Why do some folks choose to become pilots?

[speagle1]

Hello everyone! Greetings from a new pprune-er but an old enthusiast of all un-natural flying objects and the folks who make 'em fly! A 'spotter', as this forum identifies me.
Having snooped around the thousands of threads and pages on this forum, curiously I have come across a common 'thread' (so to speak) of comments/complaints.....most pilots and allied airline professionals who post here complain about how difficult and expensive it is gain an entry into the aviation world. Pay to train, pay to fly, do thousands of hours of bush flying to be eligible to fly airliners, etc etc etc......
May I ask you (and believe me, I will be honoured to hear from you), WHY DID YOU CHOOSE A LIFE IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY AND DID IT TURN OUT TO BE WHAT YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD BE?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I'm a long retired Air Traffic Controller and I've pondered why anyone would want to become a pilot. I believe it's due to a genetic mutation... Now don't even think about asking why anyone wants to become an ATCO!

[DaveReidUK]

A former colleague of mine, ex-RAF navigator, used to delight in saying that anyone who had half a mind to be a pilot had all the right qualifications.

[speagle1]

:D:D Ha ha!! Wonderful!!!
Half wit mutants! For long I have wondered why my son was so different......now I know!!

[El Bunto]

I know an ATCO who decided to become an airline pilot because he thought it was more glamorous being on the other end ( being told where to go ) than telling people where to go :confused:

I don't think it was even the money that attracted him, he had a fair bob or two from the ATCO work anyhow.

[Beercan227]

Now that's a great question!

Lets look at the job, you put passengers on-board that depend on your expertise, your ability. You load on many thousand of pounds of fuel, you start the engines running at 500-600 deg C, sitting under the fuel tanks! You hope MX did there job right. You climb to cruise, and travel at 85% of the speed of sound, many miles up! You can't breath the air, or survive at cruise, to thin and to cold. You fly a six day trip back and forth across the Atlantic, crossing over 20 time zones, after awhile that starts to hit you. You land in Narita (NRT) after 14 hours, and some passenger has a wise crack, as they exit the aircraft, about being 10 minutes late.

You spend many nights away from the family, missing birthdays, holidays, and other family events. Your first child walked while you where away, they hit the winning home run in the little league game, but you where not there.

I flew my first commercial flight in May 1971, First Officer in an Twin Otter, DHC-6. It was a 20 minute flight to Nantucket (ACK), I thought that I would never be able to keep up with such a fast airplane! Forty three years and four companies later, and I retired in Oct 2014, Captain 777.

Would I do it again, no question yes! It was not as great as I hoped it would be, but it is the great job yet!

[Denti]

Quite honestly, from personal experience i can vouch for the half wit mutant theory. Always wanted to fly or make stuff (sophisticated paper planes, RC model planes, kites and so on) fly since i could think. Which of course lead to flying at the minimum legal age of 14 in glider planes and from there to the aim of being an air line pilot. Tried something else first (computer sciences) but it was kinda boring so i got my ATPL and enjoyed flying ever since.

To be honest, it helps that i only fly around 300 hours a year, that way i thoroughly enjoy every single day of flying at my job.

[grounded27]

As a young A&P mechanic, I had plenty of opportunity to get on the road towards an ATP license. I spent a few years as a Flight Mechanic (mostly freight) and while I was sleeping, reading, watching a movie... Those pilots were strapped into their seats monitoring aircraft systems and communicating on the radio for 8 or 9 hrs straight only taking the odd break to hit the lav and maybe stretch out a bit. It takes probable decade(s) of this or getting paid peanuts getting bounced around in a commuter (after probably 5 or 6 layoff's) before you might get lucky enough to get on with a company that pays well enough to make what they do worth it and be secure enough to get your retirement in before you get layed off & every time you get layed off you start at the bottom of the pay scale again with another carrier. Nahh I was already in the business and am lucky to be with a well paying and very secure cargo company as an A&P.

The glory days of aviation are long gone, to be successful in aviation you need to be constantly prepared to take advantage of an opportunity, this means alot of moving around. It is hell on relationships, just about all of the successful pilots that I know have been married several times as Aviation Related Divorce Syndrome runs rampant.

[speagle1]

Thank you all for your introspective responses.

The strangest thing is, 99% of 6 year olds' want to be pilots when they grow up. I guess the ones who actually do become pilots don't grow up!

