Moved to Discussions from Pages section

[Parvaz]

I am a captain of 9 years experience, before that, 7 years as a first
officer, will total time of approx 11,500 hours. I am one of the lucky
few who was taken on ab-initio so my cadetships to my first line
flight on the 737-200, was approximately 20 months. I have the support
of an amazing training team (including THE most experienced 320
captain in the world) who have actually trained instructors for Airbus
Industries, pilots for Aeroflot, Armenian Airlines, Etihad, on the
320/319 and Ryanair on the Boeing.



I am not an instructor, just a line captain, but I wanted to
acknowledge my teachers, and hope that some of their vast knowledge
has rubbed off onto me.



The first and most important statement I would like to make is that,
notwithstanding all of the above, I have a lot to learn and any pilot
out there who thinks they know enough is greatly mistaken. Those who
think they know it all should be shot.



We learn from experience and by sharing other's, Hence hats off to
Parvez for this forum.



Back to my title. Many of our passengers do not fly often, and we
sometimes have to stop and remind ourselves what an amazing profession
we have chosen, when we see those infrequent flyers boarding our
aircraft. Nerves, fear and even panic but mostly wonder fill their
eyes and as often as I can, I finish my preflight preps early enough
to greet my paychecks as they board. ( I say that with the utmost
respect ).



Occasionally I have had to calm a passenger in order to allow them to
enjoy the experience. I try to do this mainly by demystifying as much
as I can. Last week, a 13 year old girl boarded in LGW, she was
shaking like a leaf, her eyes were covered, her face red as a beetroot
and streaked with tears, she was being lead onto the plane by her
Grandmother who was genuinely worried that we would have to handle a
panic attack. She had flown 4 times before, each time worried enough
to spoil her holiday preparations and the holiday itself, so instead
of anticipation, she went through trepidation.



Due to the new security procedures, our doors are locked throughout
the flight, however, whilst on the ground, I lead her into the
cockpit, sat her on the jump seat, answered her questions and showed
her around my office. One could see her calm down and within a few
short minutes, Wonder rather than fear filled her eyes . She could not
wait to go and tell her (very relieved) Nan what she had seen. During
the cruize, I went back to check and found her smiling and enjoying
the flight, I know that her holiday was not taken over by the fear of
the return sector. I am lucky that this passenger and others with
similar stories will remember that first experience and me, every time
they fly for the rest of their lives. Grown men have recognized me
from a framed photo of their childhood visit to the flight deck. (pre
9/11)



I am eternally grateful for the career I have, and always try not to
become jaded. However many gripes I might have about the hours, the
relatively low pay, the slots the notocs, and the 101 others things
that crop up from time to time, I remind myself how lucky I am.



Nervous passengers are not a nuisance, they are an opportunity to
realise that what we can sometimes take for granted, is in fact an
extraordinary and wonderful thing. Flight.



We few, we lucky few.

[Parvaz]

I'm sorry I missed this post when you submitted it. I moved it to the
discussion section. We have about the same total flight time although
our careers took different routes. If you have the time and interest
I would appreciate you writing something about Cockpit Resource
Management and the "Culture" in the flight deck on European carriers.
It would be interesting for me to have perspectives from European,
Middle Eastern and Asian pilots.