Commercial Airline Pilot Job Analysis Essay

Among the many careers perceived to be exciting in terms of travel perks and financial gains is in the field of aviation. A career on aviation particularly working for commercial airlines and private companies continues to interest a lot of people nowadays because aside from its attractive earnings, it also provides pilots and other flight attendants the opportunity to travel across the world’s massive continents and over its vast waters. This very tempting offer to be able to travel and be exposed to different cultures and see the rest of the world may probably be one of the most factors why being a commercial airline pilot is still viewed as a glamorous and equally important job.

The Demand for Pilots

There is growing demand for commercial airline pilot nowadays. This continuing demand for commercial airline pilots is affected by several factors, namely (“Dream Job”, 2005):

• A worldwide shortage of pilots which also means more overseas job opportunities and fewer applicants for domestic jobs.
• Having more experienced pilots able to fly international routes who are required to cope with the growing number of transnational tourists/passengers.
• Having good number of mid-career pilots who are greatly in demand by regional airlines, that are trying to expand their capacity by up to 40% to a result of the greater number of people (especially migrants) living in smaller cities.
• More flying instructors who are highly in demand to train the increasing number of international students studying for commercial pilot licenses in various flight training schools.
• New pilots are needed to replace the large number of highly experienced pilots who are approaching retirement age and will leave the occupation over the next decade.

How to Become One

To become a licensed and/or trusted commercial airline pilot, proper training is a must. There are a number of schools which offer programs or courses for commercial airline pilot aspirants. In the said program, students are then taught of the basic and advance airplane and helicopter operations (ECIS, 2007). Students also learn all about navigation, the safety and precautionary measures involving planes, as well as the aircraft design and performance. Teachers of such program or course also make sure that the students will learn valuable information on flight crews working together as a team and as an individual (ECIS, 2007).

Teaching in the commercial airline pilot program is not an easy task. Teachers should have the credibility to teach students not only the basic tenets of flying but of the overall flying and aircraft service operation. Rochford (2003) stated that learning style is the way a particular student concentrates on, absorbs, processes, internalizes, and recalls new information. This implies that every airline pilot student will have their own preferred learning style depending on their own capabilities to gather and absorb data, and in how they process and organize such data (Felder & Silverman, 1988; Van Zwanenberg, 2000). There are five factors that influence the learning style of an individual. These factors include (Dunn and Dunn, 1993):

• environmental situation – which involves the level of noise, the temperature, the amount of light available
• personal emotional characteristics – with which motivation from other people and from the self, persistence, perseverance, and sense of responsibility and dependability are very important
• sociological preferences for learning – which pertains with the idea of choosing a learning endeavor done alone or a learning endeavor with other peer
• physiological characteristics – that refers to the motor abilities, the visual and auditory stimulus
• global aspects – which involves the combination of the above stated factors

Knowledge on the learning styles is beneficial for both the students and the educators. As for the educators and aspiring ones, knowledge on various learning styles of the students will help them facilitate the learning undertaking and manage the classroom and the students properly. Meanwhile, if the students know the specific learning style apt for their personality and needs, then they could maximize the use of that particular learning style which will result to the students’ enhanced educational achievement.

Like for example if I am the educator and I noticed that one of the students is like me, who is more inclined to learning using the perceptual modality (where visuals and auditory functions is highly used), I could then focused on giving more examples and explaining the topics through the use of pictures and sounds. I can make use of various instructional materials where the students could make us of their perceptions in a dynamic way.

Airline students’ learning styles is a good way of measuring their ability to grasp the subjects very well. This alone is enough reason why understanding the various leaning styles can play a crucial role in facilitating an effective learning undertaking.

It should be noted that getting a certificate from a commercial airline pilot training is not an easy undertaking. There’s a step by step process that one has to undergo. First and foremost, aspiring pilots should muster the basic flying maneuvers (ECIS, 2007). This would of course mean that the student him/herself should not afraid of heights, has a very clear vision and can be in control of him/herself despite of the different environmental disturbances while in the air. Some of these basic flying maneuvers include taking off, landing and taxiing (ECIS, 2007). Eventually, aspiring pilots will then be learning advanced in-flight maneuvers such as flying in loger distances, flying at different time of the day (night or day) and facing difficult weather situations (typhoons cyclones, etc.)

Airline and/or flight safety and preflight procedures are also very important aspects that aspiring pilots should learn about (ECIS, 2007). They need to know the SOS protocols, air navigation systems, air traffic controls and safety gadgets and/or clothing that they need to have once they become a full ledge commercial airline pilot.

