What NO ONE Tells you About Life as an AIRLINE PILOT | 10 Years of FLYING PLANES

yeah so i was thinking about doing another video and um i'm just wondering you know like what kind of topic should i choose that is interesting enough and hasn't been covered yet by thousands of other people are you kidding me there are so many things you can talk about talk about your 10 years of being a pilot for example you mean everything everything the ups the downs the trash the gold yeah why not just talk about your previous airlines and other things you wish you knew back then that's a bit scary but okay um maybe you're right maybe it's time yeah i definitely think it's time and don't worry about it it's gonna be fun hi guys welcome back to my channel i hope you're all doing great today it's been a while since my last video and i've been so busy working on my biggest project yet it's currently being beta tested which is the last stage before the actual launch so i should be able to tell you a little bit more about it in one of my upcoming videos it's really exciting and i hope to help many people with that project i've also been focusing on myself and self-improvement and the sponsor of today's video has been a great help so before we continue i'd like to share the sponsor of today's video blinkist blinkist is perfect for people like me who do not have the ability to spend a lot of time on reading books instead of having to find the time to read an entire book you can just listen to all of its highlights in only 15 minutes blinkist allows you to save time and learn new things faster than ever you can use it to learn more about self-improvement leadership entrepreneurship and many more other areas last year i read more than 15 books on these topics and i gotta say i wish i used this app earlier one of the books i think everyone should read or in this case listen to is how to in france and influence people by dale carnegie it's only 30 minutes another very good book is rich that poor death by robert kiyosaki 13 minutes as well while the actual book takes you at least a week to read if you feel like you also want to listen to these books during your ride towards home or work the seven day trial is completely free and you can cancel any time during that period you can also click on the link in the description box if you're interested and the first 100 people will get a 25 of the full membership so 10 years ago i started my flight training 10 years isn't it crazy it feels like yesterday when i completed my first solo flight and let me tell you about my experiences my career choices and basically everything else i think is interesting 10 years as an airline pilot the ups and downs here we go as some of you might know i started my flight training at cae oxford aviation academy when i was 19 years old my parents supported me in every way but especially my dad was very hesitant about me starting a career that comes with a pilot loan of 150 000 euros a pilot loan with an interest rate of 5.2 percent before i signed the contract my dad often spoke about the risks of agreeing to such a loan and he said things like do you know how hard you will have to work to earn 150 000 euros i don't want you to be one of those people who end up being unemployed and having to declare themselves bankrupt because that was a situation back then in 2011 we were in the middle of a financial crisis and as a 19 year old i had absolutely no clue of what it takes to earn that amount of money the students in the classes before me were still unemployed and it was as if the entire aviation industry in europe had come to a standstill because not a single airline in europe was hiring with that thought i went into flight training and it was clear to me that i had to make my education my number one priority the goal was to have zero retakes no rechecks and an average above 90 to increase my chances of getting hired in a tough market two years later i graduated in 2013 and had to find a job to pay my bills due to the high interest rate of my pilot loan i was paying over 700 euros to the bank each month and i was unable to pay them more so the loan itself wasn't decreasing i started working for a lawyer's office that enabled me to pay my bills but that wouldn't be that wouldn't bring me any closer to a job in the cockpit so i also took a job at a small simulated company at lelysat airport which is small airport 40 kilometers east of amsterdam and this job in a simulator company was a great way to maintain and even increase my flying skills i now realized that this greatly increased my chances of getting my first job in the cockpit so if you are unemployed and inexperienced make sure you find yourself a similar job paid or unpaid anyway during the next two years i applied for a job at a great number of airlines and was invited for selection process only a couple of times most of the offered contracts were terrible at the time some were even unsustainable paying 25 000 euros for a type rating on a very rare plane like the boeing 717 earning nothing while in training and later on 13 euros per actual flight hour that means that for a 30-minute return flight from barcelona to ibiza you would earn only 13 euros pay to fly contracts were even worse and shouldn't be exist in my opinion pay to fly means that you as a pilot had to actually pay to work so let me explain the airline would actually sell you a package that included a type rating and 500 hours of experience the pilots would pay for the rating and additional fees and work for free for 500 hours after 500 hours thank you bye-bye but apparently those contracts still exist the airlines got away with this because there were so many unemployed pilots at that time and unemployed pilots were slowly becoming so desperate for a job that even these sorts of appalling contracts became options