It has been a while! I have not blogged or engaged with sharing my professional life for almost 5 years. There are many reasons for my abstinence but it’s mostly to do with the fact I was unemployed, depressed and living with my parents. I don’t count Deliveroo as employment.

I will never forget xxth of xxxxxxxx 2020 when I saw an image of a pilot in a hazmat suit in China. I almost fell out of my chair laughing, how could he don an oxygen mask in a hazmat suit? And why are people overreacting to a breakout of flu in China? The Kung-flu it turns out was a little more serious than I thought…

The problem with Covid wasn’t just the deaths and conspiracy theories but the fact that it decimated the aviation industry in a matter of months. I went from thinking about being a long haul Captain to, well, many things really. My total lack of education beyond high school level and any skills apart from flying airplanes made me, like many of my colleagues, fit for the service industry and little else. I didn’t even have a drivers license which put me outside the pale when it came to some basic delivery jobs.

I have debased myself and my professional standing in so many ways over the last three years that I’ve had to avail of pilot support. Thankfully it’s mandated by regulation so there’s no real shame in a pilot crying to a stranger about your problems anymore, I think. I never saw myself on a moped hoping Deliveroo drivers would get union recognition. I could pretend the whole experience humbled me but it taught me nothing. Self critique has never been my strong point. I did learn how much I valued and loved being a pilot and how important it made me to everyone else. No one tips me when I land an airplane, but when I deliver their Five-Guys in the rain they always feel the need to grease my palm with their grubby coins. They’d no idea what I was capable of, although my inability to use google maps accurately did result in a lot of late deliveries.

Finding my way back into aviation post covid was pretty tough all the same. The desert was done and so was long haul flying. It’s not lost on me that I’ll need to change the blog name at some point. The “short haul journal of Logan Jacob” really doesn’t have the same romanticism or importance but that’s what I am now. I almost wrote ‘who I am’ but I’m a pilot and can operate in any environment. Nonetheless, now that I’m back in the game it’s on like never before. I’m planning my command, depending on my company, and once they tell me when the interview is I’m going to start studying. I’ve a clean bib, at the moment, and all the captains and line-training captains are telling me I’m good to go for command. The only thing I reckon would stop me progressing would be a major safety event or attempting to shutdown the engines from the jumpseat. Someone told me that guy was high on mushrooms. I wonder if he’ll blame the madness on a covid vaccine? To be fair I’m pretty sure it’s the reason Joe Biden can’t string a sentence together half the time. But that’s just speculation based on trawling the internet for 3 years.

Thankfully the deliveries are behind me and I can focus on keeping the skies safe and ensuring your online shopping gets there on time. Carrying freight is different to carrying passengers, but at least I’m not relying on google maps to get me where I need to go.

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