So the novelty wears off...
You are exicited, you just got your first flying job,in Maun after waiting around 4 months. You are geared up with your new leatherman, 1:350 000 map of the Okavango Delta, and The Botswana Pilot's Guide. Your new uniform shirt still has it's colour and you feel funny in your new khaki shorts (unless you are from South Africa). Let's skip all the boring hours of completing your tons of paperwork applying for the coveted Department Of Civil Aviation Flight Crew License and your work and residence permits and the sitting around waiting for training flights making coffee for the senior pilots (or used to be like that when i started). Let's start when you go on-line... It is great, you are flying by yourself over the most awesome landscape in the world, the Okavango Delta. Soon you loose your boyhood fasination for flying, reallity strikes home, it is actually hard work. You are flying 4-6 hours everyday sometimes without food or water, soon you are close to maxing your hours, if somebody ask you one more time "where is the parachute?" or my old favourite "Are you old enough to fly?" or another good one "how long have you been flying?" you going to shoot yourself. (on this note i saw the other day one of the new guy's being very rude to passengers who struggled to get into his 206, fair enough, they can be irritating sometimes but they are the reason you are here!) Summer temp average 40deg, you can fly up to 15 legs a day and you get 10min per turnaround. (you have to unload your pax and their ****, and load the next pax and their ****. You have 10min from wheels on the ground till airborne). This is hard work and you need to be on the ball, there is allot of dangers that can catch you with your pants down. 80% of the time you fly with huge amounts of commercial pressure, you have to make the right decisions quick. You won't be here long before you start bitching and moaning about this and that, if you make it through this stage you are ok, some don't. Some guy's make Maun out as one big pissup in town, guy's have been fired this year for not turning up for flights cause they where pissed out of their minds, if you smell of booze the next day, you will get the boot.
Come around, hand in the CV's and give it a bash, if you have a good attitude and you are a hard worker you might make it.