for them i never applied at any of these airlines and i will always tell people it's better to do something else than to work for such companies i once even applied at an airline paid to attend their selection process and was later told that only people that can speak french fluently will proceed to stage number two of the selection process but speaking french fluidly was never a requirement they just changed their requirements all of a sudden because selection processes themselves became a way for the airline to earn money you probably get the idea of how tough the market was back then some people dream of working for a particular airline other people dream of working on a specific aircraft and i always dreamed of working and living an adventurous life in the south of europe somewhere where the sun always shines and the atmosphere is great there was one airline that offered this opportunity so when this low-cost airline started hiring again after two years i was super excited i attended the selection process and a few weeks later i heard that i was hired i thought this is my dream coming true i'm going to experience that one and only five life that i always dreamed of wake up call that didn't happen it started off with bills many bills paying for hotels the uniform the id card paying for tickets transfer of licenses lost me the changes going out of base transfers and i can go on and on now beforehand i knew that i signed a self-employment contract and that i had to pay everything myself like the 30 euro type rating and some extra expenses but i didn't think that it would cost me an extra 10 000 euros on expenses only in the first few months and as you know i was already financial and stable before i was hired but now it became even worse and my fixed base did not become somewhere in spain but in brussels as you can imagine i had to get used to this turn off events but it was still worth it i mean i had a job but after working for this airline a couple of months i noticed a incredible culture of fear in a way that i cannot describe not just with pilots but within all departments personally i believe you treat everyone with respect whether you are dealing with a manager or a cleaner no one should abuse their authority simply because they can to see my colleagues in the cabin getting shouted at for not selling enough time after time is just one of those things that i can't get used to a couple of months later i was working in brussels and i was walking through security when i had one of these intuitive moments i will never forget them i was doing another two times barcelona on one day like every other day and thinking to myself if this is what it means to be an airline pilot then i made the worst mistake of my life now i never had that feeling not even during those two years of being unemployed i expected this to be a little bit adventurous and exciting but for me it felt completely the opposite is there a way out another base with other destinations and how long do i need to stay here to pay back my pilot loan which was now 180 000 euros the funny thing is that human beings adapt like no other species right we adapt to the best environment but also to the worst it's just a matter of time before people become numb and think it's completely normal to treat or to be treated in a specific way especially when you have no reference to other companies and work with people who are lucky to have a job in the first place there are also many people that just need to get food on the table for their families they don't care about anything else as long as they receive a paycheck at the end of the month that combined with a culture of fear is very dangerous and as the market became better and better many of my colleagues who started around the same time were looking for another job at a different airline the conclusion of this entire story you either shut up and deal with this way of life or move on so let's move on to a different chapter of my life fast forward i was at home when a friend called me he told me that there was a vacancy for a spanish airline on linkedin initially i didn't know the airline but the only thing i saw was a crazily high salary for a first officer main baseball mallorca and all the expenses covered my dream i immediately applied passed the selection process a couple of weeks later and it honestly was one of the best and happiest moments of my life the charger company only hired people with a minimum of 500 hours so it was a match made in heaven the first few weeks were constantly like i don't need to pay for this i need to pay for that leader okay that sounds great in my first company i had to call a taxi pay for a taxi now the taxi was already taken care of and i was getting paid extra for it a different world i also remember sitting in front of the hr manager saying are you sure you're going to pay me 700 euros for housing allowance it was just such a different world from what i was used to it was the first moment in my career where i felt like this was exactly what i was looking for in the beginning i had to get used to the different atmosphere because everyone was so close with each other warm and friendly after a while i felt like i was part of one big family and until date i actually still miss them the jokes the funny moments and the relaxed atmosphere between them is just priceless we all knew each other and each trip was another adventure not one day felt like working we were just having a good time while doing our job i'm sure spanish people know exactly what i mean by that flying for audi on day one a football team on day two and carrying 90 wheelchairs on day three we had so many layovers in capo verde pomona majorca rome sicily and other places in europe and as i never had layovers before working for this company felt like a constant holiday the contract