07 Airline Pilot
What is it Like Being an Airline Pilot
On this episode of the Unboxing Careers Podcast, we unbox the career of an airline pilot.
Guest: Captain Mark Whiteaker is a veteran pilot for United Airlines, captaining mostly domestic flights on their fleet of 737s. Capt. Whiteaker discusses what life as pilot is like, some of the nuances of his career, and spills the beans on veryone’s least favorite part of flying, turbulence. If you are interested in a career as a pilot, this episode is a must-listen.
Have a career question? Ask Capt. Whiteaker
More about United Aviate and United Careers
Listen: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music
What We Discuss:
Seniority and Work-Life Balance
Professionalism and Teamwork
Advice for High School and College Students
Navigating the Challenges of COVID-19
Turbulence and Passenger Safety
Dispelling Misconceptions About Pilots
The Future of the Aviation Industry
Key Airline Pilot Career Takeaways:
There are different types of pilots, including co-pilots, captains, and relief officers, each with specific roles and responsibilities.
Pilots have a schedule driven by seniority, with more experienced pilots having more control over their schedules.
Professionalism, teamwork, and a positive attitude are crucial for success in the aviation industry.
Making connections and visiting local airports can be valuable for those interested in pursuing a career in aviation.
Having a backup degree or minor can provide more career options in the aviation industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the airline industry, but pilots adapted and made adjustments to navigate through the challenges.
Common misconceptions about pilots include the idea that they simply push buttons and that their job involves constant travel and vacations.
Managing turbulence and ensuring passenger safety are important aspects of a pilot's job.
The future of the aviation industry is influenced by factors such as the economy and technological advancements.
Full Interview:
Greg
Welcome everyone to the Unboxing Careers podcast where we shed light on what different careers are really like so you can choose a career you'll really love. Today we are unboxing a career of a pilot with Captain Mark Whiteaker.
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Greg
All right, I'd like to welcome the show Captain Mark Whiteaker, pilot for United Airlines. Mark, welcome to the Unboxing Careers podcast. Thank you for being here.
Captain Mark Whiteaker
Thanks for asking me, Greg. Good to see you.
Greg
Same here. So unlike other professions, we kind of know what a pilot does, right? So you're flying the plane here. So maybe instead of telling the audience what the pilot does, let's talk about maybe what makes sense. Different types of pilots. We've got co -pilots, we've got captains, have probably, I'm sure there's something in the middle I don't really know about. So maybe break down like the differences between them, how that dynamics work between those, and we'll kind of do some level setting from that standpoint.
Captain Whiteaker
Okay. So, for my position, I am the captain. there are usually two pilots per airplane. in fact, most cockpits now are two pilot airplanes, but depending on the length of the stage that you're flying, you could be flying international, and past a certain hour length of leg, which requires what's called a relief officer or an IRO international relief officer.
We've gone beyond pretty much having flight engineers, which used to just be panel guys. So now it's captain, first officer, and one to two relief officers, depending on the length of the flight that give you a break.
Greg
Very good, and do you do mostly domestic, do you do international?
Captain Whiteaker
I do mostly domestic. I fly the 737 for United. That's mainly a, again, domestic. We do do Canada. We do do the Caribbean, Latin America. And we have just started touching the Azores now off Portugal, which is a pretty big stage, but it's, you know, it's doable.
Greg
Very good. And how about choosing your career? So full disclosure, we go back a very long time. I know you were flying at a very early age. I would say I know other pilots and they've always wanted to be a pilot since they were very young at age. I'm sure that's not with all people, but I'm assuming it's something. What got you into wanting to be a pilot at such a young age?
Captain Whiteaker
Well, growing up, my folks house was a five minute walk to a small airport. And by small, mean, you know, 2000 foot runway, which is small by comparison to a lot of places I go nowadays. Forested, you know, very close community. So we would take walks to watch those airplanes come and go. And it was, that was as early as I can remember. I, my folks tell me, you know, even from the age of three, I was always interested in airplanes.
