Being a flight crew staff member can be a very rewarding career endeavor. It can satisfy your need to travel, see new places, move about, stay busy, operate large machinery and provide excellent customer service. However, this is not a career that should be considered lightly. Being part of a flight crew can also be very stressful. As we have seen from stories in the media, pilots, co-pilots and flight attendants can grow weary of the long hours, back to back shifts, time away from their homes and heavy expectations on them and snap. Flight crew members have a history of being deeply, psychologically effected by their work. Training to be a pilot, co-pilot or flight attendant is not for the faint of heart, but if you are stable and goal oriented with a taste for rootlessness, it could be the perfect position for you.

• Pilots have a reputation for being the most respected flight crew staff members. This is because they have more flight training and experience than anyone else on board. They are responsible for the complex operations of the plane, as well as ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone on board. It can take anywhere from three months to three years to become certified as a pilot, but typically a commercial airline pilot will have years of training and experience under their belt before receiving their title.
• Co-pilots are also certified as pilots, but they assume a secondary role when they are assigned the position of co-pilot on a flight crew. A co-pilot does not have as much responsibility as a pilot, but they do carry a similar amount. They are present to fly and land the plane should anything happen to the pilot, and they are meant to perform aviation tasks along with the pilot to manage the aircraft. Co-pilots are frequently less experienced than the pilot or in training, but sometimes a more experienced pilot will be assigned the position of co-pilot for a variety of reasons.
• Flight Attendants are the flight crew staff members who the average person interacts with the most. They are the individuals who provide customer service and instructions to passengers for their safety and comfort. Despite the largely customer service oriented position they hold, they are actually trained in a number of technical duties to assist the pilot and co-pilot.

So much depends on an airplane’s flight crew when we fly. We rely on them to safely navigate the plane and operate its equipment, lead us in safety precautions and help us understand what to expect from high altitude flying and provide with us with customer service and accommodations during the duration of the flight. Flight crew staff members, such as pilots, co-pilots and flight attendants, have high profile jobs in some senses. They are routinely making the news for the decisions and actions they make, whether they are heroic or disastrous. Despite the interest we take in the flight crews who take care of us at 30,000 feet, there is a great deal we do not understand about who they are as people. Flight crew staff share a similar lifestyle due to the nature of flying for a living. This lifestyle is quite different from the average persons.

Flight crew staff members spend a great deal of time away from home, and can move daily for months on end in some circumstances. Most of us are aware that flight crew members have to be away from home a great deal, but seldom do we think about how much they are forced to travel and what effect this would have on a person. Flight crew staff are often given exhausting, packed work schedules on the order of fourteen hour work shifts. They are set up in a hotel room for the night, but often have a short night of sleep as they are scheduled for another long shift the following day. Flight crew staff members will often keep this kind of schedule for days or weeks at a time until they receive a certain amount of days off at home. This type of work schedule drastically effects a person’s lifestyle.

However, working as a flight crew staff member is not without its benefits. People who are drawn to adventure, travel and rootlessness do well as flight crew staff members. The job certainly allows a person to see new locations and sites all the time. Flight crew staff member jobs may suit a person’s love for manipulating technical machinery, or it may suit a person’s desire to be in customer service. The pay, benefits and pensions that flight crew staff members receive is also noteworthy.

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When we board an airplane, many of us take for granted the kind of week that the flight crew on board have had. We consider traveling hard on ourselves as passengers, but the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants operating the plane have more than likely faced many more challenges than ourselves prior to the flight. It is not uncommon for a flight crew staff member to regularly work overtime, pulling shifts as long as fourteen hours, sleep for less than eight hours in a hotel room, then get up to do it all over again the following day. Flight crew staff members have some of the most unpredictable schedules of any working professional, due to flight changes, delays and re-routes. The life of a flight crew staff member can be rewarding, but it can also be heavily demanding.

The airline industry has a massive work force, and there are many people who seek a career in aviation or in flight crew membership. The reasons for this are obvious. Working for an airline comes with many benefits, such as pensions, retirement plans and full medical coverage. The salary is decent and consistent. In addition, the lifestyle of a flight crew staff member greatly appeals to certain types of people who seek travel, adventure and a frequent change of locations. There is no denying that this type of position is perfect for certain personality types.

However, the rootlessness and long hours can also be very wearing on an employee. A position as a flight crew staff member calls for the employee to be constantly on their toes. Their work schedules, hours and destinations may change at a moment’s notice. They are frequently separated from their homes for a long duration of time, living out of hotel rooms. They may not even get a full night’s sleep between work shifts. This type of lifestyle leads many flight crew staff members to stress, anxiety, depression or a number of other hardships. Some are able to cope with these hardships, while others have breakdowns or develop a substance abuse disorder to cope. The most important thing a flight crew staff member can do for themselves is take care of their own health and assert their own demands if they are unable to properly care for themselves. If they are struggling with a serious mental condition, such as addiction, substance abuse or a mental disorder, they need to receive counseling and treatment at a top quality rehab.