time I played "Tell Me It's Not True" in a cramped and frankly quite smelly pit was a bit wearing. Everything, to a greater or lesser extent, becomes at some point "just a job". I never thought that conducting musicals would ever get wearing, but it does.
I am jumping into this with my eyes wide open. I hope to be among "the few" (not meaning to deify flight crews, or indeed go all "Winston Churchill" on you
) one day. It may or may not happen for me, but if I don't try I will never forgive myself...
Anyway, my thoughts. They may or may not be relevant.
All the best,
Martin