After such arduous basic learning matters, commercial airline pilot students will then go into specifics. This is now called flight crew training (ECIS, 2007) wherein the will have to focus studying on specific airplanes. Like or example the plane Boeing 747. each pilot will then have a chance to fly by themselves this specific type of plane so that they will be familiar with every plane’s condition. In the same manner each commercial pilot student will also be tasked to handle different cargo (ECIS, 2007).

In each solo flight, each pilot is also tested in handling correct safety and survival procedures. When the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack happened, this gave fear to most airlines that they then requested he airline schools to include in their lessons several aspects of handling aggressive situations including fending off attacks (ECIS, 2007).

The length of taking such program normally varies. It will be dependent on how the school operate each courses and of course on how each student will be able to cope with each task that they will be assigned to. Some colleges and/or universities offer such course as an associate degree which can be taken (if full time) in two years time. These programs is aimed at preparing the students to take the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) written exams. At some points, that can include flight lab courses. Other training options for aspiring pilots are the private flight schools, independent flight instructors, the military, and self-study of written materials (ECIS, 2007).

It should also be noted that commercial airline pilots are licensed and authorized for such a task. To be licensed, students must pass the FAA exams (which is a combination of written, oral, and flight tests) supervised by an FAA examiner or inspector. Once they got their license, pilots an then serve as for private companies or become self-employed. They also have the option to fly planes for other purposes like crop dusting, advertising or skydiving (ECIS, 2007).

The Challenge

Considering a career on aviation however, also should include an evaluation of its many dangers or complexities for that matter. A stable state of mind and acknowledgement of a moral responsibility are first and foremost very critical since being a pilot inevitably means prioritizing the safety of everyone on board a plane. Being a pilot may also not be an easy job after all, if one would look at the various financial, physical, and mental demands that an aspiring pilot has to face and eventually surpass. First of all, studying aviation is not a cheap endeavor. There are only a few aviation schools in the country, and as expected, the best schools charge more. This is understandably so because real education and training in aviation means more than reading books or taking exams. It includes tinkering with real planes, knowing how to troubleshoot them, and literally getting a hand-on experience by flying the actual planes. Planes are of course expensive, and flying them, even for practice means having a spacious area enough to accommodate runways!

Pursuing a serious profession in aviation itself is the more challenging part. Giving up a lot of leisure hours is one consideration. This is because being a pilot entails irregular if not lack of sleeping hours, since most flights would require pilots to stay up all night. Being away from families and friends is another consideration since pilots are required to be away from their homes for most of the time. Aside from these changes and sacrifices in lifestyle, a career on aviation also includes boredom, drowsiness, and fatigue. In order to combat these antagonists, pilots have no choice but to take in a lot of caffeinated drinks to stay awake. Considering the burden and pressure of driving an airplane loaded with passengers, pilots’ also experience a lot of stress and tension. Many pilots are then driven to smoking cigarettes to release tension, anxiety, and stress. Just imagine: when you’re a pilot, you are flying a massive aircraft with a hundred or so people, kilometers way above solid ground, with the main task of getting to a certain destination on time and as much as possible, with satisfied, secured, and comfortable passengers!

In addition to the hassles of irregular work patterns, lack of sleep, tension, stress, anxiety, pressure, and being away from home, pilots are also not getting enough exercise that is actually needed to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In fact, engaging in regular exercise and maintaining healthy dietary habits are additional challenges for those working outside normal hours, particularly when extended periods of time are spent away from home. Summing up all of these constrictions, pilots are in short, facing a serious case of fatigue.

Fatigue, as addressed in the human performance literature, refers to “deterioration in human performance, arising as a consequence of several potential factors, including sleepiness.” (Mendelson, Richardson & Roth, 1996) The massive literature on pilot fatigue has identified a number of symptoms like increased anxiety, decreased short term memory, slowed reaction time, decreased work efficiency, reduced motivational drive, decreased vigilance, increased variability in work performance, increased errors of omission which increase to commission when time pressure is added to the task, and increased lapse with increasing fatigue in both number and duration (Mohler, 1966; Dinges, 1995). The occurrences of these symptoms have been shown to increase as instances of sleep deprivation are also increased. In addition, one of the most critical negative effects of pilot fatigue is related to a significant change in the level of acceptable risk that a pilot is willing to tolerate. This is to be studied critically since it entails the mental state of pilots even while flying a plane. Simply put, pilots experiencing fatigue are more like to be disoriented and unmotivated while flying a plane, that might just be the very reason why a plane would likely crash!

