Dear my Aviator,
I’m m now working for 12 years in the aviation industry and it is even over 14 years ago that I signed the contract with my former flight school to become a commercial pilot. I take this anniversary as an occasion to recap my time as a pilot. Even though my time as a pilot had a lot of ups and downs it is still a dream job for me. On my social media, everything might look perfect, but this job also has its downsides. Are you ready for the pros and cons of being a pilot?
But let’s start with a little aspect that annoys me about being a pilot. Security checks. As a private jet pilot, I had the privilege to skip security controls at many destinations. But as a commercial pilot you have to pass security like any other passenger with only a few exceptions.
Paris security staff treat pilots like a potential terrorist.
This is so ridiculous when you take into account that all crew members have a valid background check. Once they wanted to see my turmeric powder in my food bag. They tried to check it for liquid?! In the end, had to taste the spice in front of the security staff to prove that it is not an explosive. A waste of time and nerves but I decided to take it with humour from now on.
Flight school 👨🏼🏫
After I graduated high school I started right away preparing for the assessment to become a flight student for Lufthansa. I failed the first step of the selection process due to my extreme nervosity at that time.
Back then I was really sad about this but now I see it from a whole different perspective and I am actually happy that I failed the test.
I definitely took a more difficult way to become a pilot. The flight training was self-funded, which made me put so much effort into it so I would for sure succeed. There was no job guarantee after graduating from flight school. It was tough to start my aviation career as a first officer on a private jet. The “Lufthansa way” would have been the easy way but would not have made me the person and pilot I am today.
PRO: You have the time of your life with lots of studying and flying.
CON: No job guarantee with a self-funded training. There is a high risk of not getting a job and the waiting time can be extremely long.
Pilot Licence 🎟
It is not an easy and inexpensive path to obtain the license to fly commercial airplanes. But in the end, it is “only” a license and not an occupational education nor a degree. Health restrictions could cause your inability to fly, thus you can not pursue your profession further. At least not in an actual cockpit. As a little back up I got a loss of license insurance which is a must for every pilot.
CON: If you lose your medical you lose your license and you cannot fly anymore. In case you did not study you are left without any education. With a contract, the airline pays for your training and keeps all ratings valid. In case of unemployment, you have to take care of it yourself which can get extremely costly.
PRO: You fly yourself and you are in control of powerful machines.
Salary 💸
The days of making a fortune as a pilot are over. A good availability of pilots on the market causes that working conditions and salaries to drop as it happens at moment due to the pandemic. Especially as a first pilot, the current time is not easy. My net salary was around 2800€ when I started in 2010. Luckily, I did not have to take a loan for the training, because my parents supported me. Imagine if have to pay back the costs of the license (70.000€) plus the type rating costs (20.000€) it would take ages and would not leave any money left to save.
The salary depends highly on which company you fly for, where you are based, which aircraft type you fly and how well you negotiate your salary.
There are a few pilot jobs out there in which you can make really good money. Especially in the business aviation on a private jet flying for an owner, you can easily earn 20,000€ as captain but those jobs are extremely rare and do not give you a lot of security.
PRO: A captain’s salary enables you to have a good life. But it is usually a long way to the left seat.
CON: Pilot salaries differ greatly. Even “Pay to fly models” exist where pilots have to pay the airline to fly. You have to invest a lot and work hard to boost your income. When switching companies you lose your seniority or might even fly as first officer again.
Job security 🦠
Aviation is a volatile business with great ups and downs. The pandemic has shown us how volatile. From one to the other day several ten thousand pilots got unemployed. You are dependent on the profitability of your airline. If an airline cannot cope with a crisis or suffers from bad management pilots are not needed anymore.
PRO: No office day is the same and you do not take any left work home. You can enjoy the good reputation of being a pilot and you get paid to look out of the window.
CON: You are only needed as long there are flights and aircraft. This profession is highly specialized you can only fly aircraft and you are type rated on one special aircraft.
Social life and free time 🏄🏼
Do you have a social life? I have been getting asked this question many times. Of course, I do like everyone else.
