“As a kid I was always fascinated by machines be it a car or a ship or an Aeroplane ! But, I wasn’t really sure on what I wanted to do.
During my junior college days I started contemplating about what what my career would be. I pinned it down to either Merchant Navy or a Pilot.
Being a Merchant Navy required a lot of commitment with time and the nature of the job, one needed to spend, 6 months on land and 6 months on sea. As much as it interested me, I couldn’t relate to it nor could I commit to the time it extracted.
Since I have been fascinated by big Jets and I love speed, I chose to be a pilot! It wasn’t a dream all along to become a pilot, but that didn’t stop me from committing to it fully!
Dream, Or no Dream, once you are passionate towards something, there are always hurdles and bumps along the way, mine was no exception. I did face hurdles.
1) Where to start from? I did decide to be a Pilot but the question was where to begin from? I joined an Aviation club thinking it may help me to get a good flying school. It did but along with it I had to shell out a lot of money on unnecessary course. To think of it now it didn’t make any sense at all but during that time with lack of knowledge and guidance I thought it was essential.
2) Money Money Money….Well if one wants to be a pilot He or She has to be ready to shell a lot of money, a lot! It is like having to keep your wallet open all the time and it is not easy for everyone. Some people do the flying course in parts so that they can work and pay off their fees and some give it up halfway! I was lucky because my father decided to support me financially.
3) Young Age…..This one thing is very crucial in my opinion. One may start getting flying lessons as early as 18! At that age all you think about flying, it is fun, well it is, along with a LOT of responsibility. To add to responsibility, it takes ages, so much time that you hit mid 20s. It is as good as getting married at an age of 22 and being able to handle in laws and your wife, Difficult but not impossible! Jokes apart, if one is not good with handling responsibilities, they should take a step back!
4) Job Scenario…This is one of the major issues people leave aviation half way through. I was fortunate enough in this case. As soon as I got my license, I gave written exams for two airlines in a span of 6 months.But the other side of the story is people sometimes don’t get an opportunity to give an exam for a whole year (this is to do with how aviation is expanding in the country). One really needs to have a lot of patience, by patience I mean, one needs to work hard and keep studying all the time even if there aren’t any openings around the corner. Some people fail to work hard and when an opportunity comes they fail to strike at it hard.
All said and done..
It is amazing to be a pilot. It changes you as a person, it makes you professional, it forces you to inculcate good things and try to iron out any of your own short comings personally and professionally.
However, there are few things that bog you down. Monotonous nature of job, slow pace of growth etc. In such cases I try to my life balanced by having other activities in my life-like Photography, Travelling, and Ballroom Dancing.
Despite facing all these struggles, I am happy of the fact that I am now a successful Pilot!
Besides who doesn’t like to fly!”