Last week I attended the Rose Café with Mike Comella, First Officer for Delta’s Endeavor Air. As someone who (unfortunately) has done very little traveling in his life, this event was very eye opening. I’ve only been on a total of five or six flights in my life, most of which were when I was too young to remember. I’ve barely even left the EST time zone too, which should speak to the duration of each of those flights. That’s why a lot of his points were particularly surprising to me.

For example, I had no idea that there was pilot shortage in America currently. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to ask, but from a few earlier points he made it seems as though this is a function of the level of training required to become a pilot combined with the comparably low starting salary. When you take this into account with the fact that the schedule can be disruptive—night shifts, several days on then several days off, etc.—I can see the job being less glamorous then it may seem at first. I am not envious of the responsibility, but I have much respect for those who do it.

Additionally, another point brought up during the event that I had not thought of before is the flying equivalent of “highway blindness.” After some point, the novelty (and fear, in some cases) presumably would leave, and after staring at the same color for hours and hours on end on a transatlantic flight, I can imagine it would be difficult to stay completely alert. So much so, that I find it intriguing that, on average, flying is inherently much safer than driving despite being miles and miles above the earth. This event definitely gave me a lot more perspective on the profession, which I genuinely appreciate.