Last week I attended the Rose Cafe where we spoke with a pilot about flying. As a person who travels quite a lot, often by plane, it was interesting to hear from the person in the cockpit. The conversation was very diverse, as we discussed everything from getting a pilot’s license, to a typical day as a commercial airline pilot, to airline regulation and trade unionization.
I was most struck by the pilot’s comment about airline regulation being “written in blood”, as many of the regulations have been implemented in the wake of a crash. Specifically, he spoke about the new regulations regarding work hours for flight crews. I had never thought very much about this process, but it seems to mirror the way a lot of regulation is created, not just in aviation.
Additionally, I was interested to learn about the schedule of a pilot. I had no idea the way that days were scheduled, so it was interesting to hear him talk about how he flies for “blocks” of 4 days at a time, and then has 7 or 8 days off. This definitely strays away from my understanding of a typical work day!
Overall, I enjoyed last week’s cafe. Flying has become kind of mundane for me, so it was really cool to get a behind the scenes understanding of commercial aviation!