If I were to list the factors thrown up so far, they would be.....sheer craziness, machismo, romance of making a living in an unnatural environment, glamour, adventure, dis-satisfaction with a routine 9-5 life style.... But I haven't really come across any thread where there is real disillusionment with a flying life. This may be because of the huge sums of money already invested in the initial years, or not, I don't know. So, while it may be true that "The glory days of aviation are long gone", what attracts young people to this field may still be the glory. I would really like to know.

[El Bunto]

It must be a glamour or prestige attraction, but what fosters that in kids? The media?

The irregular hours, time away from home, missing loved ones and dealing with cranky passengers applies equally to the folk working back in the cabin but I've yet to meet anyone who grew-up aspiring to be cabin crew

Why the difference ( other than salary, obviously )? If you can crack that you might have the answer.

[speagle1]

When you are 6 years old or 10 or 15, you look up at the sky and see a beautiful metal bird in the sky! Then you go on a trip with your parents and see a smart, fit, RayBan glassed man:cool: going into the pointy end of the aircraft and NO ONE IS ALLOWED THERE! :=:= Wow, must be important things happening in there!

THAT's where I suppose the dreams are born. The actual nightmare of days and days away from family, job uncertainties, risk, et all gets unveiled AFTER the kid actually joins an airline.....something like the heaven/hell screen saver with St.Peter!!!

As opposed to other conventional careers which exist on one plane (plane as in axis!), it may also be the attraction of a three axis existence which appeals.

[Jwscud]

Biggles books, Dan Dare and air shows. It's a passion nurtured early, rather than a suggestion from the 6th form career advisor.

I'm home every night, I get a double weekend after each block of work, the views are stunning and the satisfaction of putting it down safely in a bowling crosswind, or threading a line of storms keeps you going.

Of course we moan, what profession doesn't? Most of us just love flying though, it's that simple.

[speagle1]

You are so SPOT ON!!!!!

I don't know the situation in other countries, but in India, parents have a large say in in the career choices our children make. It is a rare parent who does NOT steer a child into 'safe' professions like engineering, medicine, law or accountancy. To allow a child to choose his own destiny purely based on his/her 'dream' is not a risk many will take. You will not hear of parent 'forcing' a child to take up aviation but you will hear of a child being forced into engineering when he/she would rather study sociology or literature or something.

So those of our kids who have read Biggles, Nevil Shute, Richard Bach AND been allowed to be inspired AND allowed to pursue the dreams thus engendered, are they just plain lucky or do they just have foolish parents?

A lot of AND conditions here!!!

[Exascot]

Well its cool init. Get to wear a flash uniform, drive fast cars, pull the birds, get loads of dosh. Spend weeks in exotic locations in 5 star hotels lying by the pool surround by totty. Then you leave the military and join the airlines and they work you until drop on crap schedules usually all nights not days and then their pension fund crashes.

That's why I am here now :ok:

P.S. Still flying though. But when I want to and in the glorious Okavango Delta.

[thing]

Most of us just love flying though, it's that simple.

Exactly. I've never done it for a living so you can discount the money, the five star hotels, the adoring totty and all the rest of it. I pay for my flying and still love every second of it. I probably love it more than a guy who does a thousand hours a year twiddling knobs in a 380 because I go where I want, when I want with who I want. The fact that I probably get more stick and rudder time as well is satisfying...:ok:.

[HarleyD]

My dad was a pilot before I was born.

I wanted to be an astronaut, but all the good positions were taken.

I saw a 'crop duster' at work and decided that was for me.

That was 40 years ago and I'm still a full time GA commercial pilot. I been a crop duster, a charter pilot, flight instructor, flown some other interesting ops, blue water international ferry, demonstration and display, production test pilot and developmental test pilot. Still travelling the world doing GA delivery and intro to service for new customers and flight testing for a manufacturer.

I have friends around the world and attended most of the premier aviation events. I have stayed in Air Force officers messes of several interesting airforces around the globe, and seen most of the wonders of the world from a GA aircraft cockpit, hand flying, no co-pilot. Thousands of hours spent in my own company mainly, or with a Flight Test Engineer of similar mind.

