Life for a newly qualified pilot is as exciting as it is impressive and you should not only be incredibly proud of your position but equally as proud of your resilience and willingness to be away from home for prolonged amounts of time.
Here are some helpful ways to combat feeling homesick on your first few charters as a newly qualified pilot.
1. Planning and Preparation For Future Charters
As a newly qualified pilot, you will be so far unaware of the hectic nature of the work and the utter unpredictability of your working patterns and flying schedule. Generally, rosters for pilots are revealed on a month to month basis and therefore it is almost impossible to plan for the future and secure dates.
Invariably, there will be times when you find yourself in a part of the country or, indeed, in another country when you realize you are missing something vital that you need immediately and are unable to wait for conventional means of delivery. In these situations, it is strongly advisable to contact a company, such as https://www.shiply.com/us/truck-loads, which advertises truck loads and courier services for next-day delivery, meaning any medication, equipment or paperwork you have left in another city or back home can be brought to you both efficiently and securely.
Additionally, as time with your loved ones is not only erratic but impossible to schedule, when you are able to reconnect with friends and family, you will make those valuable days count.
2. Ensure You Regularly Undergo Mental Health Assessments
The life of a newly qualified pilot involves exceedingly long working hours and sleeping patterns that are erratic.
When you manage to schedule a layover, enjoy it and don’t feel pressure to pack everything in as self-care is very important to everyone regardless of profession, but especially for people like pilots who are away from home for prolonged periods of time
It is essential to ensure you undergo regular medical assessments not only to protect your mental health and wellbeing but, equally as importantly, your failure to do so could result in the loss of your pilot’s license and your complete inability to fly in the future.
3. Constantly strive to learn and improve
Cliches are cliches because they are invariably true and the old adage that ‘a good pilot is always learning’ could genuinely not be more accurate!
4. Balancing Connections and Relationships with Crew
As in most industries with a clear and defined hierarchical structure, it is important to tread carefully when conducting any kind of platonic, or other type of, relationship with your co-pilots and cabin crew.
As you become more experienced and established, you will certainly start to recognize certain members of your cabin crew and, most importantly, you will have built up a lot of trust in your co-pilots. When mistakes happen and certain issues come to the surface, it is obviously important to support your crew while simultaneously always maintaining an air of professionalism.
