Unless you are in the industry or somehow affiliated with it, you will never truly understand what it takes to be part of aviation as a whole. There is just so much to it on so many different levels. I am only just now scratching in the dust on the peaks of Everest.
In the past I always used to refer to pilots as "glorified bus drivers" but then I quite obviously never understood a 100th of what it takes to actually become a pilot. By pilot in this context I am referring to a commercial (professional) pilot and higher. Even after I got my private pilot’s license I still kinda thought "oh this isn’t as bad as everyone makes out" and thought I was quite something. Let me tell you, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Naïve bordering on stupidity to the maximum extreme!
I have learned a whole new respect for the guys and gals taking care of our skies and everything associated with it on the ground. It’s not easy. It’s scientific, precise, so strict, and on so many levels, wrought with inherent dangers. All this put together makes it so much safer for you (and me still) the traveler, getting to where we want to or need to be in one piece. Every aspect is covered and drilled into you. If a flight is slightly delayed there’s usually been an issue that had to cleared for our safety. If the flight is a little bumpy, chill. The pilots are not God (even though some might act differently) and have no control over the weather. And if you land a bit hard on the odd occasion then just accept that out of the 100s of landing that each of these guys do monthly, they cannot predict every single circumstance 50 feet off the ground traveling at 300kph aiming at a runway that, to draw a comparison, is like you driving at 200kph into your driveway.
The past two weeks has been an absolute eye opener. I’m using the term "eye opener" extremely loosely. I really mean "sheer terror"! I am only a 1/4 of the way through the ground school lectures and already I’m battling for air. It was supposed to be 4 hours a day (9-1) for 8 weeks and I thought I was mentally prepared for it. The information came at me with such force that almost equates to a baseball bat swung full tilt in the gob which made me feel completely overwhelmed, bruised and scarred and I just wanted to crawl up and die. On completion of day two I was so shaky I must admit my mind was jumping back to projects in shitty places like Angola because that’s where I am comfortable as that’s what I know. Comfort zone / Security blanket.
Day 3 I woke up with a vengeance. To hell with all this doubt. If I had tried to study everything I know about IT that I learned over the last 10 years in a short 8 weeks I would be just as flabbergasted to say the least. Get a grip dammit! What are you going to do? Wimp out now at the first little hurdle? HELL NO!!! To quote the famous words of NASA, "Failure is NOT an option!" So now I have jumped in head first and am hitting it with everything I have.
The school was kind enough to let me sit night school as well so with the exception of two lectures I missed because night school started 2 weeks earlier, I get to sit every lecture twice and it’s not the same course material at night as during the day which makes for some variation which is nice. Different subject, different lecturer, different people. Yes that also makes for an extremely long day though starting at 9am and finishing at 10pm but it’s worth it and it’s only for 2 months and besides, I get a double whammy of 1st class lecturing. I have to keep reminding myself that A/ No one said this would be easy and B/ This is what I want and if it were easy I would get bored and would walk away looking for another challenge. I’m demented like that. What ever happened to "following the path of least resistance"?
Next time I see those chaps (and chipettes) with 3 stripes and most especially those chaps (and chipettes) with 4 stripes, they will most certainly get the respect they deserve from me. No more snide bus driver comments. And if there are any bus drivers reading this, I think you are kewl too! Respect bruv!
It’s late, I have school tomorrow, goodnight.
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