Why is flying so easy?

[BTyyj]

I've seen a number of posts on AvCanada that insinuate that flying is easy. To those holding these beliefs or making these comments: in comparison to other professions and trades, why is the job of a pilot so easy?

[Colonel Sanders]

Anything is easy if you know how. This includes
speaking Swahili, playing the piano, and riding a
motorcycle at 200 mph.

There are many things about being a pilot that
is hard. Specifically it is hard on your health,
and even harder on your family life. And
everyone once in a while in the cockpit, you
will have to make some really tough decisions
that will haunt you for the rest of your life, even
if they are the right ones. You will be judged
mercilessly and without pity by people who
have no right to.

Just ask Don Cameron.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Well lets start with comparing flying an airplane to working as a roofer.

Both jobs are done above the ground, which job do you think is harder?

[URC]

why is the job of a pilot so easy?

Experience, training, passion, natural aptitude and common sense, technology.

Why is the job of pilot NOT so easy?

Fatigue (timezones, redeyes), weather (thunderstorms, contaminated runways, severe turbulence), ATC delays (LGA), mechanical issues (old airplanes), unruly and drunk passengers, unruly flight attendants (not to be confused with wild flight attendants), medical issues (air quality, radiation exposure, severe flatulance and or diarrhea), time away from the family, wildlife in the air on the ground or in the aircraft (birds, coyotes, bears, snakes), co-workers with no aptitude and or no common sense, airport security, clearing customs 20 times a month, greedy senior company management and capitalism in general (Robert Milton), governments that use your industry as a cash cow (all), governments that take away your right to collective barganing (Lisa Raitt), airport improvement fees and taxes, the price of fuel, foreign pilots stealing your job, airport parking fees, lithium ion batteries, multiple last minute runway changes (YYZ), stupid STARS (YYZ), punks with lasers, grammar police and trolls on aviation forums, etc. etc. etc. etc.

Some days more so than others ...... http://avherald.com/

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I thought the question was about the actual flying of an airplane.

Which is not all that difficult.

If it is about working conditions that is another issue.

If it is working conditions then for sure flying as a job is difficult.

[tbaylx]

Some days flying an airplane is easy, other days it's not. If it were easy every day then there would never be any crashes.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

In my early days working for a living I used to drive trucks.

Driving a Mack diesel tractor trailer with two gear shifts in it one with five speeds and the other with four speeds was a hell of a lot harder work than flying an airplane.

As to the contaminted runway issue the truck was far more difficult because the runway was only about fifteen feet wide and you have to drive on it for hour after hour within a few feet of other traffic.

Driving an airplane on a contaminated runway is about half a minute on take off and half a minute on landing and the runway is 150 to 200 feet wide and only you are on it.

Obviously driving the truck was way harder.

[Rockie]

The easiest job in the world has to be brain surgeon. You just stand there and hardly move.

[Heliian]

If it wasn't easy then nobody would do it. Some of the most unintelligent mouth breathers i've met hold pilot licenses. Being a good, professional pilot on the other hand is more difficult.

Flying is easy, it's the landing that most have problems with.

[seasonaldriver]

Driving a Mack diesel tractor trailer with two gear shifts in it one with five speeds and the other with four speeds was a hell of a lot harder work than flying an airplane.

As to the contaminted runway issue the truck was far more difficult because the runway was only about fifteen feet wide and you have to drive on it for hour after hour within a few feet of other traffic.

I just did a stint of driving a truck on the winter road. Sure made me appreciate how much easier flying is. Constant gear shifting, rocking and rolling constantly, very narrow roads with BIG trucks coming at you, ugly road conditions and taking 8 hours to drive 230 km cuz any faster and you'll break something.

[Shiny Side Up]

If flying was easy, we'd let women, children and senior citizens do it... Oh wait, we do.

[seasonaldriver]

If flying was easy, we'd let women, children and senior citizens do it... Oh wait, we do.

And us senior citizens are a problem?

[kilpicki]

Since no one has said it yet but a lot are thinking it, "you can teach a Monkey to fly an airplane but you can't teach him to fix it"

[Chuck Ellsworth]

"you can teach a Monkey to fly an airplane but you can't teach him to fix it"

Reading the flight training forum it looks like there are some problems finding qualified people to teach monkeys.