From there it stemmed into at the age of 15, my folks gave me a birthday gift which was a discovery flight in a small airplane and from that was like as soon as I can do this, I want to do this.
Greg
So 2,000 feet runway, what's the 737 looking at for footage?
Captain Whiteaker
Um, on the average, we go into anywhere between nine to 12 ,000 foot runways and that's on average it can do inside of a 6,000 foot runway. We go down to close to 5,000 foot places like Orange County, California. Uh, there are some other Eugene Oregon has some short runaways, but not much less than let's say 5,500 feet.
Greg
Okay, and let's talk a little bit about typical day to day or week to week, whichever kind of makes sense. So kind of give the audience a breakdown about what your life actually looks like, right? Are you gone overnight? Are you coming back? you, you know, at the same day? How long in stretches you gone for? Kind of walk us through that if you could a little.
Captain Whiteaker
Okay, sure. So a lot of airline career is seniority driven. In fact, you would say that's that seniority rules all. So at my seniority, my and I'm about well, I'm 30 percent in the company, but I'm in my base as you break it down about 65 percent in the base. And that's in Cleveland. So the seniority on the captain side in the base, I'm doing typically four day trips, sometimes three day trips.
But there are two day and one day trips available out there. Again, the more senior you are, the more that you can work into your schedule. But I'm looking at typically four day trips, sometimes three day trips, and they're usually something like four on three off. Occasionally I'll get a nice big block of four to five days off. I just came off of an eight day off stretch, which is really nice. But anyhow, yeah, four day trips, usually getting a 13 to 16 hour layover in the city that you end up in.
So I'll fly typically two legs a day. And that's get me from almost coast to coast, sometimes within, you know, one region to the next. But coast to coast tend to be one leg days. You get to your station, get a 16 hour, 17 hour layover. And then maybe somewhere in that fourth day or four day block, you'll get something shorter like 12 hours or something.
Sometimes leave the house at 5 a .m. Get home by on the fourth day at 11, 12 noon. Some days it'll stretch out bit longer. You might see a full four day trip. Let's say six in the morning push and then get home at like 10, 11 at night. It's quite a range.
Greg
So you mentioned where you are four days on, three days off, fairly typical or typical -ish, but you also said seniority rules. So let's talk about, you know, first, you're low man on the totem pole. Are you still doing four and three? Are you doing five and two, five and three? How's that look?
Captain Whiteaker
The lowest of the low typically end up on what we call is reserve. That's like being on call. So you don't actually have a schedule of trips, but what you have is a block of on -call days. At my airline, it can be anywhere from six days on call to down to two days on call. It just depends on, again, seniority, what kind of block you can work out in your scheduled bidding.
But that's the lowest lowest so you're stuck with your phone by your side typically 14 hours per day Let's say six days at a time They can drop that your on -call time is usually about a 15 hour notice But they can drop that down with three hour notice that's Again that's That's less seniority based and more like what scheduling needs and who's had it most recently.
It's kind of a whole other box of worms, but moving up the seniority chain, you probably end up getting more like four day trips, the less desirable trips, which tend to be four days unproductive. And when I say that it's, you get, you're required to have so many hours per month flying time. Let's say it's 75 hours in a month flying.
You can bang that out in three or four trips if they're really productive trips. Let's say you get a 23 hour, four day and do that a few times a month, you've got your time. Again, the less senior you are, you start seeing trips that are more like in the 19 to 20 hour range over four days. You sit around for a full 30 hours in a layover. These are trips that tend to get passed up by the senior guys and that you might see as a junior
Greg
Okay.
Captain Whiteaker
Then again, you might see fewer days off in between your work blocks. Our contract is a minimum of two. So you might see that as a junior guy, but you're going to recover that somewhere down the road with a bigger
Greg
Okay, so those, when they're banging out a lot of hours in a short period of time, I'm assuming that's something maybe cross, you know, cross country and then you shoot, I'm just making something up here. We'll go Cleveland to LA and then we're down to Texas or something, right? So is that a fair assumption or you take that cross country, you've got to set my hours off there before you kick back?
