A Day Out With Me: ACS Flight Seminar in Glasgow.

I’ve attended the ACS flight training seminar in Glasgow, Scotland (in collaboration with BOSE). It was an incredibly insightful event. The flight was fairly quick. It departed from London Heathrow at 07:30am and arrived in Glasgow just short of 9am. The pilot seminar started at 11am followed by a series of presentations from airlines like TUI and Emirates with pilots sharing their experiences as well as an awards ceremony for ACS ATPl students and organisations like FlightDeckWingman and ATPL schools sharing what they have to offer.

It was a fantastic and invaluable experience. I learnt a lot which I’ll be sharing below with you. I was at the event throughout the entire day and spoke to a number of people and saw familiar faces like FlightDeckWingman – who I follow on instagram and the star pilot that features on the BBC iPlayer series ‘Sky High Club’. Unfortunately, the flight back was delayed by an hour – which meant I arrived quite late back in London and had to cancel evening plans. But aside from that it was an incredibly pleasant experience!

Here are some of the snapshots of the day:

Below I attempt to explain the key gems and advice I’ve taken from this seminar.

  • You’re not too old to start your pilot training.
  • The percentage of BME in the cockpit is shockingly low.
  • Airlines are focussing on evidence-based training (EBT) and assessments.
  • Approach your daily tasks with high standards.
  • Be willing to accept constructive feedback.
  • Constantly assess your current situation and areas for improvement – as an airline pilot sim checks forms an integral part throughout your career – so get in the habit to improve!
  • Work in aviation (ground crew, Menzies, cabin crew) – either for the airline or for their associates. This will help you build a network PLUS sets you apart from others in interviews.
  • Create a very close network – from airlines to flight organisations.

I’ll expand on the above bullet point surrounding low BME pilots in the industry. FlightDeck Wingman, a ex royal navy fighter pilot and now an airline pilot hosted the event and talked around the low number of BME pilots. In his 18 years of flying in airlines – he’s only ever flown with 4-5 people from BME backgrounds in that period.  I remember reading somewhere only 3% of pilots are from ethnic minority backgrounds. FlightDeck Wingman’s experience really highlights the low numbers of those from ethnic minorities as pilots. Hearing this really motivates me to become an airline pilot and help pave the way for more people from similar backgrounds into the industry. FlightDeck Wingman also helps future pilots through airline assessment preparation courses and taster days.

An inspiring take-away and food for thought:

Donald Cameron, First Officer for TUI airways talked about his journey to flying the Boeing 737 out of Glasgow. Initially, Donald was a fire-fighter. At the age of 38, he decided to have a career change to become an airline pilot. He embarked on the modular training pathway and even built his own aircraft to save on hour building along the way. For those interested to know what his aircraft looks like it’s a Europa XS G-PUPY. It’s worthy to note whilst studying for his ATPLs he was taking care of his two young kids.

“Be Persistent and Resilient. One day your dreams will be a reality.” – Donald Cameron, First Officer (B737) – TUI

His flight training was incredibly inspirational and a great lesson for me in the art of self-belief and resilience. I think it’d be  very easy for myself or anyone in that case to fall in the trap with excuses like:

  • I’m too old for airline recruitment  
  • I’ve got a family, I cannot possibly afford this.
  • My children need a father in their life – not someone who’s bogged down in ATPL study or is flying halfway across the world.
  • I cannot possibly give up a 16 year secure career as a fire-fighter.
  • I’m simply not intelligent enough to become a pilot (I mean, I’m 38 years old for God’s sake!)
  • I feel intimidated being 38 and starting training when most students are 18-21 years old.

You see what’s going on here? I’m sure there are 10 other plausible excuses I could’ve pluck out. Despite, all these odds stacked up against Donald he STILL decided to pursue his dream. And that’s what makes a phenomenal airline pilot – the art of resilience.

Resilience is something you’ll hear time and time again in the aviation industry. It’s incredibly important we can begin to demonstrate resilience whether it’s through overcoming the fear of failure or the squashing that little voice in your head. By demonstrating resilience early on – when it comes to being an airline pilot you’ll have the necessary toolkit to be a proficient airman.

It was also interesting listening to an Emirates pilot talk about his journey working in multiple jobs to fund his dream – similar to what I am doing at the moment. He now lives in Dubai flying the A380 and is flying all over the world. He is now working towards his command course – which he will have completed by 2024. He also talked around the pilot lifestyle in Dubai – such as the his roster pattern, discounts virtually everywhere and in his words being ‘chauffeured’ from home to airport and back! Not a bad life huh! Although I will have to say a lot of it sounded like it was the Emirates marketing team speaking. So I had to take what he was saying with a pinch of salt. I’m glad to know majority of people who go into aviation have a genuine passion for it and are not sucked into it because of the ‘pilot lifestyle’ – I mean, sure if it comes with it – great! If not, then it won’t make an ounce of a difference in my consideration to become a pilot. And finally, we had a few other talks during the day and 1-2-1 interactions through exhibition style stands too.

Key resources:

  • Podcast: Flying out Loud by the Flight-deck Wingman
  • Myos bricks test
  • 16personalities.com (pilots fall into letters E,S,T and J)

Hope these insights have helped. Happy flying.