British Airways pilot and trainer Steve Allright
Sarah Dea / The National
Captain Steve Allright, 48, is a British Airways pilot and training captain. He also teaches courses designed to help people conquer a fear of flying. His next “Flying with Confidence” course in the UAE is on October 20 at the Capital Club, Dubai. Here, he talks about a recent day when he flew to New York.
5.30am
I shower and eat a banana on the go. I live in a village 20 minutes from Heathrow Airport, near London. When I moved house a few years ago, I found my project books in our old attic from when I was nine; one on airplanes and the other on birds. So I must have had a fascination with flying even then.
6.45am
I get to the crew car park, jump on the crew bus, then it’s a five-minute journey to terminal 5. It’s there I meet the co-pilot. There are about 500 British Airways co-pilots and 300 captains on our 47 747s, so I’ve never met him before. He’s in training to swap seats from co-pilot to captain pilot. So he still sits in the right-hand seat on the plane, but I let him act as the captain and make all the decisions under my supervision.
7.30am
We’re given paperwork covering the flight time, fuel needed, the weather at our destination and en route any forecast turbulence and defense issues we should know about. Then we do a 15-minute briefing with the 14 cabin crew. We leave the crew report area and go through the same random security checks that passengers go through. We abide by the same rules on how to store liquids, creams and gels, and walk with the passengers to the plane.
8am
The other pilot walks around the outside of the aircraft to check for any obvious issues, meets the dispatcher organizing the departure and the loaders. I set up the navigation computers on board and make sure all those knobs and switches are in the right places. On a long-haul flight, there’s always a tray of sandwiches and chocolate biscuits that cabin crew provide for us when we get on board, which is a treat for us.
8.30am
We depart on time, spend 20 minutes taxiing on the ground before taking off towards the Welsh Hills, and over Ireland. We get our oceanic clearance from the Shanwick Air Traffic Control Center and start flying across the Atlantic. The closest we get to other planes horizontally is 10 minutes apart, but in terms of altitude, we’re only separated by about 1,000 feet. Because airplanes use GPS computers they fly very accurately at all times. We’re on the North Atlantic track and would certainly see other aircraft over or under us. You tend to overtake other planes in a 747.
10.30am
My favorite meal is served; tilapia fish with minted peas and potatoes. We eat different food to passengers. What I love most about flying is looking out of the window. On the way back from New York at nighttime, we see the Northern Lights, which are like an eerie moving green curtain when you’re at altitude, with a few purples sometimes. They’re tens of thousands of miles away in the atmosphere, and change quite rapidly in brightness and shape.
2pm
We do a brief for an hour or so about what we’re expecting for the landing approach. We have to be aware that there are lots of airplanes around us flying into New York, the air traffic controllers speak quickly and the runways there can be quite short. We discuss what speed and altitude we’ll be flying in at. I don’t ever get bored of the fantastic view from Cape Cod down to Long Island, coming into New York.
10.30am NY time (3.30pm UK time)
We land at JFK, taxi to terminal 7 and park the plane. Quite often we have to get towed on to the gate as it’s a very tight stand there. We shut down the engines and do secure checks for the next crew to board. I head through traffic for an hour-and-a-half to the Concorde Hotel in Manhattan, which is operated solely for British Airways staff. I take a shower and relax.
3pm NY time (8pm UK time)
Back to work, this time at the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel to run a “Flying with Confidence” course for 12 people. One in four people have a fear of flying, and one in 10 have significant difficulties. There are always business travelers on our courses, people who have to fly every week for business but for whom the fear gets gradually worse each time they fly. For some execs, their fear may be holding back their career. On these courses we discuss issues such as pilot training and how jet streams and storms cause turbulence, but it’s never dangerous. I explain that wings cannot fall off airplanes, and it’s actually the wings that make the airplane fly. So if the engine stops, you can still glide for about 100 miles. I had an engine failure once on a 767 leaving Philadelphia — I diverted to Boston, and the passengers were kept aware of it. That’s the only dangerous thing that’s happened to me in 25 years of flying. My message is: “trust the professionals – we’re the most regulated profession on the planet”. I also teach relaxation techniques people can practice before flying. The Dubai course is five hours; the first took place in February and it was fully booked. One gentleman flew in from Saudi Arabia to attend and there was a Danish lady desperate to visit her family in Denmark.
6pm (11pm UK time)
I finish teaching, grab a slice of pizza and talk to my wife and two kids. FaceTime has changed my life. If I’m away for five days, not only is it lovely to see their faces but it’s lovely to see my garden. It just connects you with home, and when you’re stuck in a hotel room for 50 hours that’s wonderful. My youngest, Adam, has just started university so when I’m going to bed he’s normally just going out. My daughter Holly is 20, she’s on a year out working at British Airways HQ.
7pm (midnight UK time)
I never get jet lag. My wife says I could sleep on a washing line.
- Source: http://www.thenational.ae
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