What makes this so difficult to understand is they are teaching on the most basic airplanes the industry can design.

[dashx]

Is this a thesis for a Master's or PhD?

[Expat]

If flying was so hard, no one would do it for peanuts...

[BTyyj]

I was sort of thinking along the same lines as CS and URC on this one; those commenting that flying is easy have already built the necessary skills to do it successfully.

Well lets start with comparing flying an airplane to working as a roofer.

You seem to be making the comparison based on the physical labor requirements alone. Not that that's wrong, but I have a hard time comparing jobs based on that alone, as a sewer cleaner would then have the toughest job and a brain surgeon would have the easiest. Why doesn't everyone become a brain surgeon then?

In my early days working for a living I used to drive trucks.

How difficult is it to attain the knowledge and build the skill necessary to operate a truck successfully?

you can teach a Monkey to fly an airplane but you can't teach him to fix it

If you can teach a monkey to operate a complex piece of machinery, surely you can teach it to turn a wrench.

Is this a thesis for a Master's or PhD?

No, just curiosity. I personally didn't find my flight training easy, so I've just been curious as to why others consider the role of a pilot easy. Maybe I'm just slow?

[Colonel Sanders]

I personally didn't find my flight training easy

I can assure you that most people don't find it easy
either. However, most people also have very short
memories and don't recall what happened last year,
let alone 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years ago.

[co-joe]

I like the Swahili comparison Hedley...however as it stands Swahili is actually only made up some 600 words, compared to 26 000 for english. That's why it's the language of commerce in eastern Africa.. Couldn't resist...

I wouldn't so much say flying is easy, but that it's the easiest part of being a pilot.

[Colonel Sanders]

Swahili is actually only made up some 600 words

That's why it's so easy

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I am at a bit of a disadvantage on this subject because for what ever reason I have never ever found any airplane I flew to be difficult to fly, I guess everyone is different and we all find some things easy to do and others difficult.

Now as to this one.

If you can teach a monkey to operate a complex piece of machinery, surely you can teach it to turn a wrench.

During my career I worked in both the flying and fixing sectors of aviation, for sure there is no doubt that monkeys would have far more problems learning how to fix an airplane compared to flying one.

In fact I do not even try and compare a mechanic to a driver because there is no contest...being a good airplane mechanic is far more difficult than being a good airplane driver.

Caution.......

.....to some professional pilots here I may seem to display a few problems that the devotees of the human factors bible uses to separate the high risk pilots from the low risk pilots.

Anti authority...

And possibly from my stand on this subject I might be overconfident....

..therefore I must be a high risk pilot just looking for a place to have an accident.

[teacher]

Once properly trained and experienced any job can become easy. Doing it well is what's hard. I know doctors, lawyers and several other so called "professional" jobs and NONE of them consider their jobs hard yet make 2 to 3 times what any pilot will. Sure, their numbers vs available jobs favour the professional but mainly because entry to applicants are limited.

Going around claiming our job is easy is both untrue and a disservice to our profession. Employers attempt to claim that it is for the simple reason that it allows the justification for poor wages and working conditions.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Going around claiming our job is easy is both untrue and a disservice to our profession. Employers attempt to claim that it is for the simple reason that it allows the justification for poor wages and working conditions.

Go back and read what I said on this subject, I thought it was quite clear.

I thought the question was about the actual flying of an airplane.

Which is not all that difficult.

If it is about working conditions that is another issue.

If it is working conditions then for sure flying as a job is difficult.

Employers attempt to claim that it is for the simple reason that it allows the justification for poor wages and working conditions.

The secret to making good money as a pilot is to specialize in a part of aviation that allows you to ask for and get good pay.

[teacher]

Sorry ., my comment was not directed at you or in response to your comment what so ever. Just in general.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

No problem....

By now you must have figured out I try and give good advice.

In a way I guess I was just in the right place at the right time to learn to specialize ( Aerial application, my first real flying job in aviation. ) and once I grasped that lesson I sought out good paying jobs.