We would usually arrive in the crew room approximately one hour before departure.

Here we
will meet the other crew members and download the flight plans, weather and notices to airman
(NOTAMS) for the routes we’ll be flying today. As a crew, we would evaluate if the weather was
suitable at our departure and destination airports, whilst also looking at airports around our
destination in case we needed to divert the flight. Weather conditions that would get our
attention are strong winds, low cloud, fog or thunderstorms. We would then decide on a fuel
figure and pass this onto our dispatch team.

There is a common misconception with regards to who does what on the flight deck. There is a
Captain and a First Officer (sometimes referred to as a Second Officer depending on experience)
which are often referred to as the Pilot and Co-Pilot. Whilst the Captain has overall responsibility
for the decisions and ultimately the passengers and aircraft, most duties are split evenly – the
co-pilot does just as much flying as the pilot! In the briefing room, we would usually decide who
is going to fly each flight. For example if you were scheduled to fly 4 flights that day, the Captain
may choose to fly the first and last flight, whilst the First Officer was the pilot flying for the
middle two.

The pilots and cabin crew will then head to the aircraft, with the aim to be onboard about 35
minutes before the departure time. One pilot will do the “walk around” to check the outside of
the aircraft, whilst the other crew member starts to ready the flight deck for departure. This
includes running system checks, setting up the routing to our destination and checking the take-
off performance. The take-off performance varies on a daily basis – we need to calculate what
speed we need to lift off at, which depends on runway length, aircraft weight, temperature and
pressure.

The Captain will also check the aircraft’s technical log to ensure the aircraft is fully serviceable,
or identify any defects. A defect doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t depart – it depends on how
critical that system is and what redundancy is in place. There are complex documents which
provide us with some guidance as to what we can and can’t fly without. For example, if a
windscreen wiper wasn’t working, we could still depart, but couldn’t land in thick fog.

As the passengers are boarding the crew will usually be briefing the departure. This covers the
initial taxi and departure routing, potential threats or errors that could occur (for example heavy
rain showers that may be present on the climb out), high terrain, as well as looking at
contingency plans should an emergency situation occur.

Once all the passengers and their bags are onboard and the correct fuel is in the tanks, the
dispatcher will give us the final paperwork confirming how many people are onboard and the
final weight of the aircraft for take-off. The main doors will be closed and the crew will request
to push back and start the engines with air traffic control.

Taxiing the aircraft is one of the critical phases of flight and therefore both crew members will
be concentrating on maintaining the correct taxi routing whilst looking out for other aircraft and
ground traffic. Airports can be extremely busy which is why it is so important to keep a good
look out. Before getting airborne, the crew will run a number of checklists to ensure the aircraft
is correctly configured and setup for departure.

Once lined up on the runway, and cleared to take-off by air traffic control, the pilot flying for
that sector advances the thrust leavers and sets take-off thrust. As the aircraft accelerates down
the runway, one pilot is checking the aircrafts speed and whilst ensuring that any failure of the
aircrafts systems are quickly identified and communicated. The other pilot is steering the aircraft
with their feet to keep the plane in the middle of the runway.
At the correct calculated speed, the pilot flying pulls back on the control column to “rotate” the
aircraft and allowing it to climb away. The landing gear is raised once airborne, and the autopilot
is normally engaged at around 1000ft. Even when the autopilot goes in, the pilots workload at
this stage of flight is still quite intense. The crew are managing the aircrafts configuration, speed,
altitude and heading through manipulating the autopilot whilst communicating with air traffic
control.

The pilots may choose to continue manually flying the aircraft until a higher altitude in order to
maintain their hands on flying skill levels. This is usually discussed before departure taking into
account a number of factors such as weather conditions and how busy the airspace is likely to
be.

Once the flaps are up, the crew complete the after takeoff checklist and continue climbing the
aircraft to it’s cruise altitude. Flaps are the devices on the wings which are extended for take-off
and landing in order to allow the aircraft to fly at low speeds.

Having had approximately one and a half hours of a very intense workload, the pace and
intensity of the operation starts to reduce. Once established in the climb and throughout the
cruise, the pilots are monitoring the aircrafts systems, navigating the aircraft, communicating
with air traffic control, carrying out fuel checks, and getting the weather for airports along the
flight path and destination incase an en-route diversion is required. In the cruise, we’d normally
get the chance to have a meal and a cup of coffee and a chat with our colleagues, depending on
how long the flight is.

Most airline’s have what is referred to as a “sterile flight deck”. This means the crew should not
talk about anything that is not related to the operation of the aircraft below around 20,000ft as
100% of their focus should be on the aircraft.
Captain Dave Fielding, BALPA National Executive Committee, looks at the different career
roles available for a short-haul and long-haul airline pilot.