Captain Whiteaker
Yeah, it's usually multiple leg days and that's a great assumption. It's doing like, let's say, Cleveland to LA, LA up to Seattle, or you can do down to Texas like you gave. That's a good example. Something with short turns in between so we don't lay over at a station for more than an hour or an hour and 20 minutes, turn around, do another leg. They do a third leg in a day too. Those are the ones that are most productive trips.
Greg
Very good. And how long have you been flying for? So I don't want to age you here, but 20 years.
Captain Whiteaker
In total, geez, 30 years I've been flying for in total from private pilot to current rank here. I've been flying with my current airline for coming up on my 17th anniversary and I spent five years at regional prior to
Greg
Okay, does traveling get old? Maybe not the flying part, but does traveling get old?
Captain Whiteaker
Traveling, you know, so I have like I have five kids. That's when it starts getting a little bit not old but more like you realize you're missing stuff I'm getting to a point where I'm starting to make the schedule I want but it's a it's a long road So the traveling doesn't get old there's things to do We're very crafty at finding things to do on our layovers. So that keeps it fresh especially with a whole new crew of younger pilots coming in that bring in some fresh stuff to do. So it doesn't get old, but you start becoming more aware of what time you're losing to home.
We call that quality of life. That's a reference to hear a lot in this career. So the quality of life is your time on the road versus your time at home or the things you really want to be doing outside of work. So it doesn't necessarily for me get old, but I realized there's other things I could be doing.
Greg
So you brought up quality of life. My next question is going to be around work -life balance. break. Let's just dig into that just a little bit more. you said you're relatively flexible in the grand scheme of things, right? You're home for periods of time, and then you're gone for periods of time. But I think that stuff kind of evens out there. How would you kind of rank the work -life balance or quality of life as a career? So maybe not yourself, but as a pilot as a career.
Over on the good side is it in the middle or over on the bad side when you're younger? But most people are younger don't have families so it balances.
Captain Whiteaker
Yeah, I would say the younger and again, more junior year, I think you realize what you're getting into. you know, you know, and you have more Augusto to get out there and spend time on the road and see what's out there. Like you said, they have less attachments. at the point I'm at, and it's, it's been a long road, but I would say at the point I'm at it's, the quality of life is for the most part been better than, you know, worse.
Reserve life is, it was a little tough summer months are real hard with reserve life because you're almost always getting called and that really knocks down on your days off. However, especially the way things are moving now with all the growth of the airlines and people are just seeing phenomenal movement amongst their seniority rankings. Quality of life is better than it's ever been. You're spending less time in reserve, getting lines faster, seeing trips that you want to see faster.
And then once you figure out how to manipulate all that in your favor, you can make quality of life what you want it to.
Greg
Perfect. And are you typically flying with the same, I don't say like two people, but like the same cluster of people, or is it all kind of rob and hit and miss? They don't like you flying with the same people over and over again. How does that work?
Captain Whiteaker
It fluctuates quite a bit. So when I was in the first officer seat, I was seeing a lot more of the same captains, but again, it was probably the same 10 captains. Now that I've come over into the captain seat, and again, with all that growth, I'm seeing more new faces than I am familiar faces. But yeah, it changes quite a bit. And then the bigger base that you fly to. So I started out in Newark, which is a big base for us.
You rarely flew with the same guy twice. So yeah, you're seeing new faces almost
Greg
Very good. Let's transition a little bit to those specifically in high school. So I'm going to make the assumption here. It's probably a bad assumption. I don't want to talk only to these people, but make the assumption that most people who think they want to be a pilot will probably become a pilot at some point, right? There's something in their lives that have gotten to be like, Hey, I want to fly a plane, which I think is very specific and unique. If you're talking to high school kids now who are either
know they want to do it or maybe have an inkling to do it, there's interest there, what advice might you offer them? And this could be, I mean, it could be as simple as like beg your parents to get you flying at 15. It could be a class or a skill to learn that kind of translates to older life as a pilot that you might not think of. What would you advise for those people?
