I reported for a duty last week, clean shaven, my skin was smoother than the leading edge of an F22 Raptor. It was also raw and the cold weather wasn’t helping it. Nonetheless I pride myself on turning up to work prepared to, at the very least, look the part. The captain I was flying with had a different approach entirely. He was not using … Continue reading Mask On
Christmas is a time for family, food and, most importantly, movies. What you watch, when you watch and why you watch it can be used to identify what type of person you are. If you think Die Hard is a Christmas movie – you’re about movies and know your stuff. If your favourite Christmas movie is 4 Christmases – you probably spend a lot of … Continue reading Kingdom of the Crystal Bull$#*¥
Did someone say take a pilot out of the flight-deck or did I imagine that? Airbus and EASA are reviewing, in a serious way, a provision to allow crewing to be reduced to single pilot during certain cruise phases of flight. Sure why not? Relegating pilot importance is not new, it has been tested in many forms and will consistently rear its ugly head, but … Continue reading THE FUTURE IS HUMAN
Fail better is what they say and in some sense that’s the story of my life, kind of. Sometimes I just fail and fail, and fail; but it’s mostly other peoples fault so I try not to blame myself. Despite some mistakes I, like most pilots, prefer to think of myself as a peak performer. I would almost say I’m special, but I don’t want … Continue reading Fail to Prepare…
I have at this juncture, donned many uniforms be they aviation related or not. I hate uniforms, and despite being aware of my own educational limitations, understand that uniforms are our cultural means of segregating professional and social groups, so we identify them with ease. In business this is particularly helpful because no one wants to confuse McDonald’s with Burger King or worse KFC. I … Continue reading Wear it With Pride
A cockpit is a cockpit, is a cockpit and so on (I think that’s Joyce). The reality of any cockpit is its similarities with other cockpits and the feeling of being home when you close the door and sit into your seat. Entry in different cockpits requires similar, but never the same, strategies for body position, bag carrying, coat wearing (or not) and manoeuvring to … Continue reading No Country for Soft Men
I’ve been wearing sunglasses for most of my aviation career. I use them in pretty much the same way as a doctor who wears a stethoscope around their neck all the time. I have them at the ready in case the sun blasts me in the eyes and I need to look good. What you would never see happen is a doctor wearing their stethoscope … Continue reading Sunglasses Are For The Birds
Day one back in work is always a pain in the hole after a break but when I arrive for the crew briefing a pretty great crew greets me. There is no sign of the Captain and when I ask if anyone knows him, I don’t recognise his name, they shrug and one of them starts to giggle. I’m very confused and when I ask … Continue reading The Art of Distraction
Christmas was definitely different this year – with the family coming down to Dubai and staying in my shoebox of an apartment. I got the sense that my folks don’t really understand why I like it here, but they are thirty-five years older than me so I don’t expect them to. What was strange, despite the fact that she is a grown up, is my … Continue reading The Muppet Show
“How would you rate 2017 in terms of success or failure?” “Excuse me?” I say in utter shock, to my Dad, as he keeps banging the self-reflection drum, “Tell me, do you think this year has been a success?” My thoughts go directly to saving the lives of over 300 people only a month earlier, and then I drift to some of the more questionable … Continue reading Back to School
The Long-Haul Journal of Logan Jacob 