A typical day at the "office"
Posted by: Don Atkinson on 12 November 2012
Retired ?, redundant ?, gainfully employed ? ......? boring, exciting, routine, varied........
Anyone feel like outlining their typical day ?
cheers
Don
Cheers.
Toaday is gloomy and foggy so not a typical day for me.
Nonetheless we are all laughing and joking, even if it is depite (or even at) the mountain of new legislation we are having to come to terms with.
Hopefully tomorrow will be more typical.
Cheers
Don
I'm the sole administrator of my little constructions company since 2000.Times changed and I don't have serious bussiness nowaday:they built a lot in Milan (big part in illegal way)so our new Major decided to give less chances for building.Thanking all those illegal big companies the market collapsed.Compliments...
As noted above, today wasn’t typical. Like Rod and one or two others, I now feel a bit guilty at actually having a job, never mind one that I really enjoy doing, and even more guilty that I actually get paid for doing it. However, a typical day follows a pretty standard routine – for example a recent day went like this -:
06:30 wakeup
07:15 45 minute/30 mile relaxing drive along country roads
08:00 get aircraft out of hangar, read weather and notices.
09:00 upside down over Stonehenge with aerobatic student
10:30 half a dozen circuits (take off and landings) followed by watching student solo
12:00 depart on navigation exercise with student to Alderney
13:30 Lunch
14:00 depart on return to mainland
15:30 instrument flying practice with student recognising and recovering from stalls
17:00 night flying detail with student around the Solent
19:00 put aircraft back into hangar
19:30 45 minute/30 mile relaxing drive along country roads home
20:15 arrive back home
Not every day is quite so full. On average it works out at about 3 or 4 trips per day rather than 6, so not a stressful job, but it does need concentration, attention to detail and a little bit of skill.
No two students are the same, so whilst the exercises follow a regular pattern, progress and teaching techniques vary to suit individuals. We have eight aircraft for training and rental, with four full-time instructors and another four part-time (they are younger and still flying with the airlines). The office is manned by three girls, we have two firemen, two maintainers and an air/ground radio operator and we all seem to get on quite well together.
I normally work Thursday thru’ Monday with Tuesday and Wednesday off to take Mrs D hiking or play golf.
Cheers
Don
As noted above, today wasn’t typical. Like Rod and one or two others, I now feel a bit guilty at actually having a job, never mind one that I really enjoy doing, and even more guilty that I actually get paid for doing it. However, a typical day follows a pretty standard routine – for example a recent day went like this -:
06:30 wakeup
07:15 45 minute/30 mile relaxing drive along country roads
08:00 get aircraft out of hangar, read weather and notices.
09:00 upside down over Stonehenge with aerobatic student
10:30 half a dozen circuits (take off and landings) followed by watching student solo
12:00 depart on navigation exercise with student to Alderney
13:30 Lunch
14:00 depart on return to mainland
15:30 instrument flying practice with student recognising and recovering from stalls
17:00 night flying detail with student around the Solent
19:00 put aircraft back into hangar
19:30 45 minute/30 mile relaxing drive along country roads home
20:15 arrive back home
Not every day is quite so full. On average it works out at about 3 or 4 trips per day rather than 6, so not a stressful job, but it does need concentration, attention to detail and a little bit of skill.
No two students are the same, so whilst the exercises follow a regular pattern, progress and teaching techniques vary to suit individuals. We have eight aircraft for training and rental, with four full-time instructors and another four part-time (they are younger and still flying with the airlines). The office is manned by three girls, we have two firemen, two maintainers and an air/ground radio operator and we all seem to get on quite well together.
I normally work Thursday thru’ Monday with Tuesday and Wednesday off to take Mrs D hiking or play golf.
Cheers
Don
I don't want to score points here but as a newly qualified doc 25yrs ago I was one of the last generation to do the really crazy hours.
I was contracted for 110 hours per week. I worked 1 in 3 nights and weekends. The latter meant starting at 8am Friday and working until 5pm Monday without any guaranteed sleep and probably 2-3 hrs rest across the whole four days. It was utterly ridiculous. Dealing with fatigue at that level is not something I ever want to experience again. It was odd but you could generally still do complex things quite well, but the ordinary became difficult. I'd forget how to spell the simplest word for example but be able to assess a sick patient. I once fell asleep whilst booking in apatient. I jolted awake still sat on his bed and the lovely and very elderly man told me to come back in the morning, as my need was greater than his. I could have cried. All character forming stuff.
My current working life is a breeze in compariosn, and junior doctors now almost all work shift patterns with carefully regulated minimum rest periods. Good for them.
Bruce
Firstly good luck to those who are seeking work, you will find it even if it takes you off in a completely new direction providing you don't ever give up looking. My wife recently (at the age of 49) spent a year looking for a job and now has a job she loves in a new sphere which pays about the same as the old one. At the time though it was extremely worrying and indeed we are only still living in the house because we used a pre-agreed further advance of around £25000 to tide us over while she looked for work.
In terms of what I do day to day the hours vary considerably but last Monday is fairly typical:
Got up around 7.30am and took my Daughter to school on bicycles
Came back, chilled out for a bit then got into the uniform for work.
10am Left the house around for the 45 minute drive to SOU airport
15 mins to get the shuttle bus and through security
11am Checked in for an Alicante flight
30 mins to pull all the weather, notices to airmen, meet the crew, discuss fuel planning, diversions etc with the Capt.
Walk out to aircraft 30 mins before pushback with Capt, While he walks around I switch on the aircraft, load the route, get weather, get clearances, set up the aircraft for flight,
12 noon Pushback and light the fires
I elect to fly the aircraft over to Alicante. I still get a big buzz from being at the end of a runway and standing the throttles up and feeling 40 000lb of thrust shove me in the back. Busy 25 mins through London airspace on a very fine day climbing to to FL350, good views of the South Coast all the way down to Kent. We're now climbing at around 270Kts Indicated and I'm having to sometimes override the autothrottle to moderate our climb rate, the aircraft wants to climb at around 4500 feet a minute - a bit much in busy London airspace!
Good natter with the Capt in the cruise, coffee over the Pyrenees, then descent and landing into Alicante where there's a reasonable wind across the runway and a few nasty looking clouds to avoid!
1440 Land on schedule
1450 I Walk around outside the aircraft to see what's left of it after my landing...
Capt then gets weather, sets up for flight, pax board etc
1520 Pushback
1600 Late lunch of pretty decent green Thai Curry and rice coming back over Spain with a cup of tea
1800 Land Southampton on schedule - Captain has flown this one so I'm working radios etc i.e. we reverse roles each flight
30 mins logging flight times and paperwork/fuel receipts etc in the crew room.
1830 check-out and drive 45 mins home
Arrive home around 1930
Been doing this for nearly 6 years now after spending 15 years in IT and still utterly love it!! Views are sensational from the front, every landing and take-off is always a challenge to do better than the last one. Spent 5 years flying the Dash 8 so pretty new on the Embraer jet which has brought a whole raft of new professional challenges to think about - swept wing, much higher speeds, very slippery airframe so a bugger to go down and slow down at the same time, high altitude flight envelope, jet stream issues, more automatic systems (if you choose to use them) - it's a career that always seems to keep you stimulated and I feel as if I'm still learning a lot and developing as a pilot everyday.
Unlike Don though we try and keep it just the one way up!
Jonathan
Firstly good luck to those who are seeking work, you will find it even if it takes you off in a completely new direction providing you don't ever give up looking. My wife recently (at the age of 49) spent a year looking for a job and now has a job she loves in a new sphere which pays about the same as the old one. At the time though it was extremely worrying and indeed we are only still living in the house because we used a pre-agreed further advance of around £25000 to tide us over while she looked for work.
In terms of what I do day to day the hours vary considerably but last Monday is fairly typical:
Got up around 7.30am and took my Daughter to school on bicycles
Came back, chilled out for a bit then got into the uniform for work.
10am Left the house around for the 45 minute drive to SOU airport
15 mins to get the shuttle bus and through security
11am Checked in for an Alicante flight
30 mins to pull all the weather, notices to airmen, meet the crew, discuss fuel planning, diversions etc with the Capt.