Captain Whiteaker
I would say that if you have any kind of interest in it, go to your local airport, go to what we call an FBO, which is a fixed base operator. That's who's renting airplanes, giving lessons. Even if you're not at the point where you can afford taking lessons or you just don't have the time for it you're in high school, you're devoting a lot of time to other things, make connections. That's really the biggest.
Number one recommendation I can make is make connections, talk to people who love talking about flying because they're going to be your in down the road. I made my first three flying jobs through one person. And that was just, yeah, I, I had a flight instructor who, you know, I, I, I grasp onto him early on, even before I started my lessons. And then, he ended up being my flight instructor. We kept in touch.
Greg
Really.
Captain Whiteaker
I networked myself around the airport that I learned to fly at. So through him, I made three jobs, but through other connections, well, should, take that back. My first job actually flying was just connections through the airport. And then the next two that were my actual like key build time building jobs to get onto my next career steps were through my flight instructor. That all started in one place. And then down the road, as you progress, you don't just talk with people who are interested because you never know who you're going to meet.
And it's a small world. Aviation is a very small world. I run into people I know all the time and it's amazing, you know, the stories they have just through who they
Greg
That's pretty cool. then for college folks, right? I've got to assume that most people are probably going to some sort of aeronautical university if you're, you know, studying to be a pilot. So this is probably a little less typical than someone who's maybe going to school that offers 20 different degrees. They want to change in there, but is there something specific you might offer to people studying in school that, you I was having a conversation off the, uh, just private life a couple of weeks ago.
and he was a pilot and he says, man, if I only knew this before I went to aeronautical school, I would have chosen a different school to go to. any piece of advice you might be to offer to those in the advanced education side?
Captain Whiteaker
Yeah, so I did the aeronautical science route. went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. That's a devoted degree to aviation and aviation science. Looking, so I took a minor in air traffic control while I was there and that was pretty key because my first year with my first major airline, I got furloughed. Furlough is a layoff.
Looking back, I wish I would have had backup degree or maybe, you know, done the aviation thing with a business degree or something that could have, cause when I was furloughed with an aviation science degree, there wasn't much I could do because nobody's hiring, you know, during a major furlough. It was just a recession. so aviation jobs are hard to come by and. know, managerial spots looked at my, my record and said, well, with that kind of degree, we know as soon as you get the call, you're not going to be here anymore.
So, however, with air traffic control minor. got lucky and ATC actually opened a off the street hire, which was kind of rare for them. But because I had that minor, I was actually able to put my name in the hat, get hired to be an air traffic controller. But I was called back to work before they put me into a class. So I did have a backup, but looking back, I would say, you know, have have a backup plan because aviation tends to work in cycles.
And that's directly related to the economy, which fluctuates rapidly. So we're in a pretty big upswing now. Everybody's kind of waiting for what's going to happen next and working on those backup plans. So if I had a way to do it differently, I certainly would have gotten like a business degree or something like that for a
Greg
That's good advice. How did you manage the whole COVID period? I've got to believe that was, I mean, it was stressful to begin with, but that directly impacts your business.
Captain Whiteaker
Yeah, that was a very scary time for all of us, not knowing where the industry was going to be. Initially, I mean, we weren't flying. We weren't flying 20 % of our flights when it really peaked, if it was that. And then the story was, well, we're going to furlough 30 % of our pilot group. But the reality was, it's got to go deeper than that. So, through negotiations with the union.and the company, were able to make some changes.
The pilot group recognized what a unique time it was and we came to some agreements that we could cut down on our hourly pay for the month and not have to furlough. So we just kind of did what most people did, recognized we had to manage our time and our spending and things like that and utilize some reserves and things like that and just kind of live it day to day, which is how we got through
Greg
Good, thanks for sharing that. I appreciate it. Let's shift to those now. We graduate. We're brand new to the workforce. Low man on the totem pole. So I guess, like normally I would ask you what separates, like what would separate 10 candidates here? I guess maybe the better question is like what separates a new pilot, what separates a good one from a not so good one, right? Is
Attitude, eagerness, is it something completely different? Like what is that separator when you're brand new to the workforce?
