By – Captain Alejandro Merediz (A350)
Years ago I was at a wedding.
We were assigned a table with people we didn’t know.
All of a sudden, a guy started a conversation:
“So what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a pilot.”
“Are you a pilot, or a copilot?”
After clarifying the roles of captains and first officers, I said: “I am a first officer”.
“Your only task is to make coffee for the captain.” He laughed.
“What do you do?” I asked.
He had a good job: he was the sub-secretary in some government dependency. I suddenly felt like a hyena when she spots a wounded gazelle.
“You must make very good coffee for the Secretary.”
He got as offended with my answer as I was with his. Our conversation was over.
Why am I telling you this story? Because I feel offended by your question.
This time, however, I’ll be nice… and respectful.
I am a lazy guy.
If there’s an easy way, I’ll find it. I’m really good at avoiding chores. I’m on a constant lookout for shortcuts. I procrastinate.
Except when doing my job. Then, I become hard-working. There’s simply no other way.
- I am awake while everybody else is sleeping.
- I work more hours than others.
- My job carries high levels of stress and responsibility.
- I cannot afford to screw up too much.
I fly a highly automated airplane and, yes: I fly on autopilot most of the time. But this doesn’t mean I sit around doing nothing.
Flying manually or under autopilot is the same. You seem to be missing some important points of my job:
- We are constantly planning what to do if things go wrong.
- Conditions change, forecasts sometimes are wrong.
- Weather gets nasty.
- Aircraft systems fail.
- There are a lot of procedures to follow.
- The rules of the air are complicated, with subtle variations from country to country. We have to comply.
- Passengers get sick, babies are born on board.
- Airports get closed.
- We fly with a certain amount of fuel. You cannot create more.
- We cannot stop for troubleshooting.
- We fly, navigate and communicate regardless of what’s happening.
- We have to react calmly under extreme situations.
Most importantly, pilots are constantly making decisions. The right ones.
- Making the wrong decision can cost me my job or my license, or even worse.
- Making a good but inefficient decision can cost the company more money than they have paid me in 14 years.
They pay me to be safe and efficient.