Sometimes the pilot’s life is not all fun and games. Take today. I had a fun call with a good friend of mine. He’s an international pilot for a major. As you may guess he’s stuck in Europe has been for a couple of days and not really sure when he will get back.
He’s taken care of, being paid, and not alone. According to him half the hotel is flight crews stuck. Turning into a bit of a spring break vacation for some. However my friend is missing his daughters birthday, and his anniversary. This is part of being a professional pilot. From time to time we have to miss stuff.
I can tell you stories of when I missed the beginning of a family vacation because the aircraft broke in the middle of no where so we had to babysit the jet for days. All pilots have those stories. Such is life.
Now the upside is we get great schedules that allow us to be free, and not to need to work 40 hour weeks. I can’t remember the last time I dealt with rush-hour traffic. I just refuse and avoid traveling at those time.
This can be a major stress point, the travel and delays, in any life. I’ve seen more than my fare share of relationship problems caused by this career. So before you go all out into professional aviation you need to ask yourself if you can handle missing important thing in your life. If you are going to go nuts when you miss a birthday, or be divorced for missing an anniversary you may want to think again about your career choice.
I’m not saying don’t do it, just be alert to what this career is like. Now I personally love the job and find the issues fun. To me it is all a great fun adventure.
The vacation I missed, met up with the wife and kids a couple of days later. And because I didn’t need to get back to work like everybody else, and the extra days at work pay well, we extended the vacation almost an extra week. 🙂
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