Hey Cameltoe2006, how are you? I am glad things are working out well for you. Have heard from others you are quite happy. But with your friendly personality and positive attitude I am sure you would be happy flying anything. Not that fighter pilots should ever fly anything that does not have Martin Baker stamped on the seat
Thanks for the nice words but we need to get a San Miguel soon. You know that low level light is own _ECAM action. Stop work, drink beer. Clear ECAM.
Guys and Gals, I said it before and I will stand by that. ABY is not for everyone and some of the reasons have been explained very well by others. But I do disagree with one thing C-toe said
“I came from an island country (small but beautiful) which is almost 9 hrs flight away in SE Asia.” Of course I do not disagree with your beautiful homeland but the part,
“…most of them [pilots] too come from neighboring Middle East countries and India [we don’t have Indian pilots if you don’t count Saleem who flew for United Airlines in the States but 4 Pakistanis]
so it's like they never left home at all.”
Emphases added by me.
I don’t fully agree with this statement. In the early days the vast majority of non-management pilots came from North America and Europe. The CP (Glen Burns) was a Canadian and 50% or more of the line guys were North Americans or Europeans. Granted that was in the early days but it did not change all that much.
Yes some of the Arabian guys live quite close. It is easy for an Omani or a Bahraini to go home with 1 day off. It is equally easy for an Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, to go home, but that is not the norm even today. As a matter of fact just this month one of the Egyptian Captain left because “he missed home.”
There is a large contingent of Columbian pilots in the company with Brazilians gaining fast. A couple Columbians have left to go elsewhere while a couple guys have left other companies to come to ABY. Most North Americans consist of Canadians with 2 USA and 1 Mexican as well. Most European countries are represented from Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. The Germans are short (the only one we had, left a couple years ago) but the Swiss have taken up the slack with now 3 Swiss on property. There is an ever growing French population as well as several Italian pilots that abound in the cockpits. Spanish from Spain and Portuguese from Portugal are able to converse in their native tong with Mexicans in Spanish and Brazilians in Portuguese. The ever present Brit and Irish still exist along with a large group of North Africans from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
The Russians are coming! An ever increasing number of pilots are coming from the former Soviet Union stretching from Armenia to Ukraine over to Eastern Russia. A Bulgarian, a Turk and a Check are also new to the cockpit. What is missing is the Asian group of pilots.
Cameltoe is quite right with respect to some pilots having the ability to go home easily, however, your 9 hours to get home is only half the time for some of us. Those guys going to South America or Western USA and Canada, spend 13 hours getting to the East Coast and another 7-8 hours to get home after a plane change. Several of our pilots have to make 3+ aircraft changes just to get home. As a matter of fact I would say 9 hours commuting to home is less time than needed by over 20% of our pilots (I know it is less than 50% of the time needed for me
Even the guys going to North Africa; Tunisia, Morocco etc have nearly the same time as going to the PI.
I did not write this to directly argue with Cameltoe for what he says is mainly right with respect to the pilots. However, I noticed something else in his writing. I do know him and have flown with him and his abilities are above reproach, but there was something in the writing that bothered me. I understood when I saw his personal writings about family.
In all the cases I wrote about above there is professional camaraderie throughout the company. Portuguese and Brazilians, Armenians and Ukrainians, Mexicans and Spanish, USA Americans and Canadians, Danes and Swedes, French Tunisians and French, Swiss and Italians, etc. all had someone to associate with – well there are the Irish
They have the ability to talk in their native language, share different yet similar culture and the proverbial war stories. Those from the same country have even more commonality, but if you are a lone wolf then there is probably some country in the company that is represented and your culture will be close. That is what happened to Cameltoe with the under representation of Asia in the company.
Of course the company is full of people from his native land and his fellows are well represented in the UAE but pilots, we are a different breed. How many of you, in your native land, had a personal relationship between families with a maid, or a bartender? How many times did the gardener in your home town go out to dinner with your family? For that matter how many computer programmers, medical analysts, engineers and lawyers did you have a social connection with in your homeland? Probably not too many and that creates problems here if pilots from your location do not exist in the community.
I am not so arrogant as to say why Cameltoe left. We talked about it and I believe he made a good decision. But I am sure that was one factor, not to mention the 9 hours in coach It is something every pilot needs to consider when coming to the sand pit, not just ABY.
Yet I will say this with respect to family. Of course I come from a different culture and we have different concepts of familiar responsibilities. Families are resilient and in my case coming to the sand pit was a family choice. Everyone had a say and everyone has their responsibilities today. Toys, game boys, dolls, malls, skiing, beach, dreamland and Wild Wadi, are toys for families. My 7, 9 & 14 year old boys each have their own separate large bedroom with their own bathroom. Every night they try to sleep together in one bed. Even when we make them sleep apart they get up in the night and crawl into their brother’s (or when she let’s them their sister’s) room. We have had times when 4 kids are sleeping in one double bed for absolutely NO reason. Why? That is what kids do. It is not about the stuff but what we, as family, make it.
Do you remember your campouts? You huddled together in a sleeping bag in a tent pitched in the back yard; getting as close to each other as you could on a sticky summer night. Well our flying schedule has nothing to do with that. Of course I wish I were not so tired as to be able to do more after a trip. One of the most difficult things about ABY, if you worked for a legacy airline in the past, is that your family has a set of expectations. Dad comes home after a trip (1,2,3,4 or 5 days doesn’t matter.) When Dad comes home you leave him alone for 24 hours. Then you do things as a family for a few days until Dad leaves again. At ABY your family may still think this way and as Cameltoe stated you only sleep to go to work again.
But there is a difference.
You will run out of flying time doing this. I am in my 4th year at ABY and for the last 3 years I have had at least 4 consecutive weeks off (not including leave) due to 900 hours. In 2005 I did not even take leave because there was no need too. I was off from early July to mid September – uninterrupted due to 900 hours. In 06 it was July – August. In 07 it was 3 weeks in July and I have had 1 trip since the 10th of October – done for the month.
“People can say this or that, but would they actually care if my family is unhappy? Well I didn't think so.” I will go one step further and say I know so. It is always up to you to provide whatever your family needs first and desires second. I do not believe any one of us could do our job knowing our family was in need or want of something, and for that I applaud your decision. I simply disagree with what they need and truly want.
Of course I have had the problems with my wife for years. When we got married she left her country and flew half way around the world to a strange new land with strange customs and people. Today she understands those people and has no problem living in that country. When she came to the UAE (after many years in that first new country) it became an extension of the first chore and was easily solved by her. It is our job to educate our families, provide them with all the information, make sure they have the needs and force them to evaluate their true wants. Otherwise, in the case of non-pilot wives, unless they are living with their mom and dad, they will never understand their true wants.
Anyway I did not want to make this a philosophy lesson but I did want to stress the differences in context for what Cameltoe2006 stated. Some people have different levels of coping and each of us has to examine that for ourselves. Just think of this, some of the guys flying here have left their families in their home country – now that is a hard decision in my book, but it works for them.
Burners and Out