Dear friends and followers
Welcome back to my channel and to a question many of you have been asking over the past few months.
"Joe, which airline do you work for now?"
Now I can make an official statement on that and we'll talk about my previous company a little bit and I'll give you guys
Some advice on how to start your airline career. So let's get started
I'm sure many of you knew that
My former employer was Germany's second largest airline Air
Berlin and I must admit I had the time of my life with Air Berlin who which I flew for the past eight years
Transitioning from the Beach King Air 200 to the Airbus A320 was a huge step
But I fell in love with the A320 from day one
I used to nicknamed it the baby bus compared to its larger mother the Airbus A300 but most importantly
Air Berlin gave me the wings. I needed to start my career in the airline industry
So over the course of time I was based in one year in Stuttgart
Three years in Dusseldorf and after four years on being on the waiting list for my home base Munich
I got a call on my 30th birthday
By my friend Patricia who worked at Human Resources saying: 'Hey Joe a colleague of yours
Cancelled his transfer to Munich. You're next on the list. Now is the chance to get transferred,
Otherwise you have to wait another three to four years.'
Can you imagine the birthday celebration that weekend with my boys in Munich it was?
Legend wait for it dary
So another four years of Airbus flying out of my hometown
And he just couldn't get any better than that. 20 minutes to work by car
nicest colleagues which many of them just came from the Boeing 737 and
Lots of them kept saying Joe if you haven't flown a Boeing in your life
you haven't really flown a plane so far and I kept replying I would love to fly the
747 one day that's always been my dream and having said that a few months later
there was an announcement on our intranet stating fly the
747 for two years via a temporary employment contract you didn't have to ask me twice
I immediately applied so I flew up to Berlin to have an interview and got to meet three very interesting people the chief pilot of
psychologists and a lady who was a head of recruitment. The interview lasted roughly an hour in which they were very
Straightforward about their pros and cons of their airline
and so was I about my strengths and weaknesses now don't expect that from every airline because a lot of them shine with their
Advantages this never talk freely about their disadvantages nevertheless
After 20 minutes discussion, the lady from the recruitment called me back in and with a smile on their face
They congratulated me that I could start
ASAP and I was hooked and immediately want to get started but sadly a few weeks later
Evelyn called me up and said Joe
We're very sorry
But we're gonna have to stop this project as we're going to face a shortage in pilots very soon
And we need every pilot to stay with us. So my dream of flying a 747 got ripped away from me now
You might say why don't you just quit your job with Air Berlin?
well...
I was in a comfortable position with seven years of seniority a good salary and I wouldn't want to give up my seniority
In terms of becoming a captain
Unfortunately over the last three years
With Air Berlin my colleagues and I could literally see the company shutting down if you think about it
I flown for seven different CEOs within eight years that just speaks for itself, but I'm not gonna go too much in detail
Why the company shut down. Nevertheless,
my last flight was on the 27th of October from
Catania to Munich with an A320 and from that day on I
Was without a job for the first time in my pilot career and believe me living in uncertainty how your life will go on,
Is not the best feeling in the world now literally a day later after my last flight
I got a E-Mail from the nice lady who I've met two years ago at the interview in Berlin now
She kindly offered me a job with her company on the Boeing 747 if I was still interested, I couldn't believe it
I was so happy that they still thought about me after such a long time
I would have had to pass the assessment once again, but still what a great opportunity so enough mourning about losing my job
I had to get my game back on so first things first to pass the screening in the Boeing 747 simulator
I needed a crash course on how to fly the Boeing 747 and believe me
There is a big difference between flying an Airbus and a Boeing so I studied like crazy
Memorize pitch and power settings and prepare the best I could
'Cause knew this was a chance of a lifetime and they're studying paid off after three days of psychometric tests
Multitasking exercises group and role plays with other candidates one-hour sim screening another hour interview, the chief pilot
smiled at me and shook my hand and said welcome to
I'll give you a hint the company's based in one of the smallest countries within Europe. They operate 26 Boeing
747s fly to 90 destinations. They were the largest customer of the Boeing 747-8 freighter
so you see it's a cargo company and
There are one of the most profitable air cargo companies in the world and the name of the company
CargoLux now you cannot imagine how thankful
I was for this amazing opportunity to fly for such a great airline now my titrating buddies and I
Started with our training in mid-march and so far. It's been absolutely mind-blowing the professionalism
they bring to the training is
Outstanding and in return they expect that from their pilots
So the stuff we've learned so far in the experience we gain in the past two months
I mentioned that I want to write a book about it. I mean this book to write it by itself
So I'm looking forward to a bright future with cargolux and getting to fly
The queen of the skies for me is a once-in-a-lifetime chance
I mean if you think about it, it is a plane which is going to be retired in a couple of years so presume
we're gonna get a new type rating after that and I'm excited to get to know these very
experienced captains and to fly and learn from them because from now on is going to be a
very long learning curve in many areas not just the plane but the diversity of their operation for example
Taking off at minus 30 degrees in Novosibirsk and landing at plus 30 degrees in Hong Kong
There is a lot to take into account
Now all landing at high altitude airports such as Quito and Ecuador or Mexico City. The list is endless
Now the operation is gonna be a life changer. That's one for sure. But how
You change your life around after finishing flight school. I so often get asked this question Joe
How did you get from the assessment into the Airbus cockpit? I'm gonna give it to you straight
It was hard work and it was not easy
Why do I say it's not easy because that's mostly the follow-up question is
Becoming a pilot easy
so once you've completed fly school training
I want you to apply to any little company that has a set of wings with a piston-driven or a turboprop propeller
I don't care. I found a job with the skydiving company
So can you I had to move away from home just to fly airplanes
So can you I never kept my dream out of sight you constantly have to push forward but Joe airlines require
jet hours
that is partly true because I had 500 hours on propeller driven planes and I still got a job in an Airbus. How?
Because I showed them that I did something sensible with my time
Otherwise, I would have had a gap of two years after finishing flight school by doing absolutely nothing
Would you want to hire someone who's been sitting around on his couch for two years rather than someone who got some airtime?
I highly doubt that so airlines want to see that you have the courage to think outside of the box and take
100% responsibility
For your life and that sometimes means flying skydivers to 14,000 feet
32 times a day and washing the plane by hand after your last landing
It just shows that you not a quitter instead
You made your time count and I don't get intimidated by people saying propellor hours are worthless
They are not I've spoken to so many chief pilots and recruiters and the answer was always the same hours in the air are
valuable and
Don't ask me if becoming a pilot is easy if it were so easy
Everyone would fly to work in their own planes wouldn't they? So no to become a pilot. You need to have endurance
courage will power and motivation all
so be that guy or girl who comes out of flight school and is willing to go the extra mile for
The dream job. Do you remember my video about the ten reasons? Why not to become a pilot?
I've mentioned that if you change your employer you'll lose all you gain seniority from your previous company
I'm no exception to that rule. So my eight years seniority got lost by the day I lost my job
So I'm right at the bottom of the seniority list
So I have to wait many many more years to become a captain and this just shows if you're not willing to work
Hard and just forget about it. I'm sorry for being a little direct at the end
But if others won't tell you I will definitely will that's it for today
Thank you very much for your time and hit the subscribe button and notification bell
So you won't miss out upcoming videos and don't forget a good pilot is always learning
See you next week all the best your Captain Joe