Expert: D. Norkus - 6/15/2007

Question
hello i am doing a btec course in travel and tourism and i would like to find out about how a day goes for a pilot including what they have to do during that day. please could you help thank you very much

Answer
Stacey,

The kind of day a pilot has depends on what type of flying they do. Even between the regional and major airlines there is a bit of a difference.

Here is an example of something I have flown- http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/RegionalSched.html

Each trip starts with reporting to the crew lounge, checking your mailbox, verifying any updates for your flight manuals, checking the flight release and weather for the trip. Preflighting duties and checks are performed on the aircraft. The pilots do a crew briefing with their flight attendants. Weight and balance is calculated as if aircraft performance data for each trip. The number of flights flown each day may vary, but often end at an overnight away from the crew domicile where the airline puts up the crew at a hotel. Trips can be single or multi day depending on the pilots schedule.

Captain C. A. Stevens wrote an exceptional guide to a "typical pilots day", entitled Your Key to the Cockpit. It has been reproduced on the web and is available here- http://www.aviationphotographs.net/FrontierAirlines/YourKey/yourkey.html
Although it is a bit dated, the basic job tasks still remain the same years later. I highly suggest you check it out!

I also think you might enjoy this video clip of a pilots trip to Paris, from sign in to finish condensed down to several minutes created by AA pilot Kent Wien-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtzkGwh0zA8

It is a great visual example of what happens on a trip.

This page was created by Delta pilot Doug Taylor, webmaster of Jetcareers.com, describing his typical day: http://www.jetcareers.com/content/view/36/59/

...and a regional pilots day from his site- http://www.jetcareers.com/content/view/37/60/

Hope this helps
Dottie