My Favorite Perk of Being a Pilot (It's not what you might guess)

CRJ 700

It's been one year since I became an airline pilot.  The past year has been full of change for me professionally and personally.  From Flight Instructor to First Officer; from Phoenix to Minneapolis; from one kid to two--there is much to be grateful for!

I've been reflecting on this new lifestyle that is a result of my job.  Previously as Teacher and then a Flight Instructor I worked very "normal" business hours.  Now life looks very different.  Just an observation! Of course, either way of life has its pros and cons. However there is one perk of being a pilot that I love the most...

My March Work Schedule: Dark Blue = Flying; Gray = Rest; Blank = Day off

My favorite perk is the time off.  

In my experience, each month my schedule has come with somewhere between 10 and 14 days off.  When compared to a typical 9-5, you could expect the weekends & holidays off.  To string together any greater amount of days may require using vacation time or taking a leave of absence.  In my March schedule, I have one week with 5 days off in a row and the next with 4... no vacation time required!

How I use this time is influenced greatly by stage of life.  Being married and having two young boys at home, we like to be intentional with our time. Here's how I try to spend my days off:

• Low-traffic Outings: Whether its grocery shopping, playing at a park with my son, or going on a date with my wife... so many of these things we have the option of doing on a weekday, mid morning or early afternoon together when most places we go are like a ghost town because "everyone" else is at work. Like the time I took my son to see a movie on a weekday morning and one other family was in the theatre! Or a coffee date with my wife.
  
• Weekday Getaways: Each month my wife and I sit down with our calendars and ask the question: where can we go?  Having flight benefits grants my family the opportunity to travel without the expense of airfare.  For now, we have tried to take advantage of this to visit close family or friends in other cities.  Our most recent escape to Phoenix provided a warm reuniting with old friends (literally, it was warm).  We sure miss the valley of the sun!
  
• Daddy Daycare: Because my wife works full-time from home with a flexible schedule that sometimes requires her to work odd hours of the day, or not so odd hours, my schedule frees me up to be available for full days at a time to relieve her from watching the kids so she can work uninterrupted.

As our kids get older I look forward to more getaways with just my wife, just the boys, just me, or the whole family.  And as my seniority increases, each month I find that I am able to have more say in how my schedule looks.  Of course I hear dream stories from pilot friends that have moved on to work for the major airlines and have some nonsense of minimum 16 guaranteed days off a month... that will be the day! 

A final update to share is this map of where I've flown over the past year... I finally made it out of the country!  Canada is nice.

My Routes: First 12 months of Airline Career

My Most Precious Passengers [Video Included]

Last month my wife and two boys were able to not only join me on one of my trips in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but were able to get there by means of me flying them!

My oldest son examining the cockpit of the CRJ

This was the first time ever I've gotten to fly Sara, Isaac, and/or Percy as an airline pilot on a jet! This was only Sara's fourth ever flight with me. There was the time she got to come with me for a night flight as a private pilot, for a Twin Cities scenic tour, and our family flight over the Grand Canyon when I was an instructor in Phoenix.  So that also made this flight Isaac's second, and Percy's first!

(Video Credit goes to Sara!)

I had a unique schedule this trip as all three nights were located in Fort Wayne, Indiana and I had two long layovers (a 16 hour, followed by a 30 hour)... so we were able to spend most of the weekend together.

My crew was absolutely fabulous and so kind to welcome my family along for the shuttle rides to and from the airport and letting me help them through security on the way home.

Thinking back, this truly was an ideal location to have my family (especially given my boys' ages) join me.  The company had us staying at the Hilton Downtown at the Convention Center, where breakfast was free and there was lots of room for Isaac to run in the hallways and swim in the pool.  The city was dressed for Christmas and we loved seeing all the lights. We ventured out to the Botanical Conservatory across the street and enjoyed a scavenger hunt and seeing lots of plants.  Upon several recommendations, we ate at a great local brewery called The Hoppy Gnome.

