Questions to Ask a Pilot
Questions for a conversation with a pilot, covering how they trained, what the work in the cockpit actually involves, turbulence and diversions, crew coordination, and the schedule the job runs on.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
What do you fly?
Why ask it
The simplest opener, and pilots answer it happily because type ratings are hard-won. The aircraft also tells you the rest of their life: short domestic hops, long overnight crossings, or single-engine work off short strips.
How did you learn to fly?
Why ask it
Paths split sharply between military training, a civilian flight school with borrowed money, and years of instructing to build hours. Each produces a different attitude toward the job, and the answer often includes the debt figure unprompted.
What do you remember about your first solo?
Why ask it
Nearly every pilot has this story and most enjoy telling it. It also usually reveals the instructor who mattered, which is a better route into their history than asking about career milestones.
What's the best thing you've seen from up there?
Why ask it
You get the answer no passenger gets: thunderstorm tops lit from inside, the aurora at cruise, a runway appearing out of fog. Pilots rarely volunteer these because they assume nobody wants the details.
Which airport do you enjoy flying into, and which one do you brace for?
Why ask it
Approaches vary enormously in difficulty because of terrain, short runways, crosswinds, or crowded airspace, and pilots have strong specific opinions. The second half of the question is where the good stories are.
Is there a route you never get tired of?
Why ask it
Answers tend to be about the view, the layover, or an approach that requires real flying. It is a gentler version of asking what they like about the job and gets a much more concrete reply.
How much of a flight are you actually hand-flying?
Why ask it
The honest answer surprises most people: takeoff, the climb, and the landing, with the autopilot handling the long middle. That leads naturally into what a pilot is doing during cruise, which is monitoring, fuel planning, and talking to controllers.
What does your preflight routine involve?
Why ask it
Walk-arounds, weight and balance, weather along the route, fuel decisions, and checking any deferred maintenance items are all part of it. The routine shows how much of flying is systematic verification rather than instinct.
How do you keep up when the radio frequency is busy?
Why ask it
Pilots describe writing down clearances, standard phrasing, and asking a controller to say it again, which they do more often than passengers imagine. It is a good window into how much of the job is disciplined communication.
What does turbulence feel like from your seat?
Why ask it
Pilots are matter-of-fact about it, and will usually explain the difference between the light chop passengers notice and the reports they actively route around. If you are a nervous flyer, this is the most reassuring question on the list.
What weather do you genuinely not like flying in?
Why ask it
The answer is rarely storms in the abstract. Expect specifics like freezing rain, low visibility with a crosswind, or thunderstorms sitting over the destination at the end of a duty day.
What happens when you have to divert?
Why ask it
A diversion involves fuel remaining, a pre-planned alternate, and coordination with dispatch, all decided while flying. It shows the constant background planning that passengers never see, and most pilots have a specific one they remember.
How do you and the other pilot divide the work?
Why ask it
The split between the pilot flying and the pilot monitoring, and swapping legs, is standard practice that few passengers know about. The answer also reveals how much they enjoy or dislike working with someone new every trip.
What do you do when you disagree with the other pilot?
Why ask it
Modern crew training explicitly requires the junior pilot to speak up, which was not always the case. Ask for an occasion when it happened, since the concrete example is far more interesting than the policy.
Which emergency procedure do you drill most and hope never to use?
Why ask it
Answers tend toward engine failure after takeoff, rapid depressurization, or fire, and come with the reasoning behind the sequence. Ask about training rather than about crashes and you get a thoughtful answer instead of a closed door.
What does recurrent training in the simulator involve?
Why ask it
Pilots are tested repeatedly throughout their careers, in scenarios deliberately built to be worse than anything real. Hearing what the simulator throws at them explains why crews are calm when something actually breaks.
How has the cockpit changed since you started?
Why ask it
Anyone with fifteen years in can compare paper charts and manual calculations with tablets and automation, and will usually have mixed feelings about it. The complaints about automation are the interesting part.
What does your schedule look like in a month, and how do you handle sleep?
Why ask it
Reserve status, commuting to base, and consecutive early starts shape a pilot's life more than flying does. Fatigue is a subject they take seriously, and it is where the glamour of the job comes off.
What do passengers get wrong about your job?
Why ask it
Common corrections are that autopilot means the plane flies itself, that turbulence is dangerous, and that delays are the crew's choice. Pilots enjoy this question because they rarely get asked to set the record straight.
Is there a flight you still think about?
Why ask it
Open enough that they can go anywhere with it: a passenger, a night approach, a first trip with a new rating. Ask it late in the conversation, after they can see you are actually interested.
What were you flying before this, and what did that job teach you?
Why ask it
Almost every airline pilot did something else first: instructing, cargo, regional flying, crop spraying, the military. What they carried over from that job is usually better material than the airline story.
How did you pay for your training, and would you do it the same way again?
Why ask it
Cost is the main barrier into the profession, and the routes differ sharply: self-funded, military, a cadet program, or years of instructing. This is the answer worth passing on to anyone considering it.
Are you based where you live, or do you commute to work?
Why ask it
Plenty of pilots live in one city and travel by air to the base they fly from, sometimes across a country. If that is their situation, this question produces the most surprising logistics story of the evening.
How does seniority shape your month right now?
Why ask it
Seniority governs schedule, aircraft, base and days off far more than skill does. Someone low on the list may be on reserve waiting for a phone call, which is a different life from a colleague holding every weekend off.
What does a layover actually look like: hotel, food, sleep?
Why ask it
Layovers are usually shorter and duller than passengers picture. Ask about finding somewhere to eat at one in the morning near an airport hotel, which is the part no recruitment brochure mentions.
Do you usually know the other pilot before you fly together?
Why ask it
Crews are often paired by a computer, and two people who have never met can spend four days operating together. That fact surprises most passengers, and it opens up how they build working trust in ten minutes.
What do passengers worry about that you do not?
Why ask it
Turbulence is the usual answer, and hearing why it worries them less is genuinely useful on your next flight. Some will also tell you which sounds people misread as problems.
What do passengers not think about that you do?
Why ask it
The mirror image, and the more interesting half. Fuel planning, wet runways, or the weather at the alternate airport tend to come up, none of which occurs to anyone sitting in the cabin.
How does it feel having a job that depends on passing a medical?
Why ask it
A medical certificate is a condition of employment, and losing it ends the career. Ask once and gently, since for some this is a live worry, and let them decide how much they want to say.
What has got worse over your career, and what has got better?
Why ask it
Better than asking about the future, because it draws on comparison rather than speculation. Answers often set improved equipment and safety against schedules, pay bands and time away from home.
Do you still fly for fun on your days off?
Why ask it
Tells you whether flying is still the point or has become the job, and both answers are honest. The pilot who has not touched a small airplane in fifteen years usually has a reason worth hearing.
Talking with a pilot
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Timing
- Never during boarding or on the flight deck before departure. Preflight has a checklist and a clock attached to it.
- After landing at the gate, or in the crew area, pilots often have a few minutes and are usually glad to talk.
- If you are seated next to one on their day off, ask one question and let them decide whether to continue. Many are happy to; some have been flying for eleven hours.
- