An Interview with a Pilot

Why is being a pilot considered such a ‘dreamy’ job, only limited to those spoilt kids that grew up playing aviation games? Should it not be on the same level as a doctor or an engineer? Well, to answer these very questions, I had arranged for an interview with the captain of ‘Airbus 330’ from Oman Air, Abbas Rizvi, who had recently succeeded in an important flight exam.

He informed me from his point of view about the reason as to why many people do not consider piloting as an ordinary job, “It is fascinating but dangerous”. Fascinating in a way that the person gets to see beautiful views and explore the depths of mother earth, but then again he states coldly, “there was also a survey done recently in 2016, it is the third most stressful jobs in the world, after a soldier and a firefighter”. Who could have thought?

Abbas as a child had a different image of being a pilot, misconceptions and stereotypes that were developed from the society around and fed to him, after experiencing actual piloting he condemns these perceptions, “(young) people get attracted to the fascination to flying, the uniform and the whole going to different destinations, but the reality is different”. Although he does admit that initially the whole uniform, meeting new people and rounding the globe is done at the start of the career, soon it starts to take a turn into a more responsible pathway. When asked about what responsibilities this career holds, he answers

Like any other family, Abbas’s family was also concerned about his dream job, he narrates a certain remembrance from his childhood, “When I first finished my school, in my yearbook it says what do we want to become, the whole class, and mines was commercial pilot”, from then on he had the passion for flying, but his family did disapprove of it. So Abbas cleverly chose Aeronautical engineering, he thought that this way he wouldn’t have to disobey his parents and at the same time he would also gain maximum knowledge of the aircraft’s ins and outs. Then he confesses that it’s his family that was with him through thick and thin once they knew that he really wanted to be a pilot and helped him get through the course. If a family doesn’t support one’s decisions, it really discourages that person, but it shouldn’t stop them from pursuing it, Abbas knows that very well.

Abbas’s wife, Shahana, comes from a 9 year aviation background, having been an air hostess herself, but is currently settled as a housewife after marriage. When Abbas is queried as to whether his flying passion influenced his choice of partner or would he have found it easier if she was from a different career, he answers, “To be honest my passion for flying did not really play a major in my partner but then it definitely helped the way we are. According to him, her understanding and coming from the aviation background really helps. He cracks a joke “When we met… she was flying, I wasn't flying, and now I'm flying and she's not flying”, he laughs. Life is really full of coincidences.

Shahana was also interviewed in this duration for her views on the matter, she thinks that the jump from aviation life to a housewife’s is a big change for her, “Being a housewife, there are lots of responsibilities and you have lots of things to do, kids, exams… but having a career of flying, you don't wake up with a responsibility, you wake up saying SHOPPING!”.

She does think it’s hard for a woman to be in this field because the society demeans them, they think that this girl is all about partying and clubbing, “Even I had that perception when I first started flying, I thought life is all about this”, but when she actually experienced it, she found many friends just like her. “I mean life is not a party when you are in a crew”.

Being the wife of a pilot, she does experience some times when she feels rather sad about her husband not being there in the most important steps of their family life due to his duties, “you are like a single woman handling the house, your husband's not there for most of the occasions of your life like it's Eid or you have a parent teacher meeting he's not there, when your child goes to school for the first time when your child walks for the first time”, and although she was briefed by a few colleagues before that this was bound to happen, she still chose to marry him. As they say, Love is blind.

The pilot is then asked about the pros and cons of flying, “people who love the job should go for flying, because that is their key for the survival of it in this job, nowadays there are many different jobs that pay well, back in the day uff pilot was the only job that pay well”. He also says that he feels lucky as he gets paid for a job that’s also his hobby, “there are many unlucky people who work..they just go to work to earn their bread and butter”. Some of the cons he addresses is that pilots start initially at a high rate, but stay at the rate for the rest of the career, as well as odd sleep cycles, lots of stress, and the most important one is fitness. He says that once you enter the career, it’s very hard to change it  when you’re medically unfit at the ages of 40 and above, most of the other career options also close down on you at that age.

The professional pilot balances his family life and aviation career successfully without letting the two intervene, I eagerly ask him how he does that, “I switch off that button of personal and switch on that button of professional when I wear my uniform, the only responsibility is to fly that airplane safely from point A to B, disregarding everything that's going on”. But he does input that the family also needs to understand that a pilot’s life is not easy, if the family understands and the pilot gives his best, it work out pretty well then.

He guarantees the safety of his passengers by briefing us with a program that occurs in his training, “SOP's, Standard Operating Procedures, are to make the sure the aircraft is safe and everything is in safe operation, that's why we have to study all the time”. He says that everyone is very disciplined and professional in what they do, keeping personal problems away also is one of the key features in having a safe and pleasant flight for the passengers.

What makes a perfect pilot? Abbas has the answer. “Skills-wise, it's your ability in performing your duties, knowledge-wise how much you keep yourself up to date and you know your legalities these two things can be worked out, it's the third factor that makes a perfect pilot which is the attitude”. He states that he goes through a program called CRM in which they test his decision making skills and communication skills, a perfect pilot should be really good in this test as well as keeping updated with the latest techniques, he should be open to opinion from his crew members but also not forget how to make decision himself. “Gain advice from the team at the same time and make the best decision combining our knowledge and experience and combining theirs and coming up to a good decision”. This really should be for everyone working in a career.

I demand some gender demographics from him in Oman Air, “I think 4 or 5 females compared to 600 pilots”, shocked at the statistic, I ask him to give his opinion on to why women hesitate in entering this field, “5+5 is 10, 6+4 is 10 and 3+7 is 10 the number is 10 but the calculation is different, women have different roles to play in our society whereas men have different roles”. He thinks it’s because of the responsibilities imposed by the society on women besides being a demanding job. But then he says lightheartedly, “There are lots of women pilots in India who have left flying, got babies, resumed flying and now they're in their 50's and still flying, so slowly women are coming up, we have Omani girls who are pilots, two are already first officers on airbus...I feel in another few years you'll see a lot of women piloting, you’ll see”. I hope so.

Abbas’s message for future pilots is that although it’s a very challenging job with tests and simulators every six months, license renewals and loads of studying, “If you want to get into it, get into it for the passion of flying, because that is the key for survival of it in this job, not for the money”. He smiles.