Would do it again in an instant, but would try harder to stay married. In fact I am trying harder these days, another restructuring would ruin my toy collection for retirement. I have enjoyed almost every hour, although there have been a few terrifying moments. I have come home without the plane a couple of times, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I have a replica ww11 fighter project half built in the shed, with NO electronic displays, no GPS, no nuthin other than a Battle of Britain pilot would have. Just how I started in the late 60's early 70's. Back to the future for me.

I recall talking with Bert Rutan once and he said "If people want to live on the ground, that's their problem"

I concur

I am close to spending two years of my life as an air dweller.

[speagle1]

Richard Bach all over!

I envy you! Stuff on the ground is a small price to pay.

One life only, right?!

[liteswap]

Only a lapsed PPL holder here but I can grok the love of flying part - I too grew up with pix of aeroplanes on the walls - my mum's from WWII! - and devoured Biggles Dan Dare etc.

But just following up the OP's point, what I find strange now is that the status of pilots is so much diminished from what it was - and from what little I know, so have the financial rewards, almost certainly as a consequence.

Consider what the head of a medium-sized company might earn compared to a a commercial pilot, who has so much more responsibility and arguably so many more skills. It's probably at least 3x or more.

So I just wonder for how long the decline in status, which is mirrored in the salary, can continue given that it's also a key part of what attracts pilots to the job...

[speagle1]

"I find strange now is that the status of pilots is so much diminished from what it was - and from what little I know, so have the financial rewards, almost certainly as a consequence." (Sorry, I'm yet to master the art of 'quote'!)

You're right..... in the good old days, flying was an elitist mode of travelling so the pilots enjoyed the stature of people who took the rich and the famous around. Now, flying is 'just another means of travel' and the hoi-polloi as well as the rich and famous rub shoulders at the airports (not to mention other body parts in the tight seating offered these days!). Hence, along with their passengers, the pilots and other crew have also lost some of their mystique, status, whatever.

As for financial rewards, I suppose it is a matter of demand and supply. From some of the horror stories I read about on this forum - pay to train, pay to fly, sub-standard housing - I guess the reality in the airline industry is a very well secret, at-least until mind boggling sums of money have already been spent on ab-initio training. It is only AFTER the CPL that the scales fall from the eyes and ugly reality dawns. By then the wannabees are trapped and it is too late to back away. In places like the US or Oz, there is a fair bit of general aviation, so these kids at-least have some alternative avenue for earning a living, but in Asia, GA is practically non-existent. Thus the only option is to sell your soul and inheritance for an airline job.:ugh:
Progress!!:*

[InSeat19c]

Big fat salary, sexy uniform and lots of faraway places to visit - although I guess they only get to see the hotels ;)


I'm sure that has a certain amount to do with it :D

[Fantome]

it may also be the attraction of a three axis existence which appeals.

. . . . . it's sure as all get out, not a craving for those effing crew meals

There are countless thousands of pilots now, past and pushing them up,
who have been able to say, hand over heart -

Had I not chosen the career path I did, I would not now be married
to .. . . .. . . . . . . . . (fill in blank)

[speagle1]

Ha ha.....thanks, all of you!

I'm sure there is a doctoral thesis in here somewhere!!!

[suninmyeyes]

For many of us it started in childhood. A flight deck visit, the smell of jet fuel, that blast of heat as you stepped out of the fuselage onto aeroplane steps in some far flung hot climate.

Childhood continued with model aircraft, balsa wood, every free aviation magazine I could get my hands on. Just a knowledge that there was nothing else I ever wanted to do in life but fly aeroplanes. A fascination with the history and the advances of flight. I remember very well the first time I saw a 747 (Pan Am) and learnt to recognise the distinct engine note.I wondered if I would fly them and in later years I did.

The job has its dark sides, fatigue, too many nights out of bed, officious airport security, congested airspace. Sometimes can't get a word in on the frequency, several aeroplanes calling for start at the same time so noone gets a reply, a pause then 3 aircraft all try again, controllers marvellously patient, (in some countries anyway). Only a few years to go now until retirement but there are still some great parts of the job which still give me a kick and satisfaction like rotation and getting airborne, or manually flying and banking between low level cumulus clouds to give the passengers a smoother ride. Or a manually flown visual circuit that rolls out on finals exactly lined up on the inbound track despite the crosswind. The satisfaction and cameraderie when things have gone wrong yet you have coped with it all and managed to get the passengers safely to their destination blissfully unaware of any problems.