Walk out to aircraft 30 mins before pushback with Capt, While he walks around I switch on the aircraft, load the route, get weather, get clearances, set up the aircraft for flight,
12 noon Pushback and light the fires
I elect to fly the aircraft over to Alicante. I still get a big buzz from being at the end of a runway and standing the throttles up and feeling 40 000lb of thrust shove me in the back. Busy 25 mins through London airspace on a very fine day climbing to to FL350, good views of the South Coast all the way down to Kent. We're now climbing at around 270Kts Indicated and I'm having to sometimes override the autothrottle to moderate our climb rate, the aircraft wants to climb at around 4500 feet a minute - a bit much in busy London airspace!
Good natter with the Capt in the cruise, coffee over the Pyrenees, then descent and landing into Alicante where there's a reasonable wind across the runway and a few nasty looking clouds to avoid!
1440 Land on schedule
1450 I Walk around outside the aircraft to see what's left of it after my landing...
Capt then gets weather, sets up for flight, pax board etc
1520 Pushback
1600 Late lunch of pretty decent green Thai Curry and rice coming back over Spain with a cup of tea
1800 Land Southampton on schedule - Captain has flown this one so I'm working radios etc i.e. we reverse roles each flight
30 mins logging flight times and paperwork/fuel receipts etc in the crew room.
1830 check-out and drive 45 mins home
Arrive home around 1930
Been doing this for nearly 6 years now after spending 15 years in IT and still utterly love it!! Views are sensational from the front, every landing and take-off is always a challenge to do better than the last one. Spent 5 years flying the Dash 8 so pretty new on the Embraer jet which has brought a whole raft of new professional challenges to think about - swept wing, much higher speeds, very slippery airframe so a bugger to go down and slow down at the same time, high altitude flight envelope, jet stream issues, more automatic systems (if you choose to use them) - it's a career that always seems to keep you stimulated and I feel as if I'm still learning a lot and developing as a pilot everyday.
Unlike Don though we try and keep it just the one way up!
Jonathan
And do you play the bugle tune every time you land on time?
Kind words Mista h, and many many thanks. However, as you can see, Bruce
mista h,
Oh dear, something has gone wrong with my post above, but without repeating it, I think you can gather the gist, ie Bruce and other doctors, school teachers, emergency services, engineers, farmers etc etc are first in line for medals. But many, many thanks for your kind words.
Cheers
Don
mista h,
Oh dear, something has gone wrong with my post above, but without repeating it, I think you can gather the gist, ie Bruce and other doctors, school teachers, emergency services, engineers, farmers etc etc are first in line for medals. But many, many thanks for your kind words.
Cheers
Don
CBR600, personally I play the bugle everytime I land at all!
But seriously you would probably be surprised about how much we do try to adhere to the schedule. The reality is that if we end up late for whatever reason it means not only are the pax and crew on that flight inconvenienced but so are any crew/pax who may be flying on the aircraft after us. The aircraft are in use from 6am to 11pm at night and clearly will be used by two or even three sets of crew in a day. If a morning flight runs late then it knocks on into the afternoon and evening flights.
Late arrivals earlier in the day can occasionally have significant repercussions at an airport such as Southampton that closes relatively early and you can find yourself having to divert to Bournemouth which stays open later. This as you can imagine causes chaos and usually results in the crew ending up in a taxi back to Southampton airport at 1am in the morning and then facing another hour in the car driving home to get back at 2am. Not nice at all.
To be honest even taking all the above into account I really don't want to be late at all because on an early shift (typically 6am-2.30pm ish) you're usually feeling pretty keen to get home on time after getting up at 4am.
The biggest downside for me of the job is trying to manage enough sleep around the shifts. It would be fine if you're a bachelor who lives alone but often I find I might have got home at 11.30pm and gone to bed at 12.30pm-1am only to be woken by the family at 7am. The other issue is that you don't get up or go to bed at the same time every night and the early shifts are exhausting. Getting up at 4am for work is never fun no matter what your job and I sometimes do it three times a week.
The other big difference is that my days off don't coincide with the rest of the family or friends so it's very easy to just spend your days off on your own playing music or cycling etc but it isn't very sociable.
I did try to edit my first post to stop it sounding too positive but I have just discovered that you can't edit posts older than 1 hr on the new forum which seems a silly limitation.
Jonathan
CBR600, personally I play the bugle everytime I land at all!
