So You Want to Be a … Commercial Airline Pilot: Here’s the Info You Need

204 Pages·2017·30.794 MB·English

by  Danielle Thorne

YAN011000 YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Careers
Watson
YAN056010 YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Transportation / Aviation $19.95 &
TRA002040 TRANSPORTATION / Aviation / Commercial L7 Thorne
“SO YOU WANT TO BE A… COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT”
puts you inside the cockpit of a modern-day airliner for an insider’s look at
one of the most glamorized professions in the world.
So You
Want to
What makes an airline captain, and how did they end up flying your plane? Be a...
What makes air travel dangerous, and what makes it safe? Do you have
what it takes to command a jet that’s worth over $100 million? More
importantly, can you accept the life-long challenge of keeping the flying C
public safe? O
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This book explains everything from getting your education to passing M
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) practical test and everything in E
between. HR
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The demand for pilots is growing, and an average e’sIA
t
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salary over six figures, this might be the perfect eL
career for the adrenaline-hunting, risk-taking, Inf A
o
and thrill-seeking young adult. YI
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u
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Sit down, and strap in — this book eI
eN
will take you on the adventurous ride d
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of becoming a commercial airline pilot.
P
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Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc. By Captain Jack Watson, Revised by Danielle Thorne
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So You Want to Be a
Commercial
Airline Pilot
Here’s the Info You Need
By Captain Jack Watson
Revised by Danielle Thorne
SO YOU WANT TO BE A COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: HERE’S THE
INFO YOU NEED
Copyright © 2017 Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thorne, Danielle, author.
Title: So you want to be a commercial airline pilot—here’s the info you need / by Danielle Thorne.
Description: Ocala, Florida : Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc, [2017] | Includes bibliographical ref-
erences and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017057161 (print) | LCCN 2017057963 (ebook) | ISBN 9781620232101
(ebook) | ISBN 9781620232095 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781620232521 (library edition :
alk. paper) | ISBN 162023209X (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Airplanes—Piloting—Vocational guidance. | Aeronautics, Commercial—Voca-
tional guidance.
Classification: LCC TL561 (ebook) | LCC TL561 .T496 2017 (print) | DDC 629.13023—dc23
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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CHAPTER 1: The Right Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Captain’s Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Life Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CHAPTER 2: Planes and People to Fly Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The First Pilots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The First U .S . Commercial Airplanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Across the Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
All About Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Golden Age of Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Into the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER 3: So You Want to Be a Pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
From A to B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
On The Job Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Probation and More Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Check Rides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6 So You Want to Be a Commercial Airline Pilot
Paychecks and Rewards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Rewards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 4: A Typical Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Flight Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Schedules and Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 5: Safety and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Mechanics and Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Cockpit Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Crew Resource Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
When Things Go Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
CHAPTER 6: Infamous Aviation Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The Wright Brothers’ Deadly Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Tragedy in the Skies: 9/11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
The Miracle on the Hudson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
CHAPTER 7: Peak of the Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
The Pilot’s Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Rags to riches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Retirement: What to Expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7
CHAPTER 8: Flight Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
The Major Airlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
American Airlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Delta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Southwest Airlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Technology and Advancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Bigger and faster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Passenger perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Pilots of the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Author’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Cockpit Slang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Aviation Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Author Bio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Introduction
The alarm blares . A bedside clock reads 4:30 . Although it still feels like
the middle of the night, a shadow slips out of bed and stumbles into the
bathroom for a quick shower . Within minutes, the early riser takes a
clean and neatly pressed uniform off its hanger and puts it on . The bags
are already packed . A drive to the airport will only take 20 minutes .
There’s no time for a hot breakfast . On the way to the airport, a few
phone calls make sure everything is on schedule . The car is parked in an
employee parking lot, and an airport shuttle bus drives the rest of the
way to the airport . It stops at a special entrance for employees . After
going through security and presenting the right identification, the early
riser takes an escalator to an underground train that will stop at different
stations inside the airport, called terminals . At the right stop, there is a
short walk down a long hallway past restaurants and restrooms to the
right gate . Customers are waiting in the gate area where they can see an
airplane parked outside the tall, glass windows .
The ticket agents wave hello from their desk . The employee passes
through a secure door and walks a few more strides down a jetway con-
necting the airport’s gate to the airplane parked outside . Passing
through the open door to the aircraft a brief hello is exchanged with a
flight crewmember who has already arrived . Inside the cockpit, the left
chair is empty and waiting .
This employee is a commercial airline pilot, and he or she will see the
sun rise above the clouds this morning in their first few hours at work . By
the time they return home the next day, they will have flown hundreds of
passengers from one part of the world to another in a matter of hours —
voyages that once took months or even years .