I'm considering a career as an airline pilot but I can't help but wonder how bad the fatigue really is.

After flying as a passenger on a commercial flight I'm usually feeling exhausted and really worn out. Yesterday for e.g. we took off from Aruba at 5:40 pm, stopped in CLT at around 9 and flew on to DCA and landed at 12:00am. I couldn't wait to get to sleep after that.

Am I just not cut out for this? Or is flying as a pilot somehow less tiresome?

 

It's more tiresome because after that flight you'll get about 8 hours of rest before you have to fly again which doesn't take into account traveling to and from the airport or showering or eating. My caffeine tolerance is so high that five or six coffees in a row doesn't even have an effect on me anymore

 

Wow. So it seems like everyday feels like a hangover. How do you guys do it.....

 

As a pilot, some days are long. The days were longer at a regional airline but they have improved at the majors. Expect a duty day between 5-12 hours. Sometimes they are longer. This does not include waking up, taking a shower, and the drive to the airport.

My advise would be to eat well, work out when you can, don't drink a lot of alcohol and get a good nights rest.

You also have to be able to adjust your body clock to the am (6am-3pm) or pm (2pm-11pm) shifts.

 

It's not any less tiring. The high cabin altitude (6000-8000 feet) and dry air tend to suck the life out of you. You can mitigate that by eating healthy, exercising, not drinking much, and living in places like Denver and Lake Tahoe so that you are already acclimated to high altitudes.

 

The professional pilot life is demanding physically, you will need to be a bit of a health nut if you want it to work out for you Mike. Getting adequate exercise and whole foods on the road is sometimes a challenge, airliners expose you to thin air, and every six months you are staring at some doctor checking your vitals. Smoking and drinking has to be super light. To be a pro pilot means committing yourself to a lifetime of wellness if you want the best of it. You better like gym workouts in hotel gyms and balanced diets even when you have no access to a grocery store. I have known a few fat pilots and they appear out of place to me. How can you sit in an airplane for 8 hours without taking a crap if you eat that much every day? You can eat well sometimes (I certainly like to), but you had better obey your limits on the road. I used to fly 10 hour shifts in aerial survey airplanes, and up to 12 hour shifts in drop zone airplanes, no way is that going to happen unless you are fit, don't smoke, drink lightly most of the time, and respect some sort of diet.

 

Two legs and 5 1/2 hours as a passenger wore you out? You do not have the stamina to be a pilot. Go do something else. Something easy.