10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Pilots
Did you know pilots don’t eat shellfish while on duty? I did not know it.
1. Pilots may spend long periods of time away from home. To keep their loved ones close, they’ll often keep photos of their family or spouses in the inside lining of their hat.
2. You couldn’t buy a shrimp cocktail for the pilot before takeoff. As a food poisoning prevention measure, pilots are forbidden from eating shellfish while on duty.
3. Pilots aren’t allowed to share – food, that is. As a safety precaution, pilots order and eat different crew meals while on flight.
4. Music is an integral part of the flying experience for many passengers, but pilots fly music-free: radio communications are their soundtrack. As they jet across the skies, they’re hopping from one radio frequency to another listening to ground controllers synchronizing the movement of aircrafts.
5. When passing another “ship” at night, pilots may flash the landing lights or wing inspection lights to say hello.
6. Aspiring commerical pilots generally invest more than $70,000 in their education and clock an average of 4,000 hours of experience before they are hired by Air Canada.
7. Once their flight simulator training is complete, pilots move directly to piloting fully-loaded passenger airplanes. They are, however, accompagnied by line indoctrination pilots for their first few flights. After a second test by a supervisor pilot, they’re fully cleared to fly on their own.
8. Pilots are sent back into the simulator at least every eight months to renew their license; every six months for those who command the Boeing 777.
9. Pilots can fly only one type of aircraft at a time. Before acquiring a license to command a different model, they must go through 8 to 12 weeks of training. The process includes “ground school”, pre-simulator mockup flights and simulator training.
10. ”Where are you off to?” is the question you’d hear all the time if you stopped at the flight planning center at any time of the day. As you’d expect, pilots ask each other where they are flying to!
From Go Far
Most of what you say is more or less true. Some points are policy of the specific airline (like the food…). As far as qualifications go: it’s not the license (usually good for 5 years), but the type-rating that needs to kept current more frequently, usually on a yearly basis. An airline might put additional training in their program. A pilot can be qualified for several types at the same time (B737,B757/767,B777) no problem. Of course he can only fly one at the time 🙂
Number 9 is actually called a “type rating” not a license. The license would be “commercial” or most likely “ATP” (airline transport pilot). Did you know that the 757/767 are the only two planes where the pilot is allowed to fly both because they share a type rating? As for number 7, I was actually on a flight to Hawaii one time where the first officer had never actually flown a 777 before outside of a simulator. A check airmen from United was along for the ride to supervise 🙂
Is this just for Air Canada or something? I flew for a Part 121 airline in the U.S. for several years and I’ve never heard of a prohibition against shellfish.
don’t forget medical every six months for ATP.
in the US FAA doesn’t issue lincenses. they issue airman certificates
@Jason
The site belongs to Air Canada so I think it applies only to them.