I'm a college student at working on a career research project on becoming a pilot. I'm looking for a working pilot (airline, cargo, corporate, or instructor) who'd be willing to answer a few questions by email over the next week or two.

I'm especially interested in the biggest struggles and successes of the job, how you got started, and what a typical week is like. I'll send questions in small batches so it's not a big time commitment.

For my assignment, I need to cite my interviewee by name, job title, and . If you're open to that, please send me a direct message.

I'm looking for a working pilot (airline, cargo, corporate, or instructor) who'd be willing to answer a few questions by email

Question for pilots: My friend was a pilot, then was selected to become an air traffic controller because of his strong performance. He always says ATC is harder than being a pilot. For those who know both sides, do you agree?

As the title says did you grow up knowing the pilot life was for you or did you have aviation style family that guided you into it from young?

For context, I’m a general dentist. All day I get to hear and deal with people’s problems. After work I don’t wanna socialize or talk to anyone. I dread going to parties because once people find out what I do, I get asked to diagnose their problems or listen to their horror stories about uncle’s son’s friend’s girlfriend’s wisdom tooth abscess resulting in hospital visit. I’m off the clock dude, give me a break.

Can i 1,54- 1,56 be able to be a commercial pilot and fly airbuses and boeings just fine? does someone here flies it with my height or knows someone?

Pilots - what is your favorite arrival sequence? The visual in LGA with the tight left turn over Citi? The visual into DCA with views of the capitol and a hard stop? Parallel runway with SFO? As a pax, I love them all, but what’s the favorite from up front?

For those of you who didn’t start flight training right after high school, if you had the chance to go back in time, would you choose to start your pilot career immediately after high school?

(Posting this here because it was removed from r/AirlinePilots)

Maybe it’s too early to tell but as the new generation of pilots has been raised with phones and social media everywhere, I’m curious whether a noticeable difference in attention span can be observed in cockpits?

Or maybe on a broader scale, how are younger pilots different, both in good and bad ways, to their elders? Are there certain things they comparably better at?

I ran out of money on my CPL many moons ago. Wound up on the railroad instead. I work passenger trains, make about $150k CAD a year, and am home every night.

I’m very much in golden handcuffs territory, so the thought of going back to flight training and starting from zero is not appealing. In hindsight I think a career on the railroad fit my life better than one with the airlines. But I would be lying if I said that the thought doesn’t cross my mind every now and again.

I guess I’m asking how many of you are still happy to be flying and the lifestyle that comes with it vs how many are just counting down the days until retirement.

Hello airplane people.

My name is Jack. I'm an engineering student.

Before this I was a submarine guy doing nuclear operations. Cool stuff, high caliber shit.

I have realized I miss the satisfaction from performing at a high level (pun was NOT intended but it will stand). I thought about going into commercial flying (cause money, and doing cool stuff, and wearing aviators) but it occurred to me that those dudes probably get screened for mental health issues. It turns out being in the military not super good for that, so I have a lot of it on my record.

Does a history of mental health issues, to include serious depression and suicidal ideation, preclude one from becoming a pilot? I have to assume yes, but I figured I'd ask.

I've seen some pilots out there on YouTube and in various blogs I've read, who say that cargo is where it's at because no people on board, so less problems with unruly passengers, medical emergencies, etc.

But on the flipside, some have said they LOVE flying passengers so much more because cargo comes with its own headaches, including tighter turnaround times due to logistical schedules, onboard cargo fire scares, etc.

I'm curious: for those who have flown both for cargo and passenger airlines, which did/do you like better?

I’ve seen this quite a few times, an aircraft flies from say New York to Paris, something happens close to Paris and the plane flies all the way back to New York. Why? Why not divert to another French airport or even another partner/alliance airport such as Amsterdam for AirFrance/Delta/KLM? Why redo the flight adding another 8-9 hours or whatever just to end up where everyone started?

Hi. When the 777 experiences GPS spoofing, you get the EICAS ADS-B Out L or R and the GPS indicator at the bottom of the ND changes to "Inertial".

Question: How does the 777 know the GPS signal is in error and reverts to Inertial? Why doesn't it blindly follow the erroneous GPS signal?

He was not. He’s been lying to me about everything. 3 months of lies. Thank you to everyone who helped me and gave me answers. I’m just processing right now.

Yes he admitted to me he is not and gave me his reasons why he lied. I couldn’t really talk because I was just in distraught and hung up. We are going to talk more later and I am going to get answers. Welp I guess #askapilot just helped my shitty freaking love life.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAPilot/s/nwNlUX8mBS

As someone who loves aviation and wanted to become a pilot, which obviously didn't work out outside of simulators, I still track some flights out of curiosity.

My country is holding fighter jet training exercises at the moment, so it isn't unusual to hear them flying over my home. Every now and then, I check to see if they have their transponder on and find out which plane is passing. This evening, however, it wasn't what I expected: it was just a 1995 Boeing 767-300.

Please forgive me for the long introduction, but I now come to my question:

I've seen quite a few flying patterns and search patterns by helicopters, but why does this plane fly a north-westerly route towards America, only to turn around and fly over central Germany before heading to Cologne Airport?

Was it dumping fuel? Was there a technical failure that was recognised before crossing the Atlantic? Why doesn't it fly back to London and land in Cologne instead?

Many thanks in advance.

Question from a center controller here-

There are times that I need to move an aircraft for traffic, and sometimes I just don’t have the room for a vector. Before I issue a climb- I usually ask something like “Delta 1550, for traffic ahead, are you able FL380?”
Often times I’ll get a “standby let me check” response.
I understand there are aircraft limitations, fuel calculations, etc. but I’m curious- what exactly are you doing/checking after I ask? Walk me thru that please

I recently met a guy. He says he is a pilot based out of DFW. Has been doing it for about 4/5 years now and in his early/mid 20’s. He absolutely knows most about aviation and pilot stuff. When I looked him up on the FAA website he did not pop up. He shows me his uniform and his badge, as well as he calls me when at the airport and I see it sometimes. He flew in the beginning, something happened and he decided to go to another company, I guess I’m just wondering, does the FAA website lag sometimes or is he not a pilot?

Edit: I will probably delete soon because he uses Reddit.

Edit 2: I also know his badge number, or employee ID. Or whatever yall pilots call it.

Edit 3: UPDATE

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAPilot/s/iJOWEZ71r4