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Latest Data on U.S. Women Pilots

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:29:36 GMT

FAA statistics for year-end 2025

When it comes to women pilots, FLYING Magazine makes a common mistake with the latest FAA’s U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics . When student pilots are included, the pilot totals are inflated and skewed. The FAA provides numbers for “Pilot Total without Student Category”, if only people would bother to look. For 2025, that number is 517,233 total pilots, and 39,940 total women pilots — a far cry from the “milestone” of 100,000+ women pilots cited in their articles and posts.

WHY NOT INCLUDE STUDENT PILOTS? Student pilots hold no aircraft ratings, cannot fly except under the supervision of a flight instructor, and might never fly solo. And they are over-counted by the FAA, because “there is no expiration date on the new student pilot certificates, which generates a cumulative increase in the numbers”, according to the information provided with their data.

ATTRITION: According to an AOPA study , attrition among student pilots is estimated to be as a high as 70% to 80%. Signs of this are seen in the FAA data by comparing the number of student pilot certificates in one year to new entry-level pilot certificates issued in the following year. There were 345,495 student pilot certificates in 2024, and a total of 57,772 new recreational, sport, and private pilot certificates issued in 2025, for example.

Accuracy demands that we cite total pilot figures withOUT student pilots for all these reasons, especially when presenting data on women pilots.

ACCURATE DATA ON U.S. WOMEN PILOTS FOR 2025

MORE WOMEN PILOTS: There are more active rated women pilots in the United States than ever before — nearly 40,000.

GROWTH: Due to an increase in pilots overall, women’s representation is still small and rising slowly: Women represent 7.72% of all rated pilots in the United States, an increase from 6.35% in 2024.

GROWTH AT HIGHEST LEVEL: Women are estimated to be about 5.5% to 6% of U.S. airline pilots. Note that not every pilot holding the Airline Transport Pilot certificate is employed as an airline pilot. Even so, more women who learn to fly are aiming to be airline pilots and high-level professional pilots, as seen in the average age of ATP certificate holders, which is 50 years old overall but 44 years old for women.

LATEST NUMBERS: Women are now…

o 7.72% of all rated pilots

o 9.41% of Private Pilots

o 10.88% of Commercial Pilots

o 5.71% of Airline Transport Pilots

o 9.59% of Flight Instructors

o 8.99% of Remote Pilots

o 3.04% of Mechanics

o 21.19% of Dispatchers

o 78% of Flight Attendants

Additional statistics are here .

Does Airline Safety Correlate with Diversity?

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 03:28:58 GMT

A disinformation campaign falsely links “DEI” to airline accidents – let’s check the facts

There is no extant literature examining this exact question, so I accessed a variety of sources to compile available data. I researched U.S. scheduled air carriers from the earliest days of aviation to today, including the composition of the airline pilot profession with regards to white, Black, male, and female identified pilots, and statistics on passenger and crew fatalities from scheduled air carrier accidents (those from intentional acts were omitted).

Scheduled flight operations have carried the U.S. mail since 1911 and passengers since 1914, but records of scheduled air carrier accidents and fatalities were not kept prior to 1927, as far as I could determine. What the available data show is that fatal accidents were fairly common for the nascent airline industry, although scheduled air carrier flights were few and the aircraft held small numbers of passengers. For example, from 1930 through 1939, there were a total of 94 accidents resulting in 349 fatalities.

The fatal accident rate was also relatively high in the 1950s through the 1970s, as jet aircraft were introduced that carried larger numbers of passengers, and pilot training and procedures did not keep pace with advancements in technology and operations. From 1970 through 1979, there were 56 accidents resulting in 2303 fatalities.

As for the airline pilot profession, it was all-male and all-white for the first six decades of air travel, with the brief exception of one woman pilot hired in 1934 who ended up quitting when she wasn’t permitted to join the pilot union or to fly in adverse weather, despite being as qualified as the men pilots.

In 1963 an airline hired a Black pilot for the first time, and he joined the 18,310 airline pilots and flight engineers employed by all the U.S. airlines at the time. Within two years, there were a total of four Black men airline pilots. The profession remained virtually all-male until 1973, when four white women pilots were hired by four different airlines in the same year. In 1978 when the first Black woman airline pilot was hired, there were approximately 110 Black men and 77 white women airline pilots among the 35,768 airline pilots and flight engineers.

Today the U.S. airlines continue to grow and to hire qualified Black pilots and women pilots, however the representation and rate of hiring are not as high as many perceive it to be. The profession is currently estimated to be about 92 percent white and 95 percent male. Black women airline pilots are scarce; my independent research estimates that their number is 120 in total, or about 0.1 percent (one-tenth of one percent) of all U.S. airline pilots.

Meanwhile, airline safety has seen significant improvement in modern times, with an overall reduction in accidents. While rare, accidents with fatalities still occur, as recent tragedies have shown. Thorough investigations to determine causal factors and a relentless focus on improvements to aircraft design, flight simulators, pilot training, and crew standardization, and other risk mitigation and safety enhancement initiatives, remain industry-wide priorities.

The accompanying graphic has the following data plotted: Number in thousands of Black pilots, women pilots, and Black women pilots, and fatalities from accidents for U.S. air carriers, 1927 to February 23, 2025.

Conclusion: As the graphic shows, the trend of an increase in Black and women airline pilots coincides with a decrease in fatalities from U.S. airline accidents. There is no evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between airline accidents and pilots from historically excluded populations.

Sources: Airlines for America; Broadnax, 2007; Douglas, 2004; Ebony Magazine, 1965-2006; Gubert, Sawyer & Finnan, 2002; Hardesty & Pisano, 1983; International Society of Women Airline Pilots; Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals; Sisters of the Skies; U.S. DOL Bureau of Labor Statistics; U.S. DOT Federal Aviation Administration; U.S. DOT National Transportation Safety Board.

Pilot Certification and Mental Health

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:42:34 GMT

Get the help you need and keep your pilot medical certificate

Feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, angry, morose? Want to get professional help? You can seek mental health support and still attain or retain your medical certification to be a pilot. These are normal temporary emotions in response to life’s challenges such as difficulties in training, loss of a loved one, end of a significant relationship, or trauma from having been assaulted.

☑️ Your health and wellbeing are paramount. Get the help you need.

☑️ Stay home if you’re not mentally fit to fly or train.

☑️ Be truthful on official government documents like the FAA application for medical certification.

❌ Don’t believe the scary online chatter that you will be permanently grounded and your pilot career is over, which is usually based on outdated information. The U.S. Federal Air Surgeon said in 2023 that 30 to 40 percent of medical applications sent for review have a mental health component, yet only between 0.1 and 0.2 percent are denied licenses or recertification for medical reasons.

Recently the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration updated the criteria and process of medical certification of pilots and controllers who are seeking or have in the past received mental health care. This is a brief overview.

1) Federal Aviation Regulations require you to ground yourself if you’re not fit to fly. And you can’t learn when you’re overly stressed/distressed, either. So please don’t put yourself, your future, and other people in jeopardy.

2) When you apply for medical certification, the FAA looks at several aspects of health in the decision of whether to issue a medical certificate on the spot, defer for a deeper review, or deny issuance. They look at your entire health history, past and current diagnoses, and recent and current medications. (Some questions on the application begin “Have you ever …?”)

3) For quite some time now, the FAA has been okay with the following kinds of mental health care:

✅ Marriage and couples counseling

✅ Family counseling

✅ Grief and bereavement counseling

✅ Counseling for situational dilemmas

✅ Counseling by clergy or spiritual advisor

✅ Life coaching for personal growth and development

✅ Visits to Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

4) With changes effective since May 2024, the FAA now allows the FAA-Designated Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) to issue a medical certificate on the spot to a pilot who has up to two listed mental health conditions treated with any combination of 1) Psychotherapy, past or current; and 2) Medication, a single mental-health medication last taken, prescribed, or recommended two or more years ago. The list of acceptable psychiatric diagnoses includes:

✅ Anxiety: Generalized anxiety disorder, situational anxiety, adjustment disorder with anxiety, social anxiety disorder, unspecified anxiety

✅ Depression: Postpartum depression, situational depression, situational anxiety and depression, adjustment disorder with depressed mood, unspecified depression

✅ Other: Obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, and a general category addressing tension related to relationship issues such as loss and bereavement, relationship distress with spouse or intimate partner, parent-child relational problems, and major life transitions such as getting married, becoming a parent, new career, empty-nest, and so on.

5) However, if your past or current mental health care…

⚠️ was due to alcohol/substance dependence,

⚠️ resulted in more than two psychiatric diagnoses,

⚠️ resulted in a psychiatric diagnosis not from the list,

⚠️ included a more recently prescribed single medication, or

⚠️ included more than one mental health medication concurrently…

…The AME will defer your application to the FAA Regional Flight Surgeon or Aeromedical Branch for further review. If you suspect this may be the case for you, schedule a consultation (not an exam) with a HIMS AME, who is trained in mental and cognitive disorders. As part of the review process, the FAA may want you to be examined by a HIMS AME, request your medical records, and ask you to undergo psychological evaluations. This can be costly and take many months.

All is not lost! After a period of being grounded and stable, the FAA may approve your medical certificate, possibly with Special Issuance or other monitoring, and you may be able to fly while taking one of the conditionally acceptable antidepressant medications .

6) Recommendations and resources:

✅ When seeking professional mental health care services, be very up front about what diagnoses can impact your pilot career and discuss alternatives.

✅ Your college or university will have many resources to support you and your mental health.

✅ Your company may have an Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), a voluntary program offering free confidential short-term counseling and referrals for employees experiencing a variety of issues affecting mental and emotional well-being, such as alcohol and other substance abuse, stress, grief, family problems, and psychological disorders, and more.

✅ Your airline pilot union sponsored peer support program provides confidential support by peer volunteers (trained pilots at your own airline). The program name may vary but the support will be the same: Project Wingman, PAN, PATH, LYFT, SOAR, FlyWell, HAWC, or Pilot Peer Support. These will have a 24/7 hotline phone number that you can call for yourself or out of concern for a pilot struggling with mental health difficulties, family troubles, or a personal crisis.

✅ For personalized guidance on navigating the FAA medical certification process, consult with reliable professional aeromedical services like AOPA (available to members), Aviation Medicine Advisory Service (available to the public; free for members of the ALPA pilot union), or schedule a consultation with an AME — before completing the FAA’s online MedXpress application.

Take good care.

Photo credit: Anna Shvelts

Aviation Acronyms from A to Z

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 19:45:47 GMT

A good starting point for those new to aviation

This list of aviation acronyms is a good starting point those new to aviation, although it far from comprehensive – aviation weather has its own codes and aircraft manufacturers have an acronym for every part and component.

99s - The Ninety-Nines, Inc. International Organization of Women Pilots
A - Designator for Airbus aircraft, such as A-321
AC - Advisory Circulars, FAA memos, documents, and booklets, all free
ACS - Airman Certification Standards , FAA document
ADM - Aeronautical Decision-Making
ADS-B - Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast satellite tracking system; flight tracking apps use this data
AFM - Aircraft Flight Manual
AGI – Advanced Ground Instructor certificate
AGL - Above Ground Level
AIM - Aeronautical Information Manual
AME - [FAA-designated] Aviation Medical Examiner, the doctor to see for a medical certificate
AOPA - Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association
ASEL - Airplane Single-Engine Land rating
ASI - Aviation Safety Inspector, FAA pilot representative responsible for supervising pilots & flight schools
ATC - Air Traffic Control or Controller
ATIS - Automatic Terminal Information Service, a recording of current weather and runways in use at larger airports
ATP - Airline Transport Pilot certificate (also the name of a string of flight schools) (see also: R-ATP)
AWOS - Automated Weather Observation System
B - Designator for Boeing aircraft, such as B-737
BE - Designator for Beechcraft aircraft, such as BE-200
C - Designator for Cessna aircraft, such as C-172
CAP - Civil Air Patrol, pronounced 'see-ay-pee', not 'cap'
CFI - Certificated Flight Instructor
CFII - Certificated Flight Instructor - Instrument
CG - Center of Gravity, for aircraft loading and weight and balance
CPL - Commercial Pilot License (but it’s really a certificate)
CRJ - Informal designator for Canadair regional jet, such as CRJ-700 which is actually a CL-65
CRM - Crew Resource Management
CTAF - Common Traffic Advisory [radio] Frequency, for pilots to announce position and intentions at airports without control towers
DPE - [FAA-] Designated Pilot Examiner who can conduct flight checks to issue pilot certificates and ratings
E6B - Circular slide rule for computing flight speed/time/fuel/distance/wind correction; the name is the original parts number from the U.S. Army Air Corps in the 1930s
EAA - Experimental Aircraft Association
EFB - Electronic Flight Bag, often an iPad
ELT - Emergency Locator Transmitter
EMB - Designator for Embraer aircraft, such as EMB-175
ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival
F/A - Flight Attendant
FAA - Federal Aviation Administration
FAR - Federal Aviation Regulation(s)
FBO - Fixed-Base Operator, airport business that sells fuel, rent planes, offers flight instruction and charters
FO - First Officer in airline operations (co-pilot, informally) (see also: SIC)
FSDO - Flight Standards District Office, your local FAA office
G - Designator for Gulfstream aircraft, such as G-V, pronounced 'gee five' and written G-V, not G-5
GA - General Aviation, all of aviation that is not military or airline
GPS - Global Positioning System using satellites
HIMS - Human Motivational Intervention Study, the recovery / monitoring program for pilots and air traffic controllers with substance abuse or dependence ; also denotes AMEs specially trained in these and other mental health and cognitive issues (see also: AME)
IACRA - Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application, the FAA online form
ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency
IFR - Instrument Flight Rules (see also: VFR)
ILS - Instrument Landing System with precision vertical and lateral guidance to a runway
IMC - Instrument Meteorological Conditions (see also: VMC)
IOE - Initial Operating Experience, flights at a new company made under the supervision of a check pilot
IR - Instrument Rating
K - International designator for U.S. airports when four letters are used, such as KLAX for LAX
LPA - Latino Pilots Association
LTA - Lighter-Than-Air (balloons)
ME - Multi-Engine rating or flight time
MEI - Multi-Engine Flight Instructor
MEL - Minimum Equipment List to determine if aircraft can be dispatched with inoperative items
MX - Maintenance
N - International designator for U.S.-registered aircraft, informally called N-number or tail number, such as aircraft registration N123AB
NGPA - National Gay Pilots Association
NORDO - No radio aircraft
NOTAMs - Notices to Air Missions, alerts about temporary runway closures, for example
NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board
NWS - National Weather Service, source of official aviation weather reports and forecasts
OBAP - Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals
PA - Designator for Piper aircraft, such as PA-28)
PAPA - Professional Asian Pilots Association
PAPI – Precision Approach Path Indicator next to some runways to assist pilot on landing (see also: VASI)
PAX - Passenger(s)
PIC - Pilot-in-Command (Captain in airline operations) (see also: SIC)
PIREP - Pilot Report, a weather observation
POH - Pilot’s Operating Handbook
PPL - Private Pilot License (but it’s really a certificate)
PTT - Push-To-Talk switch to transmit on radio
R-ATP - Restricted-privileges Airline Transport Pilot certificate (see also: ATP)
RNAV - Area Radio Navigation
SAR - Search And Rescue operations
SE - Single-Engine rating or flight time
SIC - Second-in-Command (First Officer in airline operations, and co-pilot informally) (see also: PIC)
SIGMET - Significant Meteorological Information, a bad weather alert
SOPs - Standard Operating Procedures
SOS - Sisters of the Skies
STOL - Short Take-Off and Landing
TAF - Terminal Area Forecast, weather forecast for an airport
TFR - Temporary Flight Restriction, restricted airspace for events such as when the President flies into town or for aerial firefighting operations
TT - Total Time of flight hours logged by a pilot
UAS - Unmanned Aerial Systems, or drones
UNICOM - Universal Communication radio frequency to communicate with FBOs
UTC - Universal Coordinated Time
V - Velocity or speed, such as Vx best-angle-of-climb speed
VASI - Visual Approach Slope Indicator next to some runways to assist pilot on landing (see also: PAPI)
VFR - Visual Flight Rules (see also: IFR)
VMC - Visual Meteorological Conditions (see also: IMC)
VOR - VHF Omni Range radio navigation aid
VTOL - Vertical Take-Off & Landing (helicopters)
WAI - Women in Aviation, International
WX - Weather
Z - UTC was previously called Zulu time (see: UTC)

What Does It Take to Become a Professional Pilot?

Fri, 31 May 2024 21:05:52 GMT

The capabilities and characteristics you need to bring to flight training

‘What does it take to become a professional pilot?’ is a common question heard during this surge of interest in aviation. The most common replies are ‘money’, or a list of FAA requirements.

Those of us who love the profession and care deeply about the future of aviation think the real question is, ‘What does it take to be a SAFE pilot?’, and think you deserve a thorough answer.

This is an overview of the fundamental resources, capabilities, and characteristics a person needs to bring to the serious endeavor of flight training – or needs to be willing to develop – to succeed in becoming a safe and professional pilot.

It is organized into six categories – Money (of course), Mechanical aptitude and health, Mental capacity, Managing self and studies, Mindset, and Motivation – and outlines the qualities needed in each category with a special focus on young people, plus non-negotiables, potential causes for concern, and bonus ‘Pro Tips’.

MONEY

To state the obvious, you will need money, income, and/or good credit for financing of civilian flight training. Your earliest task in pilot training is to obtain realistic figures about costs, establish financial priorities, and understand all your obligations with loans and contracts.

Partial scholarships are out there; full-ride scholarships are virtually nonexistent. Free flight training is available through military service, for those who are highly competitive among top candidates.

Potential concerns about money:

- Uncertainty about costs or where the money will come from

- Can’t take flight lessons regularly, at least weekly

- Infrequency or long gap in training slows progress and ultimately costs more

- Anxiety about cost carrying over to flight lessons

Pro Tip: Applying for flight scholarships now is excellent preparation for applying for pilot jobs later.

MECHANICAL APTITUDE and HEALTH

Being a pilot requires physical dexterity and generally good health, hearing, and eyesight (glasses are fine). Professional pilots need to maintain their health and get regular physical exams. The FAA lists the health conditions that are outright dealbreakers ; other issues may need their review before approval.

As a pilot you’ll be flying an aircraft, not building it, so don’t worry if you didn’t grow up making model airplanes. You can acquire the ability to comprehend aircraft technical manuals and systems schematics during training.

Being a good automobile driver and being able to read maps are very helpful. As is any athletic sport, especially team sports and those that require good eye-hand-foot coordination such as basketball, soccer, or tennis.

Not athletic? Playing video games can help to some extent. Physical coordination can be further developed during flight training.

Non-negotiable: You will need full use of your physical and mental capacities to fly. Be aware that marijuana or cannabis and THC products are not and will never be legal for pilots to use , and professional pilots are subject to drug testing.

Potential concerns about mechanical aptitude and health:

- History of ADHD *

- History of anxiety or depression *

- History of substance abuse *

- Many moving violations as a driver, especially DUIs

- Showing up for flight lessons drunk or buzzed or hungover

Pro Tip: *Not all health conditions are disqualifying. Investigate and consider a consultation with an FAA Aviation Medical Examiner, BEFORE applying for the FAA medical certificate.

MENTAL CAPACITY

‘Do I need to have a high IQ to be a pilot?’ is a frequently asked question. The answer is: No, not exactly, but yeah kinda sorta.

You don’t need to be genius-level child-prodigy smart, but you DO need to be a bit above average. Not math-whiz smart, but having basic math and science and English skills smart. Not high IQ smart, but common-sense smart, problem-solving smart, able to find your way around new places and experiences smart.

Being a safe pilot requires good executive brain functioning: Organized thinking, planning, risk-management, prioritizing, compartmentalizing, sound decision-making, and keeping a cool head under stress. These are tasks of the prefrontal cortex, the last part of the human brain to fully mature. While many young kids and teens are highly motivated to be pilots, and the FAA allows kids as young as 14 to fly solo in gliders and hot air balloons, some might not be ready to tackle everything that being a safe pilot entails until reaching their 20s.

Potential concerns about mental capacity:

- Smart but hyper-focused/fixated

- Easily distractible, unable to concentrate

- Frequently 'tuned out', lost in thought, oblivious

- Low impulse control

Pro Tip: Invest in professional aptitude testing (not IQ testing) to identify your strengths and areas to develop.

MANAGING SELF and STUDIES

Another common question is, ‘ College or no? ’. The U.S. major airlines still prefer to hire pilots with college degrees, even though it’s been dropped as a hard requirement.

The college experience can be a young person’s first opportunity to manage their school studies and their life independent of direct parental supervision – an ability necessary to successfully complete professional flight training. In addition, finishing college demonstrates that you can do hard things, including set goals and maintain focus and dedication over a long period to achieve a big milestone.

However, college isn’t the right fit for every person or family or situation. Quite a few young people are going from high school straight to flight school, a valid choice. There are many paths to the top of the mountain, as the Chinese proverb says.

What about your high school Grade Point Average? Those aiming for college or the military already know that GPA can affect their ability to get accepted into the college or program of their choice. Also, an aviation college may require that a certain academic standard be maintained to continue in the flight training program.

Your GPA isn’t an absolute predictor of future success or failure, although the reason for a high or low GPA may be. A GPA may reflect your capacity for learning. Or it may reflect your ability to manage studying, finish assignments, and perform on tests. Or does it point to your level of motivation and effort? The answers will be revealed by your performance in flight training.

So, you don’t need to be a genius, don’t need to be class valedictorian, and don’t even have to have a college degree, in order to be a professional pilot. In fact, we all have at least one friend who performed poorly in school and skipped college, only to do a complete 180 to buckle down and accomplish amazing things once they’ve discovered their true life’s passion.

Which points to one of the biggest factors in success in flight training: Are you passionate about being a pilot? What are you willing to do to achieve that goal?

While the discovery flight and first few lessons may seem like fun and games, things get pretty serious pretty fast. You will need the ability to focus and learn in a structured environment with a curriculum and timetable set by others. You need the discipline to study books or online videos on your own, including on subjects that may not be of particular interest to you but you really do need to know as a pilot – basic aerodynamics, meteorology, engines and electrical systems, regulations. You need to know how you best learn, how to take tests, and how to handle the stress and pressure of studying and deadlines and taking tests. This stress of training and testing continues throughout the professional pilot career.

Non-negotiable: The aspiring pilot must acquire these skills and habits somehow, and many establish them in college — I’m just saying.

Signing up for flight training is a tacit agreement between the student (called a ‘learner’) and the instructor. The learner must bring a willingness to learn just as much as the instructor brings the ability to teach. This includes being willing to suck at something new, putting in the effort, persevering through plateaus in training – which are completely normal and expected! – and being receptive to the instructor's critically important feedback and correction.

Likewise, your instructor should be capable of guiding you through this learning process, including the ups and downs. But they can’t download everything you need to know right into your brain. They should point you to educational resources, and then it’s up to you to learn that material however you can.

While your instructor should encourage you to keep going when you hit a plateau in learning, they can’t be expected to tolerate you lashing out at them or to hold your hand while you cry. Frustration happens; go punch a pillow or seek consolation from a trusted friend – on the ground.

If you suspect your instructor is the reason you’re not progressing in flight training, check this list of red flags – but also consider that the problem might be you .

…Or your personal situation. If you are experiencing a normal life event such as the end of a relationship, death in the family, or arrival of a new baby, this might not be the best time to undertake flight training. Compartmentalization only works to a point. Consider taking a break until you can devote your full attention to the safety duties of a pilot again.

Non-negotiable: Yelling or hitting, touching or groping, and persistent sexual come-ons are giant red flags, and should not be tolerated by anyone in the flight training environment. A pattern of these behaviors is a clear sign that you should fire the instructor, no matter how badly you want to fly. Or that you should be ‘fired’ as a flight student, if you’re the one behaving this way. More guidance here .

Potential concerns about managing self and studies:

- Won’t take responsibility for own training

- Expectation to be spoon-fed knowledge

- Consistently showing up unprepared

- Unwillingness to improve study habits

- Easily frustrated or discouraged

- Thin-skinned, defensive

- Won’t be accountable for mistakes

- Responds poorly to correction and critique

- Persists in training despite being in personal crisis

Pro Tip: The FAA revised their stance on pilots seeking mental health support as of May 29, 2024 – there is no longer a penalty for discussing life’s challenges with a therapist. Please get the help you need.

MINDSET

Being a pilot goes way beyond operating cool aircraft. It potentially means being responsible for a multi-million-dollar aircraft and hundreds of people’s lives while supervising a dozen employees. As a safe and professional pilot, you need to be able to work with and lead all kinds of people while maintaining a professional demeanor and an unwavering focus on safety.

Not only pilots but everyone in aviation must maintain a safety-first mindset. Understand and respect the rules and procedures that are there for safety. Develop the ability to assess safety and reduce risk. Have self-imposed high standards and good boundaries that promote safety. There are dire consequences to complacency and recklessness.

Non-negotiable: Break the addiction to your cellphone! At one major airline, no less than seven new-hire pilots were terminated in a single year, due to being distracted more than once from their flight duties by their cellphones. Don’t let this be you.

While you don’t have to be an extrovert or people-person, or an Eagle Scout or captain of the team, as a professional pilot you do need to be able to get along with other people now and to take on leadership roles eventually.

You will be working alongside a variety of bosses, coworkers, subordinates, and customers. The number of pilots and aviation professionals who are women, Black, Asian, Latino, immigrant, and openly LGBTQ+ is small but growing. Potentially you may fly all over the world to places with different languages and cultures and customs, while right nearby there are folks who think and love and worship differently than you. Get used to working with all of them. Aviation is a small community, and you will come across someone again later, who is now in a position to help you – or not.

Perfectionism can sound like a favorable trait for a pilot, but actually it is not. Striving for excellence – Yes . Seeking perfection, which is unattainable – No .

Underlying perfectionism, there may be people-pleasing. Being open to feedback and input from others – Yes . Constant shifting with the winds – No . Being overly influenced by others is counterproductive for the pilot-in-command who will need to make safety decisions that are sometimes unpopular.

Pro Tip: It is never too early or too late to learn basic teamwork and team-building skills, and interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.

Potential concerns about mindset:

- Lackadaisical, complacent attitude towards hazards and safety duties

- Overconfidence, unreasonable risk-taking

- Prioritizing taking photos or videos over flight training

- Cellphone use to the detriment of flight safety

- Machismo (can be seen in any gender)

- Rigid thinking

- Being a lone wolf or maverick

- Bucking authority: ‘You aren’t the boss of me!’

- ‘Doesn’t play well with others’

- Hard and fast beliefs about people different than themself

- Acute indecisiveness

MOTIVATION

The most successful pilots have an attitude of curiosity, eagerness to learn, striving for excellence. A tendency towards optimism and positivity — ‘I can do this’. Ability to discipline themselves to tackle hard things. To motivate themselves to reach a goal, keep going despite setbacks. Ability to handle pressure and stress. Keep calm and act deliberately in an emergency. They can receive feedback, correction, and critiques in a mature manner — and pivot to focus on improvement. Can endure a plateau or slump and persevere through disappointment and failure.

Thus, one of the most important qualities to have when setting out to become a professional pilot is determination .

It can also be useful to take some time to examine why you want to be a professional pilot. If the only reasons are, your daddy did it so now you will too, or you covet the status and the bucks… you may end up unhappy in this career.

If you want to be a professional pilot because you love flying, airplanes, aviation, travel, and seeing the world, or you love mastery of complex machines, navigating challenges and problem-solving, and striving for excellence… you are likely to have a satisfying pilot career.

Potential concerns about motivation:

- Learning to fly to fulfill a parent’s wish, rather than one’s own

- Treat flight training as a very part-time side hobby

- Prioritizing partying over studying

- Need for a regular schedule

- Desire for a traditional family lifestyle

Pro Tip: If you absolutely positively must fly, you will find a way. Turn down the volume on the naysayers, and gather around you people who support you in this mission.

May your dreams take flight!

My sincere thanks to the many professional aviators who contributed ideas to this article.

Photo credit: Darli Donizete

Standards Lowered for Diversity? Nonsense.

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 04:10:39 GMT

‘DEI hire’ is a dog whistle, just the latest version of the familiar double-standard

When a pale male pilot lands a flying job, it is attributed to ‘effort’ and ‘merit’ – even when he’s a legacy hire, thanks to his airline pilot daddy. But when a pilot from a historically excluded community lands a flying job, their qualifications are called into question and they are disparaged as ‘filling a quota’, a ‘diversity hire’, ‘Affirmative Action hire’, and now, a ‘DEI hire’.

These are dog whistles, new stand-ins for old slurs about Black people (and women) that are so terrible they cannot be said out loud.

Then comes the cry: “It’s not fair! They’re taking our jobs! It’s reverse discrimination! Standards are being lowered! Safety is being compromised!”

That’s NONSENSE .

And I really do mean, it’s nonsensical. All civilian-trained pilots must pass the same FAA checkrides to become an airline pilot: Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Multi-Engine Rating, Airline Transport Pilot, and an FAA-approved airline initial pilot training course. The standards of knowledge and performance are in plain black-and-white in the FAA Airman Certification Standards . The standards for military flight training are likewise fixed and even more rigorous.