What does a day in the life of the best job in the world look like?Hmmm, not an easy one to
answer. There are so many different types of commercial flying and different operators do things
in their own style. However, the basic cake remains the same even if the icing looks different, so
I”ll try to give a generic overview of what you might expect flying either short-haul or long-haul,
because that is what I have been lucky enough to have experience of throughout my career.

Short-Haul

It is more than likely that your first job will be flying short-haul within Europe. Pilots are usually
the employee group with the highest wage bill in an airline and as a result the company wants
the maximum return on its outlay. In short-haul this means a lot of trips, or ‘sectors’, every
working day. Not many British airlines nightstop in Europe, so a typical flying day will consist of
either two long sectors, or four short or medium sectors. Some regional carriers in the UK will
fly as many as six sectors in a day.

This is high-intensity and high-workload stuff. Generally you do ‘earlies’ or ‘lates’, with the
former reporting for work from around 0500 onwards and the latter finishing any time up to
midnight. Blocks of work are usually between four and six days, with a couple of days or so off
before starting again. There are legal limits to the amount of duty and flying hours you can
perform in certain periods. Rest assured that whatever job you manage to get, you will be flying
up to these limits. There are moves afoot to increase them at European level, but that is an area
BALPA (the British Airline Pilots Association – the union for the UK’s commercial pilots) is
resisting fiercely.

Modern short-haul demands stamina, especially when you first start. Repetitive early morning
alarm calls are followed by long, intensive days. There are often few opportunities to relax as
turnarounds are as short as possible, often as little as 25 minutes. So throw in adelay for
whatever reason and you spend the rest of the day playing an impossible game of catch-up.
Eating? A furious whirlwind of cutlery at random times of the day followed by a Bisodol an hour
later is par for the course. Welcome to short-haul.

The day starts off with a briefing, which may or may not be with the cabin crew, depending on
which airline you work for. We study the weather at destination, alternate, en-route alternate
and find suitable bolt-holes along the way. Then a whole host of other parameters such as
weights, loads, flight times, slot delays, technical defects with the aircraft… Based on all that, we
make a fuel decision and it’s time to go.If the aircraft is off-stand, we are bussed to it. More
often, however, we walk through the terminal. This has two advantages you won’t find listed in
a recruitment brochure. Firstly, there is usually an excellent coffee shop on the way. Secondly,
the passengers tend to stare at you as you walk by with the crew. After 17 years in this business,
I confess that this still gives me a surge of pride. It’s not a vanity thing (OK, maybe a little), but
the impressive uniform and appearance is designed to reassure the public and satisfy them that
they are in the hands of safe professionals.

Once on board, we set about the extensive pre-flight checks. If something crops up like a
complicated defect which requires some careful modification to the standard operation – for
example one of the thrust reversers is unservicable – then you need to be very organised to
make sure that everything gets done in time for that sacred Standard Time of Departure. A
commercial pilot’s primary function is to make every flight a safe flight, but we are also in the
customer service business. If, as a team, we don’t deliver a punctual and outstanding customer
experience then passengers will travel with somebody else, simple as that.

Airlines go bust with frightening frequency and flight crew have a crucial part to play in the image
of the airline in the public’s eye. We are rightly perceived as the guardians of the travelling
public’s safety and today’s commercial pilot must demonstrate leadership, commercial
awareness and excellent communication & team skills, as well as the obligatory high level of
technical proficiency.

Flying in Europe is intense but ultimately very satisfying. Air Traffic Control is almost universally
of a high standard, the airports are well-equipped and the cities and cultures are fabulous,
should you be lucky enough to get the chance of a nightstop. The changing weather is suitably
challenging, with thick fog in the winter, gales in the spring and autumn, and towering
continental thunderstorms in a hot summer all giving lots of exposure to very varied flying
conditions. Many pilots have no desire to do anything other than stay on pretty much the same
time zone and be a ‘flat-earther’ all their careers. Others view short-haul flying as an ideal
springboard into a wholly different flying discipline – long-haul.

Long-haul

Although the basic sequence involved in flying an aircraft from A to B is the same as in short-
haul, it is the pace of long-haul flying which is very different. Everything takes longer. The
briefings have to take into account far more weathers for en-route diversions or the strict
requirements of ETOPS (Extended Twin Operations). Loading passengers and freight takes
longer because there’s more of both. Loading the flightplan route into the computer takes
forever as each point has to be checked carefully, especially when it comes to transatlantic
oceanic waypoints.

What still takes me by surprise is the length of the take-off roll. When a widebodied aircraft is
at its maximum take-off weight, it can be over a minute roaring down the runway at near full
power. Amazing and definitely one of those ‘this is why I do the job’ moments.

