Page 28 - Volume 20 Number 9

26 • TWIN & TURBINE SEPTEMBER 2016
of other flying jobs, pay quite low, because of our willingness, like the average seagull, to fly for food. So, it may be difficult for those outside the industry to imagine that pilots at the top of their profession, if one considers flying an airliner or biz- jet to be at the top, would not love what they do. Flying a multi-million dollar jet, loaded with top-of-the-line avionics and furnishings, all over the planet and being paid to do it. Sounds
like a dream job. Enjoying the sights, sounds, professional fulfillment, comradery and the glamour. All this, plus the admiration of men, women, children and super-models. Picture Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me if You Can, walking arm-in-arm with an ensemble of stewardesses. From the outside looking in, this sounds like an accurate, perhaps embellished, description of the profession. From the inside looking out, however, it’s quite different.
Four-Stripe Sack of Silly Putty
Closer scrutiny shows flying schedules that push pilots to exhaustion under the “new and improved” rest rules, and a controller shortage that has driven changes to the airspace structure and increased pilot workload. There’s life on the road: eating chicken nuggets, living in hotels, and, for the first five seconds of every morning, not knowing where you are. Then there’s apologizing to passengers and fellow
employees for things beyond your control that has become part of your everyday duties and responsibilities. In fact, demonstrating the ability to put forth a sincere apology is now part of type ratings – they’re going to put it in the practical test standards. For some pilots, the passion for flying has been methodically and systematically beaten out of them by either the system or their employer. It’s not the flying part that’s not fun, it’s everything else. The outside influences are ruthless and relentless – turning savvy, passionate pilots of granite into sad sacks of silly putty. Flying great airplanes for good pay is offset by the misery of public transportation and life on the road. Airline pilots that stopped flying in GA have lost the passion and pure pleasure of private aviation. Most haven’t been to Oshkosh, a pancake breakfast or sat in the hangar on a rainy day for many years. It should come as no surprise to T&T readers that,