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The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!
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If we can all just tuck our mickies in for a few days so the pro's can answer my outstanding questions....
Let's just be friends and keep the crap for After Hours [where I don't go
]- What's your scariest moment while in cockpit [flight or otherwise]? Did you inform passengers?
- Have you ever been in a situation where "security" had to be administered on flight [on board marshal etc]?
- Have you ever had an emergancy, before take off, that meant the auircraft had to be evacuated?
- Where any of these false alarms, after tha fact?
- What gets your blood pumping, take off or landing? I love the take off [I'm a civvy] but I find, as life goes on, I get more and more scared
- Is there camaraderie among pilots of different airlines? Do you all share the same "canteen/water cooler" or does Airlingus/Ryanair/BMI/Other have it's own area?
<keep thread alive, don't close>0 -
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What's your scariest moment while in cockpit [flight or otherwise]? Did you inform passengers?
Have you ever been in a situation where "security" had to be administered on flight [on board marshal etc]?
Have you ever had an emergancy, before take off, that meant the auircraft had to be evacuated?
Where any of these false alarms, after tha fact?
What gets your blood pumping, take off or landing? I love the take off [I'm a civvy] but I find, as life goes on, I get more and more scared
Is there camaraderie among pilots of different airlines? Do you all share the same "canteen/water cooler" or does Airlingus/Ryanair/BMI/Other have it's own area?
1: Touch wood nothing bad yet. Severe wake tubulence at low altitude and a few other things but nothing that got the heart racing. While training in a Piper, was downwind in an uncontrolled airfield (I was doing the published approach) and a Piper cub came straight at me. He wasn't doing an approach just bumbling around. I turned the plane and climbed. Was raging afterwards.
2. Nope never seen an on board marshal. I have been on a few deportation flights or prisoner transfers but never any trouble.
3. Once. We found a bag in the hold leaking gas during boarding. Evacuated into terminal again. Wasn't planned. Just some guy going camping.
4. When I had less than 1,000 hours my adrenaline was pumping on approach and landing. Don't get it now. Although the other day I got a real rush of adrenaline on a flat calm day!! Beautiful landing after though.
Nerves are a good thing if you don't let them get in your way.
5. I rarely meet other pilots that don't work for my airline. I know loads of ryanair and ba pilots and we meet up but we've been friends for years. Apart from that I rarely bump into any. I would always make time to talk to any that I could. It's a very small industry though. You'll always meet someone you know in random places.0 -
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Hello All the readers and writers,
It’s an excellent pool of information coming straight from experienced pilots..
Thanks for all your time on writing here.
I have read the full thread from page 1...I felt like i was already in cockpit
I have few questions.
1) I am 35 and thinking about becoming an airline pilot. Is too late??
I mean, do airline think i am rusted and not good to be taken on board??
2) I am an IT professional and quite successful in my career. Do have small family and mortgage. If, i somehow(still don’t know how) part the money, are there chances that i will earn well and pay off the €80 ~ 90 k loan?? Get seniority before i retire?? (of course, if i am hired in the first place
3) Do you have to demonstrate all your knowledge on the day one you hold the stick/control column??
I mean, you trained for 2 years then if you are lucky, you will be hired, on the day one of your job, can you remember everything?? Which checklist, buttons and so on.. that the training captain is watching you.. Or they know that you have just finished and got ATPL, you cant control from taxing, take-off and landing all by yourself..
Thanks in advance0 -
host_found wrote: »Hello All the readers and writers,
It’s an excellent pool of information coming straight from experienced pilots..
Thanks for all your time on writing here.
I have read the full thread from page 1...I felt like i was already in cockpit
I have few questions.
1) I am 35 and thinking about becoming an airline pilot. Is too late??
I mean, do airline think i am rusted and not good to be taken on board??
You will get hired by a lot of airlines, however you may suffer if it was a 1 on 1 run off with a younger candidate as they would have more command/service potential, but that depends on the Airline. Like anything you're never too old until you feel too old. Making Captain/Senior Captain in some airlines may not be possible, but I would not worry too much. Ryanair promote guys within 5 years sometimes.2) I am an IT professional and quite successful in my career. Do have small family and mortgage. If, i somehow(still don’t know how) part the money, are there chances that i will earn well and pay off the €80 ~ 90 k loan?? Get seniority before i retire?? (of course, if i am hired in the first place
This for me is the crux of the matter for a person such as yourself. When you start out as an FO you will be paid peanuts by all accounts and most likely have to move around a bit. For example I expect to make 28k this year gross and will be based at a yet to be disclosed location. The issue is that you will not be based in Ireland to start and the quoted figures range from 3-5 years with Ryanair for the base you want or a couple of months with Aer Arran if lucky.
I would guess you will be taking a pretty large pay cut in any case. Lump in the at least 60k you will use to train etc etc and the possible type rating costs and you are looking at about 100k from zero to hero. What stops a lot of "family guys" from training is the costs and effect on family.
