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Thread: Pilot to ATCO?
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Old 20th Dec 2012, 06:22
  #12 (permalink)  
ferris
 
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I'll put it down to english as a second language.....

The difference between a pilot and an ATCO, in the case I was talking about, is that the ATCO is home "every night", yes, even on night shifts. You can spend the evening with the kids, put them to bed and then go off to work, and you will be back home next morning to send them off to school. A pilot, on the other hand, may be away for up to 21 consecutive days (in the case of the 747 pilot, she was away a minimum of 3 days every time she worked, and on average 15 days of every month were spent down route- def not good for families).

What Hempy was saying about crews spending time in hotels was NOT about ATCOs, but about pilots. i.e. ATCOs sleep every night (or day) in their OWN BED, whereas (longhaul) pilots finish work and sleep in a hotel.

Get it?

It's a big difference in lifestyle. Often, each of us is envious of the other ;-)
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