Sir, - Frustration and anger are, as usual, the two emotions I feel when reading a description of my working conditions, written, as usual, by someone who doesn't actually do the job. With reference to the Aer Lingus pilots' strike, Tadgh Kearney writes (Opinion, May 30th): "Most people do not realise that the maximum allowable flight time for a commercial pilot is on average 18 hours per week." Well, while I could easily debate how a maximum can also be an average, let's use the figure that he quotes.
For a jet captain flying within Europe, the typical working week consists of five or six days of work, followed by either two or three days off. This working week will consist of "lates" or "earlies". Earlies will necessitate waking at about 4.30 a.m. at the latest to leave the house at 5 a.m. in order to drive to the airport, find a parking space in a staff car-park well away from the terminal, then wait for a staff bus and eventually get to the crew room at least one hour before the scheduled departure time of the flight in order to print out weather charts, flight plans, flight logs and various other papers needed for the safe execution of the flight.
This information then needs to be interpreted and decisions made on fuel loads, etc., The cabin crew then need to be briefed. In winter, this process is complicated further by calculations needed for icy or snow-covered runways or aircraft de-icing.
By now it is around 6.40. The passengers are starting to board, the pilot has been up for over two hours, and is already feeling tired and hungry due to the early start. Once the aircraft does take off, it will be the first of four, five, sometimes even six flights. The 45 minutes on average between each flight will be spent planning the next one. Lunch will usually be taken after the third - a re-heated airline meal, taken in the cabin, while the cleaners work around you and their vacuum cleaners blow dust in your face. With luck,there'll be 15 minutes to eat.
On average, a pilot might spend two to three nights a week away from the family, leaving the house before 5 a.m. and returning at 5 p.m., then doing it all over again for five to six days in a row, with two or three days off at the end of it all. I haven't even mentioned having to fly in all weathers, making difficult decisions, always being ready for a vast number of potential emergencies, undergoing a stringent medical test twice a year and a two-day simulator check probing knowledge and skill twice a year as well.
On top of that, every every working day a pilot is directly responsible for hundreds of lives in the aircraft, and thousands of lives on the ground below. And anyone who tells you it's all automatic these days just doesn't know what they're talking about. Landing a sixty ton aircraft doing 170 m.p.h. in driving rain on a dark, stormy night with gale-force winds on a short, wet slippery runway requires real skill and experience - and, if I may be unfashionable, good-old fashioned bravery and determination.
Keep this up for days, weeks, months, years and, believe me, you will be tired, very tired. Think about this next time you're flying. The pilots you trust with your life are in all likelihood fatigued, hungry and disgruntled with a management they see as bullying and prepared to compromise safety for the bottom line.
So what's my point? Simply for everyone to understand the real facts behind the pilots' reasons for this dispute. Remember, next time you see a quote about flight hours or minimum rest, you can't take the figures at face value.
I'm not an Aer Lingus employee; I've lived and worked as an airline pilot in England. I now train pilots for a number of airlines worldwide. Nearly all airline pilots I've worked with are very modest, quiet individuals. All they ask for is the opportunity to do their job to the best of their abilities, with safety as their utmost priority - while managing some kind of family life and receiving a fair remuneration for their level of professional skill and responsibility.
They certainly do not want to be viewed as an elite - just as a group of dedicated professionals trying to deliver a safe and efficient service under less than ideal circumstances. - Yours, etc.,
Capt IAIN FITZGERALD,
High Wycombe,
Bucks.,
England.