But it requires good organization and planning to see friends and family.
You often have free time during the week when the majority of the people has to work and has no time. But one aspect I exceptionally like about the job is that you do not take any work home.
PRO: I have more than ten off days in a month. (German law requires a minimum of eight) Sometimes it is even half of the month that I am not working. Between duty days I can at least enjoy four off days in a row without taking leave. In which kind of job do you have this?
CON: You are not home. About half of the month you are not at home, so you will not be able to attend all family and friend events. It is not possible to attend weekly classes regularly like language or dancing classes.
Layovers 🗺
In the past 12 years I have been to hundreds of different locations in Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Russia. As a private jet and as an airline pilot I am having layovers outside of my home base. The time I get to spend at one destination ranges from minimum rest (10 hours) up to two days. The destinations were varying all the time as a private jet pilot. I really liked the fact that I got to choose the crew hotel myself. You can imagine that I did not stay in the worst places. 😉
PRO: I have a fixed flight schedule and I know how much time I have at one destination. I can really use my rest time to do activities. (airline pilot)
CON: When the network is limited you get to stay at the same destination more often. (airline pilot)
Working hours ⏰
The pilot job has probably one of the most irregular working hours. Aviation does not know weekends or public holidays. There are some days you only have one flight and there are others you have up to five legs. Instead of four duty hours up to 16. Fortunately, I did not have to deal with jet lag, since I have been flying mostly within Europe. As a private jet pilot, I flew primarily during the day since VIPs do not like to get up early. As an airline pilot, I also got to fly at night, which is a lot of stress for your body and you have to fight against fatigue.
PRO: I like the irregular working hours. I do not have to get up at the same time every day. Some flying days are long some are short. The work remains on board and when I have off I have off.
CON: Due to the irregular working hours I have to take good care of my body. That is why I have a healthy diet and do regular body exercises to stay fit.
Crew life 🥳
Becoming a pilot means you become part of a big family. Crews all share the same passion which connects everyone easily. To guarantee a safe flight requires the crew to work in a team in a small environment. I think that is why you won’t find this energy and enthusiasm in other jobs. Crews take care of each other and support each other. The well being of each crew member ensures the safety of each flight. Nevertheless, there is a lack of diversity in aviation.
Especially in the cockpit, you will not find many members of the LGBTQ community.
I have met great, open-minded, and modern thinking pilots. Most of them belonged to the younger generation. Unfortunately, there is still a huge percentage of pilots that are not tolerant and have an old fashioned mindset when it comes to sexuality.
PRO: Colleagues can become friends. To share the flight experience and to spend the layover together is double the fun.
CON: During work, I am not staying at a nice location with my beloved once. It still remains work. Every crew member has their own daily routine so it happens that you only spend time together in the cockpit and the rest of the time everyone does their own thing.
Upgrade 👨🏼✈️
One aspect I really love about my job is that you constantly need to learn to be the best pilot possible. Whether it is to improve your flying skills or to review system related knowledge. Aviation requires you to be up to date on new procedures and regulations. Even after flying an aircraft for thousands of hours, you will find out something new about it.
With the first day of your first officer career, you start your training to become a captain one day.
PRO: You never stop learning as a pilot. That is a really nice fact which makes this job so interesting.
CON: Switching companies means you lose your seniority. So you usually have to fly as first officer again even though you flew as captain before. Becoming a captain can take up to 10 years.
What would I have done differently?
I would have done everything exactly the same, except one point. Before starting with the flight training, I would have studied to get a degree or at least studied in parallel to the flight school. Keep this in mind when deciding to become a commercial pilot.
Which downside would you like the least? Please let me in a comment below and do not forget to like this blog post.
Happy landings!
