Truth about being a pilot
 

This is a a good read, got it from avcanada.ca. Talks about the truth of being an airline pilot. Hope you like it.

The Truth About the Profession - Home

This has been posted before its pretty good .

Very US/Canada-centric though - not really as applicable to this side of the pond in some areas!

Negativity...
 

Hey all,

Thanks for the link Tom.

One small thing though. I had a quick look through that article. I'm one of those career changers, currently an engineer in oil and gas and doing my PPL at the moment.

I have to say, there was an awful lot of negative information to absorb. Of course its good to have the truth, but is it really all that bad?? Is it perhaps a case of, the grass is greener on the other side... this guy is an airline pilot, imagine how much moaning he would be doing if he was sat behind a desk for ten hours a day, week after week, pushing a pen around. I dont mean to be disrespectful although invariably that is how it will come accross :ugh:

Is there anyone out there who can stand up and say, its a great job, sometimes it sucks, like any other job, but for anyone out there who wants to give it a go, get on board!

I currently work on a fairly lucrative (for me) project in far eastern Russia in a place which is described as a hidden gem, for a number of reasons, and everyone out there always says, "if anyone back home (UK) asks, tell them this place is really horrible and life is really tough". In reality, Its a great place and life is far from tough, but they simply dont want hoards of expats coming over hence upping the competition for the top jobs and reducing our overseas premium bonuses ..... i'm sure you can see where im going with this!! Do you think there is an element of that in the aviation world? Or are they right and aviation is :mad: ? :E

Its getting to the point where I almost feel foolish for even considering becoming a pilot. Dont get me wrong, i'm quite happy to be foolish...

God Speed :ok:

That is a fantastic website! I love the part about the "pilot shortage" myth...so true! :ok:

TIGER
 

Tiger, sorry to hear that you are so disappointed with your career. Do you not even enjoy the actual flying part of it... the work etc? Or is it just the admin side of things? If it is, I imagine this would be mostly due to the market for pilots being saturated and the current financial climate. Am I wrong?

Might it be the case that naturally the saturation situation will ease as less people (potential pilots) decide to commit to the industry, and the economy begins to recover?

I fly through Seoul Incheon on a regular basis. The shuttle bus to my hotel normally consists of me and a load of pilots and cabin crew who are normally laughing joking and apparently very happy indeed. It must all be a front! lol.

If they are long haul it is because they are about to get to the hotel and finally have a cig/beer/shag. If they are really happy they are about to get all three.

sleepyrascal,

Go speak to the airlines pilots from Globespan and get their opinion on it all or BA Cabin crew that are being mucked about as well.

How about the Ryanair crews that earn pretty much nothing, or the Easyjet cadets that got dropped in 6months or the flybe crew that are having to work as cabin crew.

Aero UK
 

Valid points, but of course a Flyglobespan pilot will be negative considering they went bust. When our canadian client slashed our budget by 75%, my team, who I had worked with for several years, was destroyed within a matter of days. This coupled with frozen pay rises etc etc.

My point, all industries have their down falls. I could list all the bad things about the oil and gas business, but I could also make positive comments too. are there no happy stories from the aviation industry?

Somebody out there must be enjoying their work???

My instructors (when I started my flight training a number of years ago) always told me that the airline industry is gradually getting worse and worse. I'm not talking about new pilots here, I'm talking about senior captains for companies like BA Express with 20-30 years flying experience.

As I said, enjoy your GA flying that's what most of the airline pilots are still enjoying (even those that have been flying military, airlines and biz jets).

Ryanair crews that earn pretty much nothing? Who are they then?
I'm a Ryanair pilot and love my job. It's amazing. And I am suitably recompensed for it. I've been doing it long enough for any potential shine erosion too. I love the challenge of learning new stuff and the privilege of doing what I do for a living. Sure the crewroom can be annoying and so can some of the admin, but as soon as I leave that crewroom and see the shiny jet that I'm about to get paid to fly, all that is left behind.
Yes, it can be tiring and yes there are things that are far from perfect. But anyone that thinks any job is going to be perfect should be prepared to be very disappointed in life.

sleepyrascal,

Go for it.

There's only one way you're ever going to find out.

Be bold, be brave. If it's something you want to do, then do it.

You only have one chance at life.

Aerouk
 

Ryanair pilots earn pretty much nothing? Would you be so kind and elaborate on that?

This should be good.:E

@go around flaps 15... did you not hear they sleep in cars!:ok:

SleepyRascal
 

Whether this is a good time to train or not is the subject of numerous threads although if you are still at PPL stage then there is no ticking clock for you.

When I trained it was in a tiny majority (10-15% at my FTO) of second-career guys/gals. Even at the time I felt this put me at an advantage having had 10 years in IT & recruitment being both employed and self-employed to give me perspective on grinding out a living in a job you struggle to enjoy. This was compounded when I had to give up work for 2 years to become my wife's full-time carer after significant degredation of an existing neurological disorder.

This hard experience eventually made me mentally stronger with a real yardstick to compare the daily challenges we all experience and a more positive outlook on life, work etc.

Now I was hugely lucky (I feel it was about my turn for some of the good kind) when I landed a place on the cadet scheme that I did with a company that in the grand scheme of things treats all of it's employees well (compared to most) and the cadets who joined, particularly so. Granted I also have only been in the job for a year and I do know what rose tinted glasses are.