Why would anyone think that the FAA, or the military, or an airline for that matter, is lowering their standards of certification of pilots? Seriously? Walk me through your thought process.

We’ve heard all this before ; here’s a list of calm comebacks .

The truth of it is, standards have not been lowered; what’s been lowered somewhat are the airlines’ advertised minimum requirements to apply for the pilot job, which results in a slightly lower than previous experience level of the pilots hired, on average.

But NOT because of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – because of Covid.

And the airlines have done it before. Let’s look back in time, to see the pattern.

CYCLES OF PILOT HIRING

The airline industry has always had cycles of highs and lows, expansion and contraction corresponding to the national and world economies, affected by innovations, war, oil, and pandemics. Airline pilot hiring – and layoffs – follow these peaks and valleys.

Historically, there’s an oversupply of pilots that is also affected by the availability of military pilots. The U.S. major airlines have always preferred to hire military-trained over civilian-trained pilots, with over two-thirds of the airline pilot ranks coming from all branches of the military through the 1980s. Today’s new-hire pilots are about two-thirds civilian-trained, because there are fewer military pilots available.

Their availability ebbs and flows. The post-war periods at the end of World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War brought gluts of highly experienced military pilots – thousands more pilots than airline jobs available.

Conversely, when Uncle Sam needs pilots during wartime, and during some key moments of rapid expansion in the industry, the airlines are left scrambling for pilots. And that’s when they lower the minimum qualifications to be considered for hiring.

PILOT SHORTAGES

The jet boom of the late 1960s coinciding with the U.S. military retaining pilots for the Vietnam War offers a great example. The airlines needed pilots so badly they placed ads in magazines like Popular Mechanics , listing basic requirements similar to this recruitment ad for American Airlines in 1967: Age 21-35, first consideration to 21-28 years. Height 5’7” to 6’4”. Education – 2 years college or equivalent. First Class FAA medical. Vision 20/20 without glasses. U.S. Commercial License and Instrument rating. (Little of this is legal to advertise anymore.)

The Commercial Pilot certificate can be obtained in as few as 200 flight hours, and if you think the airlines wouldn’t hire pilots with that little flight experience, think again. Here are some insights into that era, posted in a forum for pilots:

“A coworker of my dad’s at Pan Am was a 700-hour Cessna 150 flight instructor hired in the 1970s. They laughed about it.”

“I know a pilot hired at United Airlines with 400 hours because his dad knew the chief pilot. He was 22. He is a 777 captain now. By comparison, I [a woman] was hired with more than 5000 hours, 1500 in heavy jets.”

“My husband got hired by United Airlines in 1965 with 400 hours, and they paid for his Commercial ticket. One of his classmates did not have his Instrument rating.”

“I flew with a captain who was hired by Western Airlines with 300 hours and no college degree. He’s a Delta captain now.”

“I flew with several 200-hour hires at Northwest Airlines. I even flew with one hired with zero hours. He was hired and told to go get some ratings, then come in for class.”

“I met a TWA captain who was hired without a Commercial Pilot license. TWA paid for him to get it.”

“At United I flew with several captains, all Caucasian, who were hired in the late 1960s with ZERO hours.”

“I was hired in 1986 with 1200 hours, more hours than any of the men, most of whom had only 250 hours. And was the only woman in the class.”

Granted, they were being hired into the entry-level nonflying position of flight engineer. That position has been almost completely eliminated, yet here are examples of what women pilots are still experiencing:

“A captain told me in 2019 that I was only hired at American Airlines because I was a minority female. I had well over double the flight hours of anyone in my new-hire class.”

“Every management pilot at my regional airline has a Conditional Job Offer with a major airline, except for two: Me and the only other woman. And knowing everyone’s background, I’d argue that she and I are more qualified than any of the men.”

As you can see, the airlines can and have lowered qualifications to the absolute FAA minimum – NOT for the benefit of people historically excluded from pilot professions.

OVERSUPPLY OF PILOTS

Airline pilot hiring can turn on a dime. In early 1992, I had two Conditional Job Offers from American and United Airlines, when all the airlines abruptly halted hiring and began furloughing pilots, due to the Gulf War recently underway.

Because of the seniority system , senior pilots are retained and junior pilots are furloughed in reverse seniority order, starting at the very bottom – it's ‘last hired, first fired’.

An even more dramatic example of a rapid downturn is the post-9/11 period. Within days of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, airlines began sending furlough notices to pilots; eventually many thousands were unemployed. Not only pilots: Tens of thousands of airline employees lost their jobs. This time, the pilot furloughs went deeper and lasted longer than in the past. For American Airlines, for example, it resulted in a 12-year gap in pilot hiring – not one single pilot was hired between late 2001 and 2013.

The entire industry suffered. Pilots of a certain age call it ‘The Lost Decade’.

When the industry recovers and airlines prepare to begin hiring again, there exists a large pool of highly qualified pilots to choose from, and so selection criteria are raised to filter the deluge of applications. This was evident in the recoveries of mid-1990s and early 2010s.

Military-trained pilots are preferred, and there, too, the airlines start by picking the cream of the crop, hiring astronauts, test pilots, former Air Force One pilots – I kid you not.

At the start of those industry recoveries, the average experience level for civilian-trained new-hire pilots at the major airlines was in the range of 3000-5000 total flight time, with some having far more, plus one or more jet type ratings and thousands of jet hours as pilot-in-command, typically acquired by flying in business aviation or as captain for a regional airline.

The major airlines required a 4-year college degree. Or said it was preferred – but rarely was a pilot hired without it.

Some airlines had special minimums, such as Southwest Airlines, which for decades required the B-737 type rating of all its applicants, military and civilian alike. That training and checkride cost about $7000-8000 at the flight schools that rented midnight simulator time from the airlines for this purpose.

THE BOOMER EFFECT

Two factors drive pilot hiring: Growth and retirements.

Airline pilot is one of just a handful of professions with a mandatory retirement age, previously age 60, and in our case it is established by a literal Act of Congress.

And no discussion of the current U.S. airline pilot profession is complete without mention of the Baby Boomer Generation, born between 1946 and 1964. This large cohort of airline pilots began to reach the retirement age of 60 in large numbers during the post-9/11 downturn of the early to mid-2000s, when the biggest airlines sought bankruptcy protections, demanded hefty pay concessions – and canceled pilot pensions.

This largely explains why, in 2007, the mandatory retirement age was raised from 60 to 65, extending the working years of the oldest and most senior pilots. It had the further effect of delaying recall of youngest, most junior pilots on furlough and postponing the re-start of hiring. This accounts for fully half of ‘The Lost Decade’.

PENDULUM SWING

Another impact of ‘The Lost Decade’ is that some people dropped out of the profession altogether, and young people did not take interest in embarking on a career with high entry costs and no jobs. The profound and lengthy plunge in ‘new pilot starts’ throughout the 2000s was worrisome, and rightly so, since it contributes to the lack of qualified pilots now.

A change with a delayed impact on airline pilot hiring was the mandatory Airline Transport Pilot certificate (ATP). Stemming from the Colgan Air 3407 accident of 2009, a new FAA rule increased the minimum age, flight experience, training, and credentialing requirements for pilots in airline operations, requiring the ATP for all airline pilots which previously had only been required for airline captains or pilots-in-command.

So when the industry began to recover in earnest in the later 2010s, the airlines had to dig deeper for pilots.

One strategy was the introduction of new 'flow-through' agreements, in which pilots at a regional airline have the contractual right to 'flow' directly into the associated mainline or major airline, based on seniority and longevity. In some cases, the transition is automatic and guaranteed; pilots did not need to interview for the job. Or need a college degree.

Other shifts: Southwest Airlines dropped the B-737 type rating requirement in 2015. Virtually every airline removed the college degree requirement by 2020.

SUDDEN BUST, THEN BOOM

Here’s the sequence of events. Covid struck in early 2020. Worldwide pandemic. People sheltering at home. No one traveling or flying. Airlines parking airplanes anywhere they could. Half the world’s airline pilots grounded for lack of flying .

Facing a sudden surplus, many airlines chose one or more of these ways to reduce pilot staffing: 1- Furlough, as per usual; 2- A new tactic offering early-out packages to the oldest pilots, typically between age 62 and 65; and 3- Another new tactic, offering temporary personal leaves of absence with partial pay.

Then the turnaround came. The vaccine was distributed in 2021, the pandemic waned, and people were eager to travel and fly again. All this happened much more quickly than anticipated, and the airlines had to scramble to get their operations up and running to meet demand. Airplanes were brought out of the desert, pilots recalled from furlough and re-trained, and – WHOOPS!

The approximately 6000 senior pilots who retired practically overnight in 2020 included many large widebody jet captains, simulator instructors, check pilots, and management pilots.

Right away, the major airlines did what they always do: Hired the pilots with the most flight time and qualifications first. They sucked up pilots from the regional airlines and low-cost carriers, especially captains. That placed those airlines in a precarious position as they struggled to stem losses, hire new pilots, and train new captains to keep their jets flying. In a surprising twist, regional airlines and low-cost carriers introduced gigantic pay increases, plus retention bonuses and other incentives. The days of a regional airline first officer with a family of four qualifying for food stamps are officially over.

Then all the airlines lowered their publicly announced minimum qualifications. And the level of experience of new-hire pilots has been, on average, less than previously.

So, that explains THAT .

HOW DIVERSE IS IT REALLY?

Historically, significant segments of the U.S. population have been excluded from pilot professions.

During World War II, when Jim Crow laws meant the U.S. military services were segregated by race, over nine hundred Black pilots collectively known as the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves flying in military service to their country. After the war, discrimination prevented any Black pilots from being hired as airline pilots, until Marlon Green took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and prevailed in 1963 and American Airlines hired David E. Harris in 1964 .

During World War II, when women barred from service as military aviators, over a thousand women pilots flew every model military aircraft as part of the civilian Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). After the war, women pilots remained excluded from military and airline flying. They were not allowed to be military aviators until 1973, or to join the military academies or fly combat aircraft until 1993. As noted previously, the airlines preferred to hire military-trained pilots, so this partially explains why the U.S. airlines did not hire women pilots as actual pilot crewmembers (versus for publicity purposes) until Frontier Airlines hired Emily Warner Howell in 1973 .

But even then it was hardly a case of floodgates opening. The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) , founded in 1976, counted just 186 Black airline pilots ten years later in 1986. The International Society of Women Airline Pilots , formed in 1978, estimated that by 1990, some U.S. airlines had reached 1% women pilots.

Today, most U.S. major airlines hover around 3% Black pilots and 5% women pilots. Progress for Asian and Hispanic/Latino airline pilots is similarly slow, while the number of pilots with Native American and Pacific Islander heritage is unknown.

INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES

In their quest to hire more pilots, the airlines lowered the minimum qualifications until the FAA rule that every airline pilot has to have the ATP and be age 23, or have a Restricted ATP and be age 21 , became a factor. One airline requested an exemption of the rule; it was denied .

The urgent need for qualified pilots and the dramatic rise in pilot pay have sparked new interest in the profession. Aviation colleges and universities are scrambling to meet demand, creating or expanding FAA-approved R-ATP aviation degree and flight training programs. ( Do pilots need a college degree anymore? )

The U.S. major airlines are also trying something that has worked for airlines in other parts of the world: Cadet academies, or ab initio flight training programs that take flight students from zero hours through commercial pilot and flight instructor in fulltime structured programs. These are the American Airlines AA Cadet Academ y (established in 2018), United Aviate Academy (2022), Delta Propel Flight Academy (2023), and Southwest Destination 225 Cadet Pathway (2023).

Some people raised a hue and cry when the United Aviate Academy announced their goal of opening the profession to a much more diverse pool of candidates. Read the fine print: All of these programs also offer incentives for the children and other family members of airline employees. Here's a glimpse of what that can look like: At one of the airline cadet academies, a new class of cadets included one Black woman, six white women, and five white men. The Black woman came with military experience (non-pilot), a college degree, and 30 flight hours as student pilot, while six of the other cadets had no college and zero flight time – and most of these were children of airline pilots.

There's nothing inherently wrong with nepotism; it's extremely common in trades ranging from plumbers to movie actors. But notice how nepotism in the airline pilot profession perpetuates the white majority, and how no one mentions 'standards are being lowered' when a legacy hire comes in with lower-than-average qualifications.

CONCLUSION

In last four years, the airline pilot profession has experienced the whiplash of a sudden mass retirement, a pilot shortage, and a hiring boom. The result is that the airlines are hiring pilots at younger ages and with fewer flight hours and generally fewer qualifications, on average, than in the past. The industry has seen this before, but now the 'floor' has been raised from 200 flight hours to 1000-1500.

Our industry desperately needs more people to join the pilot profession, and it’s a logical step to recruit from the previously excluded populations. It's time.

Yet barriers to entry remain, including the high cost of pilot training. The airline cadet academies and accelerated flight schools cost up to $100,000 or more, and at aviation colleges these fees are on top of tuition. Loans with favorable terms and scholarships are key to attracting young people who otherwise would not be able to access this training, especially people from communities that have endured centuries of economic exploitation and disparity.

The fact remains that in 2024, the U.S. airline pilot workforce is still 92% pale and 95% male. There are maybe 150 Black women airline pilots out of 110,000 total.

Every pilot has had to train hard and work hard to reach the airline flight deck, so it’s ludicrous to say that 'so-and-so took my job’ or that ‘diversity is making the skies unsafe’.

If you're still thinking or saying that, the pilots of OBAP and Captain Theresa Claiborne, the first Black woman in the Air Force now a United Airlines B-787 Dreamliner pilot, have a message for you:

WE. ARE. QUALIFIED.

Photo credit: Deepak Sethi

Flying or Marijuana: Pick ONE

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 21:20:26 GMT

No excuses: Don’t use marijuana, CBD products, or recreational drugs if you want to be a pilot

You should already know not to drink alcohol before driving or flying. Well, have you considered the implications of that hemp-infused energy drink ?

The DOT and FAA warn pilots against using CBD and hemp products , which can contain detectable amounts of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. These are being added to everything from coffee and salads to wellness products — even mascara ! AVOID THEM ALL.

This article answers your questions about drugs and FAA pilot certification, to help you understand the serious consequences of using marijuana, recreational drugs, and seemingly harmless CBD or hemp products.

“I didn’t realize” is not an acceptable excuse. It is ethically and legally wrong to jeopardize people’s lives. Educating yourself can save your pilot career, too.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Does the FAA physical exam include drug testing?

Not normally. The urine sample you provide during the physical exam for FAA medical certification is tested for signs of diabetes and kidney disease. The urine is not tested for drugs, and no blood sample is taken.

If the FAA has flagged your medical application for further investigation, however, it could include drug testing in some cases.

Why can’t I use marijuana? It’s legal where I live.

Under U.S. federal law, marijuana is a Schedule I drug — not legal. But even if marijuana were to be legalized at the federal level, it isn’t legal for pilots , and won't ever be, because it causes impairment and persists in the body . If you are in an aircraft accident, your use of marijuana or other controlled substances could be discovered and cause you to be assigned liability.

The DOT has warned workers in safety-sensitive roles like pilots against the use of marijuana for medical or recreational purposes.

How will the FAA find out?

Don't try to hide your use of prohibited drugs – you are endangering people’s lives, in addition to putting your flying career at risk. And the FAA will find out eventually.

First, the FAA routinely tests the blood and tissues of fatally injured pilots for hundreds of compounds, including alcohol, illicit drugs, and prescription and over-the-counter medications. As an aviation accident investigator told me, only a little facetiously, “They will not only find out that you took drugs or alcohol – they’ll know what you ate for breakfast last Thursday”.

Second, airline pilots and other professional pilots carrying passengers for hire participate in a federally mandated FAA/DOT drug and alcohol testing program , which includes pre-employment, random, post-accident, and probable cause testing.

Third, if the FAA has reasonable cause to believe you flew or tried to fly as a pilot while using any drug that affects a person's faculties in any way contrary to safety, they can request a drug test .

What drugs are detected in the FAA/DOT drug test?

The FAA/DOT initial screening drug test checks for amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana (THC), opioids, and phencyclidine (PCP). A positive test result in initial screening leads to a more precise confirmation test to detect specific compounds or metabolites that confirm drug use.

These tests can detect metabolites of THC and THCA, indicating that the person ingested and metabolized a cannabis-derived substance, as well as detecting Ecstasy or Molly (MDA and MDMA) and methamphetamine, and the opioids / opiates codeine, heroin, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine, oxycodone, and oxymorphone (found in OxyContin®, Percodan®, Percocet®, Vicodin®, Lortab®, Norco®, Dilaudid®, Exalgo®, for example). Fentanyl is proposed to be added .

But but but… CBD and hemp products don’t contain THC!

It is true that THC is the psychoactive compound of marijuana and not legal for pilots, while cannabidiol or CBD is a harmless derivative and completely legal for everyone. However, the DOT has issued a warning against using CBD and hemp products because their manufacture is not well-monitored for purity and potency.

The former FAA Federal Air Surgeon said : “Although most CBD products claim to have under 0.3-percent THC, they could contain high enough levels of THC to make a drug test positive. Use of CBD oil is not accepted as an affirmative defense against a positive drug test.”

Also note that the FAA/DOT drug testing program tests for THC metabolites . If you use a CBD or hemp product such that your body produces these metabolites and you get tested, it sucks to be you.

What about second-hand smoke from other people smoking weed?

This is a not a defense against a positive drug test.

What about mushrooms? ayahuasca?

Beyond the substances listed previously, mind-altering drugs like DMT (in ayahuasca), ketamine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and psilocybin (in “magic” mushrooms) are illegal Schedule I & II drugs and not allowed for use by pilots. While these may not be part of the regular FAA/DOT drug testing program, they can be detected through supplemental testing.

Can I refuse to take a drug test?

Sure, but the refusal will be reported to the FAA and entered into the FAA Pilot Records Database. It represents a violation of FARs that could result in the revocation of your pilot certificates. It may be grounds for termination from employment and block access to unemployment benefits.

What happens if I fail a drug test?

After a verified positive drug test, you will be removed from flight duty, reported to the FAA, and it will be entered into the FAA Pilot Records Database. You will be given a list of substance abuse professionals. Keep reading.

What about a drug arrest or conviction?

The FAA takes these very seriously . You can’t apply for a pilot certificate for up to one year after a felony conviction for a drug or alcohol offense. If you are already a pilot, the FAA may suspend or revoke your pilot certificate for up to one year. There are ramifications for motor vehicle DUI / DWI driving convictions as well. Keep reading!

Is my flying career over?

No, it doesn’t have to be. If you get help and stick with a treatment and monitoring program, you can return to flying (more on this, below). If you later fail a drug test a second time, however, you will be permanently barred from flying for any FAA-regulated employer.

What does treatment look like?

After an evaluation, a substance abuse professional can make recommendations that include the HIMS program, testing and evaluation by a psychiatrist or neuropsychologist, abstinence and monitoring programs, inpatient or outpatient treatment, and/or group or individual therapy. This can be part of your return to working as a pilot. See below .

What is HIMS?

HIMS is an occupational substance abuse treatment program, specific to pilots, that coordinates the identification, treatment, and return-to-work process for affected aviators. It is an industry-wide effort in which managers, pilots, health care professionals, and the FAA work together to preserve careers and enhance air safety.

Comprehensive information is available on the HIMS website . But don’t let it reach the point of a failed drug or alcohol test or a DUI arrest – click the GET HELP NOW button for a speedy personal response.

Read about a pilot’s recovery from alcohol abuse and return to airline flying through the HIMS program .

Make good choices! Assiduously guard the lives entrusted to you, and your pilot career.

Photo credit: Kindel Media

“Imposter Syndrome”? You Belong in Aviation!

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 23:06:54 GMT

Re-frame it and keep going — because you belong here

“Imposter Syndrome” should be re-framed as a self-doubt and self-blame response to rampant sexism, racism and gaslighting in aviation.

A 2021 article in the Harvard Business Review says: "Imposter syndrome took a fairly universal feeling of discomfort, second-guessing, and mild anxiety in the workplace and pathologized it, especially for women. As wh¡te men progress, their feelings of doubt usually abate as their work and intelligence are validated over time. They’re able to find role models who are like them, and rarely if ever do others question their competence, contributions, or leadership style. Women experience the opposite. " [emphasis mine]

Men Don’t Get It

Male pilots don’t say they have “Imposter Syndrome”, not even when they undertake the challenge of learning to fly a big jet airliner. They might have private doubts, wonder if they’ve bit off more than they can chew — but they don’t say they feel like “imposters” in aviation.

And women don’t say they have “Imposter Syndrome” when attempting to do something really really hard yet gender-normative, such as raising three kids or leading the local PTA.

Society’s starting point is the assumption that men are inherently capable of leadership, like managing a large group of employees or being an airline captain. That’s not the starting point for women or people of color . Societal messaging about what is okay and not okay for women to pursue and accomplish in life begins early and is so pervasive that it eventually gets internalized. It’s why some intelligent ambitious women end up majoring in Education rather than Engineering or end up as Flight Attendants rather than Pilots. Any of these choices are valid, of course, but isn’t it interesting which direction women are steered in?

Image versus Reality

There’s more and more outreach and promotion showing photos of women pilots that essentially say, “Go for it! You can do it, girl!”

Then there’s the harsh reality of aviation that still today seems stuck in the 1950s, when all those wonderful WASPs and Mercury 13 were sent back home empty-handed.

To the woman who overcomes societal messaging to bravely show up at the airport, aviation says in so many ways that it’s still just for men. From the scarcity of women pilot peers and paucity of women aviation leaders , to the letters addressed to “Sir” or “Gentlemen”, aircraft and life-saving gear wrong-sized for women's bodies , school shirts that look unflattering on busty women, and the airline pilot uniform modeled on the men’s business suit … it goes on and on.

The guys at the airport think the new woman student pilot is just adorbs — until she pursues advanced flight ratings and announces her intention to become a professional pilot. Confidence is equated with competence — in men . But a woman aiming high is suddenly “uppity” and “too big for her britches” and “doesn’t know her place.” The friendliness and mentoring dry up. Meanwhile, boys and men keep getting encouragement to pursue their dream to become professional pilots.

And then some men go farther, giving “special” treatment to women pilots. Sexual aggression. Silent treatment. Ignoring her. Excluding her. ‘Jokes’ that disparage women. Making fun of her and her perfectly normal beginner’s mistakes. Rude remarks about her body and bodily functions. Pointedly misogynistic commentary . Holding her to a higher standard of performance in training and checking. All while whining about “how easy women have it these days”.

U.S. law makes it explicitly clear that educational institutions and corporate employers have the responsibility to maintain a safe environment for everyone to study, learn, and work, free of harassment and discrimination. It’s up to those entities to establish a code of conduct and set expectations for everyone’s behavior and correct the ones who stray into misconduct.

Yet harassment remains a stubborn barrier to women's progress in aviation .

The message is loud and clear: “You don’t naturally belong here. You have to prove yourself worthy of membership. You few who brazen through the barriers will be barely tolerated at best and probably harassed and maybe even assaulted — that’s the price of admission. And it is you who must adapt to this, the men’s world of aviation”.

So, WOW! Little wonder some women pilots end up doubting their own capabilities!

A Neat Trick

Notice that calling it “Imposter Syndrome” shifts responsibility away from society and the powers-that-be in aviation, away from individual harassers and haters, letting them completely off the hook. Women have been gaslit into pinning the “Imposter Syndrome” badge on themselves , which neatly shifts the burden of responsibility onto her own shoulders. Now it’s her problem, a problem which she alone must overcome through self-help books, affirmations, and sheer willpower.

It’s a really neat trick.

That’s all it is, though — a trick.

Sure, you are probably making mistakes as you train and fly. And you may need some help building self-confidence. But don’t believe everything you hear, or think. Don’t buy into all the bullsh¡t.

Overcome Self-Doubt

Reality Check: Gauge your progress with empirical data, such as test scores or progress reports or a stage check. Ask someone trustworthy to give you a “howgozit” — are you progressing normally for this stage? Be careful to ask someone who is experienced enough to know, and who is either neutral or rooting for you. Don’t give someone biased the opportunity to gaslight you .

Filter Incoming Data: Think about all the messages, implicit and explicit, that you’ve been receiving about your dream of being a professional pilot. And about how some got reformulated as personal problems. The subtle external “Women aren’t welcome here” shifting to “I don’t belong here”. Or someone asking “Are you sure you are capable of this?” morphing into “I don’t think I’m capable of this”.

Examine external messages from all sources, including friends, family, and your significant other, and from people in aviation like other pilots and instructors. Are you getting positive encouragement and support? Are some people telegraphing skepticism or being unhelpful or saying downright nasty things? Who is supportive and who is undermining your confidence?

Ask yourself, “Is it true?” ( The Work of Byron Katie .)

Put on a noise-cancelling headset and tune out the static. Turn up the volume on your supporters. Tune out the naysayers and gaslighters. Fine-tune the boundaries with friends and family who express doubts about your dreams. It might even be time to cancel someone and get divorced (yup — been there!).

Take a Deep Dive: Maybe it’s an inside job. Pay attention to your negative self-talk, like “I’m overreaching” or “I’m not good enough”. Are these deep-seated beliefs and old patterns from childhood being carried over to new endeavors?

Again you can ask, “Is it true? Is it REALLY? ”

Put on a hard hat, maybe get a therapist, and get curious. Drill down deep to excavate these unhelpful thought patterns that interfere with you reaching your full potential.

Aviation’s Dirty Little Secret

With 40+ years and 19,000+ hours in my logbook, I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret. If you had a crystal ball to peer into flight school training aircraft and airline flight simulators, to see test scores and observe checkrides and watch pro pilots on the job, you’d see that plenty of men pilots struggle and make mistakes. Despite all the swagger and trash talk about women pilots, those guys are not god’s gift to aviation or anything special. Studies have shown that stereotypic beliefs that women pilots are less capable is not supported by research ; there is no gender difference in accidents attributed to pilot error. In fact, men pilots have a higher fatal accident rate .

So if you think that you aren’t on par with the majority of men at your flight school or airline, you are probably mistaken. Many many women pilots can match or outshine them. And you can, too.

YOU belong here in aviation, as much as anyone else.

Photo credit: Thanatasdcom

10 FAQs About the R-ATP

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 19:42:27 GMT

Fast track to your airline pilot career

What are the ATP and R-ATP?

The Airline Transport Pilot certificate (ATP) is the FAA’s highest pilot certificate and is required to fly as an airline pilot in the United States. There is only one Airline Transport Pilot certificate — there are multiple ways to qualify for it, however.

An aspiring airline pilot qualifies for the ATP certificate by holding the Commercial Pilot certificate with Airplane Multi-Engine Land and Instrument Airplane ratings, accruing 1500 total flight hours to include various types of flight time, completing an ATP-CPT course, passing the ATP Knowledge and Practical tests, and being at least 23 years old. Ref: FAR §61.159 and FAR § 61.153

A pilot can also qualify for the Airline Transport Pilot certificate with fewer flight hours than 1500 when certain educational and training requirements have been met, and/or when younger than age 23 (minimum age is 21). In this case, the pilot can attain the Airline Transport Pilot certificate with restricted privileges, commonly called the “R-ATP”. Note that the R-ATP is not a lesser or separate pilot certificate than the ATP. Ref: FAR §61.160

What is the “restriction on privileges” for the R-ATP? What does the R-ATP allow a pilot to do?

It is not unusual for pilots to have restrictions on their pilot privileges, which are printed on the back of their certificate under Limitations. Common restrictions / limitations include "Circling approaches in VMC only" and "Second-in-command required". In this case, the pilot’s Airline Transport Pilot certificate will show “Restricted in accordance with 14 CFR 61.167”.

In plain language, this restriction is that the ATP pilot cannot fly as captain and pilot-in-command in airline operations, and cannot act as relief pilot or second-in-command in airline operations that require three or more pilots (longhaul operations that require augmented flight crew to allow for inflight rest). Ref: FAR §61.167(b) and FAR §121.436

A pilot holding the R-ATP can be hired by an airline to fly as first officer or second-in-command. When the pilot attains the full qualifications for the unrestricted ATP, having attained both the flight time (1500 hours) and the minimum age (23 years old), they can request that the FAA remove the restriction their ATP certificate. Ref: FAR §61.160(g) and FAR §121.436

How does a pilot qualify for the R-ATP?

A pilot qualifies for the R-ATP through one of three different paths.

1) Military training path : Complete training as a military pilot and build 750 total flight hours. Ref: FAR §61.160(a) and FAR §61.153(a)(2)

2) College aviation degree training path : Complete a four-year Bachelor degree or two-year Associate degree and complete pilot training to attain the Commercial Pilot and Instrument ratings through an FAA-approved R-ATP college degree program, and build 1000 total flight hours (with Bachelor degree) or 1250 total flight hours (with Associate degree or Bachelor degree and 30 credit hours). More information about these programs, below. Ref: FAR §61.160(b), (c), and (d) and FAR §61.153(a)(2)

3) Other training path : Meet all the flight time requirements for the unrestricted ATP – 1500 hours – prior to reaching age 23. The minimum age is 21. The pilot can accomplish this with any type of flight training under Part 61 or 141, with any or “zero” college, and with any or “zero” military training. Ref: FAR §61.160(f) and FAR §61.153(a)(2)

How can someone confirm that a college has an R-ATP program? What if the college says they have a Part 141 program or have applied for approval?

Caveat emptor. All FAA-approved R-ATP flight training programs operate under FAR Part 141, however the reverse is not true. Some colleges offering Part 141 flight training are not FAA-approved R-ATP programs.

The ATP with restricted privileges was introduced in 2014, yet was not widely known until the post-Covid pilot shortage caused a rapid increase in demand for pilot training. Many colleges that were already offering structured flight training under Part 141 and have been working to get FAA authorization for their newly created R-ATP degree programs. Nearly 200 colleges have R-ATP degree programs in 2025. Ref: FAR §61.169

The only way to absolutely verify that a college holds an FAA Letter of Authorization for their R-ATP program is to check the FAA’s most current published list of Institutions Authorized to Certify its Graduates for an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Certificate with Reduced Aeronautical Experience .

What’s required to enroll in a college R-ATP program?

The student has to apply and be accepted to the college and additionally be accepted into the college’s aviation degree flight training program. To qualify for the R-ATP, the student can have “zero” flight hours or some flight hours or the Private Pilot certificate – but not the Instrument rating. The student must complete both the Instrument rating and Commercial Pilot certificate in a college R-ATP flight training program in order to qualify for the R-ATP under FAR §61.160(b)(3), (c)(3), or (d) .

Pro Tip : Get the FAA First Class medical certificate the first time, to be sure the aspiring airline pilot will qualify. The FAA does not require any medical certificate to begin flight training, requires the Third Class medical certificate to fly solo, the Second Class to fly as Commercial Pilot, and the First Class to fly as Airline Transport Pilot. However most colleges require the First Class medical certificate to apply to their flight training degree programs. Ref: FAR §61.23

Can students transfer between colleges?

Transferring from one FAA-approved R-ATP college aviation degree program to another is technically allowed by the FAA. Ref: AC 61-139 Paragraph 12

Don’t count on it, however. Anecdotal information shows that few colleges are accepting transfer students. Possible reasons include the high demand in terms of new incoming students, and the burden on the second college to verify that the first college’s coursework matches their own coursework and meets FAA R-ATP requirements.

What if the student changes majors or drops out of college? Can they still get the R-ATP?

A student who finishes a Bachelor degree and completes at least 30 credit hours (as opposed to 60) and all the flight training at the college can still qualify for the R-ATP at 1250 flight total hours. Ref: FAR §61.160(d)

Or the student can finish flight training elsewhere under Part 61 or 141, in which case they will need to meet the 1500 total flight hour requirement to attain the ATP (minimum age 23) or R-ATP (minimum age 21). Ref: FAR §61.160(f) and FAR §61.153(a)(2)

What’s the advantage of going to college for the R-ATP?

Most U.S. major airlines no longer require college degrees to be considered for hiring, but pilots with a college degree (in any major) are still viewed more favorably . The quicker a pilot is qualified and hired at an airline, the more quickly they can begin accruing seniority, skill, experience, and money.

An R-ATP pilot as young as 21 can be hired by an airline. The mandatory retirement age for airline pilots is 65. Do the math – seniority and longevity at a legacy airline make a BIG difference in career earnings, as in millions of dollars.

Can someone get pilot training elsewhere more cheaply, and skip college?

Yes! See 5 Paths to an Airline Pilot Career .

If the pilot completes training to attain the Commercial Pilot certificate with roughly 250 total flight hours, how do they get to 1000, 1250, or 1500 hours to attain the ATP (R-ATP)?

Many new commercial pilots undertake additional training to become a Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI), and start building hours and earning money as an instructor for their flight school or college. Flight instructing is not for everyone, however. Please don't do it unless you plan to be a diligent and conscientious instructor who cares about what you teach and cares about the people you are teaching. Haphazard and hazardous attitudes can result in death .

Other time-building flying jobs include: Scenic tours, banner towing, skydiving, aerial photography, aerial mapping or survey, pipeline or powerline patrol, glider towing, passenger charter, corporate shuttle between cities, subcontractor cargo companies, ferry pilot, airplane demonstrator (sales), traffic watch reporting, forestry pilot, seasonal fire patrol.

May your dreams take flight!

Updated July 2025

Photo credit: Hispanolistic

Red Flags That You Should FIRE Your Flight Instructor

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 20:10:31 GMT

To save time, money, aggravation – and possibly your life

In aviation, safety risk management is Job One, which must be taught and reinforced in from Day One. Haphazard methods and hazardous attitudes kill.

How to spot these as a student pilot? Watch for red flag behaviors in your flight instructor’s technical and interpersonal skills, also called hard and soft skills . Note that intrinsic characteristics like age, gender, race, or nationality are NOT red flags – behaviors are.

Hard Skills of a Flight Instructor

Even the best pilot in the world isn’t helpful if they don’t know how to teach you in an organized and professional manner. A mediocre instructor could be modeling lax habits and failing to teach you vital skills. A careless or incompetent instructor can lead to your death.

Watch for these red flags:

�� Doesn’t contact you ahead of time about being late for a lesson, the aircraft or weather not being suitable for the lesson, or a cancelled lesson.

�� Doesn’t introduce you early on to the FAA Airman Certification Standards , which defines the expectations to achieve the pilot certificate or rating.

�� Doesn’t provide a syllabus or a preview of the upcoming lesson so you can prepare.

�� Skips the preflight briefing, when they should outline the plan and explain the maneuvers for that day’s flight lesson, prior to going flying.

�� Doesn’t follow a lesson plan, rather seems to “wing it” and "make it up on the fly”.

�� Skips the post-flight debrief, which is important to recap what was just taught, provide feedback about skill level and areas to improve, answer questions, and outline what's ahead for the next lesson.

�� Gives harsh and deflating criticism, rather than useful critiques you can build on.

�� Prioritizes their career development over your training. Example: The “lesson” includes cross-country or night flying, but you don’t receive specific instruction about flying in these conditions. (The instructor is using your time and money for their own time-building, to flesh out THEIR logbook.)

�� Responds to mistakes with obvious impatience, frustration, or anger.

�� Can’t or won’t answer your questions related to aviation knowledge or skill. (Saying “I’ll research that and get back to you” is okay; criticizing you for asking or otherwise avoiding your questions is not okay.)

�� Blames you for not catching on quickly to new concepts or for not progressing faster.

�� Doesn't use a different instructor for stage checks.

�� Discourages you from flying with other instructors.

�� Seems cavalier about adverse weather, or the fuel loading or mechanical condition of the aircraft.

�� Doesn’t model sound Aeronautical Decision-Making or have their own personal minimums, and doesn’t help you with yours. Examples: Flies while sick or when weather conditions are beyond their minimums, displays “get-there-itis”.

�� Expresses disdain for safety practices and acts as if the rules don’t apply to them. Violates Federal Aviation Regulations, and encourages you to do the same, such as lying on your FAA medical application.

Soft Skills of a Professional Pilot

A flight instructor with great soft skills sends you home from each lesson feeling eager for the next one. Another might leave you feeling intimidated by the flying and of them. Unprofessional conduct, insensitivity to others, and poor people skills might point to a lack of emotional or brain maturity. Or could be warning signs of a difficult personality, a sociopath, or a predator. Be alert for any abuse of power, since you are on the vulnerable side of the teacher-student dynamic. These factors not only disrupt your flight training, they can jeopardize your physical safety.

Watch for these red flags:

�� Texts or takes photos/videos during critical phases of flight that distract from safe flight operations. Examples: Taxi, takeoff, landing, low altitude, busy airspace.

�� Posts images of you on social media without your consent.

�� Persists in discussing sensitive topics like sex, race, religion, or politics.

�� Uses derogatory terms or shows bias against those historically excluded from aviation – women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ people.

�� Belittles, berates, or disparages you. Calls you names.

�� Yells. Hits. Throws things. .

�� Discusses highly personal topics, such as over-sharing about their loneliness. Asks highly personal questions, prying about your relationship status, where you live, your daily routine.

�� Suggests moving to a private messaging platform like Snapchat; sends messages with implied or obvious sexual content.

�� “Accidentally” touches you or invades your personal space more than once.

�� Asks to meet outside of the training environment. Hits on you. Requests sexual favors. Harasses you. (Due to the power dynamics, it is not appropriate for an instructor and student to date, even if consensual.)

�� Bullies you into doing something you don’t feel ready to do.

�� Spreads false rumors about you. Exposes you to public ridicule or contempt.

�� Displays an arrogant, know-it-all, cocky, or macho attitude. Takes unnecessary risks to show off. (Any gender can display this.)

�� Shows signs of "hard partying", heavy drinking , or drug use .

Your Responsibility as Student

As a student, you are the paying customer and the flight instructor is working for you. But you must do your part. Show up for each lesson prepared and respect the valuable resource that is a professional flight instructor. From there, do not hesitate to set boundaries, advocate for yourself, and FIRE an instructor who persistently shows red flags. If the situation includes bias or harassment, refer to the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

As you progress towards being a professional pilot, focus less on checking boxes and building hours and more on acquiring critically important skills, hard and soft.

If you become a flight instructor, be the conscientious and professional instructor you had, or wish you had. And watch for these same red flags in your students, because you can fire your student, too — and sometimes you should!

May your dreams take flight!

Sincere thanks to these professional aviators for their contributions to this article: L.C., M.J., J.C., J.D., A.F., B.S., and R.W.

Photo credit: Pejft

Calm Comebacks to Rude Remarks

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 03:10:12 GMT

Responses for any situation and to counter harassment in aviation

Some people are simply ignorant or make careless comments, such as misidentifying a woman airline pilot as a 'stewardess' . O thers intend for their barbs to sting. Rude remarks like “another empty kitchen” and terrible slurs and ‘jokes’ are microaggressions, a form of gender harassment in which deliberate putdowns are meant to denigrate women and ‘put you in your place’.

Don’t ignore harassment ; it pollutes the flight training environment , erodes crew resource management, and jeopardizes safety of flight. Bullies and predators are emboldened by inaction and might escalate their harassment to include harming your career and personal safety.

Confident boundary-setting repels abuse:

Prepare in advance. Choose some calm comebacks that resonate with you, and practice them in front of a mirror.
Use clear, direct, firm language. Calm comebacks are most effective when delivered in a neutral businesslike tone with no sarcasm and no smiling.
Set and maintain a boundary. Speak up right away, in a post-flight debrief, or later by phone, text, or email.
Follow the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

Calm Comebacks for Nearly Any Situation

SILENCE.
[Simply stare, or give them a ‘look’. Let the silence extend. Or walk away. You don't have to ease discomfort you didn’t cause. Don’t have to respond to an insult. You don’t have to submit to a grilling on aircraft systems or defend your right to be there. Never have an argument you've already won.]
NO.
[And say nothing more, because ‘No’ is a complete sentence. Saying ‘No’ with finality is part of being pilot-in-command.]
STOP.
WOW.
You may be right.
I’d rather not say.
I’m here to [learn] [work] [fly] – let’s focus on that.

For Egregious Misconduct

Stop touching me! That is never okay.
Enough! That’s making me very uncomfortable.
What’s wrong with you?! Don’t speak to me that way!
I said I wasn’t interested, and I mean it. Leave me alone.
Your interference with [my training] [my flight duties] jeopardizes the safety of flight. If you continue, I will be obligated to report your misconduct as a hazard to safety.

For Deliberately Demeaning Put-Downs

Are you okay??
I will allow you to rephrase that.
Are you always this unkind? …Why?
What an inappropriate thing to say!
I’m giving you the opportunity to retract that.
Those are thoughts you should keep to yourself.
Direct that energy someplace productive – not here.
So-called ‘jokes’ are just a cover for hostility. Cut it out.
Is that supposed to be funny? I don’t get it. Can you explain it to me? I still don’t understand. Explain it to me as you would to a kindergartener. [Make the ‘joke’ awkward and un-funny.]

For Rude Remarks about Sexuality, Pregnancy, Nursing, Parenthood

Subject closed.
That’s personal.
I / We manage just fine.
I won’t be discussing this with you.
Why do you need to know? (“I’m just curious.”) Huh. [Stop there. You have no obligation to satisfy their curiosity.]
My partner and I have agreed to not discuss this with others.
Why do you ask? Are you trying to be helpful or hurtful? [You can follow up by stating calmly that it lands as hurtful.]
I’ll forgive you for asking a personal question, if you’ll forgive me for not answering.

Note: The following comebacks are snarky – use with caution.

How do YOU manage parenthood??
How are your bowel movements? Oh, I thought we were asking wildly intrusive and inappropriate questions about bodily functions here! [Wide-eyed innocent look.]

For Mansplaining

It seems like you’ve grasped the basics – would you like me to direct you to resources for further study?
[Captain’s debrief] I observed some things during our time flying together, and now I'm going to help you out. You have a habit of mansplaining things to me that I already know. That could be seen as being condescending and patronizing to women, especially women captains. I'm hoping you were just trying to demonstrate your knowledge. But either way, I don't expect it to happen again while we fly together.

Note: The following comebacks are snarky – use with caution.

Tell me something I don’t already know and I’ll write it down. [Grab a paper and pen; write nothing down.]
Yep! You got it! You're demonstrating good listening and comprehension skills! Way to go!
Wow – you're putting what you learned in training together with what I just showed you and re-stating what I just said. Good job, buddy!

For Rude Remarks about Gender, Race, Age, Religion, Politics, Qualifications

Say that again, louder for the recording. [Hold out your phone.]
Working twice as hard SHOULD give me an advantage.
So the [7% women pilots] [2.6% Black pilots] are taking ALL the jobs, huh? [ Current figures are here .]
I can see how it might look that way to someone with your limited perspective.
What an embarrassing thing for you to say, when all evidence shows the opposite.
I’m qualified and I’m here. What you think about that is none of my business, so keep it to yourself.
If you insist that I’m a diversity hire, then you must also acknowledge that you’re a white male supremacy hire.
No more talk about sex, politics, race, or religion on the flight deck. Let’s stay BORING: Basic Operating Requirements In Normal Guidelines.
So you think that an airline would hire a pilot without the minimum qualifications? Really? Why would you think that? Walk me through your thought process.
You might not respect me, but you must respect the position of [instructor] [captain] and be able to work with me in this role. If you cannot, let me know now so I can make arrangements to have you reassigned.
Plenty of pilots got jobs because they had the qualifications AND CONNECTIONS. Maybe their daddy is an airline pilot, or their cousin plays golf with an executive. So tell me, are you harassing THEM about how THEY got preferential hiring??
You might call me ‘low-time’ and a ‘child of the magenta line’, but I was trained from Day One in stick-and-rudder skills AND on checklist discipline, crew coordination, standard operating procedures, and modern aviation technology. Nothing like the primary flight training of yesteryear.
Look, we both had to work very hard to get here, but you didn’t have people constantly telling you that you had it easy while also questioning your competency, solely because of your genitals or skin color. This happens to me A LOT. I shouldn’t have to keep proving myself over and over.
You know the difference between you and me? We both had to do the same training, study, practice, and pass the same tests and checkrides. The difference is, you did all that WITHOUT having to respond to ignorant, vulgar, demeaning remarks about your [gender] [race] [sexuality] [age].
Do you have instructors, examiners, and captains hitting on you and then turning vindictive when you politely turn them down? Oh, you don’t?! Because it’s not just annoying, it feels threatening, and is a distraction that impacts safety of flight. It makes it hard to keep flying with these guys, yet I keep showing up anyway. My pilot girlfriends keep showing up, too, even though some of them have been sexually assaulted by aviation coworkers. Think about that next time you think any of us ‘have it easy’ as a woman pilot.
Oh, you think I didn’t 'deserve' to get hired here, that standards are being lowered to hire pilots like me? Really?? Because I… [graduated from the rigorous 99s Professional Pilot Leadership Initiative mentoring program ] [graduated Summa Cum Laude] [flew combat missions in Iraq / Afghanistan] [was a check pilot at my last airline] [served on the union training committee at my last airline] [am working on my Masters thesis on aviation safety] [teach upset recovery and aerobatics] [flew 50 kids through EAA Young Eagles] [fill in the blank]. Now, how about you – what are YOU doing to enhance your pilot credentials, demonstrate leadership, contribute to your community, or otherwise stand out from the crowd of pilot applicants?

If Harassment Continues

Follow the guidance in the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

Thank you to all the women pilots and others who contributed to this list.

Photo Credit: Steele2123

10 Reasons Why You’re Struggling in Flight Training

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 22:14:42 GMT

And solutions to your struggles

#1 - YOU FEEL BAD ABOUT A COUPLE OF BAD FLIGHTS

You’re bummed, feel like you should be making better progress, you feel “behind”.

Solution: Ask your instructor for honest feedback; get a second opinion if need be. Remember that progress is not linear. You can break a stall and recover. Comparing yourself to others is not helpful. Look back at how far you’ve come. Keep going.

#2 - PACE OF TRAINING IS TOO SLOW

Solution: Devote time and money to more frequent lessons, so knowledge and skill are carried into the next lesson. Change instructors or flight schools if they are cancelling lessons. Wait out bad weather. Practice “armchair flying” frequently.

#3 - PACE OF TRAINING IS TOO FAST

Some “zero-to-hero” and Part 141 flight training programs have a set curriculum and predetermined pace. It’s up to the student to study up, show up, and keep up -- and not everyone can.

Solution: Have a frank discussion with the chief flight instructor about your standing and your options. Do it before things have gone too far.

#4 - POOR INSTRUCTION, POOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Your instructor attempts to teach ground school while airborne (it's called ground school for a reason), so they can build more flight hours on your dime. Or they don't show up at all, or the aircraft keep breaking. Or the instructor yells at you and berates you. Or your instructor is good, but just not getting through to you on this one maneuver for some reason. Learn all of the Red Flags that you should fire your flight instructor .

Solution: Change instructors, either temporarily or permanently. No hard feelings. Change flight schools, if necessary. See also #9.

#5 - DON’T KNOW HOW TO STUDY

You didn’t develop good study habits in school. Or you’ve been out of school for a long time. Being a professional pilot means ongoing study throughout your career, so this must be remedied.

Solution: Figure out your predominant learning style — visual, auditory, reading/writing, or kinesthetic? And ideal learning environment — personal instruction, classroom, book, video, flight or flight simulator? Adopt study techniques and find resources that incorporate more of these. Keep at it.

#6 - LIFE CHOICES, CIRCUMSTANCES

Partying, work, illness, baby, divorce, and other distractions and disruptions are taking your attention away from flight training and studying.

Solution: Arrange your life to reduce distractions, if possible. Delay training until circumstances improve, if necessary.

#7 - BAD ATTITUDE

You can fly the airplane just fine, but display one or more troubling attitudes: Lack of motivation, lack of self-discipline, poor risk management, poor decision-making, machismo, anti-authoritarianism, complacency, inability to accept criticism. These are incompatible with being a reliably safe pilot.

Solution: Instructor feedback should be helpful and encouraging (see #4 and #9) — and you should welcome corrections and critiques as part of learning. Review your goals, and decide exactly what you are willing to do to reach those goals. Work on outgrowing immature attitudes.

#8 - PERFECTIONISM, PEOPLE-PLEASING, ANXIETY (sometimes related)

Solution: No pilot flies perfectly. Do your best while letting go of the agony of perfectionism and fear of failure. People-pleasing is not helpful for anyone at the controls of an airplane. Practice techniques that calm the body’s sensation of anxiety, such as taking long slow deep breaths.

#9 - BAD PEOPLE TRYING TO HOLD YOU BACK

Some people still target non-straight, non-pale, non-male aspiring pilots with bias, double-standards, harassment, denigrating "jokes" and remarks, sabotage, and gaslighting. Some of these harmful behaviors are difficult to detect, leading to self-doubt and loss of confidence.

Solution: Ignoring it will NOT make it go away. Discuss with trusted friends and mentors. Be proactive in setting boundaries -- speak up with a calm comeback to rude remarks . Document and report unfair illegal treatment. Change instructors or flight schools. See the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

#10 - FLYING ISN’T FOR YOU

If none of the previous reasons are valid for you, or you find the solutions to be insurmountable, then here’s the hard truth: You might not have the motivation, discipline, mindset, and/or mental capacity required to be a pilot.

Solution: Come back when you’ve developed these inner resources, or find another career.

RESOURCES to address these struggles in flight training:

8 HOW-TOs for New-Hire Airline Pilot Training includes preparation and study techniques, how to “armchair fly”, and how to pass a checkride. Written for new airline pilots, this article is very helpful to anyone transitioning into larger or faster aircraft, and provides a good overview to aspiring professional pilots.

The article Concerned About Washing Out of a Flight Training Program? advises being proactive about recognizing and correcting your situation — before you’re sent home.

Overcoming Failures gives you hope for continuing your pilot career despite checkride failures and job termination.

The Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist outlines steps to take when targeted with unfair and illegal abuses of power during training and at work.

Another Empty Kitchen is a compilation of the ignorant and harmful remarks said to women pilots. We’ve heard it all. Calm Comebacks to Rude Remarks has a variety of suggestions for countering inappropriate commentary.

39 Steps to De-Stress Your High-Flying Life has many different techniques for reducing stress and anxiety.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

Bringing Youth into Aviation

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 02:06:36 GMT

Fun ideas and minimum ages for flying activities

Aviation activities:

Watch airplanes coming and going at your local airport
Visit an aviation museum
Go to air shows
Read books about history of aviation and pilots like Amelia Earhart
Attend an Aviation Day sponsored by a local airport
Enroll in a youth aviation program
Earn the Aviation STEM Badge at a 99s Girl Scouts / Girl Guides aerospace education program
Join Aviation Career Exploring
Go to the OBAP Aerospace Career Education (ACE) Academy
Attend Girls in Aviation Day
Go to aviation summer camp
Buy a computer flight simulator
Hang around small local airport to meet pilots, potential mentors
Sign up for pilot ground school course, in classroom or online

Flying activities:

Take a Discovery Flight at your local airport
Take an EAA Young Eagles flight
Become a Civil Air Patrol cadet
Take flying lessons

What is the minimum age to qualify for. . .

No minimum age:
Ground school
Flying lessons
FAA medical exam (but not worthwhile until age 15)
Age 8: EAA Young Eagles
Age 10: Aviation Career Exploring
Age 12: Civil Air Patrol
Age 13: Start FAA Student Pilot application
Age 14 minus 90 days: Student Pilot Certificate
Age 14 :
First Solo - Glider or Lighter-Than-Air Balloon
FAA Knowledge Test for Private Pilot - Glider or Lighter-Than-Air Balloon
Age 15:
FAA Knowledge Test - Private Pilot Airplane
All other FAA Knowledge Tests except ATP-ME (valid for 24 months; check other age requirements)
Age 16:
Private Pilot certificate with Glider and Lighter-Than-Air Balloon rating
Remote Pilot certificate (to operate drones)
First Solo - Airplane or Helicopter
Age 17:
Private Pilot certificate with Airplane or Helicopter rating
Instrument rating
Age 18:
Commercial Pilot certificate
Flight Instructor certificate
FAA Knowledge Test for ATP-ME (valid for 60 months; check other age requirements)
Age 21: Restricted Airline Transport Pilot certificate
Age 23: Airline Transport Pilot certificate

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Sergey Makashin

Walking a Tightrope: A Double-Standard for Women and BIPOC Pilots

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 16:32:41 GMT

Bias against nontraditional pilots in positions of authority

You didn’t study and train and practice and build hours just to play second fiddle; being pilot-in-command is the goal of every professional pilot. And now that you’re ready to be captain, you come up against society’s attitudes and individuals' biases about women, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and non-gender-conforming folks in positions of authority.

Even though the Federal Aviation Regulations and the airline’s military-inspired rank system both reinforce that the captain is the pilot-in-command and ultimate authority over the flight, and even though the first woman airline pilot to become captain in the United States did so all the way back in 1976, people still have a problem with non-male, non-pale pilots as airline captains.

The Double-Standard

This double-standard may appear at any point in a pilot career, and becomes more obvious during captain upgrade training, where it’s caused women and BIPOC pilots get washed out, or nearly so. My friends and I have experienced this at different airlines — I’ve trained as captain at three airlines, myself — and have been given debriefings that would never have been given to white male pilots. These weren’t critiques of aviation knowledge, ability to perform required maneuvers, or management of crew or emergency situations, which would be legitimate. Rather, evaluators point to intangible qualities that throw into question our suitability for the role:

“You fly well, but just don’t seem to be ready.”

“You’re too nice.”

“You need to take command.”

Or, bias is revealed when the critique is about the tiniest, nitpicky-est little things. A check pilot told a friend on her captain operating experience flight that she didn’t chime the flight attendants correctly to indicate Sterile Cockpit. At the end of the flight, he made her sit and flip that seatbelt sign switch on and off several times to prove she could do it “the right way”.

Really? REALLY?!

It’s almost as if some people in positions of power want to hobble and wash out pilots who are women, BIPOC, or seemingly “different”, and will find the flimsiest excuse to put a negative critique or failure in their training records. This is illegal under U.S. law — learn what you can do about it with the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

Why is this happening?

Societal Issues

First, it’s because women, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and non-gender-conforming folks were historically excluded from pilot professions, and remain tiny minorities , and because of how they are treated in our society at large.

Our society has acculturated girls since birth to defer to men, be subordinate to men, be nice to men. Women are indoctrinated to not showboat, not flex their muscles, not make displays of power – not even when they hold actual power and authority. Likewise for people of underrepresented races and ethnicities vis-a-vis people of the majority race.

Meanwhile, a woman in a position of authority may be labeled a ball-buster , battle-axe, bossy b!tch, man-eater, lesbian — intended as an insult in this context — and the list goes on. She is admonished that her demeanor is too direct, abrasive, aggressive. People of color holding power may be labeled with racist tropes like uppity and angry. LGBTQ folks are told to "tone it down".

On the other hand, when the same people display leadership traits that could be called cooperative, accommodating, flexible, agreeable, and friendly, they are denigrated as overly feminine – intended as an insult – and weak, incompetent, untrustworthy, unworthy of respect.

It’s like having to walk a tightrope.

Another way the double-standard manifests is how a woman or person of color learning to fly can be viewed as “adorable”, with people falling all over themselves to tutor and mentor them, but when the same person dares progress to become a professional pilot or upgrade from co-pilot to captain, suddenly the attitude shifts to "who do you think you are?" and “you’re too big for your britches” and “you don’t know your place”, which can lead to behavior intended to "put you in your place".

"Imposter Syndrome" — or Ambition Penalty

Women and other underrepresented people are persistently targeted with subtle and overt messages that they aren’t competent leaders and don’t belong in these lofty positions. The result and perhaps the intent is to undermine their confidence, and some do end up doubting themselves. This crisis of confidence is often labeled "imposter syndrome". It's reflexive for especially for women internalize and to take on a burden as an individual pathology, rather than name the source of the problem: systemic injustice and bias.

"Imposter syndrome directs our view towards fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work," say the authors of “ Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome ” in the Harvard Business Review . “We often falsely equate confidence — most often, the type demonstrated by white male leaders — with competence and leadership. Employees who can’t (or won’t) conform to male-biased social styles are told they have imposter syndrome.”

This has also been called a “ confidence gap ”, in which girls and women become afraid to speak up, negotiate, assert themselves. Let’s call it what it really is: An ambition penalty . Because women are penalized for being assertive and taking charge and daring to have the ambition to learn to fly and to rise to the top of their profession.

A Good First Officer can make for a Bad Captain

The second reason women and BIPOC pilots may be penalized during captain upgrade training is because they have been good first officers — too good.

First officers and co-pilots are expected to defer to the authority of the captain, let the captain make final decisions, and even to allow the captain to override their decisions and choices on most issues. Some FOs eventually seem to give up and just go along for the ride — not a great starting point for becoming the manager, leader, and final decision-maker on the flight deck.

The longer a pilot is a first officer, co-pilot, or relief pilot, the more accustomed they can become to not being in charge, and being chameleons: Flexible, accommodating, deferential, adjusting to the temper and tenor of each captain with whom they fly. Women are especially adept at this learned behavior, after a lifetime of programming.

But this doesn’t happen only to women and BIPOC. At a small start-up airline, I was hired as an off-the-street captain due to my prior airline experience, while it was the first airline pilot job for all of the first officers. When the time came for one of the white male first officers to upgrade, some of the captains didn’t think he was ready. He came to me, perplexed: “But I led an entire squadron in the Air Force!”

The issue was, he was overly deferential. He had stifled his command presence, which first helped him in the airline first officer role, but later impeded his promotion to airline captain. (He did become a captain, and did just fine.)

Read and take heed: If you’re overly accommodating, eager to please, and need to be liked, that does not help you to move into the left seat of pilot-in-command.

Be Nice — But Not Too Nice!

Did you know? The traits of likability and being "nice" are inversely correlated to being perceived as competent .

