Weekend thoughts...

Sunday afternoon and not much going on in the Forex world, so i was thinking about sharing some thoughts about my work for those who might be interested. I work as a Pilot on a major carrier in the middle east. All flights have one captain and one first officer (me). We are of course both pilots, but the captain has the responsibility for the whole flight being performed according to all regulatory and company descriptions.

My aircraft is a Boeing 777 in different models, the biggest one being the 777-300ER which loads 442 passengers and 18 crew. Max takeoffweight is around 350 tons, including some 130 tons of fuel. (i stay away from talking about environmental matters when i go to a party...). The routes flown range from 30min to 17hrs, and on the long flights we are always 4 pilots. Two pilots rest, and the other two fly the aircraft. We have "crewbunks", small compartments in the aircraft where there are 10 beds suited for resting/sleeping.

Most of our flights start between 1-4 am local time, and sleeping before the flight might be an issue for pilots with small kids at home. When we arrive at our destination a bus drives us to our hotel which is usually in the city centre somewhere. We stay there minimum 24hrs, and typical 27-48 hrs, so there is plenty of time for touristing, relaxing, working out or whatever. This is the best part of my job!
The problem surfaces when you have to deal with different timezones, sometimes 11hrs diff from your home city. Your body screams "sleep", but for you, the sun just rose for the 2nd time on the same trip and your shift just started, putting some 5-7 hrs of work ahead of you. Eventually you come home to your own bed and your family, who of course have missed you and want to go out and about to do all kind of different stuff. One or two days off, and then - off you go again - in the opposite timezone direction! Some pilots never gets fully used to this, and it takes experience to make a sound awake/sleep pattern that suits you. Not two people are alike, so what works for you might not work for me.

The fascinating thing is that you learn to make full use of the WHOLE day, all 24 hrs. If i'm hungry at 3.30am, then i cook! If i want to go to bed for the night at 1pm, then i sleep!
No rules apply, except that you have to show up at check-in fully rested.

That was some sidetracked info for being on this blog, but what the heck! Life is not all about forex, right?!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks!
Back tomorrow.
/P