A Pilots Diary, normal day at work #pilotlife

 

Good Morning! Alarm 03:43 am and this is normally the time I get up when I work early shifts.

I could get ready in 15 minutes, but I prefer to give myself an hour, I slowly wake up, brew a coffee, do my morning stretches, wash my face, apply layers of extra protecting face cream for the dry environment we have in fight deck. I dont eat breakfast at home, I save that for when we reach top of climb, I have my second coffee, it is sunrise and we have left busy airspace and cleared to a waypoint a couple of hundred miles away, that’s my absolute favourite time o´flight.

I prepared my food the day before, so all I have to do is to put it in my cooler bag. Here are some examples of the kind of food I take with me to work.

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I don’t have a car in the UK, yet, so I rely on taking the train, early mornings before the train starts to run I take the bus, however, I prefer the train as it takes only 10 minutes and the buss over half an hour, and as you can imagine, in the morning, every second is a second longer I can sleep.

I report at the airport between 1 hour 15 minutes to 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time. I prepare the paperwork to have it done before the Captain gets there and everything is ready for briefing. We brief all crew together, flight deck and flight attendants. We go through anything that can be of relevance for the day, weather, expected turbulence etc.

It’s not an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) but the general rule is that the first officer, me, flies the first leg. Leg is what we call a sector or a flight. For example, if we fly from London to Malaga and back again, that would count as two legs or two sectors. We don´t use First Officers duty or Captains duty, for us it´s Pilot Flying or Pilot Monitoring, meaning that even if I am a First Officer I get to fly just as much as the Captain. Not to be confused, the Captain is still the Captain and have the final decission onboard.

During the cruise our main duty is to monitor the systems and do radio calls, apart from that, not much, I normally keep a book or a magazine in my flight bag, or if I am flying with a Captain who likes to talk we normally end up chatting all day.

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And food, I like to eat a lot, small but many portions. If I fly a four secotr day I have at least four different plates with me, no joke!

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We don’t do so-called layovers, I think we are fortunate that way. In the beginning, you might see it as exciting to stay in hotels, but I can only imagine how lonely it must be after a while, I much rather get back home every night, sleep in my own bed and see family and friends.

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Thank you for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed this and that it’s given you a better glimpse in what it’s like being an airline pilot. If you have any questions leave them below or on my, Instagram @pilotmaria I appreciate all feedback that you have xx Maria 

Thanks for today, I am taking the train back home now, time: 16:56

 

oh, I almost forgot, I flew to Memmingen and grabbed on of their famous Pretzels, YUM!