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Comment by dyauspitr | Hacker News Reader

When you put it that way it seems like a pretty easy job.

The problem is it is almost always a boring tedious job. Most of the exceptions are when they are in the simulator doing training. (they train for worst case things like complete engine failure in weather so bad they wouldn't even take off with good engines - but since there is a possibly this could happen they train for it). However you still want them well rested and paying perfect attention even though the job is easy because every once in a while they hit one of the harder cases in the real world.

there's nothing easy about keeping yourself alert for multiple hours while doing nothing at all

our brains and bodies are lazy and efficient, do nothing long enough and the instinctive "screensaver timeout" kicks in, and you get bored, then loose alert attention. preventing this from happening for multiple hours is tiring and a skill which means it gets easier to do the more you do it

It seems pilots are actually going to be great at meditation.

Or maybe the other way round! Master meditators could be great at piloting as well..

As a former military aviator, I will say that there might be something here. A skill that's praised in that community is "compartmentalization," or being able to put away distractions such as the argument you had with your spouse, the kid being sick, or the late paperwork sitting on your desk that's irritating your boss, and focus solely on flying the mission while you're in the cockpit. That said, at least in my time, they did a crap job of actually teaching students HOW to compartmentalize.

That said, one of the steps in being qualified to fly any given aircraft is having to occasionally get in the simulator and fly a "Kobiyashi Maru" type sequence of multiple compounding emergencies over and over again. You're being graded not just on being able to follow the checklists, but knowing enough about the aircraft to know what to do when multiple systems fail and the checklists contradict each other, or you're in a corner case where following a checklist blindly is a dumb idea.

In cases like these, being able to be calmly present in the moment is a very valuable skill.

I think this counts as flight time, not paperwork & preparation time on the ground.

Yeah that’s my understanding as well for all flight crew - the regulations only define non in-air time.

Getting to a hotel to sleep takes a lot of time even after wheels touch ground - gotta taxi, follow SOPs, pass through security/immigration, travel to the hotel, and then actually fall asleep. Also, repeat in reverse to get back to work.

Pilots aren't there to fly the plane when everything is going well. They're there to be the qualified professionals who bring everyone home when everything is going wrong.

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