Yes, I'm an airline pilot. But I could be just what you're looking for in a completely different role...

Like so many pilots globally, the ripple effect of the ongoing pandemic has left me redundant. Whilst I don’t believe there’s any doubt that aviation will recover, weathering the storm is going to be the greatest challenge that many of us have faced.

I began to dream of flying when I was six years old and, perhaps naively, never seriously considered any other industry in which to work; for so many, this industry is all we’ve ever known. We’re highly trained specialists in a very niche area and, although it’s true that we have a wealth of transferrable skills, it’s not always easy to persuasively translate these skills to other industries. 

I’ve been in aviation since 2002, back when I was 19 years old. Prior to that, I’d worked as a salesman in mobile phone retail during my A-Levels and, although the plan had been to join the airlines in one way or another immediately after leaving school, the events of September 2001 delayed this (indeed, the letter offering me my first airline job is dated September 11th 2001). I subsequently joined British Airways as a Customer Service Agent in July 2002, on a 6-month contract. 

I really enjoyed this role, particularly because I was being paid to be around aeroplanes! I really enjoyed meeting our customers and would always go above and beyond to help them wherever I could. Colleagues commented at the time that no matter what the situation was, no matter what time of day and no matter how long the queues were, I was always cheerful and positive. This has always been my ‘style’ and, in spite of facing some challenges of late, this remains unchanged. 

Once my contract came to an end, I joined the former BA franchise GB Airways as Cabin Crew. My two years in this role left me in lifelong awe of the work that our colleagues in the cabin do and I’ve always been quick to support them. I very much enjoyed working as crew, although I probably wasn’t the most effective member of cabin crew as, the second that the cabin service was finished, I would usually be found in the flight deck chatting to the pilots. 

It was GB Airways that gave me the opportunity I’d always dreamed of. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to be the first cadet pilot for the airline and so, in January 2005, I headed to Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, to commence my pilot training course. Like most trainees, I funded the course through a loan. The difference was that I had a contract of employment before I left for Spain, along with the promise of a fully funded type rating straight on to an Airbus A320. In common with many industries, one of the toughest things for any pilot is getting that first job and I’ve always recognised how fortunate I was to be given that opportunity.

After graduating in April 2006, I returned to the UK and immediately began my conversion course. I met my wife at the beginning of June and flew a passenger jet for the first time just five days after that. On August 7th, 2006, I passed my final line check and was now a qualified airline pilot on the A320. 

Late the following year, the sale of GB Airways to easyJet was announced. Although clearly a sound business decision, I’d loved working for the small, family-run airline that was GB Airways and so this news came as a shock. Understandably, I also felt a huge sense of loyalty to the company that had given me my big break. Although disappointed, I decided it was important to turn this into an opportunity and decided that, although easyJet offered a tremendous career prospect, it was time to cast the net a little wider and go on an adventure. I accepted voluntary redundancy, packed my suitcase, rented out our flat and relocated abroad. 

My wife and I had married in March 2008 and we moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in November the same year. Taking up a role with Etihad Airways on the A320, I still had only 1,700 hours total flying time. It’s fair to say that the new position was extremely different to my previous one, with new operating procedures being the easiest of the many challenges to overcome. However, I quickly fell in love with the Middle East and threw myself into the flying. It was busy and I spent lots of time flying in the dark, but it was fun and challenging and I knew that the chance to fly much bigger metal lay ahead.

A few months after moving to the UAE, the first of our three children arrived in the world. Balancing work with family life is a challenge that many of us are familiar with, but for me the biggest challenge was getting my head around how I’d gone from being a single student pilot in Spain to being the handling pilot of a 180 seat Airbus jet on a dark, wet, monsoon night in Southern India, before flying back to my wife and baby son. Quite a big change in just three years.

The pace of change remained. I was trained to fly the A330 in March 2011, beginning my long-haul flying career. Our second son was born in October that year and I spent the next couple of years discovering the many delights of Africa and Asia. In March 2013, I switched allegiances from Airbus to Boeing and transferred to the mighty Boeing 777. This allowed me to complete my transition from short-haul to long-haul flying and I found myself routinely flying to the USA, Asia and Australia. This was also the year that our family was completed, with our daughter being born in late October. 

I was aware that I was rapidly approaching the 5,500 flying hours that I needed in order to be considered for promotion from First Officer to Captain. It was time to get my head back into the books to prepare for the gauntlet that lay ahead – the command upgrade assessment. That took place in May 2014 and the work paid off, with my command course beginning in August. By December 2014, aged 31, I had four bars on my shoulders and was now in command of a 351 ton Boeing 777, often with over 400 people on board. 

Within a couple of days of becoming a Captain, I was invited to work on a Flight Operations Fuel Efficiency project. Besides that expected of a pilot, I had no specific experience within Fuel Efficiency but threw myself into the work, learning as I went along. This led to me producing several internal publications and a computer-based training (CBT) course, along with advising on several related initiatives. 

At a similar time, I was also invited to attend an assessment to become a Flight Crew Assessor, undertaking external recruitment work and also conducting the aforementioned command upgrade assessments. I was successful in this assessment and spent the following few years working within the recruitment team, a role which I very much enjoyed. I always took the time to ensure that all our candidates (both external and internal) were put at ease, indeed I treated them as customers in the same way that I had way back when I was 19 and working for British Airways. I knew that, in order to get the best out of a person, it was imperative that we provided the right environment for them to perform. If we didn’t achieve that, we couldn’t see their individual capabilities and our company could miss out on valuable talent acquisition as a result. 

