One of the things I do in my role of old retired airline guy is to answer questions from people who are interested in flying. Most of the people, young or old, who ask me questions want to know how they too could become a pan-dimensional mythic in quality airline jock.

            Of course, with the recent decline in pay and disappearance of benefits that used to be part of a major airline pilot’s life I usually tout the benefits of keeping their minds open when it comes to choosing an aviation career. I’ve been lucky enough over the years to have many different jobs in the world of flying from line boy to 767 captain and I enjoyed them all.

            Young people who ask me this question receive my most gentle treatment but I don’t withhold what I really think. My opinion goes against all of the recent hoopla about all of the wonderful airline schools where you can “get a degree in flying!”

            I’m sure that having a degree in flying is a wonderful thing and would give you a strong, albeit false, sense of accomplishment, but it goes against my first rule of getting an education.

            My rule? A college education is not about getting a job – it is about getting an education!

            I know that I stand pretty much alone with this opinion and the magazines I write for who sell those airline college advertisements probably aren’t too happy with me for having it. I also understand that I may be totally wrong, but I’ll tell you this; I flew on the airline with a whole lot more pilots who were philosophy majors than airline majors. Even the people I flew with who had some sort of aviation college experience or degree also had a masters in another field.

            Right about now you are probably wondering just what the heck all of the above has to do with general aviation? It has everything to do with the entire field of flying from the first hour pre-solo student right up through the senior 777 captain. It has to do with respect.

            Recently at a local neighborhood get together, a person I had never met before came up to me to ask me a question after finding out I was a pilot.

            He was fairly clean-cut looking and appeared to be pushing his late forties. Nice enough demeanor and I could tell from his dress and attitude that he had earned a good living and was used to getting respect from other people.

            He had just passed his private check ride and was justifiably proud of himself. His friends, he said, thought that he liked flying so much that he ought to consider piloting as a career. He then told me that he wondered at his chances at becoming a pilot for a major airline. His next question burned into my brain:

            “Do major airlines hire guys that are around fifty? I would look on the job as a sort of retirement really…”

            That question may not affect you in the same way it did me. I am at the tail end of a twenty seven airline flying career and have also spent many years in other areas of general aviation from working the line to cleaning out aircraft toilets to flight instruction. Every single job I’ve had in flying, especially the pilot jobs I’ve held, has seen me face this sort of question from somebody or other.

Retirement?

            The grass is always greener on the other side of the ramp. I know that many people look upon the profession of piloting aircraft as some sort of lark; a way to spend quality time in the air between visits to various bars around the country and torrid affairs with flight attendants.

            The thing that my new found private pilot buddy was missing was the fact that like all professions, it is very hard to become and remain a professional pilot at any level from banner tower to senior captain.

            People craving a career flying for a major spend the better part of their young lives preparing for the job and making the sort of sacrifices that would overwhelm your average aviation college student. There is no college course for flying cancelled checks late at night through weather in a non-radar old twin Beech after a full day of flight instructing.

            Airline pilots flying in today’s skies are putting in eighty hours a month in the air. They must pass two detailed medical exams a year and pass two difficult check rides. If you flunk a medical your career is over. If you flunk a check ride your career is in severe danger. They spend at least fifteen nights a month away from their families. Holidays don’t exist for professional pilots at any level. Christmas at home is never a sure thing and in the corporate flying world flying your peeps around during a holiday weekend is almost a certainty.

Why all of this complaining?

            I’m pounding my chest here a little not because I want sympathy for having such a great career. I am still having a wonderful time and think any career in aviation is better than a career in any other field. I’m just getting a little tired of the profession of piloting aircraft being thought of as a “retirement” or some sort of fall back position.

            We pilots do this to ourselves. When you are in the cockpit of your aircraft and one of your passengers asks you how hard it is to fly and how safe is it, what are your answers?

            “The airplane almost flies itself,” you probably say. “Why… flying on this airplane is much safer than traveling in your car!”

            Both of these answers are true and are reassuring to your passengers and friends but they only tell half of the story. The airplane does almost fly itself and on a nice sunny day it is almost no work at all to get it from A to B. We don’t tell our passengers and friends that sometimes the weather isn’t so nice and that learning how to fly the airplane through all of the maneuvers necessary to become a pilot sometimes is neither fun nor easy.

            Professional pilots would never tell their passengers right before a flight about the difficulties of dealing with an in flight fire or smoke problem. We would never tell them how difficult it was to finally nail that V1 cut maneuver in the simulator last month or tell them of our worries about terrorists, bombs and shoulder fired missiles.

            Traveling by airplane is safe because we make it safe not because some sort of magical un-specified thing happens to make it so.

            If people think of piloting a jet at 35,000 feet at .84 the speed of sound carrying three hundred people through weather is retirement, it follows that they think your carrying four or five people through the same hazards with a lot less support is much less important than retirement. This is why flight instructors can’t earn a living and why people continue to say that they would take a flying job for free just to get the experience.

What is the answer?

            The answer I give the young people who ask me about a flying career is a positive one. I tell them that what they major in at college really isn’t that big of a player. As a matter of fact, if they really like ancient Roman history I think they could get a degree in that and still have a great career as a pilot. They would certainly be a more educated rounded person with a liberal arts degree and a pocket full of ratings and time than they would with a pilot degree and the same pocketful.

            I remind the youngsters that piloting any aircraft professionally is a very respectable way to earn quite a nice living. I tell them that they will have to pay a lot of dues to get the flying job of their dreams but that the dues-paying is a large part of the fun. I had just as much fun flying those late night charters in a beat-up Aztec than I had flying daytime coast to coast flights in a brand new 767.

            I finally tell them that becoming a professional pilot is a full time, life time endeavor where the learning never ends. Even with the hassles, the job is worth preparing for and doing.

            And the older guy I mentioned? After a short lecture from me about what being a professional pilot was all about I encouraged him to continue to pursue the dream of flying for a living. It is unlikely he can start in his late forties from zero time and get to the thousands of hours and ATP ratings with multi time the airlines want, but he can have a very satisfying professional career in flying if he starts taking it seriously.

            And you? What should you tell that friend the next time he or she asks you how hard it is to fly your plane? Tell the truth. Tell them that it usually is so easy it almost flies itself. Then mention that it is that when it isn’t so easy to fly they will be okay because of your extensive training and commitment to safety and the craft of piloting.