During my latest captain upgrade training, in a simulator debriefing before the final checkride, the check pilot told me I needed to “be tougher” and “you have to bare your fangs.” It seemed that my being courteous and patient with my training partner, a new-hire first officer, might disqualify me as captain material.

Message received. On our checkride, I made sure to bark out orders to the first officer. And we passed.

Apparently that’s what they want to see. You won’t be allowed to upgrade to pilot-in-command until you can act like their version of a commander, which is equated with being domineering and acting like a complete bully or b!tch. Just as women airline pilots are expected to don a traditional men’s business suit and necktie as their ill-fitting uniform, they’re also expected to adopt the traditional toxic traits of male leadership, to which they are not accustomed, in order to be captains.

And expect to be punished if you can’t or won’t do it. Punished for not conforming to traditional female gender roles by being an airline pilot in the first place, and then punished for not closely adhering to the traditional male gender role of a commanding captain, from the viewpoint of a biased gatekeeper. Show your mettle, take charge, and prove you can be in command. Yet, be nice. But not toooo nice!

As the authors of a study on prejudice towards women leaders put it: “Women leaders’ choices are thus constrained by threats from two directions: Conforming to their gender role would produce a failure to meet the requirements of their leader role, and conforming to their leader role would produce a failure to meet the requirements of their gender role.”

Like walking a tightrope.

Setting Expectations and Boundaries as Captain

The good news is, acting “bossy” is mostly a temporary necessity during training. Once you’ve earned your captain wings and are on the line, you can return to being your regular friendly, courteous, quietly confident self on the flight deck. You can be more team-oriented, collaborative, and approachable — another style of leadership that can exist within a hierarchy, one that doesn’t rely on pulling rank at every moment.

Most of the time.

No matter your crew position, you deserve to be treated with common courtesy. It's up to you to set this as an expectation and reinforce it as a boundary. And when you're the captain, you must address crewmember misconduct head-on. Ignoring a problem only delays the inevitable, and can make the problem worse.

There will be times when a first officer, flight attendant, or other coworker will try to challenge and usurp your captain authority, and sometimes it’s because they believe that someone they consider to be inferior doesn’t belong in the captain seat. For example, at that small start-up airline, a few of the male first officers tried to challenge decisions that did not fall into gray areas (e.g. FARs, SOPs), persisting despite my careful explanations, ignoring how they were brand-new to airline flight operations in contrast to my far greater pilot-in-command and airline experience. Discussing this among other captains, we discovered that only the company’s sole female captain (me) was being challenged in this way.

As more women and underrepresented pilots upgrade to airline captain and pilot-in-command, they report that some white and male new-hire first officers struggle being subordinate to them. These first officers give flight instruction (telling captains how to fly, when the captains have thousands of hours more flight experience), interfere with or attempt to oversee captain duties (when the captain already knows their job, and the first officer is neglecting his), and mansplain aircraft systems and procedures to women (an affront when directed at a woman captain by a man new-hire first officer who is both new to the company and new to the aircraft). And sometimes it's flight attendants or other coworkers who show disrespect.

Such misconduct can arise from bias and prejudice, lack of trust, or from cluelessness, rudeness, fragile ego, or some other personal issue. Or, it can be a case of a lack of exposure. One persistent mansplainer finally admitted that he'd never flown with a woman pilot before. Guess what? It isn't our job to teach you how to play nice with fellow human beings who happen to be a different gender or race than you. We're all pilots. Just start from there.

Regardless of the source or motivation for a crewmember's inappropriate behavior, the captain must prevent it from disrupting crew resource management, before it impinges on safety of flight, and hopefully before it reaches the point of outright insubordination .

An observation: Since women and BIPOC people have been blocked from positions of power and authority for so long, now that they hold actual power and authority intrinsic to the role of captain and pilot-in-command, some are reluctant to wield it.

But wield it we must.

Suggested Techniques

Blatant misconduct must be shut down. Do not "hint and hope". Speak directly to the issue and be firm about your expectations going forward. Here are some suggested techniques:

SAY LESS: Just give them a look. You don't have to say anything. You don't have submit to a grilling on aircraft systems. You don't have to prove what you know or show what you can do or do anything at all to prove that you deserve to be captain. You. Are. The. Captain. As one captain put it: "Never have an argument you've already won."

SAY NO: Learning to say "No" is a big part of being pilot-in-command. Remember that "No" is a complete sentence. Or you can add, "We'll discuss it in the post-flight debriefing."

BE DIRECT and SUCCINCT: "Your chatter is distracting. Please review systems and procedures quietly in your head, since I already know them." Or, “No more sex, politics, race, or religion. Let’s stay BORING: Basic Operating Requirements In Normal Guidelines.”

USE HUMOR: "Yep! You got it! You're demonstrating good listening and comprehension skills!" Or, "Wow — you're putting what you learned in training together with what I just showed you and re-stating what I just said. Good job, buddy!"

NEXT PREFLIGHT BRIEFING: "I observed some things during our first day flying together yesterday, and now I'm going to help you out. You have a habit of mansplaining things to me that I already know. That could easily be seen as being condescending and patronizing to women pilots and especially to women captains. I'm hoping you were just trying to demonstrate your knowledge. But either way, I don't expect it to happen again while we fly together. Now let's look ahead to a great day of flying."

DRAW THE LINE: "You might not respect me, but you must respect the position of captain and be able to work with me, the captain. If you cannot, let me know now so that I can call for another first officer."

Here are more calm comebacks to rude remarks .

Good News

There’s more good news, though. The younger generations raised by parents who lived through or came after the Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, and Gay Pride movements are bringing fresh attitudes towards a diversity of people in aviation. Young women have had the opportunity to develop leadership skills early, as “jocks” and captains of their high school soccer teams and college flight proficiency teams. As a result, we’re seeing an acceleration in the pace of women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC learning to fly, pursuing pilot careers, and upgrading to captain. One can only hope that as this generational shift progresses, especially into the captain and check pilot ranks, harsh and toxic management styles will become outmoded.

In my 28+ years as a member of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots , dozens and dozens of friends have advanced from first officer to captain, and it’s been fascinating to observe them growing into the command role. As captains, they hold themselves with more pride, stand up straighter, shoulders squared. They display more self-assurance in how they walk and talk and look you in the eye and express their views. They no longer shrink in an attempt to placate others, no longer silence themselves, no longer hide their personal power. They own it!

As it should be. Because we earned those captain wings, and keep earning them on every flight.

My hat is off to Captain Jean Haley Harper and Captain Theresa Claiborne, who literally led the way. My sincere gratitude to them and the other captains who have shown what true leadership is and shared some of the techniques included here.

Photo courtesy of Jenny Beatty

How to Dress for Airline Pilot Job Interviews

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 19:29:13 GMT

Aim for an image of professionalism and competency

Aim for an image of professionalism and competency that matches the company culture — and does not draw attention to you for the wrong reasons.

Suit: Business suit or pant suit that is of a conservative design, not trendy or flashy. Ideally, your outfit approximates the color and style of that airline’s pilot uniform, so interviewers can look at you and picture you as one of their pilot colleagues. . . So, navy, black, or dark grey.

Blouse or shirt: Avoid a low neckline or blouse that will fall open — no cleavage should show. White or a solid color.

Tie: Yes, for men. Many wear solid red or blue; consider a color from the airline’s logo. Wear a Mickey Mouse tie only if your interview is with the Disney Company.

Shoes: Clean, polished, plain black or neutral color closed-toe shoes or heels. If there is a simulator check, wear or bring low-heeled shoes.

Hair: Get a haircut and return the color to a natural shade. Most women with long hair wear it pulled back in a braid or ponytail or bun; some prefer to wear it loose; either way, it should be neatly styled. Men: Hair cut above the collar, above the ears, and clean-shaven.

Absolutely must wear a beard? Long hair? Or a turban or other headgear? You can make a formal request for an exemption to a grooming standard, based on a federally protected category. Such requests are handled on a case-by-case basis by HR.

Jewelry: Remove all studs, gauges, rings, nose jewels, and jewelry from your face and ears, except for one set of conservative earrings, worn in the traditional way, one in each earlobe. A small, conservative necklace or string of pearls can be worn, but if in doubt, don’t wear any necklace. Men: No jewelry on the face or head.

Tattoos: Completely covered and hidden from view.

Purse or brief: Nice plain black.

Overall look: A conservative, professional appearance that helps you to feel confident.

Note: The interview, screening, or on-boarding process will include a DOT-mandated drug test. If you haven’t done so already, stop using all marijuana, THC, and CBD products. The DOT warns that some CBD products can trigger a positive drug test , in which case your airline career will be over before it even got started.

Now, here’s more information about what to wear to an aviation job fair , and to new-hire airline pilot training .

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Michael Jung

Do Pilots Need a College Degree?

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:24:50 GMT

Not necessarily, but it helps

Airlines had their reasons for requiring a college degree in the past. A long time ago, they hired pilots mostly from the military, and military pilots were officers, and military officers had Bachelor degrees. Many had higher degrees.

Airline pilot hiring has always been a matter of supply and demand. In times of high supply of pilot applicants, the airlines are able to select from the pilots with a variety of qualifications. Why bother with a civilian-trained pilot who didn’t finish college, when you have so many other qualified applicants holding degrees?

Also, finishing college indicates studiousness, discipline, determination, perseverance. A college degree proves your ability and perhaps desire to learn, and an ability to express oneself in writing. All this translates well to the airline environment, because being a professional pilot means constant learning, including in-depth study of topics you don’t necessarily enjoy. A college degree proves that you’re up for that.

This was how airlines approached pilot hiring in the past.

Fast Forward to Today

Now there really is a pilot shortage. The cost to learn to fly is astronomical. Retirements are peaking. Everybody seems to need pilots. The major airlines quietly dropped the college degree requirement in recent years, calling it “optional” or “preferred” or not mentioning it at all on the list of minimum requirements to apply.

One reason for this is because they want to widen the pool of candidates for hiring, to include for example Army helicopter pilot Warrant Officers, who often moved up from the enlisted ranks to the pilot-officer seat and lack that degree. Also, many flow-through pilots coming to legacy airlines from their associated regional airlines do not have it.

However . . . if you don’t plan to flow through, rather will apply “off the street” to your dream airline, then you should understand that the major airlines use computerized application processes with a point system and algorithm that bring the most highly qualified pilots with four-year college degrees to the top of the list for interviewing and hiring.

If you aren’t ready to commit to a four years of college for a Bachelor degree, consider going to a local community college for a two-year Associate degree. You can complete a Bachelor degree later, in an online college degree program.

This is the situation at this moment in time. In another few years, things may change again.

Get There Faster

The ability to complete all the training and requirements to achieve the Airline Transport Pilot certificate as quickly as possible is a big motivation for young people to go to college in an FAA-approved aviation degree and flight training program (check the approved list here ). In these structured college programs, it’s possible to achieve the Restricted ATP at age 21 with 1000 or 1250 total flight hours in an aviation-related Bachelor degree program (normally four years), and with 1250 flight hours in an Associate degree program (two years).

Outside of these college programs, a pilot must be age 21 and have 1500 flight hours to get the R-ATP, or age 23 and 1500 hours for the regular, unrestricted ATP. Military-trained pilots have other requirements and minimums for the R-ATP.

College Majors

If you’re enrolled in a college R-ATP program, you must take the required number of credit hours in aviation subjects, and have an aviation major.

If you’re not enrolled in an R-ATP program, then it really doesn’t matter what you major in. You will find airline pilots holding college degrees with majors in engineering, business, geography, and medieval Spanish literature. Pursue a degree in whatever interests you.

What If I Can't or Don't Want to Go to College?

You can still make your way in a professional pilot or airline pilot career.

If your goal is to fly for a major airline, they still generally favor pilots with college degrees, but you can still get there without it. Here are two ways: Get into the airline's cadet academy (ab initio flight training program), or get your pilot ratings and then get hired at a wholly-owned subsidiary airline with a guaranteed flow-through to the mainline airline. See the 5 Paths to an Airline Pilot Careers for more information.

What About a H.S. Diploma or G.E.D?

You can finish the Commercial Pilot certificate at age 18 and the ATP at age 23, regardless of your education. But to work in nearly any professional pilot job, you do need to finish high school or pass the General Educational Development test.

Photo credit: Ekrulila

How to Dress for New-Hire Airline Pilot Training

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 19:59:43 GMT

You can’t go wrong with business cas ual attire

Congratulations on landing an airline job! Now remember Captain Beatty’s adage: “A pilot job isn’t real until you’re sitting at the controls of the actual aircraft being paid to actually fly.”

You still have to get through the training ( here’s how! ), and you’re still being observed to see if you fit in with the company and culture. So, choose outfits that convey professionalism and competency, and follow the company dress code, if known. The details of company standards for attire and personal grooming will be covered on the first day of ground school in Basic Indoctrination. So, Day 1 is a gimme, and then . . . “Come as you are, stay our way."

You can’t go wrong with business casual attire, which generally follows these guidelines:

Slacks and pants , like khakis. No shorts, leggings, yoga pants, or sweats. Some companies allow blue jeans with no rips, holes, or tears; hold off until you know for sure.

Skirts and dresses are okay for ground school, but not for the simulator sessions. No short hemlines.

Shirts and blouses with sleeves and a collar, like oxford shirts, polo shirts, and nice blouses. No t-shirts, tank tops, or athletic gear. No cleavage, bare midriff, or see-through material. Busty and curvy ladies: Try any blouse that does not show cleavage, worn under a structured blazer or jacket.

Wear closed-toe shoes . No sneakers or sandals. Some companies allow clean athletic shoes; hold off until you know for sure.

Emergency Procedures Training: You are likely going into a swimming pool. Some people wear swimsuits, but others prefer more coverage, like a rash guard and swimming shorts. Regular shorts and a t-shirt are also acceptable.

Simulator sessions: Wear the shoes you’ll be wearing when you fly the aircraft, or other low-heeled shoes. No high heels. Bring a sweater or jacket because the sims are always cold.

Checkride and class photo: Bring your interview suit or nicer outfit. Some women wear cocktail dresses for the class photo.

Hair: Get a haircut and return the color to a natural shade. Most women with long hair wear it pulled back in a braid or ponytail or bun; some prefer to wear it loose; either way, it must be neatly styled. Men: Hair cut above the collar, above the ears, and clean-shaven.
Absolutely must wear a beard? Long hair? Or a turban or other headgear? You can make a formal request for an exemption to a grooming standard, based on a federally protected category. Such requests are handled on a case-by-case basis by HR.

Jewelry: Remove all studs, gauges, rings, nose jewels, and jewelry from your face and ears, except for one set of conservative earrings, worn in the traditional way, one in each earlobe. Men: No jewelry on the face or head.

Tattoos: Completely covered and hidden from view.

Carry a nice brief or handbag or pilot bag that will hold an iPad, notepad, pens, snacks, wallet, and phone. A plain, clean backpack is also acceptable.

Read my free article " 8 HOW-TOs for New-Hire Airline Pilot Training " for more helpful information to make it through this challenging training program.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: PeopleImages

5 Paths to an Airline Pilot Career

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 09:09:35 GMT

How and where to get flight training to become an airline pilot

First, some words of advice:

Do your homework. Go to original sources and reliable entities before making big life choices or spending big money. Start with the FAA , Airplane Owner and Pilots Association , and a professional aviation medical advisory service.
Verify that you can hold the FAA Medical Certificate. Some current and past health conditions, diagnoses, and medications can cause delays or are disqualifying. The FAA's FAQs or their Guide for FAA Medical Examiners can answer many questions, or consider visiting an FAA Aviation Medical Examiner for a consultation before submitting the application. And review my 10 FAQs article , to avoid intrusive, unnecessary examination of your private parts during the physical exam.
Check your bank account and credit score. It can cost up to $100,000 to accomplish all the training and attain commercial pilot credentials. There are many aviation scholarships available to those who are diligent enough to seek them out. However, there are NO known programs offering free flight training or full-ride scholarships.
Read the fine print on contracts, loans, and agreements. What is your obligation if you can't keep up with the timeline or complete flight training there?
Watch out for naysayers, trolls, and harassers, especially if you belong to a community that has been historically excluded from aviation (i.e. if you’re not pale or male). Join affinity groups like The Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots and the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals , and refer to the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

Here are 5 Paths to an Airline Pilot Career, with estimated cost:

#1 MILITARY

Pro: Top-notch structured flight training. College degree included. Preferred for airline hiring.

Con: Highly competitive. Lengthy commitment.

Cost: "Free".

Active-duty service member of any branch, including Coast Guard (pilot slot not guaranteed)
Air National Guard or Reserves (can apply for pilot position only)
Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC)
Teens: Join the Civil Air Patrol or Junior ROTC for mentors and guides towards the above

#2 UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE with flight training program

Pro: Solid education and structured flight training. FAA-approved R-ATP programs. College degree preferred for airline hiring. Some scholarships.

Con: Acceptance to top-tier colleges can be competitive. Most are full-time programs. College is not for everyone.

Cost: See below.

Airlines have dropped the four-year college degree requirement, but college graduates are still preferred . Major in aviation and some curriculum is fixed for students enrolled in FAA-approved R-ATP programs. Outside of an R-ATP program, students can pursue any degree and major; regular ATP requirements apply. Most if not all college flight training programs are linked to airline pathway programs. Estimated total cost including tuition, flight training, and campus living:

Community college or trade school, two-year college degree - up to $100,000
Mid-ranked college, four-year college degree - up to $200,000
Top-tier college, four-year college degree - up to $300,000

#3 AIRLINE CADET ACADEMY (ab initio flight training program)

Pro: Speed. Structured flight training program. Guaranteed priority consideration for hiring by associated airline. Availability of loans on favorable terms. Some scholarships.

Con: Highly competitive. Full-time program. Fast-paced; too fast for some, resulting in checkride failures . College education not included, but not required after acceptance into program.

Cost: $90-100,000

In recent years, U.S. airlines have created two pilot pipeline programs:

In the U.S. and around the world, the term “cadet” refers to a military officer trainee or candidate or student, and an “academy” is a school or college. With a couple of exceptions, an airline pilot pipeline program that calls itself a cadet academy is an airline-sponsored ab initio flight school that takes a cadet from "zero to hero", from zero hours through commercial pilot and flight instructor in a full-time year-long structured flight training program. Then the cadet gets priority consideration for a job as flight instructor at the cadet academy, at an airline affiliate, and later as pilot for the mainline airline. Favorable loan terms and some scholarships available. Only a few U.S. airlines have cadet academies. Examples: American Airlines AA Cadet Academy, Southwest Airlines Destination 225 Cadet Pathway, United Airlines Aviate Academy.

The other type of airline pipeline program does NOT include flight training. A pathway program , sometimes called a partnership or mentor program, is designed to attract potential pilots getting flight training at schools of their own choosing , i.e. through one of the other paths outlined in this article. In a pathway program, the airline offers incentives, mentoring, access to recruiters, and assistance, possibly including access to loans, tuition reimbursement, or a signing bonus. Almost every U.S. airline, large and small, has a pathway program. None offer full-ride scholarships.

#4 ACCELERATED FLIGHT SCHOOL

Pro: Speed. Structured flight training program. Low threshold for acceptance.

Con: Full-time program. Watch for predatory contracts (no refund if you don't finish?). Fast-paced; too fast for some, resulting in checkride failures .

Cost: $50-100,000

These are "zero to hero" programs that take someone from zero hours to commercial pilot and flight instructor in a full-time structured flight training program. Most are linked to airline pathway programs.

#5 FLIGHT SCHOOL AT NEARBY AIRPORT

Pro: Self-paced. Convenient. Low threshold for acceptance.

Con: Lack of availability of aircraft or instructor.

Cost: $50-100,000

ONE MORE: BUY YOUR OWN AIRPLANE

Pro: Fun! Self-paced. Convenient.

Con: Steep learning curve of aircraft ownership . Lack of availability of instructor.

Cost: Pricey, but can have good return on investment when selling aircraft.

Do pilots need a college degree? Read more here.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Rakicevic Nenad

Concerned about Washing Out of a Flight Training Program?

Sun, 22 May 2022 23:01:48 GMT

Take action to turn things around

First, are you paying for the flight training?

As a customer, don’t hesitate to take your good money to a new instructor or flight school to get the service you are seeking and paying for.

If you’re enrolled in a company-sponsored flight training program, however, read on.

Did you see my article 8 How-Tos for Airline New-Hire Pilot Training , on my website?

If not, review it now for specific advice and suggestions for how to prepare, organize, study, and persevere to successfully complete any challenging flight training program. Even in the middle of training, it isn’t too late to pick up some pointers. (All articles referenced here are available for free on this website.)

Have you clashed with a certain instructor? Is your instructor yelling and berating you, quietly undermining your confidence and your progress, displaying bias towards you, or harassing you? Is your training partner causing these difficulties?

Look out for these and a bunch of other Red Flags that can jeopardize your training -- and your life ! Do NOT allow that go on day after day. Quietly and politely ask the training program managers if you can be switched to another instructor or training partner. They might already know they have someone who generates problems or shows bias against certain flavors of pilots.

If the managers specifically ask you about the person’s misconduct, be forthcoming, circumspect but honest, sticking to the facts and emphasizing the impact it has had on safety of flight, if that applies, and on your ability to learn. If you're being targeted, please read the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

Next, are you absolutely out of your depth in this flight training course? Or are you muddling along just like everybody else?

Try to pull back to see the big picture. For many pilots, it can seem like we aren’t getting the hang of things through weeks of training, only to have everything gel and come together just in time for the checkride. So you might be doing better than you realize. Try to take an honest and objective assessment of yourself and your progress.

You realize you ARE behind. Now, what can happen?

These training courses are structured to fit most pilot trainees, but they don’t work for everyone. If you’ve fallen a little behind, but not much, the training managers may see that you’re still making forward progress and are getting close, and might decide to give you an extra simulator session or two, to get you across the finish line. Or they might think you have fallen too far behind, or have reached a plateau of learning, or are not worth the investment of more sim sessions. Remember, simulators and instructors are very costly.

In this situation, how you conduct yourself is critically important. If you maintain an upbeat, positive attitude — “I’m learning and improving, I’m trying my best, I appreciate the instruction and consideration given, I think I can do this with a little extra help!” — it can make all the difference. Training managers are more likely to extend help to someone who is still capable of learning and still keeping a positive attitude. They are much less inclined to offer this to someone who has given up on themselves, or who is oblivious or defensive about their weaknesses, or who lashes out to blame the instructor or program for their issues in training.

What if you are washed out of training? How can you recover? Is your career over?

A training failure and job termination are hard blows, but these are also opportunities to learn more about yourself, grow, and come back even stronger. And your pilot career is NOT over.

Please remember that flight training is really hard, especially in more complex aircraft and operating environments. Yet you have made it this far. That is a lot! So don’t lose faith — you can recover! My article Overcoming Failures can help.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Tima Miroschnichenko

6 Ways to Make the Most of a Job Fair

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 20:23:02 GMT

Come prepared for recruiters at your dream company

As a major airline pilot who has volunteered at the company recruitment booth for over two decades, I offer these six ways to make the most of pilot job fairs:

#1 PRIORITIZE

Professional pilots seeking to advance their careers come to the aviation conferences and job fairs because these are ideal opportunities to meet recruiters and company pilot representatives from passenger airlines, air cargo airlines, Boeing, GE, FAA, and many more. Here you can make a key connection that can lead to a job interview and even a Conditional Job Offer (CJO).
Arrive as early as possible at Registration and review the schedule and layout. Find the seminars that interest you and make note of the job fair hours. Locate the booth for your top choice of employers.
Set your priorities. It gets crowded and recruiters getting tired by the end of the day, so zero in on your dream company and get to that booth early.

#2 DRESS FOR SUCCESS

If you are wearing a flight suit, uniform, or company polo shirt as a volunteer at your squadron, flight school, or company booth, it’s fine to wear that to another recruitment booth; the recruiters will understand.
If possible, wear your best interview outfit . The pilot applicant ‘interview uniform’ is a navy, dark grey, or black business suit with a plain white shirt, because this approximates many airline pilot uniforms. Men wear ties.
Women wear pants or skirt and jacket, with a plain white or solid colored blouse that does not show cleavage.
Wear freshly polished, comfortable, closed-toe shoes. Convention centers are often quite spread out and far from your hotel room. You will be doing a lot of walking and standing.
Get a haircut and return your hair color to a natural shade. Women with long hair may choose to wear it pulled back in a braid or ponytail or bun. Men: Hair cut above the collar and clean-shaven.
Remove all studs, gauges, rings, nose jewels, and jewelry from your face and ears, except for one set of conservative earrings, worn in the traditional way, one in each earlobe. Men: No jewelry on the face or head.
If you have tattoos and other piercings, keep them completely covered.
Carry a nice brief that will hold your resume, business cards, conference schedule, wallet, and phone.
Remember that you could meet a recruiter or representative from your dream company at any time or place , including at the airport, elevator, or breakfast cafe. This is why, for the “free” periods during the conference, I recommend business casual attire : Slacks (no jeans), shirt or blouse with sleeves or a polo shirt, and clean shoes.
The conference banquet is typically more dressy. If you think you will end up on stage — to receive a scholarship, for example — wear a formal dress, cocktail dress, or little black dress. Otherwise, an interview outfit or business casual attire is fine.
What’s most important is to have a polished image and feel comfortable and confident the entire time.

#3 BRING RESUMES & BUSINESS CARDS

Have plenty of paper copies of your up-to-date resume. For jobs in the U.S., do not include a photograph.
Proofread! And have a friend or anyone else put a fresh set of eyes on it for another proofreading.
Consider bringing tailor-made resumes addressed to your top choices of employers. Be sure to have ‘generic’ resumes to hand out to any recruiter or company pilot you may meet.
I recommend having your own business cards with your name, phone number, and email address.
If you’re still using a cheeky email address like ‘topgamer1@yahoo’ or ‘hotstick4u@gmail’, it’s time to level up to a more professional email address based on your name.
Spend the time to complete a LinkedIn profile, which serves as your online resume . Some smart folks have the QR code on their resumes and business cards.
Make your business cards easily accessible during the conference, such as in your right-hand pants pocket (if you’re right-handed), or an outside pocket of your brief.
Ask recruiters and other people for their business cards. Put these in a DIFFERENT place, such as your other pants pocket, or a different pocket inside your brief. You don’t want to give away that card by mistake.
Right away, or every evening, write notes on the back of the business cards you collected. You are going to meet A LOT of people at the conference, so it’s real important to do this as soon as possible.

#4 PROJECT CONFIDENCE

In U.S. business culture, people express friendly self-assurance by making eye contact, giving a firm handshake, and introducing themselves with a smile.
Say your name clearly. Make your name tag visible to the people you meet, to reinforce your verbal introduction. Have a short ‘elevator pitch’ ready that summarizes your credentials and your goals.

CAPTAIN BEATTY’S #1 PET PEEVE: Do NOT use the words “just” or “only” to downplay your pilot credentials — EVER!!!

If you have ever taken an aircraft into the air and brought it back to Earth safely, even once, you have accomplished an incredible feat that few people in the world achieve. If you have any pilot rating on top of that, you have every reason to be proud.
I understand how some people, especially women, are uncomfortable announcing their achievements. Our culture does not like people, especially women, who seem too full of themselves. As a friend says, however: “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” And if there is any time to trumpet your achievements, it is to a pilot recruiter!
I also understand how it can be a little intimidating to speak to a Boeing 747 or Airbus A321 or Gulfstream G-V Captain. Please remember that each one of them — and Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager, and Patty Wagstaff — all started with ‘zero’ flight hours, same as you. Plus, pilot recruiters are there specifically to meet pilot candidates — we won’t bite!
In other words, practice using language that projects confidence in what you have achieved as a pilot so far, and assurance that you will reach your career goals. Examples of self-assured versus self-defeating elevator speeches:

Good : “I am flight instructing now, and plan to meet your minimum requirements for hiring within six months.”

NOT good : “I’m just a flight instructor.”

Good : “I have 1100 hours and am getting close to finishing my Restricted ATP. My ultimate goal is to fly for your air cargo airline.”

NOT good : “I don’t have the ATP because I have only 1100 hours.”

Good : “I am a First Officer for XYZ Airlines with 3000 total time, 500 hours turbine time, and I’m preparing for Captain upgrade. I have an application on file and look forward to the opportunity of a job interview.”

NOT good : “I’m just a First Officer and don’t have any turbine PIC time yet, so you probably don’t want to talk to me.”