Captain Whiteaker
So if you've made it to this level, you've made it to your first major, the belief is you know how to fly an airplane. You probably wouldn't have made it this far if you weren't good at what you're doing. So that's understood. What's gonna make or break you at the interview is, and then even if you pass that and make it out into the workforce, is your professionalism, your attitude. Like you said, we love enthusiasm.
We love somebody happy to be there and not like, did I just step into? team player, there's a chain of command. Definitely respect the chain of command, but be enthusiastic and have your stake in the game because we're all in it for the safety of our passengers, our flight attendants, ourselves, our families at home we want to come home to. So be able to recognize good situational awareness, what's around you, what's potential and be able to make those recommendations step up and say, hey, I think this.
like I said, be a team player and make those inputs. And one of the things that I always heard, and it's not changed since I interviewed near 17 years ago, like I said, we know we can fly the airplane. Are you going to be able to be someone we can get along with in the cockpit for four days? So that's a big
Greg
How does that kind of manifest itself? Right? So is there a mutual understanding between the two people that even if you're a bad day, that when they get there, you have to try to be as nice as possible or do you kind of get a mixed bag? I want to talk about personalities in a second. So maybe this is the good transition here. Like these are people, right? So everyone's going to have different personalities. They're going to have different things. They're going have good days and bad days and personal things going on in their lives.
How does that manifest when it gets two people in a cockpit? Is it best, be on your best behavior always or does it bleed?
Captain Whiteaker
Well, so, the captain kind of sets the tone. That's, that's a term we use a lot is the captain is going to set the tone for how the trip is going to go. So it really, lot of that rests on our shoulders to make this, you know, how is this cockpit going to work? Are we going to be open and allow for suggestions? are we going to be closed? Are we going to, there's not, you know, we used to have a big group of pilots and this is kind of an older school mentality that was kind of like, you're there and that's your place. And this, you know, I run all this and, know, just kind speak up when absolutely necessary.
That dynamic is changing. We've recognized that crew resource management is an important key to safety. So a lot more of the captains now are giving a briefing when we show up first time I meet this person. I'll say, here's what I expect. You know, good teamwork, good verbalized verify monitor, which is a skill you learn in training. You know, always make suggestions. If you have questions or concerns about the way I'm operating, absolutely tell me because it's not my intention to do things unsafe or out of the way we normally do things.
So setting a tone like that is a good way to bring somebody new or somebody you haven't flown with before as a first officer into the loop and say, and I can work with this guy. can be who I can, you know, who I am and make the suggestions I want to make. Now on the first officer side, it's a bit like being a chameleon. It always has been, it always will be.
You're dealing with a lot different personalities. And once they've made it to that captain seat, they recognize that it's their show. And there's a lot of ways to run with that ball. So as a first officer, you recognize, you know, what kind of personality traits you're dealing with, how to kind of mold yourself to working with those traits and developing just for that trip, the way you're going to speak and, you know, promote safety in a way that's going keep the team dynamic.
So it's interesting. I hear about it all the time from guys I fly with and it's no different than when I was in the right seat.
Greg
I've got a follow up you mentioned, make suggestions. So I'm a curious guy and I'm going, well, flying a plane, it's not like a suggestible thing, right? You've got very specific things you need to do to fly that plane, they keep it going. Like what's it, can you give me an example of a suggestion someone's making?
Captain Whiteaker
Well, okay, let's take the obvious. You're on final approach. That's a very, you know, a stressful high tension kind of scenario for most of our flights. know, things are moving fast and they're very dynamic. So we have a set of parameters that we have to meet at certain points throughout the approach. Certain altitudes, we're looking at configurations and that by that I mean flaps and landing gear.
We're looking for air speeds. We're looking for, you know, am I left or right of centerline? Am I high or low on the glide slope? These are things that we have parameters for and if we're not within those parameters and just not recognizing it or just not correcting for it as a pilot monitoring and that could be either the captain or the first officer because we both take turns flying.