But seriously you would probably be surprised about how much we do try to adhere to the schedule. The reality is that if we end up late for whatever reason it means not only are the pax and crew on that flight inconvenienced but so are any crew/pax who may be flying on the aircraft after us. The aircraft are in use from 6am to 11pm at night and clearly will be used by two or even three sets of crew in a day. If a morning flight runs late then it knocks on into the afternoon and evening flights.
Late arrivals earlier in the day can occasionally have significant repercussions at an airport such as Southampton that closes relatively early and you can find yourself having to divert to Bournemouth which stays open later. This as you can imagine causes chaos and usually results in the crew ending up in a taxi back to Southampton airport at 1am in the morning and then facing another hour in the car driving home to get back at 2am. Not nice at all.
To be honest even taking all the above into account I really don't want to be late at all because on an early shift (typically 6am-2.30pm ish) you're usually feeling pretty keen to get home on time after getting up at 4am.
The biggest downside for me of the job is trying to manage enough sleep around the shifts. It would be fine if you're a bachelor who lives alone but often I find I might have got home at 11.30pm and gone to bed at 12.30pm-1am only to be woken by the family at 7am. The other issue is that you don't get up or go to bed at the same time every night and the early shifts are exhausting. Getting up at 4am for work is never fun no matter what your job and I sometimes do it three times a week.
The other big difference is that my days off don't coincide with the rest of the family or friends so it's very easy to just spend your days off on your own playing music or cycling etc but it isn't very sociable.
I did try to edit my first post to stop it sounding too positive but I have just discovered that you can't edit posts older than 1 hr on the new forum which seems a silly limitation.
Jonathan
Working shift patterns is a pain in the ar## whatever job you have. I personally used to hate the afternoon shifts as it took over the whole day. At least early or late shifts allow you to get some personal life. The other problem with shifts is the impact on family life, especially if you have children as you can go long periods without seeing them.
The other interesting thing around your choice of work is ( I believe) the sheer extent and cost of all the flight training to get the licence, and even then having to work on cargo flights, etc as you work up the ladder to commercial flights
Time to enjoy life !!
Paul
Jonathan
Very enjoyable post.
Glad it was of interest Clay. Perhaps of more interest is the wide variety of people who come to flying as a second career - most of them I think. I used to fly with one guy who was a TV repairman for 22 years, he's now a senior training Captain after getting his first commercial airline job at 43, for my part I was 38 when I started flying airliners.
As Paul said though sadly it's not a cheap option at all and it's now almost always the case that you will find yourself funding at least to the level of a frozen ATPL with Instrument Rating and that will set you back £50-£80k depending on how/where you train. Some airlines notably Ryanair and Easyjet will also expect you to fund your type rating too so budget another £30k for that and at the end of all that you may not even get a permanent job but will likely end up flying Summer season only as a contract worker at Ryan/Easyjet with no employment contract, no leave, holiday or sick pay. The airline business is really in a pretty grim state and I don't think you could really build a credible business case for going into it anymore even though it is arguably one of the more interesting jobs out there. For one thing you can earn a lot more money elsewhere with a lot more sociable hours and less upfront cost.
Personally I think creative stuff like writing and music is hard to beat for satisfaction and enjoyment, but it's tough to pay a mortgage on it! It must be nice to have a job you can do in your pyjamas occasionally!
Jonathan
Glad it was of interest Clay. Perhaps of more interest is the wide variety of people who come to flying as a second career - most of them I think. I used to fly with one guy who was a TV repairman for 22 years, he's now a senior training Captain after getting his first commercial airline job at 43, for my part I was 38 when I started flying airliners.
As Paul said though sadly it's not a cheap option at all and it's now almost always the case that you will find yourself funding at least to the level of a frozen ATPL with Instrument Rating and that will set you back £50-£80k depending on how/where you train. Some airlines notably Ryanair and Easyjet will also expect you to fund your type rating too so budget another £30k for that and at the end of all that you may not even get a permanent job but will likely end up flying Summer season only as a contract worker at Ryan/Easyjet with no employment contract, no leave, holiday or sick pay. The airline business is really in a pretty grim state and I don't think you could really build a credible business case for going into it anymore even though it is arguably one of the more interesting jobs out there. For one thing you can earn a lot more money elsewhere with a lot more sociable hours and less upfront cost.