However, long story short, I love this job. I look forward to the start of each tour and the variety of challenges that our type of operation brings. Sitting in the flight-deck at FL430 eating a quality crew meal (unfortunately these are of highly variable quality - but sometimes we hit jackpot!) and watching the sun rise/set is a priceless moment.

PS - apologies for any typos as this was from my iPod.

HOLLING
 

Finally someone with a positive view on things. It sounds like your journey has been full of ups and downs but I very glad you have made it and you enjoy what you do!

Thanks for the post, you need all the positivity you can get in this game!

No doubt someone will be along to shoot you down soon. Excuse the shameless pun. :ok:

Of course we need the reality and we need to be well informed about what negative aspects being a pilot can bring too, but we need a balance...

Fliegertiger,

Fully appreciate why you may not enjoy your flying job; but do you seriously think you would be any happier back in a 9 to 5 deskjob.

I am in a position to comment, I didn't enjoy my first job on the heavier stuff, lots of time downroute in a hotel room, erratic roster and low salary. But having been back in my previous career for a good year and a half now, although earning more than double what I did as a turboprop FO, I would much prefer to spend the next thirty years back flying rather than in the boardroom.

Hopefully in a year or two I will be in a postion where I can afford to take the paycut to fly once again.

Sleepyrascal,

I know how much I miss flying as a full time job; however it is can take time to reach a position in the industry where you can earn sufficient money to comfortably support a family.

If you are single not so much a problem. However if you are currently earning decent money, I wouldn't never say stick to your job and fly for a hobby, because if you have desire to fly, it is an itch that has to be sratched (it is also an addiction nearly as destructive and expensive as an illegal drug). What I would recommend though is do not rush into the industry, but take time to use your current profession to get yourself
financially set up; I don't just mean raising enough cash to fund the training, but to get yourself such that you are on the property ladder with a small mortgage and with a decent amount of savings invested. That way when you do enter the industry you are in a postion where you can survive on 20K a year; further to this if you are not under pressure to earn a high salary then yes there are some enjoyable flying jobs out there.

sleepyrascal,

Echoing the comments of hollingworthp - I love my job. It has its good and bad points, every career does, but on the whole I have absolutely no regrets. That's not to say I can say hand-on-heart that I won't have a thirst to try something different flying-wise in years to come but the day job for me, at the moment, is pretty sweet.

I'm a similar age to yourself and have been flying twinjets for a well-known charter airline for about 2 years now. I too worked quite a few different jobs before coming in to flying and spent a few years at uni too. It took me 2 years to pay for a PPL alongside working as wages were a pittance before training for the professional licence full-time.

It's the winter season now so I'm pretty quiet - maybe a ski flight (back home by lunch time!) and a medium haul to the Canaries. No more than 2-3 days work a week. The summer's pretty hectic and can be quite knackering but it all balances out. I get the occasional stop over for a night or two in Egypt or west Africa to keep it interesting too. The pay's great and there's opportunity for extra work (I made the equivalent of about 70k gross as a low-time FO last year!). The T&Cs vary greatly between companies and I'm not blind to the fact that the industry has changed quite a bit, even since I entered it only 2 years ago, but there are decent companies out there - yes, management can sometimes be a chore and T&Cs sometimes have to be fought for but that only makes the airline industry very similar to any other.

I'm not naive or oblivious to the downsides - like hollingworthp I have the benefit of having done other things before flying, giving me a much greater appreciation of the good, the bad and the same.

Things I love - still, on a crisp winter morning, sometimes getting a little thrill as I walk around the huge machine I'm about to fly, the view out of the window can sometimes be pretty amazing (it's always changing), I fly with some great guys (good banter!), I get to get off at the other end sometimes and lounge by the pool, do some snorkelling, quaff some beer, banter with the crew, etc. I love the responsibility and get a huge satisfaction from a job well done. I'm a bit of a geek so enjoy the technical nature of the job too. There are loads more...

Things which can be a chore - sometimes there are anti-social hours and the inability to make certain dates (birthdays, weekend nights out, etc.) can be annoying. Fatigue can be an issue. But I knew all of this when I signed up so I can't really complain.

If you keep being niggled by the feeling that it's something you want to do, then you probably have your answer as to whether to crack on!

Good luck,

B&S

I fly professionally after 18yrs working in London. 9 years ago, on my very first day of line training on the 146, I looked out the window as we flew over London and saw my old office. Boy was the smile wide! Hasn't worn off either.

I don't regret a second of it but I do accept I've been mighty lucky at times. If you want to do it, and can afford to lose the lot but still look back and say "well I tried", then go for it. Not just yet though.

Life's too short!
 

Nice one “bucket and spade” I think you’ve knocked it on the head along with “student88”.:ok:

I’m in the IT industry at the moment and am considering a career change. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, so I’ve got my class1 medical (just in case) and am now doing my PPL.

I’ve read loads of scary threads and have seriously thought “what the hell am I doing?” and like you “sleepyrascal” I sometimes feel foolish. Especially as I’ll be walking away from a well paid, 4 day week job.

I’ve seen and done enough to know that there’s s#’*t in any job. Flying for fun is awesome; flying when you’re tired and want to be at home probably isn’t so awesome. Now compare that to the jubilant life of an IT developer, where one does none of it for fun.

So "Goggles On Target" as my son says