As you may remember I explained a few days ago about the volunteering programme I was trialling. Well, here is an update.
I turned up today (Thursday) and it was snowy and foggy. Obviously there was no planes that would come in today. I met the pilots (the instructors) who were very friendly, but were bored due to the 4 days worth of snow stopping them from doing anything!
Then I was given a tour of the clubhouse and restaurant. We started the day doing odd jobs- cleaning the area of rubbish, dusting, cleaning toilets etc, the sort of stuff you do before opening.
Then I got some great news. The volunteers get to do the washing up... Okay I thought, i'll give it ago.
I washed a few cups up that had been used by the team at the airfield. As you may expect the restaurant was empty most of the day. I spent most of the day standing around waiting for stuff to wash up. I thought about what members of this forum said about getting more out of it than just the flying lessons. I had to wait in the restaurant and do odd jobs. I wasn't allowed to serve, I wasn't allowed to take food to tables, I wasn't allowed to clear tables. I had to wash up, and only wash up. So I spent about 4 hours standing at the sink waiting for things to come in to be washed up. Bearing in mind the restaurant was pretty empty (I'm talking about 1 person an hour, if that), I had a lot of waiting.
I had lunch and then went through to the club room. I played pool with one of the pilots (He was much better than me, and he put this down to his 4 days of non stop pool playing
). I had a chat to one of them, I asked things like do/ have any of you worked for an airline, what's it like instructing etc. and I found out some cool stuff.
Then I went back into the restaurant where there was a bit of washing up to do. I did the washing up. Up until this point it was mainly cups, saucers and cutlery I was washing. Then some plates came in and I realised how disgusting this job was. I didn't have gloves or anything, I had to scrap half eaten food into the bin then clean the dirty plates. I don't want to sound stuck up but I didn't enjoy it. There was cold food floating round the sink and everything, yuck.
So then the washing up starting to build up, and I was washing as fast as I could and filling up the drying board. Once it was full up I had to put the still wet glasses, plates etc in the right places just to clear more space.
I finished the shift at 3 and I was asked if I would like to continue with the scheme. I asked about field work & helping maintenance but the cafe manager said the pilots usually help with maintenance as they know what to do. He told me the volunteers only do the washing up, but if I showed that I wanted to improve (Improve on washing up?!) then I could be given more responsibility. This doesn't result in more flying hours per hour worked though, it just means you get more shifts. I can only do 4 shifts a week anyway so after I reach that point it won't be benefiting me any more.
My question to you is, is it really worth it? It it worth me doing a disgusting washing up job in the hope that a pilot might walk though and ask if I want to sit in the back seat. Obviously I'd love to, but I wouldn't get to for a while until I am known well by the pilots.
I could get a part time job to fund the PPL, I wouldn't get any back seat experience but it would be a better job and I would get more flying hours per hour worked.
I don't wish to sound stuck up but this volunteering programme is not what was explained to me. Ok, it might be good if you wanted to get a few lessons, but working 48 hours washing up for an hours flight isn't in my eyes the best way.
What would you guys do?
(It was the washing up that put me off. [I emptied a bin and got bin juice on my shoe
]. If it was litter picking for the whole time i'd be happy doing that. If it was washing the planes all day, i'd be happy, but cleaning plates with half eaten food just isn't for me)
I still have the option to carry on, so I am still deciding.