It's up to the pilot monitoring to suggest, you know, check your glide path, check your airspeed, you know, yeah, so things like that. Or just like, let's take a, let's take a more, kind of like a wider spectrum type of scenario. You're looking at some weather down the road and the captain or the first officer, whoever's flying says, I want to take this path to get around this weather, this line of thunderstorms. And you look at it and you say,
Greg
Gotcha.
Captain Whiteaker
I don't know, that doesn't look like the best path that we could choose. you know, that's a good time to come up with a tactical way of saying, here's why I think it might be better to go the other way.
Greg
Okay, a great example, thank you for that. So I want to stay on personalities real quick before we go from a pilot perspective. So do you find there's a common, I don't want to say a common personality, but maybe a common trait that someone might have that you find among either successful or happy pilots in the field, or is it just grab something out of a hat and hope you like it?
Captain Whiteaker
I would say that the pilots that I've flown with, and I try to include myself in this category. So I'm glad you asked. I try to be real, you know, let's say optimistic. The guys that are more, guys and girls that are more optimistic about the day, you know, they show up with a good attitude. And there's going to be a lot of situations that come up that don't go to the mold. You know, you have this plan.
Pilots love plans. We love to have a plan laid out in front of us. We love to have the plan go step to step, point A to point B, know, everything works out the way it should. But that doesn't happen a lot. There's a lot of little things that show up. And that's from, you know, boarding issues. Like I mentioned before, weather, air traffic control delays, things will change the way your plan was meant to go. But if you keep an upbeat attitude about it and a positive.
Like I said, optimistic outlook. Look for your outs. You know, here's how we can handle this differently and still have a successful outcome and not let the little things get to you. Those are the pilots I've always enjoyed flying with. And that's where I've taken a lot of my attitude from as well in the left
Greg
Very good. this is not really pilot specific, but it's something that I think is important, especially if we talk to the younger people listening to this podcast, social media profiles. So how would you advise? I'm sure. I mean, if you've ever hired for something, some areas it could be illegal, but like you're a Google and I'm going to see what's out there. Right. Is this person.
Got pictures on Instagram, chugging beers all day long. How would you advise those people in high school, maybe in college, to treat their social media profiles?
Captain Whiteaker
Well, mean, you go, if you're dead set, you're going to go into a professional profession like this, that you want to start treating your social media professionally. As soon as you step foot on property with a regional airline, a major airline, anybody that has any sort of stake out there in the public world, they're going to start managing your social media.
And I don't say that they get directly involved. However, if something slips out there, you you made a comment about your workplace or the way things are being handled or a coworker, things like that. mean, that's, that's term or grounds for termination at a lot of places. So be very careful, maybe start disciplining yourself now to manage that sort of thing.
Greg
Very good. How about a misconception about your job? mean, everyone's, we've got stereotypes for everything. I'm not gonna ask you to do a pilot voice today, although if you do one, we'll get it. But like, what's a common misconception about your career?
Captain Whiteaker
I would say the biggest one is the button pusher thing, you know, that we all just sit down and push buttons. I would love to say that my job is that easy, but it's, it's, it's rarely that easy. and then the other thing is that, you know, you're going on vacation all the time, heading off to these wonderful destinations, going to the hotel. it's not the greatest, you know, I would say it's not the greatest thing. I mean, in terms of like, you know, it's, it's not an all inclusive vacation every time you go.
But the button pushing thing I would say is the biggest misconception. We're working hard from the time we show up to the aircraft even before that just preflight planning. We're looking at all the angles, all the weather, all the delays possible, know, aircraft issues. From the time we show up to the airport, we're at work. From the time we block in and shut the airplane down, there's never a moment that goes by that we're not thinking about our contingencies. What do do if this happens? What do we do if that happens? of thing. we're never just kind of sitting up there twiddling our thumbs. We're hard at work, rest assured.
Greg
Good. No one's ever let me fly the plane before they let kids up there. They never let me up there. It's total bummer How about you might have answered this ready mark? So feel free to use the same answer as before about having a Backup degree or like business degree or something, but what about your industry? Do you wish you knew sooner?