A single Pringle like myself can live in abject poverty quite happily(and believe me I do!;)) but if I had a wife or family I would not want this life for them even if I knew it would get better. Now that by no means precludes you from flying but it makes you a little less flexible to roll with the punches. It's likely that you will be based in Britain or the Continent with many airlines and so you have to be prepared for that. FOship can be a little nomadic when you start out.3) Do you have to demonstrate all your knowledge on the day one you hold the stick/control column??
I mean, you trained for 2 years then if you are lucky, you will be hired, on the day one of your job, can you remember everything?? Which checklist, buttons and so on.. that the training captain is watching you.. Or they know that you have just finished and got ATPL, you cant control from taxing, take-off and landing all by yourself..
Thanks in advance
It varies by airline. I recently went through a process and it went like this:
Apply
Sent a questionnaire by email to submit
Called for interview where they asked me about me and my likes dislikes and hobbies and more or less got to know me as a person and how I would fit in with their airlines etc etc
Called for second interview where all the technical knowledge was tested by a panel. There was 1 pilot, one mystery man, one person who I think was from Ops and a person from HR. They asked questions first about the workings of an aircraft such as how the engines worked, how certain readings were got through pitots etc, why and when we used flaps. I was then asked to describe a situation where I faced abnormal conditions or stress in flight and detail my reactions and possible errors I made on reflection.
Then I got the "what would you do if..." questions. That was more or less it for the day then
Then a 2 hour session in the sim where all by skills(and there were many:D) were tested. It was all manual control stuff like, climbs, turns, descents, landings, take offs and a fair weather ILS followed by a "foul weather" ILS. The guy doing it was laid back and pretty cool. He made a few jokes and told me that he was going to crash me no matter what. He gave me failure after failure until I could keep her in the air no longer. That so he said was their way of seeing how much I could take and in his words so that "even with no wings, engines or fin I would still be trying to do something". They don't expect you to know all the switches and odds and ends in the cockpit, just the basics and the Type Rating teaches you all the checks and Procedures etc.
I then got a letter in the mail telling me I was successful and offered a place in the Type Rating course. Thats where I am now.
Next week hopefully I will move on to Base training and after that Line Training. Then it's all blue skies....hopefully!;)0 -
You will get hired by a lot of airlines, however you may suffer if it was a 1 on 1 run off with a younger candidate as they would have more command/service potential, but that depends on the Airline. Like anything you're never too old until you feel too old. Making Captain/Senior Captain in some airlines may not be possible, but I would not worry too much. Ryanair promote guys within 5 years sometimes.
This for me is the crux of the matter for a person such as yourself. When you start out as an FO you will be paid peanuts by all accounts and most likely have to move around a bit. For example I expect to make 28k this year gross and will be based at a yet to be disclosed location. The issue is that you will not be based in Ireland to start and the quoted figures range from 3-5 years with Ryanair for the base you want or a couple of months with Aer Arran if lucky.
I would guess you will be taking a pretty large pay cut in any case. Lump in the at least 60k you will use to train etc etc and the possible type rating costs and you are looking at about 100k from zero to hero. What stops a lot of "family guys" from training is the costs and effect on family.
A single Pringle like myself can live in abject poverty quite happily(and believe me I do!;)) but if I had a wife or family I would not want this life for them even if I knew it would get better. Now that by no means precludes you from flying but it makes you a little less flexible to roll with the punches. It's likely that you will be based in Britain or the Continent with many airlines and so you have to be prepared for that. FOship can be a little nomadic when you start out.
It varies by airline. I recently went through a process and it went like this:
Apply
Sent a questionnaire by email to submit
Called for interview where they asked me about me and my likes dislikes and hobbies and more or less got to know me as a person and how I would fit in with their airlines etc etc
Called for second interview where all the technical knowledge was tested by a panel. There was 1 pilot, one mystery man, one person who I think was from Ops and a person from HR. They asked questions first about the workings of an aircraft such as how the engines worked, how certain readings were got through pitots etc, why and when we used flaps. I was then asked to describe a situation where I faced abnormal conditions or stress in flight and detail my reactions and possible errors I made on reflection.
Then I got the "what would you do if..." questions. That was more or less it for the day then
Then a 2 hour session in the sim where all by skills(and there were many:D) were tested. It was all manual control stuff like, climbs, turns, descents, landings, take offs and a fair weather ILS followed by a "foul weather" ILS. The guy doing it was laid back and pretty cool. He made a few jokes and told me that he was going to crash me no matter what. He gave me failure after failure until I could keep her in the air no longer. That so he said was their way of seeing how much I could take and in his words so that "even with no wings, engines or fin I would still be trying to do something". They don't expect you to know all the switches and odds and ends in the cockpit, just the basics and the Type Rating teaches you all the checks and Procedures etc.
