I'll give you a mixed-up, jumbled set of recommendations. There is no need to write any of these down. I don't remember anything from my university days, so I doubt you'll remember any of this yourself. If only one or two of these suggestions stick, your flying lives will be improved.
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First, as flying students, never be the person who wears the instrument hood on your head as you walk out to the airplane. Just don't be that person!
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Don't give your significant other a T-shirt that says, "Remove before flight." I know it sounds incredibly witty now that you are young and are just starting out, but believe me, you don't want to hear, "I'm not planning on taking this off, -you're grounded!" from your wife. Not that this has ever happened to me.
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Don't fly sick. If you show up for a trip with the flu, you just gave it to about a hundred other people. The only sick-leave abuse I know about for sure is when you fail to use it and fly sick. Just don't do it.
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Drinking alcohol is something you are going to have to deal with and decide about on your own. Some pilots really develop a drinking problem. Thank God we now have programs we can go to and still save our career, but even if you aren't an alcoholic, you will someday find yourself hung over on a layover with a life-changing decision in front of you.
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The lavs on the airplane are for peeing only. Don't be the person that poops on the airplane unless it is an outright emergency, and then don't admit to it. By the way, a coffee pack stuck in the lav door goes a long way to helping with the smell.
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Never, ever, wear your sunglasses in a case on your belt. It is so 1970s and was out of date and geeky back then when I did it. The same advice goes for Pratt and Whitney belt buckles, baseball caps with your airplane's registration marks on the front, and wearing any kind of gloves in the cockpit.
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When laying-over, always show up on time for pick-up in the morning. Set two alarms. There is nothing more distressing than starting off your day of flying late and making everybody in the lobby wait for you.
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Show up for recurrent training prepared. No excuse for not knowing your job, and everybody there just wants to go home on time. Don't be the reason they miss their flight.
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Once you move up out of a position, just move on. Don't go giving the HO driver advice when you are now on the BE20. Nobody wants your advice on how to run their aeroplane. Seriously, eyes front!
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This is particularly important ,
If you want to retire with enough money to live on, I suggest that you only marry once. I can't tell you how many pilots I've flown with who have bought way too many women way too many houses and are now fighting for their financial lives. How much of a half of a half of a half are you willing to live with? I'm the last person to moralize, but think twice before giving in to the temptation to have that affair (and trust me, the temptation will be there). Is 10 seconds and two jerks and a squirt of fun worth living in a one-bedroom apartment while your ex has sex on your former ski boat with your former tennis buddy?
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Finally, I suggest that, while you are going through this goat-rope we call an aviation career, you take a moment from time to time to simply enjoy where you are. Not many people get to do what we do, and a day being a captain beats a day of being the Prime Minister any time.
Advice From the Experienced for new guys
Moderators: Sulako, lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, I WAS Birddog
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Check Pilot
- Rank 6
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Good advice, all of it, except for the gloves quote. Now normally I would agree with you, but I have touched too many control columns that have been sitting out in -40. I, and many collegues, keep a pair of thin gloves in our headset cases for just such an occasion, Once the cockpit heats up, off they come.Never, ever, wear your sunglasses in a case on your belt. It is so 1970s and was out of date and geeky back then when I did it. The same advice goes for Pratt and Whitney belt buckles, baseball caps with your airplane's registration marks on the front, and wearing any kind of gloves in the cockpit.
It's better to break ground and head into the wind than to break wind and head into the ground.
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metal overcast
- Rank 3
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Check Pilot wrote: and wearing any kind of gloves in the cockpit.
Obviously you have never flown a CL-215. Wearing a golf glove on your stick hand is a must on hot days. Once you have done it you will never fly without it again.
You also forgot to mention wearing your flight suit while hanging around the local high school!!
Obviously you have never flown a CL-215. Wearing a golf glove on your stick hand is a must on hot days. Once you have done it you will never fly without it again.
You also forgot to mention wearing your flight suit while hanging around the local high school!!
You Can Love An Airplane All You Want, But Remember, It Will Never Love You Back!
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield...W. Buffett
Great stuff CP.
Should be posted at flight schools everywhere.
One might also need to add something about cheesy bumper stickers, custom license plates, oversized watches, and a quota on how often you are alowed to quote, view, and play the theme from the movie 'Top Gun'.
S.
Funny, the longer I've been a pilot, the less I want to advertise that to the public.
Should be posted at flight schools everywhere.
One might also need to add something about cheesy bumper stickers, custom license plates, oversized watches, and a quota on how often you are alowed to quote, view, and play the theme from the movie 'Top Gun'.
S.
Funny, the longer I've been a pilot, the less I want to advertise that to the public.
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mellow_pilot
- Rank 10
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I like the comment about marrying only once and may I add you should do like I did and marry your best friend and keep her that way. Never, ever enter the house nor leave the house without giving your very best friend a big hug and a kiss. I have been doing it for 40 years and it works just great.
The average pilot, despite the somewhat swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy and caring.
These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
Why get married at all...I've been common law for over 10 years and still going strong, the best relationship I've ever had. Save the money from the wedding and invest it in a house and it'll be less hassle and expense if you do split up. A wise old man once told me "always remember, the honeymoon is before you get married", words to live by.
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shitdisturber
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- Location: If it's Monday it's got to be somewhere shitty
zero wrote:Why get married at all...I've been common law for over 10 years and still going strong, the best relationship I've ever had. Save the money from the wedding and invest it in a house and it'll be less hassle and expense if you do split up. A wise old man once told me "always remember, the honeymoon is before you get married", words to live by.
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YA CHEAP BASTARD...BUY HER A PHUCKNG RING AND THROW A PARTY ALREADY!!!
10 years...
yer lucky she ain't dumped yer ass on the curb 'long time ago!
Really good post Check Pilot. Down to Earth advice.
One minor point, sort of a shame that you didn't mention that it was written by Kevin Garrison "CEO of the Cockpit" #11 and published on avweb.com on September 28, 2002
http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/181781-1.html
One minor point, sort of a shame that you didn't mention that it was written by Kevin Garrison "CEO of the Cockpit" #11 and published on avweb.com on September 28, 2002
http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/181781-1.html