was great but the spanish and italian people is what made the difference by far they have a special place in my heart by the way if you're still watching and like this video please consider subscribing to my channel in this company i really learned how to fly the boeing 737 400 and the 800. i learned to think outside the box manage situations that mostly only happen in the simulator deal with failures deal with passengers and problems i didn't even know could be a problem i got to experience a water salute and face many situations which i wouldn't have experienced otherwise the lessons i've learned are prices and i'm forever grateful for these experiences i would therefore really recommend flying for such a company especially in the beginning of your career back then i lived in cesto calendar which is a little town near the la camacho in italy for two and a half years and now you might be thinking why on earth did you change companies then if you were so happy there here comes the other side of the pancake one it's a charter company and i knew sooner or later another financial crisis would come long i wanted to decrease the chance of ending up unemployed or not getting paid while i could still do something about it the market was booming a couple of years ago i also used to fly with ex-futura pilots and pilots who have been made redundant many times they told me about their career in the past and what they would have done different if they had to do it again number two the roster was tough i had eight days off which often were not in a row but spread throughout the month this meant i would fly for flight charter for tui uh one week then be off in italy for one day and the next day being on a east jet flight towards lourdes and staying there a couple of days then moving on to rome followed by a split duty in la made satarma or anywhere else and after two years of doing that i started missing my free time and a time to build a social life it was hard to make any plans and as their business grew the airline got more and more contracts than ever before to record a video like this i would go on the earliest flight from mapensa to amsterdam in the morning record the video take the last flight back in evening i did that numerous of times and it costs a lot of energy i was unable to go to france birthday parties etc simply because i had no time and if you're italian that's great but otherwise it meant you would be home for only three days a month if you were lucky at some point it felt like i was always in the air whether i was flying myself or as a passenger i started to realize that this was not doable forever even though it was an unforgettable experience i also started feeling alone more and more and was just not a healthy situation so i applied at the airline i currently work for i heard many great stories about this airline and i knew some people who worked there already all of them sounded very happy and did have a social life it was time for me to make the move i did have a double feeling when i left though as i felt like i left some of the best people in the world behind but continuing on a similar roster till my retirement was simply not an option i started working for my current airline and went through yet another culture change i felt home straight away with those typical dutch people the people in this company all seemed very kind positive and authentic which as you know by now is important to me i started my conversion course and completed my line training i did like three flights and then everything stopped due to the pandemic i was surprised by how easy going work was everything was already done and taken care of no manual load sheets to be made and just a very smooth operation in general completely different from the previous airlines that i worked for i'm super lucky to work for the airline i work for right now as because of them i still have the best job in the world now i'm about to start flying again and traveling in europe should be possible soon and as soon as the borders are open i'm going to be on every plane towards the south in my days off don't get me wrong lens is great but if i can choose between blue skies or overcast 11 degrees in may i just hope we can all enjoy our lives like we used to before this pandemic and hopefully all pilots that lost their jobs because of the situation will soon be back in the air flying will never get old but as you can see your career won't always be easy it's definitely worth it though as you can see a lot of things can happen within 10 years it contains ups downs and many lessons to be learned about life and yourself i hope you enjoyed this video where do you want to be in 10 years and will you also be a pilot or do you have other plans i love to hear your story it's never too late to start and whatever it is you can still make a difference check out my instagram account for posts and stories about my life as an airline pilot give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and consider subscribing to this dutch pilot girl channel clicking the notification bell will ensure you never miss out any of my future videos i hope to see you in the next video guys [Music] bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: DutchPilotGirl

Views: 668,620

Keywords: Dutchpilotgirl, Airplane, Flight, Pilot, Boeing, 36LEFT, aviation, plane, planes, captain, airbus, female pilot, airport, cockpit, flightdeck, jet, airline pilot, flight school, pilot salary, cockpit view, landing a plane, female pilot in cockpit, pilot life, Bose, become an airline pilot, become a pilot, life of an airline pilot, Boeing 737, Boeing 777, Unemployed pilots, selection process, Boeing 747, planespotting, Airplane landing, Just Planes, From the flightdeck, Airbus A380, Airline

Id: zEXcmrbfpxo

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021