This is the second in a series of 2 blogs in which I share my recent conversation with a Boeing 777 Captain of a major airline in the USA. The first blog was ‘A Chat With A Boeing 777 Captain’.
Annoyingly, I didn’t get a chance to record the conversation since it happened on a noisy, London Underground train.
Here’s what I’ve done instead. I’ve poured all the fragments of the conversation into a pile of words, on the screen, from memory, and have pieced them back together as accurately and as concisely as I could manage it. I hope you will find it interesting and insightful. I know I did!
CONTINUED
8. How often do you practice emergency procedures at your airline?
We have a 4-day training every year. The first 2 days are focused on the theoretical side and the last 2 days are in the simulator.
9. What advice would you give to an aspiring pilot such as myself?
Think of yourself as a 65 year-old, after you’ve retired, what experience would you be happy to look back on? Pursue that.
I have 2 kids, a boy and a girl. Something I tell my kids, although they are not interested in flying, and that’s ok, is that there are 2 kinds of people: those who ‘make life happen’ and those who ‘watch life happen’.
Pilots are not the kind of people who ‘watch life happen’, they ‘make life happen’. If you really want it, you’ll find a way to make your dream happen.
Something to bear in mind is that seniority is everything. If you know that the airlines are where you want to be, ‘pedal to the metal’, get there as quickly as you can.
I have friends who came into the airlines 2 years later than I and they only just became captains, because of the crises that shook up the aviation industry. The more senior you are, the better the position you’ll be in, to ride all the ups and downs.
There is so much you can’t control. It’s a tough journey, and you will face disappointments. You just have to keep going.
10. What disappointments have you had to push through?
I didn’t have any financial support form my parents. I had to take up a job as a waiter to start my flight training. Everything changed when I got into the military but until then, it was tough.
Disappointments come in different forms, everyone faces them. You ask anyone, in any field, and they will have faced disappointments. It’s just a part of life.
My Conclusion
It was great running into Chip. I got a much needed boost from the conversation, even though I already knew what he was saying to be true. In particular, I’m thinking of what he said about ‘making life happen’.
People, usually those who are not in aviation, often suggest that I reach out to pilots to ask for help and support. As it happens, I do have access to airline captains and first officers, but the thought of asking for a hand-out makes me cringe.
I know that people suggesting this are on my side, and so they want my journey to be easier on me. However, from my point of view, there are many who would like that kind of support, and very few opportunities available; there are tough challenges and no easy solutions.
As such, I would rather build something, and hopefully it is something of value – hence the blog and the YouTube channel – than sit around, hoping a saviour comes along.
Maybe I am wrong, and I just don’t know in what way I might be wrong. What I do know, however, is that no matter how big your dream is, no matter what little you have, you always have enough to get started towards that dream – whatever that means for you. Little steps amount to great distances, over time.
Once you start moving towards your dream, and once you start making the most of whatever you have, you increasingly attract the opportunities that will help you along the way.
Until next time, stay safe and live your dreams.✌🏾
For more on how I’m getting on with learning to fly, check me out on the YouTube.👊🏾
👉🏾YouTube👈🏾
👉🏾Instagram👈🏾
Future Pilot Niner One 