From the moment you start your flying training, you are filling your skills toolbox to become a safe and competent captain. As a cadet and a first officer, you’ll see many different ways of doing things. How to fly a descent, how to manage passenger issues and how to manage your workload.
There is rarely a single way to achieve a desired outcome so you’ll like some of the techniques you see and you’ll dislike others. Save what you like in your skills toolbox and discard the rest.
These articles I’ve written for various publications will hopefully help you develop from an inexperienced cadet pilot into a confident First Officer. As I said above, save what you like in your toolbox, discard what you don’t.
“Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.”
Time is a precious commodity. It can either be a pilot’s best friend or their worst enemy. Having the ability to differentiate between perceived time and the actual time is a key skill of a good pilot. So, when approaching an airport where the weather is less than ideal, pilots never want to be backed into … Continue reading To land or to divert? How pilots decide the safest option
Being overloaded makes humans do funny things. Our focus narrows on the task at hand, tunnel vision sets in and it becomes difficult to notice other things. Our brain shuts out other senses and our hearing is the first to go. Have you been driving your car on the motorway in heavy rain, only to … Continue reading How pilots avoid workload overload
The path to becoming an airline captain starts on the first day of flight school. Every flight, every simulator session and every event that happens along the way builds the skills that a first officer needs to become a captain. All good first officers will view each flight as if they were the captain. How would … Continue reading The Final Command Check
Reaching the rank of captain is one of the most significant moments of any airline pilot’s career. Trading in the three-stripe jacket and picking a pristine new four-stripe uniform is the culmination of years of hard work. Whilst the years spent in the right-hand seat are all building towards that upgrade, the final few months are … Continue reading Making Captain – It’s Not Just About The Flying
Every time you get on an aircraft, you entrust your life to the captain and their crew. Airline safety has become so good that you now take it for granted. You board a flight and you expect to walk off the aircraft again a few hours later — and so you should. However, who is this person … Continue reading The path to becoming an airline captain — how pilots climb the ranks
As the old saying goes, “What goes up, must come down” and in aviation, the coming down part is statistically the most hazardous. From the very start of our training, pilots are taught to know where we are in relation to the terrain around us at all times. We all love the views out of the window … Continue reading Terrain Ahead – How pilots avoid colliding with the ground
When you’re in a sealed, pressurised tube five miles above the ground, being able to communicate effectively is essential. In the early days of aviation, flags and light signals were used before designers were able to fit basic radio equipment into aircraft. Modern aircraft now have an array of communication devices from the rudimentary HF radios … Continue reading Can you hear me now: How pilots communicate with ATC while 35,000 feet in the air
Everything becomes an effort when it gets too hot. Going for a run is hard work, focusing on a task takes extra concentration and a decent night’s sleep is hard to come by. Do all this at altitude in a place like Johannesburg or Mexico City and these tasks become even harder. It’s the same for flying an aircraft. … Continue reading The challenges for pilots when landing at hot and high airports
We’ve all been there, trying to run on a hot day. It’s hard work. If you’ve tried doing it in a city like Denver, Johannesburg or Mexico City, you’ll know how much harder it is at altitude. It feels like the air is thinner and it’s much harder to breathe. You’re not imagining this and it’s the same … Continue reading How pilots adapt their takeoff plans at hot and high airports
“The pilot’s quick thinking saved the day.” A fairly standard newspaper headline when an airliner has rejected its takeoff and come to a rapid halt on the runway. However, calling this “quick thinking” is a real disservice to the thousands of people who, over the history of commercial aviation, have worked to improve safety. The … Continue reading What’s happening in the flight deck during a rejected takeoff?
