Someone asked me yesterday what the worst part of my job is. Honestly I'd have to go with "wearing a tie". Maybe it was my free-spirit upbringing, but when I wear a tie it feels like I'm being insincere or perhaps even fraudulent. It's not a huge deal in that we mostly don't dress up - for company flights we wear golf shirts and dress pants, but for charters we do the full meal deal with the pilot shirt and epaulets and Captain's bars and whatnot. I guess the theory is that our passengers will assume we are competent and professional if we wear a fabric stripe down the front of our shirts and have a few stripes on our shoulders. Funny how appearances mean so much.
Click the red "HD" button for large-screen video goodness.
It got me thinking though. I'm gonna ask Lisa what the best and worst part of my job is from her perspective and I'll post a little interview with her shortly; I'm interested to hear her take on what it's like to be married to a pilot-type-guy.
For those of you who are dealing with the heartbreak, stigma and shame of having a pilot in your family, what differences do you notice in your family life compared to your non-aviating friends?
It's bad enough when they put you in a monkey suit, but I think it's hilarious when flight schools make their instructors wear the ties and uniform shirts with epaulettes. Some of those kids (the male half, anyway) don't even look old enough to shave.
ReplyDeleteI love it! The video is great! "Someone didn't get the memo..." Let me know if you ever make it to PDK. I hate my costume too. Not practical.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Love the bit about the "stigma" of being married to a pilot!
ReplyDeleteWell... best thing about being married to a pilot I think it the staff travel, although of course that varies which each job. Certainly at the moment that's the thing I love the most.
And the worst thing - which can sometimes actually be a good thing - living partially separate lives. It's very hard to be constantly separated from someone you love for days at a time, but also sometimes it's quite nice for both sides of the partnership to have time to themselves, I think...