Your Pilot Patrick
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You always go for the impossible thing to make it possible and you take each target as your aim. You love taking challenges and you deserve this achievement
Your dedication, enthusiasm and insight are really inspiring. I wish you many years of great achievements.Congratulations my favorite Pilot Patrick … Time for cut the cakelets celebrate your Anniversary where is my cake
Pilotpatrick I know are you a good man when you meet me before we miss you in life
My dearest captain pilot patrick congratulations for you long service 12 years being a pilot wow your parents proud of you and one in only brother john..❤ may the lord bless you on way as the life goes on..always pray to God almighty..I/ we here to support you by messaging in comments on your upload like love and share!✈ and ofcourse i/ you consedired one captaincoco_1..❤ love from me jannise
There is no shortcut to success. You proved it
There is when you have rich parents like him
God luck pilot patrick ich liebe dich♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
I’ve been following your stories for a few days now and I have good news. I do not love you anymore. And that’s great. You are not the man of my dreams. Don’t take it personally. You’re cool, but not my ideal. And I am happy
Hi Patrick, thank you so much for this awesome and interesting post. Congratulations on your 10 years anniversary in aviation and also completing 3000 hours of flight.
After reading this article, l am getting more knowledge on the aviation industry. So challenging and not so easy at all even though we thought that it is a glamour job.
It was so surprising that as a pilot, you don’t have any exception going through the security check. Sometimes l am quite worry also in case they ask me to open my luggage. There was once when l brought some cut fruits myself and the officer asked me to open my bag. Luckily it was allowed to bring in.
Actually l love your flexible working hours so that we have time for other things as well.
I am confident that you will be promoted to be a Captain very soon. There is always an opportunity for everyone. It is just a matter of time.
As always say, safe travels and happy landings, my super talented and gorgeous PilotPatrick
Cool
sehr gut geschrieben, sehr interessanter und schöner Blog-Post. Ist echt gut geworden, Patrick!
Hej Patrick.Jestem naprawdę pod wrażeniem twojej pracy …naprawdę nie jest tak kolorowo jak się wydaje..Dla mnie najgorszą wadą ,był by nieregularny dzień pracy.ja muszę mieć wszystko poukładane jak w zegarkuDzięki za Twoją obecność dajesz dużo radości ….Dopiero od niedawna Cię obserwuję ,ale traktuję Cię jak członka rodziny….Tak trzymaj i spełniaj swoje plany i marzenia.Pozdrawiam serdecznie…A jeszcze jedno musisz książkę napisać o lataniu,masz dar pisania..Brawo Patrick.
objective & reality.In the global integration of economy and information today,Various media also introduced the development of foreign aviation industry and the situation of its employees,it was almost the same as you wrote. you failed the first step of the selection process. One reason for that was your nervosity at that time.Can you illustrate your nervosity at that time?
Thanks so much for sharing this!!! Im about to start my flight training soon and yes before that i did a bachelor in business administration. I encourage you too! Keep the good work!
Hi captain, which flying school would you advice for an International students?
Pls.can talk to me if you are professional thank you
Congratulations on you 10th aviation anniversary. Very interesting to read and nice that you opened up about it. I am planning to start with the selection procedures(KLM) to become a pilot at the end of the year after graduation from college. On beforehand, I already knew the airline industry is a very volatile industry that is why I decided to get a degree first. I was wondering, if you get your licenses but not a job within Europe(like home) but you do speak multiple languages, would that have an advantage to get a job for example in Asia?
Hello, congratulation for you. Me too, it is 10 years of my job too but nothing special happened. So difficult for being a civil servant here. Every job has its own risk. Maybe people think that no risk for being a teacher but they are wrong. We have big responsibility to create pilots, doctors or even presidents. This is not simple, every pupils have their own characters. But I try to enjoy it. By enjoying our job, everything will be okey n interesting. Our life is already written by God. I have plans, you have plans but God’s plans are better. So take everything as new knowledge n new experience! Sometimes failed is the best way of life. Failed teaches us to be more patient. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Thank you, cause of you I love aviation although I never fly. Maybe someday I’ll become someone who fly more, InsyaAllah. Hmmm who knows? May Allah always protect you wherever you are. Be healthy n always happy.