Of course, the flights themselves are longer too. Once airborne, the first hour and a half is
generally pretty busy, loading all the ancillary data which there wasn’t time to do on the ground,
such as wind speeds and directions; getting oceanic clearance if you are heading that way; and
checking the tracks and distances on the route. Then once established on your way, the flight
settles down to periodic checks of the route, timings and fuel quantities and temperatures. On
longer flights we carry an extra pilot, which allows the operating crew a chance to get some rest
to make sure that we are as fresh as possible for the approach and landing into destination. This
is crucial, as going into a busy, crowded airfield such as Chicago or New York, or some of the
more challenging African fields, requires full concentration.

Fatigue is a big issue in long-haul flying. Our clear, legal responsibility is to report for work fit and
rested, so managing our rest is a vital skill. This takes planning and care, as a typical pattern is to
go to work when everyone else is thinking of going home, for a flight which lands sometime after
midnight. The alarm then goes off in the hotel room 24 hours later and we fly through the night
to finish when everyone else is starting.

Alternatively, a 48-hour slip (as it is known) in a time zone eight hours different from the UK is
extremely tough on the body. The ability to sleep anywhere at any time for any length of time is
essential. It is not uncommon for some guys never to crack this particular aspect of long-haul
and to go back to short-haul for nights in a bed instead of a cockpit.
Yet the rewards of long-haul are plentiful. Your office is the world and the view out of the
window is incredible. I remember doing a flight to western Canada and we flew near the top of
the globe, catching the daylight up. We saw the sun set, then rise, and then set again on the
same flight. All the stuff you learn in geography at school and meteorology at flying college
comes to life before your very eyes.

You also get time off in some truly amazing places, and by becoming a regular visitor to them
you slowly get to know their cultures and ways of living. You read the newspapers, follow the
progress of an adopted sports team, find your favourite cafés and restaurants like a local. It’s
nice and a genuinely rewarding experience.

Cargo and executive jets

Away from the short-haul and long-haul options, there are two other major areas of commercial
flying – cargo and executive jets. While these aren’t within my area of expertise, they do still
offer rewarding career paths for commercial pilots. Certainly the guys I know who fly these
operations enjoy it and say that it brings different challenges.

Cargo flying, for example, doesn’t involve all those passenger-related issues which form a major
part of my day. This can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, freight containers don’t have the
occasional habit of getting lost in the terminal building with bags on board leading to a slot being
missed. But on the other hand, cargo pilots don’t get the wonderful interaction you can get with
our fare-paying (salary-paying!) passengers. By that I mean sometimes at the end of the day
when you end up right back where you started, you can wonder what you have achieved for
your hard day’s work. Yet when you talk to the passengers and share their joy in visiting friends
and relatives across the globe, or excitement in visiting somewhere new, and you got them there
safely, then your day really does take on a meaning.Executive jet pilots, I believe, constantly
need and use those flight planning skills taught at flying school. They are a one (or two) man
operation for the whole, including weight & balance, fuelling, airport and nav charges… you
name it, you get involved in it. The down side for life as an executive jet pilot is that they need a
Kindle or a good iPhone share-dealing app to wile away the long hours spent in terminals waiting
for clients to finish meetings.

You’ve read this article because you are interested in becoming a pilot. Good on you, but a word
of warning before you start out on the road to a commercial licence. The best things in life are
the things you have to work the hardest for, and this is undoubtedly true in the case of the
modern-day commercial pilot. Be under no illusions as to the sacrifices and work that the
training will require, and what awaits you at the end of it. Should this put you off? Not at all.
Keep your eyes firmly open to the reality of the industry, use the resources that are available to
help and go for it! I look forward to flying with you someday…

Beyond the flight deckIt is also worth saying that the aviation industry is a big one and the job
of a commercial pilot involves many disciplines, not all of them relating directly to piloting an
aircraft. Once you have some experience and are interested, becoming a trainer is an obvious
choice, but there are also many areas of technical work and management which require pilot
input. Then there is the union, BALPA, which is the path I chose. I’ve been a union rep for more
years than I care to remember now and it offers a real variety to my working life, exercising my
brain in different ways to flying. BALPA looks after the terms and conditions of our pilots, as well
as offering advice and help on a range of issues from scheduling to paternity leave to pensions.
A particular speciality of mine is helping out pilots who get into difficulties, either personally or
professionally. It is a hugely satisfying part of my job, as is sharing expertise with fellow pilots
around the world. We really are a global community, with safety at the heart of it.

Join today and enjoy the benefits of being part of Europe’s most advanced specialist Aviation
Association. Contact the BALPA Reps’ & Members’ Services on 020 8476 4000 or visit
www.balpa.org