#5 PREPARE FOR ON-SITE INTERVIEWS AND CJOs

Organizations like Women in Aviation, International , the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals , the National Gay Pilots Association , the Professional Asian Pilots Association , and the Latino Pilots Association make membership open to everyone. Even so, membership is not required to attend their job fairs. For the last several years, and especially in today’s pilot hiring boom, the major airlines come to job fairs prepared to conduct on-site interviews of strong candidates, which can result in Conditional Job Offers by day’s end.
Who gets invited to these on-site interviews? That depends on the conference and the airline. Advanced sign-up might be required, and members of the organization may be given preference. The airline probably requires that the applicant already have an active application on file. There are also cases where a recruiter meets a strong candidate at the booth and pulls them aside for an interview, then and there.
Top-notch pilot applicants – military and civilian pilots with plenty of straight white males among them – have been showing up at these annual conferences, eager for a chance to meet face-to-face with recruiters. So, do not assume that only women are interviewed and given CJOs at the WAI Conference, or only Black pilots at the OBAP Conference, etc., because that simply isn’t true. A diversity of pilots get CJOs at these conferences, all of whom are strong candidates with competitive qualifications.
Invest in yourself one more time: Fork over the money for airline pilot job interview counseling. Why? A job with a major airline is worth multiple millions of dollars in pay and benefits over the course of your career. If this face-to-face opportunity lands you the job two or three months from now, versus landing the same job two or three years from now, it’s a difference of 1000-2000 seniority numbers, and 2-3 years of higher pay. Compound interest and all that. So, give this your all.
While you're at it, pay a company to clean up your social media. Yes, airline recruiters check social media. Yes, they will find those pix of you in the midst of drunken shenanigans. Yes, it affects their hiring decision. I suggest using a pseudonym on all social media, except for LinkedIn, which is your online professional resume.
If you have flight training failure(s) or job termination(s) in your past, read my article Overcoming Failures .

#6 NONSTOP NETWORKING

This is a nonstop networking opportunity. Carry your business cards at all times and make the most of it.
It’s not cool to sit in a cafe at the Women in Aviation Conference and complain to your buddies that “they're taking all the jobs”. First of all, that’s not true. Second, we’re sitting at the next table, we hear you, and we will recognize you when you show up at our recruitment booth later.
After you get home and catch your breath, send follow-up messages to the people you met.
Business etiquette says you do not send text messages to their cellphones. Rather, send a message through LinkedIn or via email.
Use a salutation. Be brief and to the point – you are grateful to have met them at the conference, and hope to establish a working connection going forward. Sign with your full name. Attach your resume to the email, in PDF format.

SO, SHOULD YOU GO?

By all means, you should go to any aviation conference that interests you, especially if you want to benefit from the camaraderie of the aviation community and the workshops. In addition to making new friends, these conferences are a great way to build your network of aviation professionals: Peers, colleagues, and mentors.
However, with registration fees, travel, hotel, etc., it can be costly to attend. So, if your PRIMARY objective is to meet with recruiters, but you’re still working on your professional pilot ratings or don’t have the minimum requirements for hiring, save your money. Direct your time, attention, and money on flight training and building experience. Plan to use these 6 ways to make the most of a job fair later, when you are more ready for a face-to-face with recruiters at your dream company.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: August de Richelieu

Overcoming Failures

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 19:47:48 GMT

Are failures preventing you from landing at an airline?

In this airline pilot hiring boom, we are seeing up-and-coming pilots say in online forums that they have worked hard to train and achieve all the certification and credentials to become airline pilots, and are frustrated to discover that their checkride disapprovals and training failures are preventing them from landing at an airline. In other cases, they're worried about job terminations, DUIs, or accidents.

To qualify for an airline pilot job, one has to have passed at least five checkrides: Private, Instrument, Commercial, Multi-Engine, and Airline Transport or ATP. Many also become Certificated Flight Instructors (CFI), which is a popular entry-level job and step on the career ladder.

One or two checkride failures can be explained. Pilots are human, after all.

Three or more flight training failures, jumping through a series of employers, and getting fired from a pilot job, will get the attention of an airline recruiter and interviewer. Past problems can be a prediction of future performance, and questions are raised: Is this someone with weak flying skills? Or who has difficulty with learning? Who won't take responsibility for their performance? Who doesn't play well with others? Is this a pattern ?

You may need to stop and ask yourself or ask a trusted mentor: Do I need more training on basic airmanship? Do I need a better attitude? Is this the career for me? (But, please read on.)

The Pilot Examination Process

A checkride disapproval (or "pink slip") requires the pilot applicant to return to their flight instructor for remedial flight training, before making another attempt at completing the checkride by demonstrating the failed maneuvers. When the pilot can do that, they have achieved that next pilot certificate or rating. But the prior disapproval is also recorded in FAA records.

The FAA authorizes highly experienced pilots to give these checkrides as Designated Pilot Examiners (DPEs), except that the FAA’s own Aviation Safety Inspectors often conduct the initial CFI checkride themselves, for quality control of flight instructors.

Numerous pilots have told of inappropriate conduct of DPEs and ASIs, including reports of examiners making inappropriate comments about women to women pilot applicants, requesting quid pro quo sexual favors, groping during the checkride, sexual harassing communications during and after the checkride, and clear bias against pilot applicants who are female and/or people of color. A pilot posted one recent example in which a DPE failed six female pilot applicants in a row and no male applicants, all recommended by the same flight school.

Flight training and checkrides continue after a pilot is hired by an airline, of course, and here the FAA authorizes experienced company captains as Aircrew Program Designees (APDs) to conduct checkrides on behalf of the FAA.

And once again, there is some discrimination, harassment, and bias against pilots who happen to be female and/or people of color. There are other examples of unprofessional conduct, such as the APD who announced to the pilot trainees, before the checkride even began, that they would be failed on this checkride because the APD believed the airline’s pass rate was too high.

The difference in the airline environment is that pilots train as a team of two, so there is nearly always a witness to the misconduct. Even so, typically both pilots keep their mouths shut, fearing the repercussions to new-hires on probation reporting misconduct by a company captain in a position of high authority.

Learn strategies for handling such situations in my articles Concerned About Washing Out of a Flight Training Program? and the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

All of this to say that while it is not uncommon for a pilot to fail one or more checkrides along the way to achieving the ATP, and/or to have training failures after getting hired by an airline, a failed checkride could represent a failure of the pilot examiner to conduct the checkride professionally and without bias, especially with pilots who are women and/or people of color. In such cases, even if the pilot reports the misconduct to the FAA, there’s no changing the FAA record, and the failed checkride is permanent.

Why are pilot training and checkride failures such a big deal, when testing failures for lawyers and doctors and other professionals don’t seem to haunt them?

TL;DR Answer #1: Because a pilot for a major airline holds up to $1 billion in company assets and liabilities in their hands on every flight.

TL;DR Answer #2: Because those other professionals can kill only 0 persons (lawyer) to 1 person (doctor) at a time, neither of which makes the local news. In aviation, an airliner hitting a bird and killing only a bird makes the national news. And when an airliner kills a person, or many people, the U.S. Congress holds hearings and makes changes to laws and regulations.

Longer Answer #1:

They say that every Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) is written in blood. A plane crashed, people died, an investigation was conducted, and new laws and regulations were developed as a result. This is why aviation is the nation’s most regulated industry, higher even than the nuclear energy industry.

After a string of fatal accidents attributed to pilot error, in 1996 the U.S. Congress passed a law called the Pilot Records Improvement Act (PRIA), to allow a potential employer to learn about a pilot’s training and checkride record.

PRIA was amended in 2010. The year before, in 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York. Fifty people died. Everyone on board — two pilots, two flight attendants, and all 45 passengers — plus one person on the ground — all died. Many new laws and regulations came out of this accident, including the all-new Part 117 duty and rest regulations, the Airline Transport Pilot certificate requirement for all Part 121 airline pilots, changes to training the recovery from stalls . . . and short-term and long-term changes to PRIA.

The accident investigation found that the captain / pilot flying on Colgan 3407 had three checkride failures before getting hired, had revealed only one of these to Colgan, and subsequently had two training failures while a pilot for Colgan. The first officer / pilot monitoring also had a training failure that was not revealed before hiring. It was determined that Colgan Air failed to keep track of the accumulation of training failures.

The crash of Atlas Air 3591 in 2019 brought this issue to the forefront again. In addition to lapses by the pilots and the airline, the NTSB final accident report said, "Also contributing to the accident was the Federal Aviation Administration's failure to implement the pilot records database in a sufficiently robust and timely manner".

PRIA is being replaced with a digital Pilot Records Database (PRD), to be maintained by the FAA, that will include FAA checkride failures, FAA enforcement actions, accidents and incidents, airline training failures, drug and alcohol records, driving records, and employment records on disciplinary actions and termination or separation of employment.

As a result, airlines are now very leery of hiring pilots with multiple training and checkride failures, and a string of short-term jobs or job termination. You WILL be questioned about these during a job interview.

Longer Answer #2:

But it isn’t just the regulations. Airlines are in the business of making money. Hiring, training, and employing pilots is a huge expense.

I don’t know exactly what it costs to hire and train a new pilot, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it approached $80-100,000. Those amazingly realistic Category D full-motion flight simulators can cost as much as the actual airplane, and, for example, my large airline has at least 30 of them.

So, when it comes to pilot hiring, doesn’t it make sense, purely from a cost perspective, to hire a pilot with a solid track record of training and checkride and work performance success? Because a pilot with weak pilot skills or weak study habits or slow learning will cost more: More training days, more simulator sessions, and more expense.

And more liability. After the Colgan, Atlas, and other accidents, each pilot was scrutinized to the Nth degree. If you are involved in an airline accident or incident, the investigation will uncover who you texted or messaged and when, what you posted on Facebook and Instagram, what online games you played. It will reveal what you ate and drank and ingested in the previous 48 hours, how much you slept in the last week, and how you got yourself to work for that trip. And ALL of your flight training records will be dug up.

And the airline does not want the liability of a pilot who had training difficulties and ends up in an accident. So they are being extra careful with pilot hiring now, ahead of full implementation of the PRD.

Question: How many training and checkride failures is too many, when it comes to airline pilot hiring?

Answer: There is no fixed number. By all indications, the initial CFI checkride, with its high failure rate, is a “gimme”. So more than two additional failures in addition to that one will get an interviewer's attention.

Question: Should I give up on being an airline pilot if I have more checkride failures than that? Or have been fired from a pilot job?

Answer: NO.

Question: Then how can I recover from these?

Answer:

In the many years I have been mentoring pilots, what I have seen is that when a pilot has multiple training and checkride failures or has been fired or is washed out of airline training or has other blemishes on their record — even when these are explainable — the way to overcome that setback and move forward in the career is to establish a new, more recent record of successful training event(s) and successful employment that demonstrates the ability to learn to fly a new airplane quickly and strong pilot skills.

One option, if you have access to a lot of money, is to pay for a jet type rating, such as the 737 type rating. With this training, you will not only learn to fly a large transport category jet aircraft and get rated on it, you will also learn the procedures and profiles that airline pilots fly, and hone your instrument flying skills in a fast-moving jet. All of this will help you with your new-hire airline pilot training.

That’s out of reach to most people.

The next best strategy is to establish a new record of successful flight training and operations , which probably will require accepting a pilot job that represents a smaller step forward, or a lateral move, or even a step back to a prior level. This may not be the message you want to hear, but this is what it will take. Having said that, I would not recommend stepping back into flight instruction. A job flying cargo or passengers under Part 135 charter, or any flying job where you will get real-world flying and IFR and PIC decision-making experience, would be preferable.

After landing a job and establishing a solid record of training, flying, and working over 6-12 months, a pilot will be viewed more favorably for hiring by a major airline.

Still not getting called for an airline interview? You may need a recent (within the last 12 months) major training event — a new pilot certificate and/or type rating and/or captain upgrade — which points to success in new-hire training and affects the online application software algorithm to boost your app.

One More Step!

How you handle the discussion of your failure(s) in a job interview is key. Some pilots place blame for a training failure or job termination elsewhere -- on the examiner, training program, chief pilot, a bad night's sleep -- and this will NOT land you a job.

Pilots who take responsibility for their failures and for overcoming them, tell a story about persevering, and describe their growth and progression, are viewed more favorably. To do this successfully in a job interview, I strongly recommend paying for pilot job interview counseling . It is difficult to over-emphasize this point.

Once you land that job, be sure read my article 8 How-Tos for Airline Pilot New-Hire Training .

And PLEASE report misconduct by any FAA representative, which includes general aviation DPEs and airline APDs, through the FAA Safety Hotline .

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Brett Jordan

8 HOW-TOs for New-Hire Airline Pilot Training – Part 1

Mon, 17 May 2021 19:37:09 GMT

How to get through your first new-hire airline pilot training course

Congratulations on landing your first airline or jet pilot job!

Good news : If you make it through your first new-hire airline pilot or jet training course successfully, you and the airlines know that you’re trainable, and worth the investment of hiring.

Bad news : A new pilot job isn’t real until you’re sitting at the controls, getting paid to fly the actual aircraft on a revenue flight. And you are embarking on the hardest training of your entire flying career in order to get there .

What follows is a comprehensive list of HOW-TOs for getting through this training successfully. But first, here are . . .

The Top 5 Tactics to Torpedo Your Training

1. Brag that you know everything already, so you don’t need to study.

2. Talk trash about the airline’s diversity initiatives and the female and BIPOC pilots in class.

3. Clip your toenails during class. (True story! And the guy who did this, did not make it through training.)

4. Prioritize fun or family time over dedication to passing this training program.

5. Blame the instructors, training program, and airline for your poor performance.

Here’s how to get through your training successfully:

#1 HOW TO PREPARE

Stop using CBD products immediately. These legal, over-the-counter products shouldn’t have enough THC to make you bust a pre-employment drug test, yet sometimes they do, and the DOT is advising all workers subject to drug testing to avoid CBD products . You don’t want your airline career to end before it even begins.

Get your official documents in order , and ensure none will expire in the next few months: logbooks, pilot certificates, FAA medical,passport, driver’s license.

Follow the airline’s dress code : Bring business casual attire, which means slacks, collared shirt or blouse, and closed-toe shoes. The simulators are kept cold, so carry a sweater or light jacket. Include one nice suit or outfit for the class photo.

Prepare and refine your skills beforehand : Get in an airplane or simulator and get your instrument scan going. Fly raw data ILS approaches at the highest speed possible. Fly that simulator at speed times two or times three. This will help prepare you for flying a regional airline jet with an approach speed of up to 135 knots. As the Director of Training for a regional airline told me, "I can teach someone how to fly our jets; I don't have time to teach them how to fly on instruments."

Clear your schedule : Get as many home projects completed beforehand, so they will not be a distraction while you are in training: Tax preparation, holiday gift shopping, yard care, etc.

Prepare your family : Tell your spouse, children, extended family, and friends you will not be available for any family functions – no birthdays, weddings, holidays, and no crises, no drama. Ask them to give you their unwavering support, and let them know you won’t be able to reciprocate until after all training is completed. They should essentially leave you alone and not bother you with any issues, with the exception being the death of a close family member. I am partly kidding . . . Actually, I am not kidding.

Focus! For the entire 4 to 8 weeks of training, make getting through this training program successfully your first and only priority. The pilots I’ve watched drop out or get washed out of training often didn’t focus on studying, took day trips boating with their spouse, regularly met up with friends for beers, spent their days off commuting back and forth from home, or had distracting family issues.

Enlist a cheerleader , a friend who will send supportive and inspirational messages, maybe even sending care packages to your hotel.

#2 HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Make a plan to take care of your physical and mental health, your nutrition, exercise, and sleep, for the entire time you will be in training.

Eat healthy food : If your hotel room is equipped with a fridge and a microwave, go to the grocery store and stock up on quick-cooking foods. Download food delivery apps and set up your accounts in advance. Strive to choose healthier options over fast food.

Bring healthy snacks to sim sessions : Your sim training days might look like this: 2-hour briefing, 4-hour sim session, 30-minute debriefing. That’s over six hours of intense training with breaks just long enough to hit the bathroom and the vending machines. Bring your own healthy snacks such as a piece of fruit, baggies of mixed nuts, a power bar, a bottle of water.

Release stress with physical movement. Go running or walking. If you can’t get outside, use the hotel gym, run in place on your bed, or climb up and down the stairways of your hotel. Use a resistance band or jump-rope. Practice yoga and stretching. More ideas on how to de-stress are in this article .

Get a good night’s rest . Put out the Do Not Disturb sign and lock and bolt your hotel room door. Make sure the window curtains are shut tight — clip them closed with the clips from a clothes hanger. Take a hot bath or shower before bed. Try foam earplugs. Set two alarms on your phone so you won’t worry about oversleeping.

Take regular breaks . Go outside and get some fresh air. At least once a week, rest your brain by taking time away from the classroom, from the computer, and away from studying altogether. Read a silly novel or throwaway magazine. Watch a comedy movie. Explore local sights. Go home to see your family – but not if the stress of commuting and chores outweighs the benefits.

#3 HOW TO UNDERSTAND FAA-APPROVED MANUALS AND CHECKLISTS

You’ve studied and referred to the FAR/AIM throughout your pilot career so far. Now you can use that book as a doorstop. Going forward, you will refer to the manuals listed below, which may go by different names, and may be on paper or on an Electronic Flight Bag device, but generally follow this format. Put together, these manuals are your new employer’s FAA-approved policies and procedures, which adhere to FARs and Operations Specifications and are tailored to its particular flight operations.

Company Operations Manual or Flight Operations Manual: Various names for the one manual with the policies and rules of operation specific to your airline. It includes the FARs, Operations Specifications (FAA approval for very specific operations, such as Cat II and Cat III approaches), company organizational chart (chief pilots and training managers up to president), general rules of conduct, responsibilities of crewmembers, company operational policies and procedures, handling of passengers and cargo, and general procedures for normal and emergency/irregular operations. When you’re upgrading to captain, this is your “Bible”.

Aircraft Operating Manual or Flight Handbook: Contains aircraft-specific limitations, standard operating procedures, flight profiles and callouts, and supplementary procedures such as cold weather operation procedures, battery-start procedures. There is guidance and policy on crew duties for Captain and First Officer, and for Pilot Flying and Pilot Non-Flying (or Pilot Monitoring), and for use of automation and checklists. There are profiles, step-by-step guidance for how to set up the FMS and flight guidance panel, configure the aircraft, and fly all types of approaches, including ILS and RNAV/GPS approaches, missed approaches, and flight maneuvers such as engine failure at V1 and the windshear escape maneuver. This manual is your primary training resource, and you will refer to it frequently in line flying.

Aircraft Systems Manual : Contains systems information for your aircraft, including descriptions, cockpit diagrams, and schematics of each system such as electrical, fuel, hydraulic, pressurization, etc. This manual is more useful during training than in line flying.

Normal Checklists : Used for each phase of flight such as before engine start, taxi, before takeoff, climb, cruise, etc. Usually the aircraft is configured first, in a sequence of actions called a “flow”, and then the checklist is called for and run through to confirm that the aircraft is configured correctly. Most normal checklists are read aloud in Challenge and Response format: The First Officer or Pilot Not Flying (or Pilot Monitoring) reads each item (challenges), and the Captain or Pilot Flying responds to each item. The checklist item and the response must be stated exactly as written on the checklist – VERBATIM! –and this is what the other crewmember, instructor, check airman, FAA, and cockpit voice recorder are expecting to hear.

Quick Reference Handbook : The QRH has checklists and procedures for abnormal and emergency situations and malfunction of aircraft systems. Some malfunctions are serious enough to require a time-critical response and therefore require memorization of the first few steps, such as engine fire, rapid depressurization, stabilizer trim runaway. These must-know checklist steps may be called “memory items”, “boxed items”, “recall items”, or “boldface items”, and must be memorized as precise actions in a specific order. Some airlines now have a Quick Reference Card to take the place of memory items. The Captain (or new-hire trainee acting as Captain) will designate who will fly the airplane (usually the PF) and who will fix the problem (usually the PNF), identify the problem, determine the correct checklist to use, and call for memory items to be completed, if applicable. The PF will focus primarily on flying the airplane. The PNF will complete the entire checklist in a Challenge – Do – Response format, to contain the failure and configure for the remainder of the flight. Critical or irreversible actions such as shutting down an engine in flight require confirmation by both pilots.

Minimum Equipment List / Configuration Deviation List : The MEL/CDL defines the aircraft systems, indicators, and equipment that “may” be inoperative or missing and for which maintenance “may” be deferred to later when certain criteria are met. Examples: inop APU, low crew oxygen level, missing static discharge wick, broken passenger tray table. When you’re upgrading to captain, you must know your MEL and deferral procedures.

Performance Manual , Loading, Deicing, Fueling Manuals: These may be separate manuals, or the procedures may be incorporated into one of the other manuals listed above. You will be spending quite a bit of time learning the loading and performance calculation procedures for your aircraft.

#4 HOW TO STUDY

Major areas of study : Aircraft Systems, Performance, Limitations, Memory Items, Profiles, Flows, Callouts, Checklists, Standard OperatingProcedures.

Know how you learn : Do you best absorb information aurally, visually, or through tactile sensation? Some people learn best in the classroom or lecture hall, some learn by reading the textbook or manual, some learn by hands-on practice in the lab (simulator or airplane). For most people, it is a combination of these. Computer Based Training is becoming more prevalent, to standardize training and make it more cost-efficient, and even if that doesn’t work best for you, we’re stuck with it. Know yourself and seek out additional ways to absorb theinformation in the most efficient way for you.

Rote memorization : There are some basic facts and figures that you must have down cold and be able to recite verbatim, and this includes Limitations, Memory Items, and Callouts. It can help to begin learning them by rote even before you fully understand their significance. Start early!

Cooperate and graduate : Everyone in your new-hire trainingclass has already made it through the application and interview gauntlet to get hired. You are not competing with each other, so do not hoard information, do not flaunt your knowledge and abilities, do not refuse their requests for help. Share the “gouge”. Having said that, keep healthy boundaries, if helping others is taking up too much of your time or mental energy.

Study group : It can be very helpful to be in a study group with other new-hires. Choose your study partners carefully — get with the smart, serious students. Keep your study group to 3-5 people at most; bigger than that, and one person will invariably not keep pace and drag you all down. When you’re able to explain something to someone else, you really “get it”. Draw out schematics and diagrams, to reinforce your understanding of each aircraft system. Prep for the oral exam and checkride by challenging each other in a Q & A format.

Study buddy or training partner : You will be matched with a training partner for simulator sessions, either another new-hire pilot or a company pilot upgrading to captain. Once you know who your simulator training partner is, try to meet up to study and practice together. Or practice with a study buddy or on your own: Flows, Profiles, Checklists, and Callouts, exchanging Pilot Flying and Pilot Not Flying (Pilot Monitoring) duties. Practice for all normal procedures, every phase of flight, every type of approach.

CONTINUED IN PART 2 -- CLICK HERE FOR HOW-TOs #5 - 8

Photo credit: Embraer S.A.

8 HOW-TOs for New-Hire Airline Pilot Training – Part 2

Mon, 17 May 2021 19:31:05 GMT

How to get through your first new-hire airline pilot training course

CONTINUED FROM PART 1 -- CLICK HERE FOR HOW-TOs #1 - 4

#5 HOW TO USE STUDY AIDS

Study guide : Beware of a generic study guide that covers various models and configurations of an aircraft type. You don’t want to waste time learning and UN-learning useless information. More useful is a study guide written specifically for your airline and aircraft model and configuration. Be sure to check the date it was last updated, and verify the accuracy of procedures and limitations that may have changed since that date.

Flashcards : I strongly suggest that you make your own flashcards by hand. Buy a big bunch of blank index cards and some Sharpie pens, and colored markers if you’re into that. Why not just buy flashcards that someone else made, or use a flashcard app? Because you will learn more and remember more by making your own. You will have to hear or see the factoid that needs to be learned, and recognize it as such. You will have to phrase the factoid as a question and an answer. You will have to write it out — and the act of writing is a boon to learning. This process for making the flashcard reinforces the information on it. You will use these flashcards for future recurrent training sessions, too. Categories suitable for flashcards: Limitations (AOM), Memory Items and Callouts (QRH and AOM), functions of each system, switch, and indicator light (AOM and Aircraft Systems Manual), operational data on winds, visibility, landing minima (COM and AOM), and performance data.

CBT, EFB, or laptop : If your company provides Flight Management System (FMS) training or flight simulator software, be sure to spend time practicing with it.

Training syllabus : Use the syllabus to pace yourself and direct your studies. If you know the next ground school subject or sim session will focus on hydraulic malfunctions, review that section of the Systems manual and those checklist procedures in the QRH the night before.

Mock Cockpit : Build a mock cockpit or “paper tiger” in your hotel room or shared crew room, using chairs and a box for the center console, with cockpit layouts, posters, or “slicks” taped to the wall and onto the box. If the airline doesn’t provide these, blow up the cockpit diagrams from your manual at a copy shop.The main point is to assemble as close a facsimile of your new cockpit as possible. Sit in your seat and familiarize yourself with your new “office" by sitting in the mock cockpit every day, practicing your flows. The flows must be completed by memory and the better you know them, the better your sim training will go. Repetition, repetition, repetition.

#6 HOW TO PASS COMPUTER TESTS

RTFQ!!!

Keep your hand off the mouse. You don’t want to accidentally click Enter to answer a question before you’re ready.

Open book test : There won’t be time to look up every answer in the manuals. However, if the question pertains to a malfunctioning system, look it up in the QRH, just as you would in flight.

Multiple choice questions : You might be able to eliminate one or two incorrect answers right away. Keep an eye out for “Both B and C are correct” and “All of the above”.

Wrong answers : If you get one wrong, review the question and the correct answer before moving on, because there might be a follow-on question on the same scenario or topic.

#7 HOW TO FLY THE SIMULATOR

Armchair flying : You can do this in your mock cockpit, or sitting in any chair withyour eyes closed. Visualize flying your profiles in real time, doing flows, pointing to the appropriate switches, and making the callouts. Practice flying as both pilot and non-flying pilot, daily. Get to a level where you feel comfortable with checklist use, callouts, profiles, and procedures.

Practice emergencies : In your mock cockpit or armchair, have your training partner throw some engine failures and mechanicals problems at you, and work each problem as a crew all the way to completion of the abnormal checklist and ground evacuation. Using this process, attempt to get through every abnormal and emergency situation and checklist in the QRH. Having done this, there will be no surprises ahead, as you will have familiarized yourself with the cockpit layout and virtually touched nearly every switch, button, lever, and handle in the airplane. This will also solidify your systems knowledge.

Flight Training Device : Before reaching the FTD phase, you should have Limitations, Memory Items, Callouts, Flows, and verbatim Checklist responses down cold. The FTD and FMS are to practice, refine your profiles and flows, and serve as a phase check to ensure you’re ready for training in the full-motion simulator.

Seat adjustment : At your first sim session, have the instructor show you how to adjust your seat correctly, especially the seat height, so you can view all the instruments and reach all the switches on the flight guidance panel and overhead panel, and to give you the correct sight picture out the forward windscreen. This is extremely important; it can mean the difference between seeing the approach lights or going missed approach.

Turn off your darned phone! All the way off! While wrestling with a V1 cut or straining to hear the “approaching minimums” alert, the last thing anyone needs is to be distracted by cellphone beeps or ringtones. If you simply must check every Instagram or Tinder message that comes in, you’ll have plenty of time for that after getting fired.

Act like it’s real : The simulators are very realistic and it will help you to keep your head in the game if you treat the sim like the real airplane for the entire sim period. If you train in Level D sims, you will complete all training and the type ride in the sim, and the first time you fly the real airplane is on a revenue flight with a check airman.

It’s just another airplane : This jet flies the same way your last airplane did, only faster, and the simulators replicate the jet very well. Don’t get intimidated. Learn the go-to pitch and power settings for certain configurations, and refine from there.

Observe your sim partner : When you are Pilot Not Flying, or whenever you’re able to observe another crew in training, pay close attention to what they’re doing and what works and what doesn’t.

Progress, not perfection : Pilots are by nature “Type A” individuals, and if perfectionism is interfering with your training, aim for “good enough”. Some pilots need to repeat difficult maneuvers or repeat a sim sessionto get the hang of it. The instructors and check airmen aren’t expecting to see perfection, but they do need to see a trend of continued improvement and forward progress through training, in order to justify keeping you in the program. Keep working on improvement and meeting the standards.

Bad luck : What if you end up with a training partner who is weak on skills, struggling, not progressing, and taking up more than half of each sim session? Sucks to be you! You can only help another trainee pilot so much before it is to your own detriment. Keep your mouth shut and keep doing the best you can. Let the instructors and training managers decide how to proceed. Eventually you may move forward without a partner.

If you're struggling : Take action on your own behalf BEFORE things go on too long. Read my article Concerned about Washing Out of a Flight Training Program?

#8 HOW TO PASS THE CHECKRIDE

Know the difference between technique and SOP and FAR . A technique is one possible way to accomplish a task, standard operating procedures should always be followed, and regulations should never be violated except in case of emergency. Until you are really proficient in this aircraft, use the suggested techniques – they are being offered for good reason.

Drop the people-pleasing . On the flight deck you’re there to do a safety-critical job, not to be liked, so stop seeking affirmation from others. This creates a real tightrope for women pilots to walk – too “nice” and eager to please, and you’re viewed as meek and weak and not airline pilot material. Drop the gratuitous nicetiest o be “all business”, and now you’re considered an uppity, uptight, bossy bitch. Each woman pilot has to find the right balance for inspiring confidence in her abilities, without alienating instructors and coworkers. If you think it’s unfair and a double-standard that male pilots do not face this particular challenge, you’re right.