I then got a letter in the mail telling me I was successful and offered a place in the Type Rating course. Thats where I am now.
Next week hopefully I will move on to Base training and after that Line Training. Then it's all blue skies....hopefully!;)
Best of luck with the TR and thanks for describing the process 0 -
It's not too late but it's very late indeed. Your rivals will be in the mid twenties. You will be nearly forty. It's not a killer and people have overcome this before. Many older guys taken on by the airlines actually have other flying experience. More on this later. You with less than 300 hours will be at a disadvantage. One thing your age won't help with is getting through tests and exams and type ratings.host_found wrote: »1) I am 35 and thinking about becoming an airline pilot. Is too late??
I mean, do airline think i am rusted and not good to be taken on board??
Having a family is a problem for you not for the employers. I knew one guy who left his family for a year to train. Came back for a while and finally paid for a job in Turkey. Ryanair the same. You will be based where they say not where you want. When you are made Captain, you're moved again. This will test your relationship to it's limits.2) I am an IT professional and quite successful in my career. Do have small family and mortgage. If, i somehow(still don’t know how) part the money, are there chances that i will earn well and pay off the €80 ~ 90 k loan?? Get seniority before i retire?? (of course, if i am hired in the first place
I mentioned that older people often have the advantage of flying experience before they get the job. The jobs where they get their experience are poorly paid if at all and are totally family unfriendly. You will barely earn enough money to cover your own expenses yet alone a family. I don't know if you saw the series 'Bush Pilots'. £12k a year and living in tents in the bush is par for the course there. Same for instructing and most other so called starter jobs. Many newly trained pilots simply cannot afford to take a low paid flying job because of their loans etc and end up back in their old job marking time.
No everything is accumulative, by the time you get there you will be able for it hopefully and trained to a very high standard by the operator itself. If not you will be ruthlessly cut. But there is pressure to perform to a minimum standard straight away. This applies to the low paid starter jobs too. I should add. There are no real easy flying jobs. In fact the low paid jobs can be the toughest and most dangerous.3) Do you have to demonstrate all your knowledge on the day one you hold the stick/control column??
I mean, you trained for 2 years then if you are lucky, you will be hired, on the day one of your job, can you remember everything?? Which checklist, buttons and so on.. that the training captain is watching you.. Or they know that you have just finished and got ATPL, you cant control from taxing, take-off and landing all by yourself..
Thanks in advance
Don't want to put you off but you need a realistic perspective. To sum it up, you are at the upper limit for starting to become a pilot. There are few jobs and experience counts. You can expect expect to be based out of Ireland away from your family and moved around if you do manage to get a job. The pay and conditions will not compare to your old job very favourably and you will be expected to maintain a very high standard of competency right throughout your career which can end unexpectedly for various reasons.
But apart from all that. It's great.0 -
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Watching tonights Bush pilots TV show, a Canadian pilot was talking about storms and associated winds, he said that one of the problems is that once you are flying, if the wind doubles, the lift will increase, and the wings might fall off.... Guess that one learns something new everyday
Smurfjed0 -
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Not knowing what country you are going to be in, lets just estimate 20% tax, so thats 28000-5600= 22400, 25% of that is 5600, leaving you with 16800, give or take for 4 years. I hope that you get per diems or even tips
host_found, jobs for low time first officers are scare, but the one that LeftBase has obtained is one of the few where you dont have to pay upfront, however, the salary is low, I might even say its crap. Do you think that you could survive on that with your family, especially considering that you have to repay the training loans, and support yourself away from home.
This is a harsh reality of where the industry has ended up.
smurfjed0 -
Not knowing what country you are going to be in, lets just estimate 20% tax, so thats 28000-5600= 22400, 25% of that is 5600, leaving you with 16800, give or take for 4 years. I hope that you get per diems or even tips
Well as I said 28k is a rough gross(in more ways than one) figure!;) It's ok though I quite like those lidl ready meal things.....how that will lie with the AME remains to be seen.....:Dhost_found, jobs for low time first officers are scarce, but the one that LeftBase has obtained is one of the few where you dont have to pay upfront, however, the salary is low, I might even say its crap. Do you think that you could survive on that with your family, especially considering that you have to repay the training loans, and support yourself away from home.
This is a harsh reality of where the industry has ended up.
smurfjed
I didnt pay a figure up front, but I did make a commitment when I signed on the dotted line to a certain amount per month off my wage.....so it is a similar effect...just paying with money I dont have!
And crap is what you make of it!;) When I'm on 28 squillion a year with Emirates at least I'll have a decent bench mark to compare to when I'm sunning myself by the pool waiting for my super model to serve me my lidl ready meal(which I assume I will be rendered chemically dependent on).
Have to start somewhere to go anywhere!:cool:0 -
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