23 Absolutely Fascinating Confessions From An Airline Pilot That Will Change The Way You Think About Flying
Recently, on Reddit, an airline pilot invited other users to ask him literally anything about his time in the cockpit, and it led to a fascinating conversation.
He opened the thread by writing, "I'm an airline pilot, AMA [Ask Me Anything]. I’ll answer anything except which airline I fly for."
From how much pilots get paid to just how safe it is to fly, he answered a lot of eye-opening questions. Here are some of the best questions and answers:
1.Q: How much money do you make?
A: I make around $200k.
2.Q: How does one become a pilot? How much does it cost?
A: I did a lot of my training in a different country, but I’d say anywhere from $100,000 - $150,000 to become a professional pilot, depending on a bunch of stuff. The easiest way is to go to a local flight school and chat with them about the path.
There are a few licenses you need to get before being allowed to fly people, and then you need at least 1,500 hours before an airline can employ you. It’s not extremely hard, but it’s a lot of studying, and it definitely requires passion.
3.Q: What are the hours typically like?
A: It all depends on seniority. I often have 16-18 days off per month. My working days are generally around 8 hours long, but it depends on the schedule I’ve received for the month. We have pretty strict limits on how much we’re allowed to fly within certain time limits, i.e., we’re only allowed to fly for 8-9 hours within a 24-hour period.
4.Q: I’m currently a senior in high school and intend to eventually get to where you are today. What are three pieces of advice you’d give someone in my shoes?
A: That’s awesome! Good luck with the journey.
1. Enjoy the ride. The airlines are amazing, but hour building and flying small planes are some of the best, most fun memories I have. One step at a time.
2. There’s a LOT of studying. Take breaks. When you get disheartened, go to bed and start again tomorrow. It’s like drinking from a firehose at first, but it gets better.
3. You’ll learn (hopefully) early on that your instructors aren’t perfect, but listen to them. As time goes on, you’ll realize that you’re starting to discard bad advice that you’ll inevitably receive from all sorts of people and start to collect good advice. Be disciplined enough to check your textbooks to make sure that you’re not developing bad habits, but this is generally a good thing. It means you’re becoming a pilot that’s reasoning and learning.
A bit of advice I’d give that will always serve you well is to understand your systems. Study that more than all the other stuff because that’s what might save your life one day.
The most important part is just to enjoy it and don’t worry about any aspect of your training so much that it kills your passion for aviation.
5.Q: Do you own your own plane or do any flying in your personal time? Or is it all for work?
A: I don’t, but I’m looking at buying shares in a plane soon. I fly big jets to make money to fly small planes. I also volunteer with the Commemorative Air Force and the Civil Air Patrol. So, I like flying a lot.
6.Q: Does putting your cellphone in airplane mode actually matter?
A: Not as much as it used to, BUT in certain situations, it’s not inconceivable that 300 cell phones searching for a signal will cause an annoying static noise on our radios or maybe interfere with some other onboard equipment. Will one phone do anything? No. Will 300? Probably not, but we'd rather tell everyone to keep their phones in airplane mode. It also encourages people to listen to the safety briefings, apparently.
7.Q: I'm a nervous flyer. Can you reassure me?
A: Sure. I’ll start by giving the answer everyone probably gives — flying is statistically many, many times safer than driving.
I know that doesn’t necessarily calm nerves, though. But I can say that planes are very well designed machines that go through intense and regular maintenance. We have three-day checks that are done (you guessed it) every three days, and as pilots, we’re also constantly writing things up, whether they’re comfort items or more serious items. Could the plane fly without three hydraulic systems? Sure, it can, but there’s no chance of taking that plane into the air with passengers. The amount of redundancy built into modern planes is astonishing, often to the point of annoying passengers by grounding planes for seemingly innocuous systems not working.
We’re also really well trained at the end of the day, and we have to “re-certify” every year, along with getting random “line checks” by check airmen from the company.
All in all, you’re in a machine that has been designed very well, has been well maintained, and is operated by a crew (both the pilots and the flight attendants) that constantly train and re-certify to stay current and to stay on top of their duties and responsibilities, the first and foremost being passenger safety.
8.Q: How does safety compare between various sizes of commercial planes? Also, how about those smaller 12-passenger private jets?
A: They’re all maintained under pretty much the same safety standards.
The private jets operate under a different part of the law (part 135), so the maintenance schedules and requirements aren’t exactly the same as it is for the airlines, but they’re still really safe.
9.Q: Would you have any concerns about flying one of those Boeing models that have been the subject of unfavorable news lately, e.g., the one with the door that blew off mid-flight?
A: Nope, I wouldn’t have concerns about it any more.
10.Q: Have you ever seen a UFO?
A: I have! We’ve seen some extremely strange lights that don’t seem to move.
But my skeptical/scientific mind has me convinced that it was something strange happening with an atmospheric reflection of some kind.
