Always respect the side hustle.

I don't expect this to win any awards for writing but I'm happy to think this might inspire some future aviators. A quick read of the back cover reveals Malik was inspired by Delta’s own legendary Cal Flanigan.

Cool stuff and I'm happy that someone gets to tell Malik's story thus far.

Hopefully the humility part and the good instructor part and not the never calling in sick for your whole career part :D

Cal’s a super good dude though.

I’m happy these guys are able to upgrade so quick. What ****es me off is that they write books or feature themselves on facebook as if they are superior pilots or harder workers than those of us that came before them. Upgrading to captain at a young age requires good timing. It has nothing to do with skill or their abilities. The hiring standards are as low as they’ve ever been so I’d argue a lot of these guys have less experience and inferior flying skills than those hired a decade ago or more. Humility would go a long way.

I agree and think it depends on how they approach it with their audience. That is to say, how honest are they with themselves and others about the reality of their situation. For example some of those "day in the life" vids out there, while sometimes cheesy/cringeworthy, can be informative particularly to those trying to learn more about the profession and the industry. It's the presumptious "Look at meeeeeeee.....I'm the master of the universe" stuff that grinds my gears...but that's social media for you.

This. People forget “achievement” in airline aviation is mostly about timing and not merit.

And that's the thing. We are not the target audience. He doesn't need to stroke any of our egos in there. Some kid trying to become a pilot doesn't need to be bored with the nuances of lost pensions, airline mergers, the effects of 9/11 on the industry, the lost decade, whatever.

It's 120 pages "thick" and authored by someone else. The pragmatist in me tells me likely someone heard of a young black man with a pretty good success story and they wanted to share it. I'll err on the side of optimism until proven otherwise.

Well, at least it does not appear he is claiming it is easy to become an airline pilot. My uneasiness with the influencer types is that they make the flying public think the process to become an airline pilot is just a matter of money and time. They sell a dream to people who aren't ready to take on those challenges and find out the hard way. At least Capt. Sinegal has actually done it and lived through some of the difficulties in the career, whether for a short time or otherwise.

There is frankly a lot more cringeworthy stuff out there. For example, there are 6-month-old videos on YouTube about how to go from zero ratings to regional check airman just "18 months," touting the boat loads of cash to be earned and fast career progression. Everything in the videos is now outdated based on the current hiring environment. One of the guys has a website, newsletter, etc. and made the videos before having a commercial ticket. It's cringeworthy because of the influencer mindset (and corresponding audience gullibility) that "just doing something" is enough to establish credibility. I hope anyone reading this from outside the industry objectively considers the credibility of whomever is providing you information about this career and is not just another influencer selling the hype.

That's probably the most difficult barrier to most. Beyond pure desire to make flying a career and push aside other aspirations, I don't believe aptitude is a huge barrier to the industry.

and Gen X, probably the most populous generation at Delta, continues to…something