It saddens me when I fly with a copilot who has never had any enthusiasm for flying but applied aged 21 for sponsorship "because he didn't know what he wanted to do " and got it. He will happily taxi past an aircraft scrapheap with gems from yesteryear like a Britannia or Viscount with never a glance.

I am sure every pilot is different and had different motivation. This one never had any doubt about what he wanted to do and has always felt priviliged to be paid to fly someone else's aircraft. I would hate flying to become the preserve of those who have rich parents who pay for their son's licence even though he never had much enthusiasm for it. I would favour a "grammar school" system where those with enthusiasm and aptitude get selected rather than those with access to loans of £100 k or so. That is how it used to be.

It surprises me that colleagues say they would not recommend a career as an airline pilot to their sons or daughters. Granted the times are not as good as in the heyday, of the sixties and seventies and the prestige is not as high as it once was. But it is still a well paid job that is demanding and interesting

[thing]

or manually flying and banking between low level cumulus clouds All I ever wanted to do when I was little (50 odd years ago now) is fly in and around fluffy cumulus. Didn't know what they were at the time obviously. It always seemed like the ultimate freedom to me and special in some way. You had a mountain to climb to be able to do that.

I mostly enjoy going places with friends, that's what GA flying is all about to me; but just occasionally when the weather is glorious I will shoot off IFR for some general handling on my own and just play in the clouds, banking and diving around them and shooting through the middle. It's absolutely magic, just flying for the sheer joy of it; and everytime I do it I smile at the memory of that little kid who used to always look at the sky and I think 'Well, here we are old son, dreams do come true.'

Crikey I've come over all philosophic. Beer required I think.

[Fantome]

play in the clouds, banking and diving around them and shooting through the middle. It's absolutely magic, just flying for the sheer joy of it; Up to a point. But for pure unadulterated exhilaration strap on a snug little single seat sailplane. Inspired Philip Wills to write -

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Tahj6GXaL.jpg

[Fantome]

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/zY1IcAqdeUU/0.jpg (http://article.wn.com/view/2014/10/06/Morning_glory_cloud_weather_phenomenon_coming_to_Queensland/)




http://www.reaa.ru/yabbfiles/Attachments/Allison_Tyler_Sailplane.jpg (http://www.reaa.ru/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=print;num=1340539764)

[thing]

Not quite the same in a glider though (not knocking gliding at all, I have a silver). I guess I like the sound of the engine and the whole dynamic of flying a powered in and around clouds. Maybe I'm just weird...:)

[Fantome]

This should be on the bucket lists of all who hanker for hours and hours of silky smooth phenomenal lift. (Go to Burketown on the Gulf of Carpentaria late in September. Get up in the dark. Daily your glider. And wait. Be prepared to be astonished.)

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/img/news/2009/morning%20glory%20ribeiro.jpg (http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/events/department-news/621/morning-glory-clouds/)

[lonkmu]

Spending holidays down the Natal South Coast at a beach front holiday cottage in the 70's. No cell phones in those days so when uncle and his best mate Dave Charlton would arrive from JoBurg they needed some way of letting the wives know they needed picking up at Margate Airport.

He would take his 400 Comanche out to sea and do a wide turn and come back in at full throttle just above the breakers heading straight for the cottage and then wing over and head off to land at Margate and wait to be fetched.

As a 6 year old boy this experience together with Margate, Virginia etc airshows aswell as older brthers mate who was a Puma pilot in the SAAF made flying one of the most attractive looking careers one could ever dream of.

[Fantome]

If you haven't had a trawl through here -


Military Aviation (http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation-57/) http://www.pprune.org/images/misc/navbits_finallink_ltr.gif (http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/329990-gaining-r-f-pilots-brevet-ww11.html) Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW11

- you be missing a huge contribution from posters, some of whom
are gifted writers recounting their flying lives from the earliest times
of a child's enchantment, through extraordinary years of military and civil
service to reluctant retirement.

[speagle1]

Thank you, Fantome for directing me to the wonderful reminiscing of WW 2 pilots. Absolutely fascinating reading! Cliffnemo is really a gifted writer. What a rich life he's led! I feel humbled.

Would anyone like to recommend some aviation titles and authors from the glory days? Besides St.Ex, Bach and Gann? (although I already have quite an aviation library at home, one can't get enough!)

Thanks!