Tôi là người việt nam. Mới đây trên một trang facebook tên là Richard Francis lấy hình ảnh của phi công Pilotparick để đi lừa đảo gạt tình cảm của những cô gái trong đó có tôi. Và vì vậy tôi đã cố gắng tìm trang của anh Pilotparick để nói cho a biết . Vì a là một người đàn ông tuyệt vời hình ảnh đẹp lại bị kẻ xấu lấy hình cắt đứt từng đoạn video để lừa đảo .Hành động này làm ảnh hưởng đến danh dự của a. Tôi chỉ muốn nói rõ đều đó để anh được biết và nếu ai có đọc bình luận này thì tôi mong rằng họ sẽ luôn tin vào nhân phẩm của anh Pilotparick. Tôi yêu anh.
How could you take a selfie in the sky? Are there no problems with pressurization?
Anyway, thank you so much for the post. The most informative one about pilot career. I always hold special admiration for you courageous pilots
Hi Patrick,
Sorry to bother. Someone send me FB friend request from this profil https://www.facebook.com/roye.dontee.7
Is this you? Or is someone using you profil pictures?
Please check and let me know.
Cheers
INGRID
Fake of course! I wrote an article about it here on my blog.
Hi Patrick, Thank you for this! I’m currently working in hotel industry and very interested to become a pilot someday. Your insights and honesty with your blogs are very helpful for aspirant pilot like myself. I will subscribe to your YouTube Channel and follow your website. Again, Thanks for doing this. Cheers! – Alex, from Philippines
Aloha from Honolulu, Hi. I agree with everything in your blog. I think the amount you payed for your pilot certification and type ratings is around $102,000 U.S dollars. I became a pilot in 2001, but I was unable to afford the high cost of flight training on my own after my parents stop paying for it. I incurred a debt that took me eight years to pay off, but I don’t have any regrets. I got to fly to places like over the Grand Canyon, over the Golden Gate Bridge, VFR flights in Hawaii, and flew a seminole from California to Florida. Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary. Good luck to you and your future endeavors.
So how do you feel mr pilot that someone named henry hernandez is using you pictures on tango app and fool girls there
I am confused that people are that naive and pay money to unknown people.
I’ll be opting for this aviation course as I too want to become a pilot, so are there any doubts like after everything I mean after my training has started and invested so much…I do not get to become a pilot?
Hello Tanvi, atm the market is really good there are a lot of pilot jobs available. But even if this is not the case. If you are willing to relocate you will find a job. You just need to but effort into it! Happy landings.
[…] aspects that I did not enjoy or like as well. Like on previous blog posts like the one about my dream job. I have not only listed the great advantages of this job, but also mentioned the downsides which […]
checkout my name
Hey Patrick
Super toller Blogbeitrag den du geschrieben hast
Das Schlimmste ist wohl der ganze Security Check und dass die Ausbildung ohne Jobgarantie so teuer ist
Ich wünsche Dir einen schönen Sonntag und Ostern
Hi Patrick,
Cool stuff. Important question – did you get to start studying business? If so, which doors will it open for you at your currently airline? Will the business degree help you get promoted both horizontally and vertically?
Thanks for your answer!
[…] German commercial pilot attested that one of the job’s greatest consequences is the loss of regular family […]
[…] my job as a pilot, I get to fly to many fantastic destinations. At the moment the flight operation requires me to […]
[…] Yes, yes and yes. In a recent Instagram post, I stated that you should choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life. For me, it is still the best job in the world and it does not feel like work for me (most of the time). Of course, the job brings long also negative aspects. It can be indeed tough, unglamorous and hard work. But in the end, it counts that all negative aspects fade behind all the positive sides of the job. More about the pros and cons here. […]
Your website and comments are excellent. I think what you recommend by getting a bachelors degree first is important and something that I pursued myself. I started flight training after my degree but the costs were too much and I ended up stopping before I could finish.
My parents could not afford to help me so I had to pay the whole cost myself and realized that it was going to be many years before I could pay off my debt and get established so reality set in and my pilot career ended.
In retrospect, I regret not continuing but I made the best decision for me at the time.
You know, simeone stolen your photos to makes their profiles on dating sites to scam ppl. Pls be carefully or do something useful to protect your photos.