Personally I think creative stuff like writing and music is hard to beat for satisfaction and enjoyment, but it's tough to pay a mortgage on it! It must be nice to have a job you can do in your pyjamas occasionally!
Jonathan
Doing a job in your nightwear is a different role altogether !
.......................it's tough to pay a mortgage on it! It must be nice to have a job you can do in your pyjamas occasionally!
Doing a job in your nightwear is a different role altogether !
oldest profession.............
Cheers
Don
I am older now and had enough sense to see through it eventually, but fifteen years ago [and more] my morning started with a rise at 04:30 to stoke a double boiler AGA, followed by a three mile cycle ride to work at 05:30 to start the massive steam boiler, ready for the 06:30 start for the morning shift... I finished about 17:30 after shutting down the the bulk fruit tanks for jam and fruit fillling plants.
One day I was so tired about 16:30 hours that I went to sleep waiting for the jam plant to finish that I set down and went fast asleep on a cold concrete floor in the pump house and awoke about 21:30. I clocked out and got paid!
Still not a great deal of money!
These days I start work [nominally at 08:30] though overtime is at the start rather than end after a twenty minute cycle ride and usually finish by 17:00 hours ...
Still not great money, but a happy life all told ...
In the old days I did the AGA after work as well ...
ATB from George
Ledbury, or similar?
Cheers
Don
Lower Broadheath [birth place of Edward Elgar], only fifteen miles from Ledbury, but similar went on there, I do know ...
Ledbury was the closest town to where I grew up for my first nineteen years. I do know who used to employ there!
ATB from George
I have worked for 4 Norwegians who were exactly like this.
I have worked for 4 Norwegians who were exactly like this.
sniper ----- i bet a working day for you would make interesting reading!!
you could tell us-but then you would have to kill us?
This is a really great thread - it's so interesting to read other people's stories.
My sympathies to everyone who's been made redundant, it's one of life's less pleasant experiences. The first time it happened to me was back in 2004 and was pretty devastating - it led indirectly to the end of a relationship and it took a year for me to get back on my feet again financially.
Last year I took voluntary redundancy from a quite high-powered job in advertising and got six months' money. This gave me a cushion to consider my options and as result I decided that I was going to be self-employed. This has entailed a number of sacrifices, has sometimes meant a bit of a hand-to-mouth existence and has involved a bit of stress, but gradually things are getting better and life is much more enjoyable. I now work for mine and my loves ones' benefit, rather than self-serving management or anonymous shareholders which is a better way of using one's time.
So to anyone out there looking for work, please don't lose heart, and try to follow your dream - hopefully it will all come good.
Personally I think creative stuff like writing and music is hard to beat for satisfaction and enjoyment, but it's tough to pay a mortgage on it! It must be nice to have a job you can do in your pyjamas occasionally!
Jonathan
Too true Jonathan.
At the moment I'm writing two books. One's a novel, which earns me no money. Even if it gets finished or - heaven forfend - published it's unlikely to earn me more than about 20p.
The other is a book I'm ghostwriting for someone. Slightly more bank manager-friendly but not much better paid (although I do get paid as I go along), and at the moment it's stalled due to the person concerned being too busy to commit to it.
Apart from that I do a bit of a journalism and also copywriting for various clients which provides me with my bread and butter. So, I can work in my pyjamas if I want to, and I have clients rather than employers, which is really nice.
I only wish I made a bit more!
Personally I think creative stuff like writing and music is hard to beat for satisfaction and enjoyment, but it's tough to pay a mortgage on it! It must be nice to have a job you can do in your pyjamas occasionally!
Jonathan
Too true Jonathan.
At the moment I'm writing two books. One's a novel, which earns me no money. Even if it gets finished or - heaven forfend - published it's unlikely to earn me more than about 20p.
The other is a book I'm ghostwriting for someone. Slightly more bank manager-friendly but not much better paid (although I do get paid as I go along), and at the moment it's stalled due to the person concerned being too busy to commit to it.
Apart from that I do a bit of a journalism and also copywriting for various clients which provides me with my bread and butter. So, I can work in my pyjamas if I want to, and I have clients rather than employers, which is really nice.
I only wish I made a bit more!
Nice one kevin.
Like your new avatar, ? Starting a new support the beeb campaign!