The Truth about a flying Career First let's look at what the 'alreadythere's' say about an airline job, and what it means: What Airline Pilot's like to tell You 1.
The pay is terrible; 2.
The hours are terrible; 3.
Working conditions are difficult.
What it actually means: 1.
I can't afford to buy my stay-at-home wife a brand new car whilst still making payments on my brand new 4×4, putting the kids through private school and paying a huge mortgage on a nice house in an upper class suburb, mainly because I spend all my excess income on toys instead of putting some into a sound investments strategy; 2.
I get a few 5am starts and a few night shifts, I am away from home a lot, but on average I work 30 hours or less total duty time per week; 3.
When they run out of first class meals I occasionally have to put up with the meals from coach.
So what is the real truth about a flying career? Here's a simple and realistic list of the top 10 ups and downs of the job, that, I hope, will help you make an informative decision on whether to learn to fly, and whether to fly for fun, or for money.
The Upside of a flying job: 1.
You get a really nice view out of the office window; 2.
The flying is a lot of fun on a good day; 3.
There generally tends to be more good days than bad days; 4.
The other crew are a lot of fun when you have a good shift; 5.
The career building path (charter flying or instruction) can take you into some great places and leave you with some great experiences; 6.
You get to travel a lot - and unlike most careers which provide travel, when you get there the job is done and you can enjoy the sights; 7.
Once you get to the higher rungs of the career ladder the salary is good; 8.
You typically only work 30 hours a week (60-70 flying hours a month), more than this normally can't be sustained due to flight and duty limitations; 9.
You get to wear a nice uniform; 10.
As a captain people often (unwittingly) respect you.
The Down Side of a flying job: 1.
If you don't have access to a scholarship, it takes a lot of money to get your licenses and ratings; 2.
It is often more difficult to get a job than in traditional careers, the employment market suffers large swings with the economic climate, if you are looking for a job on the down cycle you may be out of work for some time or have to take a position in a place, at a salary, or in an aircraft you are not happy with, it normally takes quite some time to get onto a level where you are earning a decent salary and you may have to be willing to move towns or countries for career progression; 3.
Aviation companies are competitive and dynamic, planning leave ahead is often a hit and miss situation, you may find you are requested to go on a course for an upgrade or rating when your wife is due to give birth or your son is due to play the high school rugby finals or when you planned to get married with 100 people invited - saying no often means going to the bottom of the queue for the next promotion, and you may not have another chance for years, or loosing your job; 4.
The travel to your destination is tiring, often you don't set foot outside the aircraft or your stop over is only long enough to recover from the jet lag; 5.
You are constantly being tested and evaluated, if you are with a good company it is a pleasure and chances of failure are very low, but if your company's training is inadequate and you have been poorly prepared for a test, your career can be destroyed by a bad simulator session with a rotten instructor; 6.
Every decision and every action on every flight, everyday on the line, carries the weight of your passengers lives, (not just in those critical 5 minutes during an emergency as often touted).
This means you can never relax on the job, and after work you have to keep up with study on procedures, technical, and other topics if you value what you do in the level it needs to be, and even then, in a poor justice system an on the job human error, can be prosecuted as manslaughter leading to a prison sentence; 7.
Life insurance premiums are higher for pilots; 8.
A medical problem can put a halt to the career you spent all that time and effort on before you get to the rewards; 9.
The uniform has a stupid looking hat and is normally made of material with a high polyester content; 10.
People think you're arrogant and conceited because you have to be in charge at work, and these mannerisms creep into your private life.
This is the plain and simple facts as I see it, after nearly 20 years in the industry.
For me, despite experiencing many stumbling blocks along the way, the ups outweigh the downs many times over, but that's because I have the pleasure of loving what I do, which means I never really have to go to 'work' in the true sense of the word.
To fly or not to fly, I'll let you make the decision for yourself.
But one last piece of advice - do it because you love it, and not for any other reason, then you can't go wrong!