11.Q: Is cheating amongst pilots as common as we’re made to believe?
A: I think it depends. I don’t think there’s more cheating in this industry than in others. Maybe it’s easier for pilots to cheat, but if you’re the sort of person to cheat, you don’t need to be an airline pilot to do it.
12.Q: I took an international flight last week. During the flight, I noticed that whenever one captain came out of the cockpit for a break, one cabin crew member would go to the cockpit. Is she also a pilot? Are cabin crew also trained to fly?
A: Nope, she isn’t a pilot, and they’re not trained to fly. This happens because we always have to have two people in the cockpit. I think this happened because of a tragic incident that happened on a Germanwings flight, where one pilot went to the bathroom, and the other pilot locked the cockpit door and crashed the plane intentionally.
13.Q: Do you tell jokes on the PA like I’ve heard some pilots make? If so, what’s your favorite?
A: Haha, I do. Normally, I’ll just say something along the lines of, "Welcome aboard your flight to Des Moines, Iowa," then I’ll pause for a second and say, "Just kidding, we are indeed going to your destination of 'XYZ.'"
14.Q: What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened while you were in the air?
A: I’ve had an engine failure (not in the airlines, but in a previous job), and that was definitely exciting. I’ve also worked in some conflict areas that have brought some scary/challenging situations with civil/military unrest and some trigger-happy fellows.
15.Q: What's your take on that Alaska Airlines pilot who, earlier this year, took some mushrooms and went into psychosis and tried to jump out the hatch?
A: This is a long conversation. He wasn’t trying to climb out of the hatch, though; he was reaching up toward the engine fire levers. Which is really bad because it would kill both engines.
I think he made a mistake getting on that plane, especially the jump seat, knowing he was under the influence. So that’s on him. But this incident also opened up a whole bunch of discussion around mental health in aviation. For years, pilots have been really scared of mentioning any mental health issues out of fear of the FAA pulling their licenses, so people start self-medicating etc, etc.
This isn’t excusing his actions, but it’s part of the conversation.
16.Q: You ever fart in the cockpit and how long does it take to clear?
A: Yes, it can take a while. Open the vents all the way and look at the other pilot as if they’re the offender.
17.Q: Can you speed up a plane if it’s running behind, or are you kind of at the mercy of physics?
A: We absolutely try to do everything we can when we’re running behind. Often, the best way to make up time is to ask air traffic control for a shortcut. Going faster can shave some time off, but generally, squeezing an extra few knots out of the plane won’t make too much of a difference unless you’re flying ultra-long distances (10+ hours, maybe).
18.Q: Are there certain airports you don't like flying in and out of?
A: Yes! DCA [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport] is one of my favorites, especially when we’re flying what’s called the “river visual” approach to runway 19. It’s a lot of fun.
One of my lesser favorites is Charlotte because it’s always a cluster.
19.Q: Is landing stressful or nerve-wracking in any way? Or is it (to you mentally) just like parking your car in a parking lot?
A: No, it’s a pretty standard part of the flight. It’s a high-concentration environment for sure, but not scary or stressful. I definitely need more concentration than parking my car, though.
20.Q: Have you ever had to deplane a passenger or passengers? If so, for what reason?
A: Yes. A few times. And mostly, it’s because they’re already inebriated and giving the flight attendants or other passengers trouble. They have to go pretty far to get kicked off, but it happens.
Not long ago, we had to deplane someone for smoking their vape in the bathroom during taxi.
21.Q: I’ve heard that bad weather may be unpleasant for the passengers, but it doesn’t really endanger the flight. Is that true, and if so, is there some type of weather that really would put the flight in danger besides the obvious ones of hurricanes and tornadoes?
A: Yeah, that’s generally true about bad weather. Severe weather can be extremely dangerous, but we’d avoid that, or we’d delay a departure. Microbursts are something we’d delay for, and they’re very dangerous.
22.Q: What's the weirdest or funniest thing you've seen on the job?
A: Honestly, there’s a lot. I saw a lady screaming at a gate agent about her tortoise not fitting under the seat not long ago. Often, it’s at the terminal where we see weird stuff.
Please be nice to gate agents, by the way!
23.Q: Do you ever worry about your carbon footprint or how flying is contributing to climate change?
A: I do. I realize that it’s a massive contributor to pollution, and I’m glad that airlines are starting to look at what their options are for the future (cleaner fuel seems to be the way they’re leaning), albeit begrudgingly.
My personal outlook is that I love my job, even though I can sometimes be caught between enjoying it and understanding that it’s a big contributor to global pollution. I think they’re pushing a lot for single-pilot operations, but that won’t happen in the next three or four decades. I think there will be a lot of advancement in engine technology, all aiming at cleaner emissions and using less fuel.
Did any of his answers surprise you? Tell us what you think in the comments!
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