Regards.
Hong, from Vietnam.
https://silvenfilm.ru/boeviki/
When I think about it, I did not pursue my dream job of being a commercial pilot or being a movie producer. I took a more practical route (computer programming), hated it, and am now self-sufficient in real estate.
I can’t complain my life is decent. I have money coming in, good health, and I live in Hawaii. I am free to pursue other business adventures. But I do enjoy reading about the path you took. Thanks for the article.
hi how do you feel mr pilot that someone named leo derrick is using your picture and fools girls on facebook is it you or not
so you are not leo derrick why all this lie to me patrick biedenkapp
Hello
I have a question?
I want to order a laptop part from your shop.
but i can not find it anymore in your shop,
it looks like this picture on this site https://screenshot.photos/parts8746
I hope you will sell it again soon.
I’ll wait.
greetings
“Sent from my iPhone”
Hello sir I want your number tell you something. It’s urgent.
It’s very urgent
Hi! It was really inspiring reading your vlog. My dream is to become and airline pilot, but I am so unsure about witch company is the best. At witch company do you get the best opportunities to evolve on different plane types, and where do you get the best salarys? I know this is and extremely open question, but I just want your personal opinion 😉
HI everyone, I just completed my high school last year 2020 and am looking forward to apply as a pilot…
[…] More about the pros and cons here […]
Love this title ” 12 years being a Pilot : Pros and Cons of a dream job ” Congratulations to you !!
So happy and proud of your aviation career !!
What a fantastic job and What a fantastic blog here !!
First of all , i want to encourage you and others that it is still not too late or never too late to obtain your bachelor in your lives !! As i obtained my bachelor of science of nursing i worked so very hard as a full time registered nurse during my study . And even now im still upgrading my nursing career to become a NP after so many years i work as a nurse .
Love your saying : ” With the first day of your First officer career , You start your training to become a Captain one day ” This is so inspiring and i loved it !!
The most ” Pros ” of a Pilot career is that they get the respect from the publication for sure !! So proud of our lovely Captain Patrick !! You’re respected and adored by all your lovely Aviator !! Love , Michele
Very nice blog post. It’s true being a pilot is a very tough job but if it’s your passion to fly you will enjoy it always on top.
Good thing of being a pilot is you can reach many countries without spending a lot. Anyways happy 14th years of being a pilot.
Thank you Patrick for insight of your Pilot ✈️ life I enjoy reading every thing you write about.
Wao ! Very interesting Perfecto
Hallo Patrick. Tut mir leid, hier zu schreiben, aber es ist sehr wichtig. Ich habe dir auf Instagram geschrieben. Hier kann ich nicht schreiben, was los ist. Bitte lesen Sie die Nachricht. mein Name ist Angelika
Big congratulations
Wow fantastic
If weather is bad
What do you do when flying ?
I’ve been following your stories for a few days now and I have good news. I do not love you anymore. And that’s great. You are not the man of my dreams. Don’t take it personally. You’re cool, but not my ideal. And I am happy
[…] BLOG: Pros And Cons Of Being a Pilot […]
Anna dova_1080
It’s been a really long time since I read your blog. People still think that piloting is a high-paying profession not only in Germany but also in all countries. The girls still dream of falling in love with a captain who flies for big airlines, they will be fully provided with material and you are the whole sky of girls who love you because you are a beautiful pilot attractive guy, rich and friendly. As for me, I am afraid of flying because I am afraid of the risk of the plane crashing (although sometimes I still have to fly because of work). I think if I marry a man who is a pilot, the thing that worries me the most is his safety in every flight, not because he is an attractive and handsome pilot lots of money. I don’t care much about aviation, I don’t know much about airplanes either and the only thing I think of you is ” you’re lifting tons of iron into the sky “. I’m the girl who writes the most anti-you comments out of all your fans but every time I see you fly what concerns me the most is that you land safely. You and I are not destined to understand each other so you misunderstand who I am in each of my comments but I always wish you a safe flight and safe landing❤❤❤