For instance, it was found out that one highly probable reason why the aircraft carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown crashed is due to the pilot’s delayed reaction to an aircraft malfunction. (Newman, 1996) Although the pilots detected an error on approach a full minute before the crash, they made no attempt to correct the error—a common characteristic of fatigue. This is due to a reduced level of adherence to one’s normal standard and a reduced ability to cognitively make a connection between cause and effect. One may recognize a problem but not translate its effect due to lack of full comprehension of the situation or simple failure to initiate an action.

Further studies also prove that fatigued workers are easily contented with lower and therefore unacceptable performance. They are also seen to inefficiently notice errors, thus leaving them uncorrected. Because of fatigue that is more or less directly proportional to sleep loss, there are greater chances that a worker loses his or her capability to perceive and adjust to the new aspects and follow-up dimensions of a certain task. The worker shows signs that he or she is unable to shift quickly and effectively from one part of the task to another. The workers are in short, having a difficulty in adjusting and keeping up with the requirements of the task. (Broadbent, 1953; Horne, 1988) For pilots and other aircraft personnel for instance, it was seen that when the aircraft crews are absorbed on one problem, they fail to answer it with speed and efficiency that other problems soon develop.

Motivation could also play a major role in the relationship between fatigue and performance. “Both experimenter and subject motivation can have a large impact on results, particularly in the behavioral and subjective domains. Motivation effects are frequently most apparent near the end of studies where performance improvement is sometimes found, but also may account for the difficulty in showing decrements early in periods of sleep loss.” (Bonnet, 1994) Aside from these concerns on pilot fatigue that is due to lifestyle and working habits, the aviation environment can also contribute to stressing out pilots. Environmental factors such as movement restriction, poor air flow, low light levels, background noise, and vibration are known causes of fatigue. (Mohler, 1966). A pilot’s alertness level at any time is also dependent on a multifaceted interaction between a number of variables. Four variables need to be considered: time on task, time since awake, any existing sleep debt, and the pilot’s own circadian cycle.

The Perks

Becoming a commercial airline pilot is believed to be a dream job for most males and females, and there’s very good reason for it. Not only they are given a good salary, but it also comes along with other mouth-watering benefits like free accommodation (in a good hotel whenever they will fly) and of course being given a chance to see and be in the place where not all people can go into.

But most pilots revealed that they chose such profession not because of the money despite the fact that commercial airline pilots are really well compensated. It should be noted that to be given a good salary and eventually have a chance to raise it, commercial airline pilots need to stay in the company for as long as they can as their profession s based on longevity. The longer they remain in the company, the more profitable their salary can be. More so, if they stay longer in the company, the more chance that their ranks will go higher (from becoming a 1st officer to 2nd officer and then captain). Of course, the higher your rank is, the better pay off it will be. In some instances, salaries are also dependent on the type of plane, and personal flight pay credits (FPC), a measure of hours worked. It was explained that explained that pilots spend considerable time commuting and waiting between flights, so that a pilot can be gone for three days and only get 10 hours of FPC (“Dream Job”, 2005).

But such salary level is just commensurate to the amount that each pilot has to spend during their trainings and licensure examinations. In the US alone, Air Line Pilots Association revealed that pilots can spend an average of $30,000 on pilot certification alone (pilots must receive 11 certifications/ratings). That’s on top of receiving the now required college degree. Entry-level pilots, according to the association, start at an average of $28,000 per year; and after ten years of experience, a pilot might see six figures. Federal law requires pilots to retire at age 60 (“Dream Job”, 2005).

Conclusion

Indeed, there is a bright future for commercial airline pilot aspirants. Based on the demand scale itself, there is a continuing need for pilots each year and in every country. The salary for job/profession itself is enough for a person to want to be in. but there are other things that should also be considered prior to deciding whether or not to pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot. The first thing to consider is the need to assess oneself if he/she can surpass (physically, mentally and of course financially) with the demands of the trainings. The second and another major thing to consider is to assess oneself whether or not he/she can cope with the environment once he/she started servicing as a commercial airline pilot – fatigues, people and place of work included. If these two factors will be assessed and gives out positive result, then the commercial airline pilot aspirant is then facing a good and entirely promising career in his life.

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