Cabin crew to Pilot? Will it work?

[EGGD]

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All interesting information as I've said before, but in these instances most of this isn't relevant to the job that you will be doing and there are no skills as such. The knowledge that you will learn isn't necessary in many cases, that is why we have operations departments in the first place. Airline operations are very complex and it would be impossible to have knowledge of everything involved in getting an airliner into the sky. I'm more interested in the actual skills you learn as cabin crew and the familiarity of working in such a pressured environment.

Working on an airliner is very unique, there are many pressures involved with doing so that you cannot replicate anywhere else. For a start you have the added physiological issues associated with being on an airliner, the affects of working in a pressurised cabin where the cabin altitude can be up to 8000ft and with recycled air conditioned air that has a very low humidity. Working long hours and on a disruptive roster, possibly flying through multiple time zones and turnarounds in difficult weather conditions (rain, snow, ice, heat, humidity, wind).

Then there is the added time pressures, especially during Emergencies where every action that you take is time critical and could have very severe consequences if they are not done with care. Just like being a pilot, these situations are rarely experienced but do occur and are trained for on a regular basis, discussed before every flight and mentally prepared for. There are time pressures in getting the aircraft turned around on time, this is especially true of operations in a low-cost airline such as Flybe where turnaround times are extremely important. These time pressures extend to safety considerations such as securing the cabin, security checks and even the on board service. I know of many people as cabin crew who got behind on whatever their duties were, just like new airline pilots can be behind the aircraft they are flying.

You also become very familiar with all the aspects of the operation on the ground, you are in contact with the despatchers more than the flight crew and you have direct communication and work with the cleaners, caterers and other areas of the ground crew. You are more aware of what is going on on turnarounds as you are either in the cabin or possibly on the ground, or on the airbridge. As both cabin crew and flight crew I have had other members of cabin crew spot defects with the aircraft both externally and internally, including problems with oil and fuel. Things that can easily get missed on walkarounds or by other ground crew. Asking questions with engineers, despatchers and other staff around the aircraft and you can find out some very interesting things about the type you are operating on that may not be in your operations manuals.

First aid is an interesting one as well. Whilst the training on First Aid is quite intensive it doesn't really prepare you for how difficult it can be to deal with an in flight emergency when someone falls ill. In many ways, a mechanical emergency requiring flight crew action is much easier, in almost all cases there is a checklist for it in the QRH and if it is very time critical you will have memorised recall actions for the associated problem. In the event of a medical problem it will almost always rely on your knowledge and your ability in problem solving to resolve it. I have heard of some horrendous illnesses/injuries that require very practical skills and quick thinking to deal with. This is something which can only be learnt with life experience, something in the past that some pilots going through training have been accused of being deficient in.

There is also something to be said for making a decent cup of tea! Equally, if you are capable of this you will get in your own cabin crews good books if you get that dream job in the right hand seat.

Of course, all of these skills CAN be learnt, and I'm not saying that they will. A lot of people train to be cabin crew and work for a certain time in the profession, but many leave and I know that most cannot cope with the pressures involved or the difficulty of doing the job WELL and so progressing beyond seasonal cabin crew. In many ways this is the best test of ones abilities and my feelings after doing so myself is that if you can handle the pressure of being cabin crew then you can handle being flight crew. This is of course in parallel to your handling skills being up to scratch but no job mentioned in this thread can condition you for that.

I hope perhaps this is of interest for you or anyone else who is skeptical of what you can learn as cabin crew. I think any career in aviation is a valuable one if being a pilot in the future is your goal, but I can think of few that will be more relevant when you look at the bigger picture.

Cheers!