Captain Whiteaker
That's a tough question. I wish that I would have known more about the swings and the jeopardy. Like I said, we were talking earlier about the direct relation between the airline industry and the economy. I wish I had a better grasp on that. Just knowing what kind of backups I might need to have in place. I would say that's the biggest
Greg
Very good. And Mark, what did I forget to ask you today?
Captain Whiteaker
yeah, I don't know. I can't think of much. I think you covered all the bases. If anything else, I could just, you know, mention as a, as a professional pilot and a captain, how much of a manager you are and, you know, the team player thing. When we show up to the aircraft, you're a team player with your co -pilot, but you're also a team player with the folks in back and that, by that, I mean, flight attendants. They're as much part of the game as, as you are. there, you know, their role is, you know, sometimes overlooked for its importance. Just remember that when you show up to the airplane to treat them nicely, because they're going to be there if something ever happens just as much as you are.
Greg
I try to treat everyone nicely, sometimes better than others, but probably the last seven times I've flown with my wife … I do a lot of traveling you know just used to when I was speaking a lot more individually, but I think the last seven times me and her have gone somewhere it's I don't know maybe a trip just to get away without the kids they're always throwing free beer at me so I must be extremely nice to them because they're just like here's some drinks.
They singled me out, so me and my wife always joke about it, so I must be really nice to those people, which is great.
So, Mark, nothing to do with pilots. Turbulence. Big issue, an annoyance. What is turbulence from a pilot's perspective?
Captain Whiteaker
From a pilot's perspective, so knowing about turbulence, pilots recognize it's just a day -to -day thing. And for the most part, it'd have to be the most extreme thing you've ever experienced for it to be that dangerous. So turbulence to us, just from a working standpoint, yeah, it's a bit of a noise, something to try to work around.
But you recognize that you're dealing with a lot of different experience levels in the form of your passengers who may be frequent flyers, they may not be. It's maybe their first time ever getting in the air. So you recognize that moderate turbulence that, you you're trying to find a way out of it as quick as you can. could be the worst thing in the world for those folks back there. you're trying to keep in mind their safety, their knowledge, you know, let's get seated with seat belts fastened because somebody just might not even know that's the thing to do. You know, that's where among many things, keep them in mind.
My past years, you know, let's make sure they're informed about what's going on. Try to calm them down because we're going to get through this, but there are some that just, you know, my God, this is absolutely horrible. you know, so as most reassuring you can be to try to help them through that is the best
Greg
Very good. Final question for you Mark. Can't be in aeronautics anymore. No, you're a traffic controller or nothing. You have to choose a different career. Which one you choosing?
Captain Whiteaker
that's a great question because I asked myself that a lot and I'm not sure I have the best answer for that. I probably would have gone into teaching or something like that. because at, this point, teaching or manager may a managerial position of some sort, because that's, that's what I'm doing right now. You know, I teach, I'm a manager in the left seat. I guess that would be the closest thing to it because I've been in flying for so long. I'm not really sure what else I could do.
But if I had to pick something that was relatable, that would be
Greg
Very good. Well, Mark, thank you for your time today. If someone wants to reach out either to you or they just want to learn more about being a pilot, any resources you might be able to offer them for them to turn
Captain Whiteaker
Yeah, I'm always reachable through email. My email, is Mark dot Whiteaker [at] united dotcom. If anybody has any questions or would look for more resources or info, I'd be absolutely happy to help them out. The other thing too is there are some aviation colleges programs rather to look into.
As far as the majors, the recruiting, things like that. United’s Aviate, the Aviate program. That's something to look into. If you're looking to just get started, your foot in the door. That's a great place to start. But if that's not your cup of tea, most majors have a version.
Greg
Very cool, we'll link that in the show description as well.
So Captain Mark Whiteaker everyone, pilot for United Airlines. Find out more about Mark and Aviate, which we just talked about, check out the show description or show notes, are however you're consuming the podcast.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you'd to unbox your career with us, we'd love to have you. And until next time, be kind to one another.
(Interview transcription provided by Riverside.fm. May not be 100% accurate.)
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