The hotel was a great location because of the options within walking distance.  We only brought along Percy's car seat so we knew exploring the city by car was not an option. Swimming took up another one of our mornings, but if we go back we said we'd like to check out these other things within walking distance:

• A performance at The Embassy Theatre  
• The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library (one of the largest collections in the states!)
• Firefighter's Museum
• and the Fort Wayne Youtheatre [we had hoped to go see Charlie Brown Christmas...but Isaac came down with a virus at the end of our trip! :( ]

With several flights in and out of the city operated by our airline, I noticed several other crews in the same hotel and I even ran into my buddy Justin who I had roomed with for sim training!  It was great to catch up and introduce my family.

Back at MSP, saying goodbye to the CRJ

All in all, I could not have asked for better passengers :) ;)

4 Ways a Checklist Can Improve Your Life

A big part of being a pilot is essentially doing what you are told...by a checklist.  This practice has been a standard part of aircraft operation for decades, and even adopted by the medical industry to improve outcomes for surgical patients.

#cockpitselfie 

As a pilot we use checklists to ensure safety throughout all the various phases of operation.  Here are four reasons I think we should all adopt a checklist approach in some aspect of life:

1. It standardizes assumed practices which can dramatically improve results

Checklists were widely adopted in the medical field after Dr. Pronovost borrowed the concept from

Dr. Peter Pronovost,
John Hopkins Medical Center

the aviation industry for an experiment.  In 2001, he used it to address a common problem of infection occurring in patients with central IV lines.  At the time, it was common for 1 in 9 lines to become infected which just added on to a patient's problems.

This doctor created a simple 5 step checklist that medical personel were required to follow when inserting the lines: (1) wash hands with soap, (2) clean the patient's skin with antiseptic, (3) cover the patient's entire body with sterile drapes, (4) wear sterile mask, hat, gown and gloves, and (5) put a sterile dressing over the insertion site.

What is so impactful about all this is that we all KNOW (and especially the doctors) that these practices are good, but the research revealed that the actual behavior of the medical professionals was inconsistent: revealing that at least one of these steps were being skipped.  What would happen if they never missed a step?

STAY WITH ME...

After one year of maintaining these practices, the infection rate dropped from 11% to ZERO.  Two years later, they calculated that "it had prevented 43 infections, avoided 8 ICU deaths and saved the hospital approximately $2 million."

Short story: it works.

My Overnight Checklist

2. It minimizes the emotional component of decision-making
I have adopted a checklist approach to my overnights.  Given that a majority of my month is spent sleeping in a hotel, I knew I needed to kick off this new lifestyle with some healthy patterns after I found myself resorting to a heavy stream of cable TV.

After a long day of work, I would arrive at my hotel room and be seduced by the comfort of a clean bed and seemingly endless channels of sports and movies that I can't afford to watch until they're released on Netflix three years later.

When I reflected on this behavior, I decided to create this checklist in order to make better use of time.  Now when I get to my hotel room I don't operate based on the question... "What do I feel like doing?" (Because it's typically... watch HBO...which I still do! But after I've done some other stuff).

3. You literally become more productive
With my new checklist, I am able to accomplish so much more.  I do all my Computer-Based Training (a job requirement that cannot be done in-flight) while away from home so that I don't have to use my time at home with my family to do more work.  I have time to look at the budget and am more aware than ever of how we are stewarding our finances. I actually exercise again.  Overall, I'd say it's a great way to build habits.  Instead of drinking from a firehose, procrastinating, or neglecting to do certain things that I know contribute positively to my life, this checklist aids me in my discipline.

4. It boosts motivation
There's nothing like checking off something you've accomplished to propel you forward.  After I update my logbook and accomplish a good work out, I find myself encouraged and happier about how I have spent my time... these feelings just make doing the next thing more enticing.

A Few Sidenotes

I think that for those who appreciate order, there is comfort in a checklist... and for those who default to disorder...it provides a method to accomplish things in a society that highly values productivity.

Other checklists I've thought of creating/implementing relate to parenting.  I have a spunky toddler that could really benefit from a visual checklist of ways to help at home/learn responsibilities.

Time for a toddler checklist at home I think!

Even Santa uses a list, and checks it twice!

Have you ever used a checklist before? In what aspect of your life?  What kind of affect did it have?  What could you make a checklist for now?