There is something very exciting about the thought of becoming a pilot, traveling the world, demanding respect wherever you go and taking those amazing planes up into the skies where you’ll have the most spectacular views that there is. With this being said, there are some common misconceptions about pilots, which today we are going to debunk. We caught up with my brilliant find captain Alexis Fecteau, who helped me out with putting some of these popular myths about what a captain does and what they are like, firmly to bed.
Let’s lift off then and find out the real truth behind pilot’s lives.
Millionaires
Many seem to think that all pilots make a killing when it comes to their wages, and that would make sense given this mighty important job that they must do, ferrying the public from one place to another at 40,000 feet. Although it may very well make sense, the truth is that most pilots really don’t make that much money at all. Now this is not to say that there are pilots out there on the breadline, this is not the case at all, but those flying for budget airlines are only making around $100,000. Those flying the monster planes will be making good money, but on average, a pilot doesn’t make that much.
Seeing The World
Pilots do of course fly all over the world and very often they do get some time to spend there, because of the limitations around flying hours. A pilot can’t fly for 8 hours and then simply hop in another plane to fly back, there are rules around rest times. With all of this being said however, pilots very rarely get much time to spend in these far flung places and usually they are too tried to do very much either. This in fact is a bit of pain for many pilots, who have visited so many countries but in reality never seen them.
Daredevils
Another common myth which many people have when it comes to pilots is that these men and women are daredevils, riding into the airport on Harley’s, living life to the limit. It is very easy to understand why people think like this, after all pilots are the ones who take these heavy machines up into the skies, not to mention the inspiration which many will have taken from movies like Top Gun, but the truth is in fact quite different. Pilots are actually very measured and very professional people in the main, and daredevil would not be a word that could be best used to describe the people who do this job. A daredevil is someone who throws caution to the wind, a pilot is someone who will not risk a single thing, sticking to protocols instead to ensure the safety of everyone on board.
It is easy to buy into the belief of what pilots are, but the reality is in fact far less exciting.