It’s not personal. Instructors come from different sectors of aviation – active line pilots, retired pilots, pilots who lost their medicals, retired military instructors – and will have a variety of teaching methods. Most are professional and courteous, but unfortunately, some resort to yelling, name-calling, and put-downs, or are cold, abrupt, dismissive, and rude. Consider that they might intentionally be trying to intimidate you – and don’t let that happen. I suggest you let all that rolloff your back, discern the actual error and the correction in their message, and say, “Thanks for pointing that out, [sir] [ma’am]. I'll work on improving that.”

It’s not about who’sright, it’s about what’s right. The objective of crew coordination is to work as a team, catch errors and correct them, and back each other up, in the interest of safety. If you see the other pilot making an error or deviation or doing anything that might jeopardize the safety of flight, don’t “hint and hope” – bring it to their attention using clear, direct speech and standard callouts or phraseology. And when the other pilot calls out an error or deviation, don’t take it as a personal affront or failure, they are just doing their job. Now your job is to say “Correcting” and then to correct it.

Develop a thick skin . You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to screw up a radio call or a complicated clearance. You’re going to plop the airplane on the runway in an undignified manner. Get used to being human; don’t make excuses; commit yourself to learning and pursuing excellence.

Bias and harassment : If people are bugging you for sexual favors, or making denigrating remarks, or giving unbalanced performance evaluations because of your race, gender, or another attribute, please refer to the Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist .

Slow down! Breathe! On checkride day, be confident that your instructor had the confidence in you to sign you off. Take a deep breath and take it slow. If you beat yourself up or dwell on mistakes, it will undermine your performance. Don’t waste any mental energy self-critiquing during the checkride – only the examiner has the expertise to evaluate your performance.

Never stop flying : The check airman or designated pilot examiner is just like the referee in a soccer match. You might see a foul or see that the ball goes out of slightly bounds, but it’s possible the ref didn’t see it or chooses not to call it – so keep playing the ball until the whistle blows! Same on your checkride: Keep catching and correcting errors, keep returning to the correct flight profile, and just keep flying until the examiner makes it clear that the scenario is over and the sim is frozen. You don’t need to point out your own errors – the instructor or examiner will do that in the debrief.

Visualize your successful outcome. Remember how hard you’ve worked to reach this point, how much you’ve learned, and have faith that your efforts will bear fruit. Visualize yourself in your new job, flying the jet on a beautiful blue-sky day.

A huge "thank you!" to my study buddies who guided me in my first airline pilot course, and to my sister pilots in the Pro 99s Network and the 99s Professional Pilot Leadership Initiativ e who contributed many of the suggestions encapsulated here.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Embraer S.A.

"Another Empty Kitchen"

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:20:49 GMT

A compilation of the awful things people say to women pilots

You want to fly? Sure - be a flight attendant!

What - they let women fly airplanes now?!?

But you’re so small - how can you reach the pedals?

Wow, that must be heavy for all 80 pounds of you.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Wait, where’s the pilot?

YoU’rE a PiLoT?!?!

What does your husband think about you flying?

It’s nice that your husband lets you fly his airplane.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Remove your bra and panties so I can perform a complete FAA medical exam.

Did you bring knee pads for the oral exam?

I don’t think women should be flying, but maybe you can prove me wrong on this checkride.

Quit while you’re ahead honey - and before you start crying.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Women can’t fly on their periods.

Women can’t fly because of PMS.

Women can’t fly on birth control.

Women can’t fly while pregnant.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

The courtesy car is for pilots only.

The pilot lounge is for pilots only.

The Pilot Ops area is for pilots only.

You can’t come with us - we’re going to a "gentlemen’s club".

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

We can’t hire you because we don’t have any women.

We can’t hire you because we already have one woman.

We can’t hire you because our wives won’t let us fly with you.

We can’t hire you because our clients won’t fly with women pilots.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

We can’t hire you because you’ll quit to have babies.

We can’t hire you because you’ll quit and go to the airlines.

We can’t hire you because the guys will protest.

We can’t hire you because you haven’t got the experience we need.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

You were only hired because you’re female.

You women and minorities are taking jobs away from men.

No wonder my buddies can’t get hired.

The airlines are looking for female pilots — you’ll get a job, easy!

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Are you a flight attendant?

Look, a lady policeman!

Can you get me a rum and coke?

Now if only the pilot would get here, then we could go.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Are you sure you know what you’re doing?

I’m glad there’s a man up there with you!

You mean you take orders from her — a WOMAN?!

Everyone get off this plane — a girl is flying it!

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Who will want to marry you?

What about your husband?

Who’s taking care of your kids?

Shouldn’t you be at home?

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

If you go for that airline job, our marriage is over.

If you go for that airline job, I’ll sue for custody of the kids.

A woman can’t be an airline pilot and be a good mother, too.

No husband? No kids? What are you, a lesbian?

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

How can you type in the FMS with those nails?

How can you see anything with that hair?

How come you get to wear the uniform without a tie?

Well, it was easy for you to get this job, being female and all.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Let me point you towards the flight attendant training area.

Why are flight attendants in the pilot training classroom?

Oh, look, they hired a token female.

You women are taking all the pilot jobs.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

I have never taught a woman, and I’m not starting now.

Women can’t understand this technical stuff.

Good job, Joe . . . but Mary, YOU need to step up your game.

I’ve never met a women pilot who can fly worth a darn, but you’re special.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

If you need a f*ck buddy, I’m right here.

I hope you won’t mind if I stare at your t*ts.

If you sleep with me, this training will go easier.

You only got this job because you suck d*ck.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

That sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore.

I know him - he wouldn’t say that!

Why didn’t you just tell him to stop?

It’s nothing he should lose his job over.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Airplanes don’t see gender or color, so why the quotas?

Most pilots are white men because women and minorities choose not to be pilots.

Women choose to be mothers rather than pilots.

Diversity makes the skies less safe.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

I don’t harass women, so I don’t think women are being harassed.

So where’s the ‘Men in Aviation’ group?

Women are getting all the jobs.

Women have it easy.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

It was easy for you to get this job, being female and all.

ANOTHER EMPTY KITCHEN.

Counter these with calm comebacks to rude remarks .

Photo credit: Bongkarn Thanyakij

When a Pilot Flies West

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Losing a friend to an aircraft accident is always hard

When a pilot dies, we say they "Flew West". Sobering fact: If you are a pilot long enough, eventually you will know a pilot who flies West in an aircraft accident.

My very first pilot job, flight instructing at a tiny airport in the Great Plains of Nebraska, led to a ride in a jaunty red-and-white Pitts Special. I absolutely loved aerobatics! Seeing my enthusiasm, the pilot-owner pulled out the International Aerobatic Club membership directory, and slowly paged through it, pointing out the names he had marked with an X . . . page after page . . . X after X.

Those were the dead ones.

“Aerobatics is incredibly fun, but it can be unforgiving,” he told me. “These are my friends and competitors who died, doing aerobatics.”

I was undeterred.

My second job was flying for a Part 135 charter operator in the high mountains of New Mexico. Soon I discovered that flying light freight single-pilot in small general aviation aircraft is also how some pilots die.

The swaggering braggadocio of the pilot cadre certainly doesn’t help. In their radio chatter (on a frequency they did not know I was listening to), they pushed each other to push the envelope, and boasted about how fast they could make a run between two cities, how low they could descend on approach before extending the landing gear.

The first accident from that time was random, however. Two pilots from a competing charter operator were flying an airplane that was a close model to the one I flew. An engine developed a pinhole leak and the extreme heat weakened the wing spar, which gave way on their flight.

Then came the accident that still haunts me.

Mountain weather can be tricky. A pressure front across a mountain range brings clear skies but very strong winds that cause a Venturi effect in mountain canyons. On his first day on the job, the novice pilot delayed his departure, waiting for conditions to improve. But apparently the pressure to complete the mission was too great — pressure by his boss? pressure by his pilot peers? pressure to prove himself to everyone? or a combination of all these? — I don’t know. He launched, taking off into the headwind. Then he did a 180 degree turn toward his destination, and the strong tailwind hurtled him towards the mountains, and only grew stronger as he maneuvered into a canyon. His plane could not climb fast enough to make it over the rising terrain.

I did not know that young pilot, yet his death still affects me today. Whenever I hear pilots bragging and egging each other on – applying peer pressure to take unnecessary risks – I remember him. And I advise newly minted commercial pilots: The time-building job of flying light freight requires growing a backbone while you grow as a pilot. Or, you can die.

Around the same time, I met Toni through The Ninety-Nines . Married with two teenagers, she got interested in aviation when her husband learned to fly and bought a plane, and then she was ALL IN. She bought a most beautiful red bird she dubbed the Red Baroness, and had an absolute blast flying it. She also kept training and became a flight instructor.

Then Toni had to grapple with the death of one of her students. This man rented a plane and pointed it straight towards a tall mountain. He did not respond to ATC’s urgent low altitude alerts, he just kept going. It looked deliberate. She really suffered, not understanding why someone would do that, and from knowing that she had been the one to teach him to fly.

About a year later, my mechanic friend Steve J called and asked if I had heard the news about Toni. My stomach dropped. She and her husband were flying home from a business conference in his airplane . . . there were scattered thunderstorms, not unusual for that season . . . their plane went down. There are no answers to our questions.

In spite of all the Xs the Pitts owner showed me, my enthusiasm for aerobatics never wavered. Over time, however, I had Xs among my own friends who Flew West.

In Tennessee, I was lucky enough to take lessons from the legendary airshow performer Marion Cole , and in Wisconsin, from the renowned instructor Jim Batterman. It was a complete shock to hear some years later that Jim had died while teaching aerobatics. Apparently a wing folded, and he and his student were not able to escape from the cabin to utilize their parachutes.

When he and I flew together at our airline, Captain Steve Andelin was also a U.S. National Aerobatic Champion and Red Bull airshow performer. He perished in an accident while practicing for an airshow.

Well-known for her achievements as a flight engineer on the SR-71 Blackbird and an aerobatic competitor in the Unlimited category, Marta Bohn-Meyer was down-to-earth and a pleasure to know. While practicing for an upcoming competition, the canopy separated from her aircraft, possibly rendering her unconscious and unable to deploy her parachute.

More painful losses from pilot friends who Flew West: Mark (aerobatics), and Peter (engine failure), and Steve B (deliberate crash / suicide), and Rem (cause unknown), and Asti (cause unknown).

The pain of any loss hurts. It hurts more when it is in an aircraft accident, and yet more when our friend is young and represented so much potential. To those who say “they died doing something they loved” – please stop! In most cases, they were fighting to maintain control of a malfunctioning aircraft and to save themselves, right up to the final moment.

Immediately after an accident, when people jump in to comment and jump to conclusions, especially on social media, I caution them to wait for the investigation and results. Pilots are blamed, but typically, many factors are present – a series of decisions and actions by the pilot, an issue that is completely beyond their control, or a combination of both. We may know the complete story from the NTSB or FAA, later. We might even learn something new and important about aviation safety.

But not always. For some accidents, we will never get the answers we seek. It is not easy for people of our nature to live with uncertainty and unanswerable questions – especially when someone we care about has died, especially when a pilot Flies West – but this is exactly what we are asked to do.

Photo credit: Ellie Burgin

Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Your guide for navigating difficult situations

Halt Harassment in Aviation Checklist

Our Aviation Safety Culture

Each of us is responsible for promoting and championing all aspects of safety throughout the aviation community.
No person may assault, threaten, intimidate, or interfere with a crewmember in the performance of the crewmember’s duties aboard an aircraft being operated. Ref: US 14 CFR § 91.11, § 121.580
Certain acts aboard aircraft in flight are criminal, including assault and sexual abuse offenses, regardless of any connection they may have with aircraft piracy or attempted piracy. Ref: US 49 USC 46506 § 113, §§ 2241 – 2244
Airline Transport Pilot certificate holders must be of good moral character. Ref: US 14CFR § 61.153. Possible grounds for rejection or revocation of ATP privileges include felony conviction, falsification of documents, lying, and disregard for the rights of other human beings. Ref: US case law
Harassment is a form of discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, citizenship, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, disability, genetic information, military status, or retaliation for filing a complaint. Ref: US EEOC; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978; Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2023 and other federal laws

Harassment Is . . .

× Race-based or gender-based harassment × Put-downs

× Unwelcome sexual attention × Come-ons …especially if persistent after refusal

× Nonconsensual fondling, rubbing, groping

× Coercive requests for sexual favors × Quid pro quo

× Threats × Hate speech × Blocking × Violence × Assault

× Stalking × “Date-rape” drugging × Attempted rape × Rape

× Display of nooses, pornography, images

× Hostile environment: Widespread, condoned, ignored

× Retaliation for filing a complaint

…some of these are criminal acts

Harassment Might Look Like . . .

× Sexism × Racism × Homophobia × Ageism × Religious intolerance

× Bullying × Intimidation × Microaggressions × Gaslighting

× Derogatory comments × Slurs × ‘Jokes’ × Sexual image sharing

× Won’t stop when asked × Won’t take ‘No’ for an answer

× Differing standards × Biased performance reviews

× Shaming × Silent treatment × Exclusion × Abuse of power

× Denying, downplaying, dismissing harassment complaints

…and can be in person, in private, or via electronic media

The Harasser and/or Target Can Be . . .

× Any age, race, gender × Student × Instructor × Coworker
× Employee × Supervisor × Union member × Owner × Client

× The target can be an individual or category of people

× Power imbalances:

Older > Younger

Instructor > Student
Captain > First Officer

Majority group > Minority group

HALT HARASSMENT CHECKLIST

AVIATE!

GET TO SAFETY

Get aircraft on the ground safely
Get away from danger – Get everyone to safety

IN CASE OF VIOLENCE OR INJURY

Call 911 or local law enforcement
Call National Sexual Assault Hotline 800-656-4673, or local rape crisis center
Go to hospital or emergency room

NAVIGATE!

CHECK IN

Pause, breathe, compose yourself – Develop a plan
Enlist assistance of bystanders, allies, other resources

CALL IT OUT

Speak up for yourself – Set boundaries – Try to stay poised
Use clear, direct, and firm language: STOP!

BE AN ALLY

Listen empathetically – Believe them
Speak up – Back them up
If a witness, report it yourself as below
Respect privacy of the target - it's not your story to tell on social media
Be an advocate and agent for change in aviation safety

COMMUNICATE!

DOCUMENT

Confide in someone whom you trust implicitly
Photograph – Audio or video record – Screenshot – Journal – Save
Note what was said and done, what you did, who else was present, and the outcomes

REPORT

Request union support, even if harasser is also a member – Note: This is NOT an official report
Refer to company or school policies – Follow procedures
Make your official complaint or report in writing to. . .

- Supervisor, manager, chief pilot, or chief instructor

- Personnel, Human Resources, or Legal department

- Business manager or owner

Stick to the facts: Who What When Where
State impact on. . .

- Personal safety

- Ability to learn, work, fly

- Safety of flight and aviation safety culture

FOLLOW THROUGH

Report via FAA Safety Hotline , as appropriate
File a NASA or ASAP report or equivalent, as appropriate
Call EEOC , US Office for Civil Rights , state Dept of Human Rights
Seek professional advice, legal counsel in labor law

WAYS TO HALT HARASSING BEHAVIOR

Whenever possible, tell them that their conduct is unwelcome and must stop:

- Bullies and predators are emboldened by inaction

- Confident boundary-setting repels abuse

- Speak up right away, in a post-flight debrief, or later by phone, text, or email

- Use clear, direct, firm language

- Enlist the help of an ally

Try these words that are complete sentences:

- NO.

- STOP.

- WOW.

Neutralize with matter-of-fact statements

- Subject closed.

- That’s personal.

- You may be right.

- I will allow you to rephrase that.
- I’m here to [learn] [work] [fly] – let’s focus on that.

- Let’s stay BORING, Basic Operating Requirements In Normal Guidelines.

Name the behavior, firmly state that you want it to stop:

- Your comments and 'jokes' are inappropriate, cut that out.

- Enough! That is making me very uncomfortable.

- I said I wasn’t interested, and I mean it. Leave me alone.

- Stop touching me! That is never okay.

- You’re interference with my [training] [flight duties] jeopardizes the safety of flight. If you continue, I will be obligated to report your misconduct as a hazard to safety.

Here are more calm comebacks to rude remarks

© 2021 by Jenny Beatty is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 . This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form and for noncommercial purposes only.

Supported in part by a Research Scholar Grant of the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund of The Ninety-Nines, Inc.

Photo credit: Josh Hild

39 Steps to De-Stress Your High-Flying Life

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 17:15:09 GMT

Time-tested techniques from science, Yoga, and Ayurveda for calming and grounding

We all know that life events like job loss, divorce, or the death of a loved one are very stressful and even traumatic. But did you know that positive milestones like a job promotion, marriage, and birth of a much-anticipated child also induce stress responses in the body?

Stress is part of daily living, and our bodily reactions to stressors are automatic. Our nervous system is constantly evaluating the internal and external environment, continuously and unconsciously scanning for cues for threats and safety and triggering automatic physiological responses.

When we feel a sense of safety, the ventral vagus nerve allows us to calm down, relax, and engage socially with others.
When we sense danger, the sympathetic nervous system is activated on high alert, and we become defensive, with a physiological fight or flight reaction, also called a stress response.
When we sense extreme danger coupled with a perception of being trapped with no escape, the dorsal vagus nerve activates a freeze response, a feeling of being paralyzed, out-of-focus, out-of-body, or numb.

These automatic physiological responses to perceived threats can continue beyond what is necessary and protective, to the point of keeping you in a near-continuous stress-reactive state. Many scientific studies indicate how chronic stress affects our day-to-day living, and even leads to chronic disease. So it’s crucial to our wellbeing that we recognize stress reactions and adjust or re-set these automatic processes when they no longer serve us.

The steps below represent both passive and very active ways you can do that. Many are drawn from the ancient, time-tested practices of Yoga and Ayurveda.

Pick one technique from each grouping below, and set the intention to incorporate these into your daily living. When stress levels are unusually high, it may help to return to this list and try out more techniques.

Establish Stability

1. Maintain a normal schedule and structure your days. Rise and retire at regular hours. Eat meals at regular times. Establish a regular time for relaxation practices. This isn’t easy with a highly variably flying schedule – just do your best.

2. Make a list of the important things you need to handle each day. Try to follow the list so you feel organized and gain a sense of mastery.

3. Use every available resource to automate best practices: set up autopay of your mortgage, rent, car loan, and utility bills; set up automatic payment of the minimum amount due for your credit cards; bring home grocery bags full of healthier foods, with fewer sugary snacks or chips, to automate a healthier diet.

Look Inside

4. Don’t run from your problems! This only makes them worse. Inventory your life situation and learn to identify and monitor your daily stressors.

5. Keep an eye on how you might not be coping well. Are you eating or drinking more, “checking out” more, sleeping less? It is empowering to focus on finding healthy ways to specifically address the stressors that can be managed and reduced.

6. Learn to say NO. Usually this won’t hurt other people’s feelings as much as you think, plus it’s a way to set boundaries and assert control over your life. Trying saying “I have a prior commitment” while silently remembering that your prior commitment is to yourself.

7. Notice how you talk to yourself. Be patient and kind to yourself, cut yourself some slack. Ask yourself "Is that true?" and be courageous with your answer.

8. Start journaling, to vent. Keep a Gratitude Journal, writing down everything you are grateful for, large and small, before going to sleep.

9. Commit to a willingness to adapt, evolve, change, and grow. You can do it! Ayurveda can help – go to the websites of Dr Claudia Welch, Dr Vasant Lad, or Banyan Botanicals to learn more.

Take Pleasure

10. Find a way to laugh. Watch a comedy movie or read a funny book that makes you laugh out loud – it's very therapeutic!

11. Make time for music, art, photography, or other hobbies that tap into your creativity.

12. Listening to music, singing, chanting, doing Kirtan, and other vocal expressions are great for activating deep breathing and inducing calm.

13. Dance! Go to your favorite music playlist and break out some dance moves!

Connect

14. Surround yourself with friendly faces, family, friends, and pets. Socially engage with like-minded people you feel comfortable with, being in community, doing something together. Women especially benefit from “tend and befriend” quality time with girlfriends.

15. Talk frankly to your family and friends. You’ve been the strong one; now may be the time you will be able to draw upon their strengths.

16. Take time to connect to nature and enjoy all forms of life. Spend time in fresh air, sunshine, in field or forest, in or on the water.

17. Talk to someone about your stresses, frustrations, and concerns: a friend or confidante; a clergy member or leader in your spiritual community; a trusted work colleague or peer.

Care for Your Body

18. Ground yourself by staying in one place without moving, and by choosing thick, warm, nourishing foods like soups and stews, and root vegetables.

19. Exercise. Resume a favorite sport, maintain your regular workout routine, or take up walking 20 minutes a day. While away from home on trips, try walking or running up the hotel stairs.

20. Practice daily gentle stretching exercises or Yoga. Any style of Yoga that is breath-linked and inwardly focused is beneficial, and many classes are offered online. Don’t skimp on the most important pose, the final pose, Savasana or Corpse Pose in which you lie on your back in complete bodily relaxation.

21. Get a massage. Try Abhyanga, a soothing and healthful Ayurvedic practice of daily self-massage with warm oil.

22. Pamper and comfort yourself with a salt-water bath, or sit in hot tub or sauna.

Filter Your Intake

23. Some people and programs deliberately generate crisis and chaos designed to rope you in and make you feel hopeless. Look away. Turn off that program. Leave the room.

24. Don’t obsess about the issues giving you stress. Don’t spend hours on the computer, watching the news, or reading every rumor or article.

25. We are hard-wired to be sensitive to low-pitched rumbling sounds similar to a growling dog, and high-pitched sounds similar to sirens, both of which trigger a stress response. Try to reduce or eliminate noise from your environment.

26. Clean up an overly stimulating visual environment, whether that’s from busy patterns, activating colors, photographs that trigger bad memories, or a messy living space.

27. Use pleasant aromas from natural sources like fresh-baked bread or essential oils, to bring calm and comfort.

28. Absorb the most healthful substances possible into your body, including fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins, and less carbs. Drink lots of water.

29. Avoid imbibing caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, junk food, marijuana, and other drugs as your primary means for coping with stress. While they can seem to help you once in a while, regular use can be habit-forming, and even lead to addiction. See my article When Pilots and Alcohol Don’t Mix , about help for pilots who are self-medicating with alcohol and addictive substances.

Look Beyond

30. Volunteer, donate, and assist those less fortunate. Serving others can help put your own worries and troubles into perspective.

31. Remember that you are divine, have a sacred soul, and a purpose in this lifetime. Repeat an affirmation silently or out loud, or write it on a post-it, or make it a daily reminder on your phone. Try something like: I am at peace - I am enough - I can do it - I trust myself - This too shall pass - I’m learning and improving every day – God is with me .

32. Take up a Mantra practice, repeating the mantra silently, aloud, chanted, sung, or in the group devotional singing practice called Kirtan. Mantras are sacred sounds, and the intention you give while repeating them amplifies their effect. Simple Mantras to begin: OM - SO HUM - OM MANE PADME OM .

33. Connect or re-connect to a higher power, to something greater than yourself, to your God. Return to or deepen your spiritual, devotional, prayerful practices.

Calm your Nervous System

34. Try progressive muscle relaxation. Progressively tense and relax each muscle group in your body. Learn the difference between muscle tension and relaxation.

35. The aim of the physical Yoga practice is to calm, strengthen, balance, and increase flexibility in the body so that you can sit quietly with a straight spine for the breathing practices of Pranayama and for meditation. Practice sitting in this posture, especially for the following steps.

36. Breathing is one of the very few bodily functions that is both automatic and can be controlled, and breathing exercises or Pranayama is the fastest way to enhance deep, diaphragmatic breathing to calm the mind and body:

Crocodile pose: Lie face-down with your legs stretched out. Rest your forehead on your stacked hands. Breathe deeply into your belly.
Sandbag breathing: Lie face-up with your legs stretched out and your arms relaxed by your side. Place a 5-pound sandbag or other soft weight on your abdomen. Breathe deeply into your belly.
Equal length breathing: Breath slowly and deeply while counting up to 4 or 5 with each inhalation and exhalation – whatever is comfortable. Move towards making the inhalations and exhalations equal in length.
2-to-1 breathing: Slowly increase the length of the exhalations until they are twice as long as the inhalations.
Alternate nostril breathing: This is a very centering and grounding practice. Look for online audio or video guidance on this practice, or ask a Yoga teacher to teach you.
Yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar suggests, “When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.” Or, breathe in strength and breathe out tension. Mentally repeat these words or phrases: Inhale SO, exhale HUM. Or, inhale I AM, exhale AT PEACE. Or, inhale I CAN, exhale LET GO.

37. Try Yoga Nidra, Yogic Sleep, or iRest. This is a surprisingly powerful deep relaxation practice that is growing in popularity. There are many free online resources with guided audio.

38. Meditation practice can literally rewire our nervous system and change the way our brains function, resulting in feelings of less distress, more joy, less discomfort, more happiness. The mind and body get more familiar with this relaxation response, and return to it more easily and naturally. Try these techniques, and seek out online resources or a meditation teacher.

Visualization. There is a misconception that the goal of meditation is to empty the mind, which frustrates new meditators. The fact is, just as the heart’s function is to pump blood, one of the brain’s functions is to think thoughts. You can’t stop your brain from thinking thoughts, but you can learn to direct your thoughts to more soothing subjects. Visualization or guided imagery can help you learn to be at one with your thoughts. Sit quietly with your eyes closed, imagining the sights, sounds, and smells of your favorite place, such as an ocean beach or mountain retreat.

Counting breaths. Start with 1 and count breaths to 7, then start over. When you find yourself counting to 9 or 10, just start again at 1. Be patient and gentle with yourself, like training a young puppy to sit and stay.

Become the witness. Learn to cultivate a peaceful flow of inner awareness by taking a step back to witness the steady of stream of thoughts as they appear and pass by like clouds moving across the sky. Just watch them come, and watch them go, without latching onto those thought-clouds. Trying saying to yourself, “There’s a thought. It is saying ‘this is silly’. Here’s another thought. It is saying ‘I am not getting the hang of this’. Here is another thought. It is saying ‘my knees hurt’. Here is another thought…”

39. During extraordinarily stormy times, these techniques might not be enough to keep you from being really distressed – please seek out the help of a professional counselor or therapist to navigate your way through . If you are concerned about how seeing a therapist might affect your FAA medical certificate, please read my article You, Your Mental Health, and the FAA and also 10 FAQs about Your FAA Medical Exam . My article Stressed Out – Reach Out may help you to understand the unique reasons pilots get stressed. Please also refer to my article When Pilots and Alcohol Don’t Mix , about pilots who self-medicate and end up with an alcohol and substance addiction, and how to get help. My article Critical Incident Response for Pilots might also be pertinent, if you could benefit from vital peer support to process the experience of an aviation incident or accident.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo credit: Anna Shvets

Stressed Out? Reach Out!

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Understanding the stresses of airline pilots

Airline Pilot consistently ranks high on the Top Ten Most Stressful Jobs, according to the jobs resource site CareerCast.

“From braving potentially faulty equipment to battling tricky weather systems to facing continued terror threats, all while ensuring the safety of their passengers, airline pilots continue to have the most stressful job year-after-year,” they said. Also cited was the stress caused by irregular work hours and jet lag, which can lead to fatigue, an area of particular concern to safety and regulatory agencies.

Pilots and Stress

While this reveals how most laypeople view our jobs, it isn’t very illuminating about the actual stressors that affect professional pilots. Passengers worry about weather and delays and imagine that we pilots worry, too. But if the pilots are stressed, it’s probably not about the weather.

Allow me to explain. Pilots assess the weather, and decide it is good enough to go flying in or that we should wait for conditions to improve. We inspect the aircraft, and decide that it is flyable or that maintenance correction is required. We review the flight plan, and decide that there is sufficient fuel or that we need more or that we need a fuel stop or a new plan. Once underway, if Plan A isn’t working out, we shift to Plan B and then Plan C.

This seems monumentally daunting to a non-pilot, and therefore “stressful”. Well, the job of treating a bleeding, dying patient seems off-the-charts stressful to me, since I am not a doctor. But just like a surgeon, a professional pilot finds our “stressful” job tasks to be not only normal and routine, but interesting and energizing. Because, if you re-read the job tasks outlined above, you’ll see that pilots are not just tasked to fly airplanes. We’re tasked with the full command and authority over the flight.

“One big difference between feeling stressed or stimulated is how much control we have over a situation compared to the demands that are placed on us,” explains Dr. Esther Sternberg, an expert on the mind-body-stress-wellness connection with the National Institutes for Health. “If we are in a low control, high demand situation, we feel stressed. If we are in a high control, high demand situation, we feel stimulated.”

This is not to say that pilots don’t experience a physiological stress response, however, because all humans and animals do. It’s what we do with that spurt of adrenaline that sets us apart.

“Pilots, neurosurgeons, firefighters, and others with high-pressure occupations are trained to use the stress response as a way to monitor their own behavior,” says Dr. Sternberg. When pilots fly a low-visibility approach, our heart races, our breath becomes shallow, and our attention is intensely focused on the job at hand. We experience the physiological arousal that defines stress, but don’t label the situation as stressful. We are in the Zone.

Just like our passengers, many pilots prefer flying when the winds are calm, skies are clear, and things run like clockwork. But on days when Plans A, B, and C go out the window and we’re on Plan D or E or F, we derive a great deal of satisfaction from applying our expertise to meet the challenge and complete a flight safely.

Pilot Personality

This is also because pilots are a breed apart. While generalizations do not apply to every individual, numerous studies show that there is indeed a “pilot personality profile”. Typically, pilots are more achievement-oriented, more assertive, more optimistic, and more even-keeled than the general population, and less introspective, less emotional, and less sensitive.

As a study by Drs. Ganesh and Joseph summarizes, the typical aviator “wants to control everything in his/her life. They hate surprises and hence practice as much as possible to avoid them. They maintain emotional distance from others and hence find difficulty with intimacy in their marriages… They are mission-oriented compartmentalizers, systematic and methodical, rely on checklists and feedback, and have the ability to separate flying from non-flying-related issues.”

Clearly these traits serve us well as pilots; we’re adept at keeping emotion out of the flight deck and at handling the stress of job-related routine duties as well as emergencies. Unfortunately, these same assets become liabilities when events spiral out of our control.

Looking at stressors affecting airline pilots today, many lie outside our direct control, including the economic roller-coaster of the travel industry, real or threatened job loss, reduced job security, and pay cuts.

Stressors Affecting Pilots

Note: These are real people who will remain anonymous.

In that uniquely intimate environment of the flight deck, on two consecutive days, two different pilots whom I had never met before open up and share their personal woes – which turn out to be nearly identical. In both cases, their wives planned to return to work when the kids entered school, but now the kids are teenagers and the wives are still stay-at-home moms living in very nice homes. Due to pay cuts from the post-9/11 economic downturn, this lifestyle is no longer sustainable. Yet these pilots’ wives are unable or unwilling to return to work or reduce spending. Both pilots are perplexed that their wives “just don’t get it”, flummoxed about how to reconcile their finances and marriages.

A pilot moves across the country with her husband to take a job with a regional airline. When airline hiring grinds to a halt, she gets stuck as first officer, with no opportunity to upgrade to captain, and her dream of flying for a major airline fades away. Far from family, sad and lonely, she withdraws from her flying friends and activities.

Another pilot rides the wave up the seniority list while her airline is hiring, and then back down again as it shrinks. Although she doesn’t get furloughed, she ends up near the bottom of the seniority list, forced to change airplanes and bases. Meanwhile, a boyfriend empties her bank account. While in training on her third aircraft in as many years, she is forced into foreclosure and out of her home. She finds it difficult to study and concentrate.

After being furloughed twice by one airline, a pilot narrowly avoids being furloughed at his new airline. While in training on a new aircraft, he finds out that his wife cannot control her drinking. He arranges for treatment for her, however she is unable to stay sober and starts acting out, so he leaves the training program to care for their children. He experiences acute anxiety and panic attacks.

A pilot who flies widebody aircraft overseas contracts an infection that leads to bronchitis and pneumonia. His adult son is going through an ugly divorce, his adult daughter decides to cut off all contact, and his relationship with his fiancée becomes shaky. Physically worn down and emotionally distraught, he drives his car into the garage, closes the door, and leaves the engine running.

Compartmentalization

Pilots attempt to apply their highly methodical, action-oriented problem-solving techniques to personal problems, while keeping them out of the flight deck. News flash: other people’s emotions can’t be turned on and off like the seat-belt sign and they aren’t under our command. Our own feelings can’t be switched off either; studies show that one major stressful event or many minor stressors can degrade flight performance, even when we think we’re doing a good job at compartmentalizing.

That out-of-control feeling – stemming from family strife, financial difficulty, and disillusionment about a once-promising career – is the main stressor for airline pilots. Exacerbated by the downturns brought on by 9-11 and Covid-19, these issues don’t just go away with an improved economy or pay raise.

Even when we know we are hurting, pilots tend not to seek help. Why? Because flying is pleasurable, it is our source of income and identity, and perhaps it is the only place where we can maintain a sense of control. Sometimes it feels like we really can leave all our problems on the ground behind us.

Women pilots in particular may hide emotional distress to avoid being stigmatized as “weak”. This can lead to more guilt, depression, and social withdrawal, which runs counter to the “tend-and-befriend” coping strategy of most other women.

And, many pilots think that a mental health problem will spell the end their flying career – which is not necessarily true.

Get Help

You don’t have to suffer alone: Reach out for help! And if you know a stressed-out pilot, reach out your helping hand. Each of the pilots mentioned in this column got help – from friends, spiritual advisors, professionals, union peer support volunteers, and company Employee Assistance Programs. Several received mental health treatment including counseling and medication. Some divorced, but others came through with their spouses by their sides. All are feeling better and are still flying, or back flying.

The FAA has approved several SSRI antidepressant medications for use by pilots, who can keep flying while participating in an approved treatment and monitoring program.

The pilot sitting in his garage turned off his car engine, went inside, and called his doctor. “There is nothing to fear,” he says today. “You don’t have to be afraid of your problems, or of never flying again. Step up and face your problems – and you don’t have to be alone with those problems.”

Photo credit: Engin Akyurt

An earlier version of this article was published in Aviation for Women magazine in 2011.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Seniority *

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 15:11:20 GMT

(* But Were Afraid to Ask)

Not sure how seniority works? No reason to be embarrassed about that! It’s complicated! Let me break it down into smaller, digestible parts.

The Pilot Seniority List or Roster

Most well-established large airlines use a seniority system for their pilots, called a seniority list or roster -- some very small companies and some foreign airlines do not. The description that follows generally pertains to U.S. and Canadian airlines, but there are variations according to custom, policy, and union contract agreements.

EVERYTHING to do with the pilot job hinges on seniority: which airplane you fly, whether you are captain or first officer, monthly schedules, vacation, pay, career earnings... everything!

The seniority system is a great equalizer. Once you manage to get hired by a major airline, your career trajectory is pretty much set. You are added to the bottom of the pilot seniority list, and from that point onward, the order of the pilots on the seniority list never changes. The pilots who are senior to you will always be senior to you and have first crack at a job opening or trip bid ahead of you. And likewise, you get the first shot at any opportunity ahead of all the pilots behind you on the seniority list. It no longer matters what your gender or race is, who your squadron buddy is, or who your daddy is. All of the opportunities that are available, will be available to you, based on your seniority.

Movement on the Seniority List

You gain seniority when:

You are at a regional or smaller airline and the pilots senior to you leave the company, usually as they are hired by a major airline.
Pilots senior to you retire, which can be when they reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 (in the U.S.), retire early, or if they lose their medical clearance.
Your airline merges with another one and you gain position in the integration of the seniority lists (this change can be small or large).
There is an economic boom, airline growth and hiring, new routes and aircraft and bases, and new-hire pilots are added to the bottom of the seniority list.

Your seniority advancement can stall when:

You are at a regional or smaller airline and the pilots senior to you stay put, because the major airlines stopped hiring.
The U.S. Congress raises the retirement age for airline pilots and suddenly a bunch of pilots senior to you get to keep working for an extra five years (as occurred in 2007).
The economy and the airline go into a sort of holding pattern, with no growth and no contraction.

You can lose seniority when:

You take an extended leave of absence under certain conditions (particular to each airline and its policies and union contract).
Your airline merges with another one and you lose position in the integration of the seniority lists (this change can be small or large).
There is an economic downturn, the airline shrinks and contracts, and due to overstaffing it displaces pilots and furloughs the junior pilots — more on this, below.

Relative Seniority

Once you are established in a specific position, which consists of a specific aircraft, seat, and base, such as 737 Captain in Chicago, then the seniority that impacts your day-to-day quality of life is relative seniority, which is where you stand in seniority relative to the sub-group of pilots in the exact same position. From this relative seniority position, you will bid on and be awarded your monthly work schedule, which could be a set of trips or days being on reserve (on call), and it will affect whether those trips are high-time, efficient trips for higher pay with fewer work days overall, or if you will work 2 or 4 more days per month to earn the same pay, and whether you will get weekends and holidays off or not. And you will bid on and be awarded your vacation — will vacation fall over July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas? Or somewhere in October and February?

Your relative seniority can shift month to month and over time due to other pilots deciding to come in or leave that position, and whether those pilots coming and going are senior or junior to you.

Position

Every pilot hired by a U.S. airline is added to the bottom of the pilot seniority list, and this includes if and when a pilot changes airlines. No matter the pilot’s prior experience and qualifications, they are placed “number last” upon hiring by a new airline. My airline has hired 747 pilots with 20,000 hours, U-2 pilots with Top Secret clearances, very high-ranking military officers, and even astronauts... and like any other new-hire pilot, they are placed at the bottom of the seniority list.

A civilian-trained pilot will typically gain experience and qualifications by flying for a regional airline before getting hired by a larger national or global major airline. It is more rare for a pilot flying for a major airline to switch to a different major airline, due to the effect of starting at the bottom of the seniority list again... the "golden handcuffs” factor.

The entry-level position for airline pilots is the first officer position (second-in-command or “right seat”). There are times when the major airlines were hiring regional airline captains so fast that some regional airlines ended up without any first officers qualified to upgrade to captain, and so they hired direct-entry or "off-the-street" captains. But please note: those direct-entry captains were still given seniority numbers at the bottom of the seniority list as new-hires. And the hiring of direct-entry captains is completely unheard-of at the majors.

The captain position (pilot-in-command or “left seat”) is more senior in rank than first officer, and the job pays more, reflecting command duties and responsibilities. The time to advance from first officer to captain is entirely based on growth and movement on the seniority list, and historically that could take anywhere from 6 months to 3-5 years at a regional airline and from 3-5 years to 20 years at a major airline.

Crew Base

At each airline, there are bases that tend to be “more senior” and “more junior”, because a base is larger with more job opportunities, or not, or it is in a city with a low cost of living in a desirable region, or not.

Aircraft

Most large airlines have several aircraft types, and pilots tend to gravitate towards the larger, newer, shinier ones. The major airline fleets generally break down to two categories — widebody aircraft, which are the large heavy aircraft placed on the longhaul overseas routes: Airbus A350, Boeing 747, 777, 787, and similar aircraft with two aisles in the coach cabin. And narrowbody aircraft used for shorter domestic flights: Airbus A320, Boeing 737, and similar with a single aisle in the cabin. The pay is higher for widebodies, so these positions “go more senior".

Quality of Life

Every individual pilot has important quality-of-life factors that go into their decision-making with regards to making job choices. They weigh factors such as: Do I want to earn more money? Have more days off at home? Have more flexibility about dropping and trading trips? Want to live in a rural area? Want to be near family? Want to live in a nice place and commute to a crew base? Or want to avoid commuting? Want to avoid more training?

This is the main reason that you see pilots with the seniority to hold a captain position choosing instead to remain first officers. As a junior captain, the quality of life could be significantly worse that that of a very senior first officer who gets first choice of monthly schedules and vacation. And some pilots really enjoy the job and lifestyle of the widebody longhaul overseas flying, and do not want to trade that to do narrowbody short-haul domestic flying as captain, not even for higher pay.

Displacements, Part I

Airline pilots are only qualified to fly one aircraft type at a time (exception: 757/767), and must undergo 4-8 weeks of training when changing to a new aircraft type.

Overstaffing of pilots for a fleet or a base can trigger displacements that bump pilots from their positions, such as when:

A crew base is closed.
An aircraft type is eliminated from a crew base, possibly shifted to a different base.
An older fleet is drawn down and retired.
A fleet experiences a dramatic mechanical issue that grounds it for an extended period (e.g. 737 MAX in 2019-2020).
There is an economic downturn and the airline shrinks and contracts . . . and displaces and furloughs pilots.

Furloughs

A downturn in the economy, a decreased demand for air service, and the resultant contraction and reduction of the flight schedule results in an airline being overstaffed with pilots. Some pilots will leave through the attrition of retirement.

And then the airline must consider furloughing pilots. It is very costly to furlough pilots, due in no small part to the high cost of re-training the returning pilot to currency and proficiency or on a new aircraft, which could be as high as $50,000 per pilot. I have heard that it makes economic sense only if the pilot will be furloughed for at least two years.

Furloughs are done in reverse seniority order: last hired, first fired. Furloughed pilots are considered to be unemployed, with no pay or benefits, but they aren’t “fired". By union contract, when the airline needs more pilots, they will recall all of the furloughed pilots in seniority order before hiring any new pilots. Sometimes the pilots can defer or delay their return to work, if they had managed to get some other lucrative job or went back to active duty military flying, for example.

Furloughs can go deep, as they did after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Within a year, more than 7000 pilots, or about 7-1/2 percent of the U.S. airline pilot workforce, were on furlough. Some returned within a couple of years; for others, it took over 11 years.

Displacements, Part II

When there are job vacancies and hiring, pilots get to bid for those jobs based on seniority, leaving a job that triggers a new job opening, and in this way, a bunch of pilots can advance to higher positions, with new-hires filling in the junior positions.

When there are reductions in jobs and displacements, it all rolls backwards / downhill. A pilot being displaced from a senior job such as 777 captain might go to 737 captain. This might bump a 737 captain to the 737 first officer position. And that might bump the most junior 737 first officer onto the street (furlough).

The reduction of flights and resultant reduction of jobs might affect particular fleets and crew bases, yet the effects can ripple through the whole seniority list.

At one major U.S. airline, when there are displacements, the pilots being displaced get to bid for any job throughout the entire system that their seniority allows them to hold — they can get any job that has just one pilot in it who is junior to them. Bids are awarded in seniority order, so you might not get your first choice, even if it first appears that you could. Each displacement could trigger a secondary displacement, in which displaced pilots coming in bump the most junior pilots out, and those junior pilots must likewise find places to land which they have the seniority to hold. The displacement process might vary somewhat at other airlines according to the union contract, but it will follow this general path.

There are many factors that go into these decisions by pilots who know for certain they are being displaced, and for everyone else who has to make contingency plans in case they will be displaced in the big shuffle (a huge unknown). Every pilot who has some seniority must ask themselves: Do I want to remain in the base, or am I willing to commute or move? Do I want to stay on this aircraft or am I willing to be trained on a new one? Do I want to cling to the captain seat or am I willing toreturn to being a first officer? And what will give me the most money /flexibility / time off / job satisfaction? There is no single answer that is right for everyone.

And the most junior pilots, in the most junior positions as narrow body first officers at a junior base, have few options. They will be waiting to hear if they will be furloughed or not, and must plan accordingly.

Ripple Effect

When the major airlines stop hiring and begin furloughing, the effects ripple throughout the industry. When this happens, it is a great time to add more ratings, hone pilot skills, and build flight time.

May your dreams take flight!

Photo: Overseas National Airways Pilots’ Seniority List dated 1 July 1977, page four, showing pilots #151 to #184 with date of hire, status (date of furlough), and crew base

Photo credit: Overseas National Airways crew website

When Pilots and Alcohol Don't Mix

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 02:10:11 GMT

There is help for you, no matter how terrible the problem

“It’s not easy to say ‘I’m a pilot and an alcoholic’,” reveals Patti M. “That did not compute for me. But I met a pilot in the alcohol recovery program, and found out that it is possible. So I’m here. I’m sober and I’m still here, flying.”

Patti now shares her own story of recovery in order to help others, using only her first name, in the tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Patti tells about taking her first flying lesson at age 26 and landing a job with a major U.S. airline at 34. She also tells about how she drank alcoholically for 30 years, starting at age nine. And then she shares how she was able to quit drinking and return to the cockpit, with the help of HIMS, a drug and alcohol treatment program designed specifically for pilots .

Pilots and Alcohol

Drinking has long been associated with aviation. The daring fighter pilots of World War I and World War II steeled their nerves in the military service Officer Clubs, and the macho flight test pilots who broke the sound barrier and paved the way for the astronaut program spent their evenings at the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a bar run by hard-drinking female pilot Frances "Pancho" Barnes. Still today, balloon rides are toasted with Champagne and many “post-flight debriefing sessions” take place in bars.

“Aviation is an ‘old boys club’, and I could drink with the old boys, so I did,” says Patti. “I probably had one in my room before we got started, and I would stay at the bar until the end. I would pick trips based on the layovers so I could drink.”

That’s the difference between enjoying a few drinks and being an alcoholic. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, about one in every 12 adults abuse alcohol or is alcohol dependent, cutting across gender, race, and nationality.

Alcohol is a legal and socially acceptable drug, so it is widely used on a recreational basis. However, continued use can lead to abuse and onset of the disease. And alcoholism is a disease, with symptoms and a predictable progression, and it is chronic, meaning that it lasts a person’s lifetime and requires on-going treatment, like managing a diabetic or coronary condition.

As time went on, “drinking consumed every inch of my physical and emotional being,” Patti says. Then she was in a terrible traffic accident that injured her badly — and saved her life and her career. Her blood alcohol content was measured at 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for driving in most states and such that most people could hardly find their car keys, much less start the engine and drive. In other words, the accident revealed that Patti’s body had a high tolerance to alcohol, another symptom of the disease of alcoholism, and this brought her to treatment and recovery through a special treatment program for pilots, and Alcoholics Anonymous.

AA & EAP

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935 and today is a non-affiliated, informal society of some 2 million people worldwide. Its success in helping alcoholics to recover led to the establishment of company-based programs in the 1940s and to today’s federally mandated Employee Assistance Programs (EAP).

Under U.S. law, any employee may ask for assistance from their company’s EAP, confidentially and without jeopardizing their job or advancement. EAP programs provide professional guidance on a wide range of emotional and personal problems, from drug addiction to mental illness to a family crisis. At some companies, the employee’s spouse and family members are also covered by EAP for their issues.

Denial

But pilots who need help don’t always get it. Pilots have strong denial mechanisms and a great fear of admitting to a substance abuse or emotional problem. Their family members and friends might subscribe to the outdated view that alcohol and drug addiction is a personal failing or a moral or willpower issue, rather than a disease. And co-workers and peers might cover for their buddy in a misguided attempt to help save their job.

“You’re not saving anybody!” says a pilot who worked with a treatment and recovery program for pilots. “You are enabling that pilot to have an accident or get killed or get busted and lose their career. You are liable, and you could go to jail. So if you have a peer that you are concerned about, please care enough to talk to them.”

You could tell them about Birds of a Feather International meetings for pilots and cockpit crewmembers where addiction to alcohol or drugs may be discussed with impunity and anonymity. And if the drinking or drug use of someone you care about is affecting you, there is Al-Anon .

Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) specify that a pilot may not fly with a known medical deficiency, and must have no medical history or diagnosis of substance dependence. Prior to 1974, a diagnosis meant the permanent loss of the medical certificate and halt to a flying career. Today, the pilot who tests positive on a drug or alcohol test will still lose both their medical and pilot certificates, but these can be restored, with effort.

The HIMS Program

There’s a better way. If a pilot with an addiction problem enters the HIMS program, the FAA treats it like any other medical problem, with the focus on treatment and recovery. Re-issuance of a medical certificate and a return to the cockpit can take as little as six months. (The process can take at least two years for those not in the program and for private pilots.) On the other hand, a pilot who gets a ticket for driving under the influence or who gets professional counseling or treatment for addiction but does not report it on their FAA medical application form, is in violation of the FARs — a felony.

“Entering the HIMS program was my chance to come clean with the FAA,” says Patti. “I had lied on my medical certificate applications about my DUIs. They give you one chance to tell them everything, and then it isn’t following you around for the rest of your life.”

This is why awareness is so important. The Human Intervention Motivational Study program or HIMS was initiated in 1974 by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) labor union, with a grant from the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the support of airline management and the FAA.

Today the HIMS program is an industry-wide effort in the United States, with a sister program in Canada, in which companies, pilot unions, and the Federal Aviation Administration work together to preserve careers and further air safety through the identification, treatment, and return to the cockpit of impaired aviators, including those at non-union airlines.

“HIMS is about helping pilots and their families,” says Captain Dana Archibald, an airline pilot and former chairman of the HIMS program. Archibald reports that in the first 35 years of the HIMS program, about 4500 pilots returned to the cockpit, and several hundred spouses have also been helped. “We have a long-term sobriety success rate of 88 to 90 percent, which is very high, because this is a structured program that monitors pilots for a minimum of three years.”

Warning Signs

After getting sober at an early age, Captain Shara Stevens completed a Masters in psychology and addictions, then became an airline pilot and a HIMS representative. The pilot group at her airline is younger than at the legacy airlines, so she sees the disease at the early stage, when recreational alcohol use can lead to abuse.

“Although having a drink does take the edge off, it’s important to watch your alcohol consumption in dealing with life’s stressors,” Stevens says. “Our brain can be conditioned to develop a link which automatically craves alcohol anytime a stressor appears. Over time, dependency and possibly addiction may occur.”

Stevens outlines the warning signs: “Loss of control or predictability in your drinking; compulsive use; continued use despite adverse consequences; and failed attempts to change or alter the type or amount of alcohol consumed.” If these describe you, or if one of your family members, friends, or peers expresses concern about your use of alcohol, call your HIMS representative or a substance abuse professional. Stevens welcomes anyone reading this article to contact HIMS .

While alcohol is usually the “drug of choice” for pilots, Archibald reports a large increase in addiction to prescription painkillers like OxyContin. “Because it’s prescribed by your doctor, you think it’s okay,” he says. “But then you take more because the pain is still there, and before you know it, you have to have it. Addiction sets in quickly—it can happen to anyone. It’s scary. The slang name is synthetic heroin.”

Get Help

As Patti M. and thousands of other pilots can attest, there is help for you in EAP or HIMS, no matter how terrible your problem.

“The FAA actually is there to help you — who knew?” she says. “People think that if you go into this program, the FAA is in your business for the rest of your natural life, but that’s not true.” With successful recovery, monitoring ends and the pilot never has to check in with the FAA about it again.

“And I had more support from my company than I ever dreamed of,” says Patti. “I was told early on, ‘You will not be fired, we just want to help you’, and they were true to their word. The only stipulation on that was that I stay sober. And then you get a life, you get a chance.”

Photo credit: Christian Fridell

An earlier version of this article was published in Aviation for Women magazine in 2010.

Critical Incident Response for Pilots

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Vital peer support helps pilots after an incident or accident

The first time Captain Mimi Tompkins spoke in public about how traumatic events like flight accidents cause stress to airline crewmembers, a male pilot in the audience spoke up saying that Tompkins just felt that way because she’s a woman.

On the contrary, emotions such as euphoria, anger, and guilt – sometimes one tumbling right after the other – are normal human reactions to abnormal events.

And Tompkins should know. In 1988 Mimi Tompkins was at the controls as first officer on Aloha Airlines Flight 243, the last leg on the last day before starting training for captain. Not far into the flight, part of the aircraft fuselage ripped apart. The pilots did not know the extent of the damage until after landing. Flight Attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing died, and many passengers were severely injured.

Following the accident, Tompkins continued flying and completed her upgrade to captain while, slowly and insidiously, she began to suffer from emotional numbness, insomnia, and flashbacks. She was hyper-vigilant and easily startled by noises resembling those of the accident.

Post-Accident Stress -- Post-Traumatic Stress

These symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are familiar to mental health professionals. While many people feel the repercussions of traumatic events, those directly involved – crewmembers, survivors, and even rescue workers – suffer more acutely. Left untreated, persistent stress reactions may develop into PTSD and even cause some people to abandon their professions.

Tompkins never considered quitting. With the black-and-white concreteness of cockpit procedures and the quiet acceptance of Viet Nam War veteran colleagues, flying ‘grounded’ her. FAA doctors concurred that she was safe to fly and granted her a waiver. And, as for many, Tompkins’ identity was closely tied to being an airline pilot. “If I had lost that, I would have lost my whole self,” she says now.

Then she was jarred by the news of another accident. Having learned that PTSD can be prevented by early intervention, she was determined to get help for surviving crewmembers. But she discovered that physicians are barred from initiating contact with potential patients, and that even major airlines lacked support systems or emergency response plans for employees. This spurred her to action: If no one else could help crewmembers, then she would find a way to do it herself.

In reaching out to help others, Tompkins set herself on a path toward wholeness and wellness. Not only that, she became the catalyst of a support system for her airline pilot colleagues who, without crisis intervention, might suffer from potentially debilitating and career-crippling stress reactions.

A New Peer Support Program

The real turning point came when Tompkins shared her story at the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) safety conference and a pilot dismissed her as an overwrought woman. This prompted another pilot to relate his experiences working in the 1970s with ex-military airline pilots who were severely distressed after being hijacked. He attributed his subsequent heart problems to the stress of consoling those troubled pilots and their families. Traumatic events affect men, too, he said, but unlike Tompkins, they don’t have the guts to stand up and say so.

ALPA promptly formed an exploratory task force, which discovered the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation . ICISF co-founder Jeffrey T. Mitchell, Ph.D., a firefighter turned psychologist, articulated for the first time the reluctance of firefighters, police officers, and emergency service workers to consult mental health practitioners; like military officers and pilots, they are concerned about the potential negative impact on their careers.

More importantly, Mitchell found that firefighters suffering after horrible trauma were better helped by their firefighter peers than by psychologists. Peers can understand the difficulty of being in a life-threatening situation and feeling out of control. Tompkins agrees, recalling, “If a pilot would come up and say, ‘this is what happened to me, this is what I went through, and this is where I am now,’ it was immensely helpful to me.”

Mitchell developed a training program in which volunteers learn about stress, how to cope with it, and how to use a checklist to talk to somebody else about a critical event. The pilots on the ALPA task force liked the standardized training and familiar checklist format, and launched their own program in 1994. ALPA’s Critical Incident Response Program committee was formally established in 1996 with Captain Mimi Tompkins as its first chair.

Critical Incident Response Programs

Today most airline unions have a critical incident response program (CIRP) that works in concert with the company’s flight operations management, emergency response plan, and employee assistance program. An in-flight engine shutdown, aborted takeoff, or incident in which a passenger or crewmember is injured or killed might trigger the CIRP. A peer support volunteer initiates contact with the crewmember as soon as possible for a short defusing, in which the volunteer listens empathetically and offers suggestions on coping with stress. For severely stressful events, a critical incident stress debriefing is organized for all crewmembers to discuss the traumatic incident with a mental health professional.

It is important to distinguish between these sessions and conventional psychological therapy, since the latter presumes that something is “wrong”. By contrast, CIRP sessions help normalize what a person is feeling in reaction to a traumatic event. Therapy might be advisable for more profound, persistent stress reactions. “Peer support is not counseling and it is not therapy,” Tompkins emphasizes. “What we try to do is be the bridge to counseling or whatever assistance that person might need.”

There are parallels to the recovery program Alcoholics Anonymous, including having one’s own peers as a key source for support (many peer support volunteers are themselves survivors of traumatic events) and confidentiality (no records are kept on peer support contacts).

The similarities do not end there, as many airlines are broadening the scope of their CIRP programs beyond aviation incidents. “There are still people who fall through the cracks,” says Captain Nancy Novaes. “I was one of them.”

When they were co-chairs of the Peer Support Team of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, Captain Novaes of Continental Airlines and Captain Lucy Young of US Airways found the CIRP technique effective for victims of sexual harassment and other incidents, including those not job-related.

Pilot Assistance Programs

Going one step further, Novaes later became the chair of Pilot Assistance for Continental Airlines / Continental Express ALPA. Modeled after a program used in Canada for many years, Pilot Assistance is the logical extension of ALPA’s CIRP and alcohol rehabilitation programs, offering support and referrals for pilots experiencing on- and off-the-job difficulties ranging from substance abuse to bereavement and problems with teenage children.

“Pilot Assistance is first aid and a source for referrals for any pilot who needs more than a shoulder to lean on,” says Novaes.

The terrorist hijacking of four airliners on September 11, 2001 required a new CIRP response. Leaders organized mass debriefings in hotels where hundreds of airline crewmembers were stranded. In her role as US Airways CIRP vice chair, Captain Young led debriefing sessions for company crewmembers, and also assisted with contacting other airline crews at hotels and at home in the Boston area, offering individualized peer support.

Many other women have been drawn to helping their fellow pilots. First Officer Cheryl Trentman worked closely with the families of the pilots killed in the TWA 747 crash off the coast of Long Island, New York. Captain Debbie Geise organized family stress sessions as Air Wisconsin pilots prepared to strike. Captain Michelle Gaffney and First Officer Wendy Albright coordinated the CIRP response to the fatal Emery Air DC-8 crash in Sacramento.

After American Airlines lost three aircraft and crews within three months in 2001, Captain Charlene Sammis and First Officer Pam Leone helped crewmembers cope. Other notable CIRP leaders: Captain Carin Octigan of America West, Captain Laurie Peterson and First Officer Stacy Chow of Hawaiian Airlines, Captain Sandy Anderson of Northwest Airlines, and First Officer Jessica Hatfield of US Airways.

Although stress reactions to trauma are not limited to women, clearly women have responded to traumatic incidents with an outpouring of caring and empathy, to the incalculable benefit to those in need. And since women still comprise only a tiny fraction of all airline pilots, it's fascinating that women’s influence in our airline pilot profession is first evident here, in the woman who had the guts to stand up and share her story of trauma and triumph, and in the many women who are leaders in critical incident response and pilot assistance programs that support our peers.

Update

Since this article was first researched . . .

Aloha Airlines ceased operations in 2008, and Captain Mimi Tompkins went to work for Hawaiian Airlines. Her work was recognized by ALPA in 2010 with the Pilot Assistance Award. She is now retired.

The following airline mergers took place: America West merged with USAir in 2005 to become US Airways; Northwest Airlines merged with Delta Air Lines in 2009; Continental Airlines merged with United Airlines in 2010; and US Airways merged with American Airlines in 2013.

Photo: Damage to Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 named Queen Lili‘uokalani, following the emergency landing Flight 243 at Kahului Airport, Hawaii, on April 28, 1988.

Photo credit: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

An earlier version of this article was published in Aviation for Women magazine in 2002.

September 11, 2001: We Will Never Forget

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:54:11 GMT

Airline crewmembers and employees lost that day

September 11, 2001: We Will Never Forget

American Airlines Flight 11

Pilots: Captain John Ogonowski and First Officer Thomas McGuinness

Flight attendants: Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Karen Martin, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean Roger, Dianne Snyder, and Madeline Sweeney

United Airlines Flight 175

Pilots: Captain Victor Saracini and First Officer Michael Horrocks

Flight attendants: Robert Fangman, Amy Jarret, Amy King, Kathryn LaBorie, Alfred Marchand, Jesus Sanchez, Michael Tarrou, and Alicia Titus

Customer service representative: Marianne MacFarlane

American Airlines Flight 77

Pilots: Captain Charles Burlingame and First Officer David Charlebois

Retired pilot: Captain Bud Flagg

Flight attendants: Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis, Kenneth Lewis, and Renee May

Executive assistant: Mary Jane Booth

United Airlines Flight 93

Pilots: Captain Jason Dahl and First Officer LeRoy Homer

Flight attendants: Lorraine Bay, Sandra Bradshaw, Wanda Green, CeeCee Lyles, and Deborah Welsh

6 Secrets of Winning Scholarship Applications

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Advice from a scholarship winner, loser, judge, & trustee

Being in the happy position of giving away money is more difficult than it sounds, because some applicants make it difficult to give them money. I know this all too well, because I have experienced the heartache of missing out on aviation scholarships. Then I won a big scholarship, and later helped screen applications, interview applicants, judge applications, and was a Trustee of the 99s Amelia Earhart Scholarship Fund . So let me share the experts’ six secrets of winning aviation scholarships.

#1 Glide Past the Velvet Rope

To get into that trendy new bar, you need the bouncer to lift the velvet rope. To sign onto Facebook and Instagram, you must enter your password. And if you want a scholarship, your application must get past the screeners and gatekeepers. Simple, right? Yet applicants make costly missteps, like not meeting eligibility requirements, not including required documents or photocopies, and not meeting deadlines.

#2 Spell Check Is Your Friend

Completing a scholarship application on a computer produces the best-looking result. Use the Spell Check function of your word processing software, and ask an English-savvy friend to review it with a critical eye. Hand-written applications, mistakes in spelling and grammar, and crossed out or scribbled words are not viewed favorably. Photocopies or scans of licenses and certificates must be clear and legible.

#3 Aim for the Goal

A key to winning at soccer is to shoot lots of shots at goal. Likewise, applying for multiple scholarships may increase your chances of getting one, however a shotgun approach is not advised. Please don’t tell the International Societyof Women Airline Pilots that you want to be an airline pilot, while telling the Whirly-Girls that you need their support to fly helicopters.

And don’t shoot for the goal until you are in range of it. The statement of a goal should be the logical result of a series of steps laid out in a well thought-out plan. We see applicants skipping steps in the logical progression or requesting training for which they are not yet qualified. Or, there is no plan, a partial plan, or an unrealistic plan.

If you haven’t narrowed down your career options yet, don’t just say what you think we want to hear. Instead, target scholarships designed to assist people who are starting out in their careers, still exploring options, or don’t fit into well-defined categories, like the 99s First Wings Scholarship ..

#4 Tell Me About Yourself

The personal essay is the most critical component of your application, and the way we can get a sense of who you are. Follow instructions: A one-page essay means one page, not three.

Some applicants err by telling all about themselves, others err by not telling enough. Go easy on Amelia Earhart and the romance of flight. Tone is important – there’s a fine line between ‘I need financial help’ and whining about lack of money.

A past scholarship winner and current judge describes a common error in her first attempt at an essay: “I had written a biography – nothing that related who I was to where I was headed and how the scholarship could help.” She also recommends writing a different essay for each scholarship: “You as an individual have a different relationship to each opportunity.”

#5 I Highly Recommend . . .

. . . That you solicit new letters of recommendation. You can suggest a topic to each letter-writer, such as balancing school and a job, good job performance, teamwork, or volunteerism. A spiritual leader or work manager maybe a good judge of your character. A flight instructor is a better judge of your pilot skill.

The letters must be relevant and current, and preferably tailored for the specific scholarship, rather than generic. Please don’t include letters written decades ago, or fake recommendations that you wrote yourself.

#6 Avoid the Heartbreakers

Receiving an application before the deadline – but with insufficient time to request a missing document. Getting the perfect application from the perfect applicant – past the deadline. Running out of qualified scholarship applicants – leaving scholarship monies unused.

Others have made these blunders, but you won’t, right? Because now you know the secrets to winning scholarship applications, and you don’t want to give us any reason not to give you money.

May your dreams take flight!

10 FAQs About Your FAA Medical Exam

Sun, 16 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Keep your bra and panties on

Pilots and Air Traffic Control Specialists must undergo regular physical exams by an FAA-designated Aviation Medical Examiner (AME, a medical doctor or other licensed medical professional) in order to obtain and maintain the FAA medical certificate required to fly or work. An alarming number of women, and some men, have been subjected to unnecessary invasive examinations, due to AMEs’ zeal, ignorance of FAA requirements, and/or abuse of power. I have been part of an effort to research the extent of this problem and bring it to the FAA for resolution; FAA officials say they are committed to addressing it.

The answers to these Frequently Asked Questions will help you to avoid unnecessary invasive exams, and to report any issues to the FAA without jeopardizing issuance of your FAA medical certificate.

1. Do I have to completely disrobe for the physical exam by the AME?

NO. At the very minimum, keep your bra and panties on.

2. Is a breast or pelvic or rectal exam required?

NO. There is no FAA requirement for a breast, vaginal, rectal, prostate, hemorrhoid, hernia, or scoliosis exam. The AME may ask about your last check-up with your personal health care provider, make recommendations for these preventative health screenings, offer to perform these exams, and ask about scars and tattoos.

3. What can I do if the AME offers to perform one or more of these exams?

You may decline or you may consent. Note: A female chaperone should be present when a male health practitioner is performing a breast, pelvic, vaginal, or rectal exam on a female patient – and may be required by state law.

4. How do I decline these exams?

No medical history in these organs or systems: You can say, “I do not need that exam, I have no history of problems and no scars – please move on to the rest of the exam.”
With a medical history, such as caesarian, mastectomy, hemorrhoids, etc.: Bring medical records with you, or ask the AME what documentation they require and say you will provide it from your treating physician.
With tattoos and/or scars: You may show these to the AME without completely disrobing.

5. Do I have to be topless for an electrocardiogram?

NO, except that an underwire bra may need to be removed. Electrodes are placed around the chest area for an EKG/ECG, but you should not have to remove your bra if it does not have an underwire. Note: A female chaperone should be present when a male health practitioner is taking an EKG/ECG for a female patient - and may be required by state law.

6. What can I do if the AME asks me to completely disrobe or to remove my bra or panties, performs one of the above-named exams without asking for my consent, does not provide a female chaperone when needed, is making me uncomfortable, or if I have another concern?

You can stop the exam right then; completion of the exam can be deferred to later. Keep reading!
Or, you can continue with the exam and report the issue to the FAA afterwards.

7. What happens if I stop the exam partway through, or the AME does? How do I get my medical certificate?

You can’t just go to another AME. You must immediately contact the FAA Regional Flight Surgeon / Regional Aerospace Medicine Branch for your region, who will assist you with your MedXpress Form 8500 medical application and getting your exam completed with another AME.

8. How can I report an issue with an AME?

Contact your FAA Regional Flight Surgeon / Regional Aerospace Medicine Branch .
Or, to remain anonymous, use the FAA hotline (this will not help you to obtain your medical certificate).
Contact your State Medical Board.

9. What happens when I report an issue with an AME?

The FAA Regional Flight Surgeon and their staff are responsible for oversight and investigate complaints about AMEs in their region. They may request a brief narrative from you about what happened, if you provided your name. The FAA can and does “un-designate” AMEs for a variety of reasons, including poor-quality exams, lack of professionalism, and on the basis of complaints.

10. Where can I get more information about FAA medical certification and the exam?

Federal Aviation Administration website, Medical Certification .
Airplane Owners and Pilots Association website, Licensing & Careers, Medical Resources .

BONUS: How can I find an AME?

The FAA website provides a list of AMEs . Ask your same-sex pilot friends for recommendations and about their actual experiences.
Call the AME’s office to inquire if the doctor normally requires patients to disrobe for the FAA medical exam, and if a same-sex chaperone will be present.
Investigate whether a same-sex chaperone is required by law in your state.

Sources

Federal Aviation Administration website. Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners, Application Process for Medical Certification, Exam Techniques and Criteria for Qualification, March 20, 2024.

Government Publishing Office website. 14 CFR Part 67 Airmen Medical Standards and Certification, March 20, 2024.

Dr. Joye Holmes, FAA Regional Flight Surgeon, Great Lakes Region. Personal interview, April 26, 2019.

© 2019 by Jenny Beatty , licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 . This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form and for noncommercial purposes only.

Supported in part by a Research Scholar Grant of the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund of The Ninety-Nines, Inc.

Photo credit: Pexels

Aerial Firefighting Careers

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Pilots get lots of action fighting wildfires

An ominously dark mushroom cloud towers some 30,000 feet overhead, dwarfing the aircraft heading directly toward its base. There, a wildland fire of several square miles is raging, fueled by dry trees of the mountain forests and fresh oxygen brought by the wind. Heat and smoke rush skyward to form the electrical storm which is now sending daggers of lightning ahead to spark new fires. Close to the fire, the aircraft will encounter severe turbulence and a heat so intense that firewhirls carry burning embers and even pieces of logs aloft. This firestorm reminiscent of a hydrogen bomb explosion would strike fear into the heart of most people.

“What am I doing here?!” Wanda Nagel asked herself as she flew towards her first fire storm.

But she thought back to the incident several years previous when she had to stand aside helplessly, watching airtankers fight the fire that threatened her home in the foothills. Now a seasoned pilot of firefighting operations, Nagel knows that all the people on the ground – firefighters as well as ordinary citizens – are counting on her for support. And so without hesitation, Nagel presses on through the smoky debris-filled air of the firestorm, joining the aerial fire brigade.

When the Fire Alarm Rings...

A scant 16 years after the first airplane flew at Kitty Hawk, airplanes were used for fire spotting by the U.S. Forest Service. Today, a wide variety of aircraft types are pressed into service worldwide for detecting fires, dropping water and fire retardants, carrying parachuting firefighters, providing an “eye in the sky” over fires, making aerial photographs of hot spots, and transporting supplies. Although fires are actually extinguished by ground firefighting crews, it is a team effort in which the value of aerial support for the firefighters is incalculable.

A centralized dispatch service for wildland fires, similar to a 911 service, determines what type of response to make to a fire depending on location, size, and available resources. An engine crew with a water pump might be dispatched to drive in and handle a fire spotted near a campground or in an area with easy road access. In remote areas, however, an aircraft is usually the first firefighting tool to arrive at the scene of a fire. Pilots, aircraft, and specialized firefighting crews are positioned in strategic locations near areas with a high fire risk and are on stand-by duty during daylight hours. When the fire alarm rings, the pilots and firefighters jump into their protective gear and run to the aircraft in order to launch within minutes, like an airborne fire truck.

Helicopter Initial Attack

There are vast roadless wildlands in the United States, but if a fire is reported in an area where a helicopter can find a landing spot, the helicopter initial attack or Helitack crew is called out first. The helicopter pilot flies the crew of four to eight specially trained firefighters to a safe site near the fire. Then the crew hooks a bucket on the belly of the helicopter, and the pilot searches for a nearby water source, such as a pond or lake. As the ground firefighters work to “scratch a line” by pulling vegetation away from the earth to control the spread of the fire, the helicopter supports them with water, 100 to 400 gallons at a time. The release mechanism on the bucket is pilot-controlled, so the helicopter can approach the fire with speed to trail the water a long way, or hover over the fire and pound water on it.

“The people on the ground rely on you,” explains Bonnie Wilkins, a Helitack contract pilot on the Bell Jet Ranger and 212 helicopters. “Often the flames are too hot, and the firefighters need the water to cool it down so that they can scratch the line.”

Sometimes the Helitack crew goes into an area with no landing pad, in which case the crew can rappel down.

“They once had to create a helipad for me by cutting down trees with chain saws in order to fight a big fire way up a mountain,” reports Ruth Ann Page, contract pilot on the Bell Long Ranger. After the fire is out, the Helitack crew returns to the helicopter.

“We are absolutely a team,” Wilkins agrees. “We stay together, communicate by radio, and go home as a unit.”

Dropping Smoke Jumpers

Experimentation with parachuting firefighters – smoke jumpers – started in the 1930s. Today, this elite self-sufficient corps specializes in fighting fires when they first appear, and about three-fourths of all wilderness fires are contained at this stage when they are no larger than your kitchen.

“If there are no roads and no space for a helicopter to land, the smoke jumpers are sent in,” says Mary LaMoy, a former pilot and Helitack firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. “They are a special resource, and well worth their delivery cost.”

A variety of jump planes are used: the Douglas DC-3 retrofitted with turbine engines, DeHavilland Twin Otter, Shorts Brothers C-23A, and Beechcraft 99 and 200. The pilot flies over the fire while the spotter, a foreman equivalent to a jumpmaster, surveys the terrain to find the best place to drop. A streamer of weighted crepe paper is released to judge the wind speed and direction -- sometimes the wind can change dramatically near a fire, with relatively calm winds aloft and a strong wind along the surface. The injury rate is quite low, considering the smoke jumpers drop all through the fire season into forested areas and sometimes into terrain with a very steep slope. The smoke jumpers, heavy with fire-resistant clothes and Kevlar jumpsuits, are dropped at 1500 or 3000 feet above the ground, depending on the type of parachute. Then the pilot must circle back to drop the gear: sleeping bags, food and water, chain saws, and other firefighting tools packaged with special cargo chutes. Precision flying is critical because the smoke jumpers and their gear are being dropped out in the middle of the wilderness by themselves.

“If you miss, then you’ve made their life miserable,” says LaMoy. “It’s important to get it right for them, or they might have to hike straight up a mountain to retrieve their gear from a hundred-foot tree.”

After extinguishing or containing the fire, the smoke jumpers pack their gear and hike out to a road or a helicopter landing spot for pick-up.

Airtankers

The large multi-engine airtankers are called in to attack a fire which is raging out of control. Flying low over the fire, the airtanker drops slurry, a mixture of water and fire retardant which helps cool the fire for the ground crews. The orange-red additive gives the water bulk to prevent dissipation and evaporation, and also acts as a fertilizer to aid in regrowth of vegetation after the fire is out.

In addition to the water-based slurry which cools a large fire, single-engine airtankers can also drop a fire-suppressing foam, which acts much like a home fire extinguisher in smothering a small fire. Many types of large aircraft, mostly from military surplus, are stripped of armaments and “extras” such as pressurization and navigation systems to be converted for special use as airtankers. Among these are the B-26, P2V, PB4Y, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, C-130, and KC-97, which have external tanks to hold up to 4500 gallons of slurry weighing over 20 tons.

In addition, single-engine agricultural aircraft such as the Turbo Thrush, Dromader, Ag-Cat, and Beaver are used as airtankers to drop 100 to 500 gallons of slurry or foam. While large airtankers are the backbone of aerial firefighting efforts, the single-engine airtankers are a useful tool due to their quick response time and comparatively low cost.

When a call comes in to the airtanker base, the captain gets the briefing while the co-pilot prepares the aircraft for takeoff. They are airborne within 15 minutes, dressed in protective gear of Nomex flight suits, gloves, and helmets. Experienced captains who are carded, or approved by the Forest Service, can perform the initial attack on a fire if arriving early on the scene. Or, if the situation warrants, they wait for another plane to lead the way. Crew coordination is important as the captain flies over the fire and operates the tank doors to make the drop while the co-pilot handles the power.

“Making a pass is very exciting!” reports MegAnn Streeter, a veteran of six fire seasons as airtanker contract pilot on the DC-6 and DC-7 and now a captain for a major cargo airline. “You feel like you’re getting literally beat to death because the air is extremely rough from the heat of the fire and the hot summer day.”

At only 150 to 200 feet above the fire, altitude and delivery are critical for the slurry to be effective in cooling the fire. “If you drop the slurry too high, it dissipates from the lifting action of the fire’s heat,” says Streeter. “And if you drop it too low, the retardant goes down one side of a tree and the fire just runs up the backside and then jumps to the next tree.”

The slurry is usually dropped over several passes, and the tanks are sub-divided with as many as 16 release doors. When dropping slurry, particularly in large amounts, the loss of weight is substantial and can cause quite a pitch change to the aircraft. Maintaining control is key “and there’s not a lot of room for mistakes,” adds Streeter. There is on-going research and development of tanks, including automatic sequencing of doors and continuous-flow systems, to reduce these negative tendencies and improve the delivery of slurry. After all the slurry has been dropped, the airtanker returns to its base for servicing. While the Forest Service workers load the slurry, each of the pilots adds fuel to the wing fuel tanks, and on alternating runs, adds oil to one of the engines. Within 15 minutes, the airtanker is serviced and once again airborne. “This might go on all day – up to 14 hours – so you have to be energetic and in good shape to do this job,” Streeter says.

Leading the Way

The lone pilot of a twin-engine pressurized Beechcraft Baron or OV-10 turboprop aircraft might be the first to arrive at the scene of a fire. Since the ground firefighting crews have not yet arrived, the lead plane pilot assesses the situation to determine the best plan of action, and then coordinates the aerial firefighting effort until the fire is extinguished or more help arrives. As the fire progresses, the ground firefighting crews coordinate the plan of attack, so the lead plane pilot finds out what their fire objective is. When the people on the ground are clear, the lead plane flies a run to check for hazards and plan escape routes for the airtankers.

“With the lead plane, the mission is safety,” explains Mary Verry, U.S. Forest Service lead plane pilot on the Beechcraft Baron. “We are there for the safety of the air tanker, which is heavy and not very maneuverable until the load is dropped. So the lead plane flies ahead to look for ‘gotchas’ – rough air, visibility problems, terrain, power lines, and other hazards.” Then the lead plane flies the run with the airtanker following closely behind. Formation flight is not allowed and so the aircraft fly in very close proximity, as close as a quarter-mile to each other. For particularly tricky situations, such as fire in a box canyon or in steep terrain, the lead plane pilot is faced with a difficult decision.

“Sometimes you evaluate a run and you have to say: ‘I’m sorry, we can’t put a tanker in there’,” Verry explains. “It might be too dangerous, or too smoky, or it would be ineffective.” With very large fires, airtankers might succumb to “mop syndrome,” heading for the biggest column of smoke, not realizing that the ground firefighting crews are intentionally burning out an area ahead of the main fire. The lead plane is in communication with the ground crews, and ensures airtanker drops the slurry exactly where it is needed.

Project Fires

As a fire rages out of control, every resource available is gathered to the area. More and more firefighters are called in, creating a mini-city of up to 2000 people. Fire trucks arrive, portable showers and restaurants are set up, and a helicopter base is constructed. Helicopters are pressed into service for transporting food and supplies to this temporary city out in the wilderness.

Soon many aircraft converge on this “project fire,” an intense, out-of-control fire of perhaps only a few square miles. At treetop level, a handful of helicopters ranging in size from the nimble Jet Ranger to the lumbering twin-engine Chinook are dropping water and slurry on the main fire, and perhaps dripping balls of flammable liquid out ahead of the fire to lay down a controllable fire line or backfire. Within 500 hundred feet of the ground, up to a dozen assorted lead planes and airtankers are busy dropping slurry along the head and flanks of the main fire. Just above those aircraft, several jump planes are dropping smoke jumpers and their gear into areas where hot spots are cropping up.

Coordinating these many disparate aircraft operations is Air Attack, a sort of air traffic controller aboard an OV-10 twin-engine turboprop or Cessna O2 twin-engine piston airplane. This experienced fire ranger acts as an airborne command center for the ground-based Incident Coordinator in charge of the overall firefighting effort. Air Attack can direct ground crews to the fire by telling them which roads to use, chooses the best airborne resources for the effort, and directs the work of the airtankers. Circling a thousand feet overhead, the Air Attack pilot must fly safely over the area the fire ranger is concentrating on.

“If he is overloaded, he might not even be able to communicate this to you verbally,” says Wanda Nagel, Air Attack contract pilot and instructor on the OV-10. “He is just too busy, so you must watch him to see where he’s focusing his attention.”

As the fire ranger gets preoccupied with one area, the Air Attack pilot can take over some of his other duties: “I can be looking for spot fires, watching for ground crews in danger of being trapped, bringing in other aircraft, and assigning them altitudes and instructions, like an airborne approach,” Nagel reports. The long-range Air Attack plane can stay airborne for up to six hours, but is usually relieved by another crew after about four hours of flying in smoky, 100-degree air and turbulence.

On project fires, which can occur several times each season, fatigue and stress affect all the pilots as the hours and days stretch on. “It is so hot, you are trying to maintain your hydration and electrolyte levels just like a firefighter on the line,” says Nagel. As the sun sets and most aerial firefighters land for the day, another firefighting tool is just launching into the air. Using Sabreliner jets as well as Beechcraft KingAir B200 and E90 turboprop aircraft, U.S. Forest Service pilots fly over fires and other high-risk areas as technicians operate infrared scanning equipment to detect hot spots through smoke and haze. In the middle of the night, they land at a remote strip to deliver the film to the fire crew. Then the fire incident team spends the night analyzing the data and plotting fires and hot spots on maps for use in planning the next day’s firefighting strategy.

Interagency Coordination

Fires spread across wildlands according to the laws of nature, disregarding the fence lines of private land and the political boundaries of city, county, state, and federal lands.

“You can pick up a map with all these different colored squares showing who has responsibility for which piece of real estate," says Charlotte Larson, who works at the U.S. Forest Service National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. “Once a wildfire breaks out, it doesn’t take long for agencies representing all those colors to be out there working on the fire. No agency can stand alone in the wildland firefighting effort.”

The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management maintain fleets of firefighting aircraft. These federal agencies and some state agencies utilize their own aircraft and pilots for certain operations, and contract with private firefighting operators as well. There is also a national emergency cache of firefighting resources and accessories, and “once we get repeated requests for resources like airtankers and we can’t fill them due to other priorities, we can place an order with the Pentagon to call up National Guard units that are trained in firefighting,” Larson explains.

Job Qualifications

For entry-level pilot positions in aerial firefighting, the general requirements are the Commercial-Instrument pilot certificate with some flying experience. Most people interviewed for this article were hired into their pilot positions with the Airline Transport Pilot certificate, over 1500 hours, and previous commercial flying or instructing experience. Contract airtanker co-pilots may be hired with low time, but it takes at least one season of flying and making drops to become qualified as captain.

“You’re gonna have to pay your dues somewhere,” says Pat Goldhahn, pilot with the U.S. Forest Service. “Do something that shows you are serious about trying to make a flying career, and establish yourself as a professional pilot.”

MegAnn Streeter had a background in charter flying when she landed a job as co-pilot flying large airtankers, earning enough money each season to pay her way through college. “You have to show you are serious about the job, and you can’t be afraid of hard work,” she says.

Many firefighting pilots have a background in natural resource or agricultural flying. Both Bonnie Wilkins and Ruth Ann Page have extensive agricultural spray experience with helicopters. Mary Verry flew for cloud-seeding projects with the University of North Dakota, and Pat Goldhahn flew two seasons as a fixed-wing agricultural spray pilot in Montana. Low-level and mountain flying experience made them well-suited for the aerial firefighting mission.

Jobs with pipeline patrol, fish and wildlife-spotting, and other natural resource flying also provide valuable experience. Pilot Mary LaMoy’s first job with the U.S. Forest Service was on a trail crew. She became a firefighter, and eventually joined a Helitack crew before learning to fly.

While a firefighting background is not required, it is a good summer job for college students looking at an aerial firefighting career. “Several of our pilots came through the smoke jumper ranks, and they are extremely successful because of their knowledge of fire behavior,” reports Charlotte Larson of the U.S. Forest Service.

Basic pay for pilots employed by the U.S. Forest Service is about is $50,000 to $60,000 annually, more for fully qualified pilots who fly up to three aircraft types. For pilots at contract operators of airtankers, air attack, and helicopters, pay is typically by the hour or by the day, and earnings can vary dramatically depending on aircraft type, position, as well as experience.

At the federal and state agencies, opportunities exist for progression to other positions, such safety supervisor or management, with a commensurate increase in pay. Charlotte Larson began at the U.S. Forest Service as pilot and moved up the ranks to her position as National Fixed-Wing Specialist, where she works with the lead plane and airtanker programs and supervises contractors.

“Pilots should never narrow themselves to one career goal,” cautions Mary Verry, who is now a pilot for a major cargo airline. “Aviation is very dynamic, and its worthwhile to develop management skills, safety officer skills, or have some other area of expertise to fall back on.”

Federal and state forestry or conservation departments have their own hiring programs. Each individual contractor with firefighting operations must be contacted for information about their seasonal job openings.

Lifestyle

The fire season for each geographic area varies, dependent not only on vegetation type and season of the year, but also on climactic variations. Many resources, including firefighting crews and aircraft, are moved throughout the year to regions with high fire activity or risk.

“You’re a national resource, and subject to being called out at any time,” says Charlotte Larson. “When it’s your time to go, you live out of the airplane and out of a suitcase.”

Duty and flight time requirements vary, but pilots can expect to work up to 12 days before getting a one- or two-day break. This lifestyle can affect family life, but that suits some pilots. “Being gone from home a lot doesn’t bother me,” says Pat Goldhahn. “I figure I have a very nicely decorated storage unit.”

Pilots employed by federal or state agencies spend the off-season in the office or in the classroom, studying fire behavior, learning about new firefighting equipment, or getting checked out in new aircraft or a new aerial firefighting role. Pilots working for contractor operators might need to spend the off-season working at other jobs to pay the bills. The uncertainty of seasonal contract work can be a drawback, particularly for those with families to support. Without the security of a government job, contract pilots may not have such benefits as medical coverage, retirement savings, and have extreme difficulty obtaining life insurance.

Firefighting is a demanding, high-risk occupation. “This is not a job where you can take chances,” says helicopter pilot Bonnie Wilkins. “I’m very aware of what the aircraft is capable of doing, and also of what I am comfortable with.” Larson cautions prospective firefighting pilots with these words: “As a student airplane pilot, you learn to have lots of altitude and airspeed. But everything we do is slow and low-level, and if you’re not comfortable flying close to the ground and don’t have good situational awareness, this is not the job for you.”

Some pilots report a fascination with fire, and many point to a love of nature. “It might sound corny, but I really do love trees and nature,” Larson explains. “Most of the folks I work with are the same way: we feel good about protecting the environment.” Mary LaMoy adds: “Being based at a remote place in Idaho, covering a large area of roadless back country forest, provides some of the most beautiful flying there is.”

The independence appeals to Pat Goldhahn: “This type of flying suits me more than anything because I don’t work well in a structured environment,” she says. “Here, you’re given a mission, an airplane, and it’s just you. You simply have to go and do it.” Like soldiers at war, some firefighters get hooked on the adrenaline rush. Others enjoy the esprit de corps of working towards a common goal and fighting a readily identifiable target. “The camaraderie and teamwork are wonderful,” says Wanda Nagel. “When you can pull that off under high-stress situations, it is very satisfying.”

There is also instantaneous feedback of success or failure: “You know right now if you did a good job sizing up the fire, if the retardant hit where you wanted it to, and if your tactics are working,” says Larson.

Helicopter pilot Ruth Ann Page speaks for many when she says: “When you can help save a life, or save a house or property from destruction, you feel like you’ve accomplished something very, very worthwhile.”

May your dreams take flight!

Photo: A Coulson C-130 sprays fire retardant ahead of the leading edge of the Thomas Fire, California, December 13, 2017.

Photo credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Brian Ferguson.

This article was updated on October 28, 2024. An earlier version of this article was published in Women in Aviation: The Publication in Spring 1996.