It was clear that I enjoyed working with people, offering inspiration and motivation to bring out the best in them, and so I applied to make the move into training. I became a Type Rating Instructor in 2017, teaching in the flight simulator, aircraft and classroom. Working within an Evidence Based Training (EBT) framework, the training was focused around competency development. This required a clear understanding of not just what went wrong (or what went right!), but WHY this was the case. By assisting our trainees in determining how the application of their competencies affected safety, efficiency and the overall outcome, we strived to ensure that each of our customers went away from their training feeling more able to cope with anything that was thrown at them. A significant element of this was Root Cause Analysis, establishing what the catalyst was for a chain of events which followed.

Once I’d established myself as an instructor, I continued to work on the skills that I’d learned whilst developing the Fuel Efficiency CBT. Working within a small team of talented developers, I found myself being given responsibility for development and maintenance of training courseware, training media, examinations and training bulletins, although projects of various descriptions were passed my way during my time in the department, with each presenting an individual challenge requiring a bespoke, on the job approach to learning how to complete the required task to a high standard. Although the bulk of my work was for presentation to the pilot community, I was occasionally tasked with producing work for presentation by, or to, senior management. I had to pinch myself on one occasion when I was told that a presentation of mine was to be used in a C-Suite meeting with the CEO! I worked closely with our senior management team on a range of tasks, earning sufficient respect to feel comfortable making policy suggestions/recommendations and to feel that my contributions were valued. 

I was still flying, and remained an airline pilot at heart, completing my differences training on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 2018 and qualifying as an Instructor on that aircraft shortly after. However, I was now spending around half of my month working on the ground, leading to me being recommended for a transition into management. This interested me enormously; I was passionate about being given the opportunity to make a positive difference and I was excited at the idea of being able to develop myself even further. These sound like clichés, but it’s true. Ultimately, I’d always enjoyed working with people and doing my best to make a difference. Such a transition would allow me to continue to do that. 

But, as it does for so many people, family comes first. With our eldest son approaching secondary school age, my wife and I decided it was time to move our three children (and six pets!) back to the UK. I wanted to continue to develop my career but recognised that I’d been fortunate to achieve an enormous amount at just 36 and perhaps it was time to focus on what was right for the family – the ambition could be put on hold for a short while. 

And so, in March 2019, my wife and children relocated back to the UK. I spent the following few months selling some of our possessions, shipping the rest and commuting to and from the UK, all while still doing a full-time job. In October 2019, my wife joined me on my final flight to Singapore and I relocated back to the UK a week later. I’d spent 11 years in Abu Dhabi and had enjoyed personal and professional growth that I hadn’t dared to dream of previously. I’d worked hard, but I knew how fortunate I’d been to be in the right place at the right time, as well as how lucky I’d been to work alongside some great people who were prepared to take a chance on somebody with little or no experience in each role I was given. I like to think I didn’t let them down. 

In June 2020, my luck ran out. Suddenly I wasn’t in the right place at the right time anymore, although I think I was just in the right place at the wrong time. It wasn’t the fault of my new airline; along with many others I was a victim of circumstance, working within an industry that has always been susceptible to events like COVID-19. Aviation has suffered globally, it’s just that up to this point I’d been blessed to always find myself on the right side of the line. This time, I was one of the last in and so was one of the first out.  

And so here I am, very experienced as a Leader, as a Team Player, routinely leading teams of up to 3 other Pilots and 15 Cabin Crew. Experienced at working in a dynamic environment. Experienced in Decision-making, in Workload Management. Competent at establishing strategies and subsequently delivering them. A strong Communicator, who puts safety and people first. I have a background that demonstrates flexibility and adaptability, and an ability to learn new skills in a new environment surrounded by people from the entire global community, where gender, sexuality, race, skin colour and religion are irrelevant, where we can all learn from each other. I can identify problems and advocate solutions. I’m situationally aware and can project forward, a skill I've found to be essential when managing projects within a team. 

And yet right now I have no idea which way to turn. Perhaps I’m institutionalised, perhaps I just don’t have the experience in other industries to know how to offer myself as a capable, hard-working individual.  Although remaining within aviation is clearly the optimum solution, I’m open to anything. 

Nobody knows how the next two or three years are going to pan out and time isn’t on my side; with the professional life to one side, I still have three children and a mortgage to pay… spending the foreseeable doing a Masters just isn’t going to be feasible sadly. I need to get back into employment relatively quickly, but I want to do something where I can use my abilities, where I can continue to develop myself, where I can continue to learn as I have since the beginning of my career. 

I may have no significant experience outside of aviation, but I am very competent in several key areas. I may not know which way to turn at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t be perfect for a role that I don’t even know exists. There are countless scenarios that we can face as airline pilots, the majority of which we can never train for – it doesn’t mean we’re not capable of dealing with them though. 

So, if you’re a recruiter, or working within an organisation, and you think that I might be somebody you’d like to work with, please get in touch. Although my CV may not suggest directly relevant experience, maybe I’m still exactly who you’re looking for. Who knows, perhaps my next opportunity is one I would never have considered possible!