DECEMBER 2017 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION 19T
he best part of an airline
career is the relaxing
layovers at destinations,
only to return home to find
your comfortable chair and
slippers waiting. And if you
believe that, then I might just have a
bridge I can sell you.
The truth is that a career in
aviation has moved a long way from
the stereotype featured on the travel
posters of decades past. The family
waiting on the doorstep for the
returning aviator is not the reality
of the current age, but then again,
the current age is a vastly different
place in many ways.
Aviation, like many other fields,
is no longer an exclusively male
domain. Women strive equally to
reach their goal of the flightdeck
and, like their corporate sisters,
most face the ‘career versus
children’ conundrum at some point.
The issue is complicated somewhat
by another element of modern
society that virtually demands
that both parents work to meet the
burden of ever-rising mortgages
and school fees. Aviators are far
from alone in this, but the juggling
act of rosters and absence make the
equation even more challenging.
Furthermore, our society
has become a place of instant
gratification, where everyone
seems to need everything yesterday.
Although time travel may still
elude us, the time it takes us to
travel continues to shrink, even in
our subsonic airliners. Seemingly
ever-increasing range bypasses
ports that were once stopovers
between continents, while transit
times domestically are increasingly
compressed.
Additionally, the increased
frequency of services has meant
that the once luxurious layovers at
outports have been replaced by just
enough time to eat and rest before
the journey begins to the next
destination.than that, frustrating many current
pilots.
As customer demand has
increased with tighter schedules in
close pursuit, workload and time
away have necessarily increased,
but it is the persistent clash of life
and work that ultimately creates
the most tension. Rather than
missing some family occasions,
it now seems to be the norm and
a weekend off with the family
is golden. Leave during school
holidays is of a premium as that is
when the demand for crew is often
at a peak.
This is now set to a backdrop
of two working parents, where
once most couples had one warrior
holding the fort and usually that
was everybody’s hero – Mum.
However, even when children aren’t
involved, starting and maintaining a
relationship in these circumstances
comes with additional challenges
in a world spinning at a breakneck
pace. Time together as a family
unit seems to be shrinking for the
population in general, and rosters
for those that crew our aircraft have
an extra ingredient in the mix.
A common lament is for
rostering to be improved to find
the balance. Inefficient pairings
where long tours of duty generate
minimal hours of actual flying and
more days at work rankle most
pilots and cabin crew. A good many
pilots have expressed that they
rate the work-life balance as their
priority and would rather that anyfuture enterprise bargaining process
address rostering and flexibility
as a prime goal ahead of any pay
increase.
To their credit, a good many
airlines are addressing the issues
and offer options for carers,
flexilines, part-time rosters and
so on. Even so, the nature of the
business makes this difficult for
them as an employer too and the
best of these schemes can still
be hobbled despite everyone’s
honourable intentions.
On the part of the pilots, there
are those who no longer seek to
ascend the linear path of promotion
or seek to fly the latest and greatest
in the fleet. Route structures, time
off, time zone changes and multiple
other factors are emerging for many
crew as the considerations that
they rate more highly over status
and dollars. The era of the bread-
winner being defined by gender or
the like are gone and all working
relationships these days are more a
co-op than a boardroom. At home,
the cockpit gradient is not as steep
as it once was, and few would not
agree that is a good thing.
Mental health continues to be an
issue drawing attention these days,
and there is no doubt that a content
home life is a key component of
everyone’s general well-being.
The outback Cessna pilot may not
have climbed the aviation ladder
in some people’s eyes (not mine),
but with a rewarding home life,
they are still a happy individual.
Conversely, you can put a pilot
at the helm of the Space Shuttle,
but if their life at home is strained
then odds-on they’ll be a miserable
person to be around, or sit next to
on the flightdeck. And that affects
everyone’s performance.
Even in aviation, at its core,
human contentment is about the
heart and not the hardware. Or more
to the point, it’s about finding the
balance between the two.Flight Levels APILOT’SV
Life in the balance
The fast-paced existence of the professional pilot
IEW
This is what the modern
marketplace calls for and
accordingly the airlines strive to
meet their passengers’ needs while
remaining a step ahead of the
competition.
Caught in the congestion is the
human element, the flightcrew.
The balance between life and
work in our society continually
surfaces as one of life’s greatest
challenges, and a career in aviation
is no different. And this is more
than a bleeding-heart perspective
for a profession that many still
consider to be a privilege, this is a
genuine concern for an industry that
continues to grow while the number
of those choosing to fly seems to be
on the decline.
For the first time in recent
memory, it is not uncommon to
hear pilots say that they are actively
discouraging their offspring from
following in their footsteps. They
are not playing a passive role and
letting their children find their own
feet, they are proactively telling
them to look elsewhere. For an
industry that has been accused
of nepotism, this is a new turn of
events. But why?
The reasons are many, as are
the pressures on any modern
household. Undoubtedly, the cost
of training for a career with no
guarantees of success is a deterrent
for many who can find a more
straightforward path through
tertiary education or a trade.
However, it would seem to be morePHOTO – ROB FINLAYSON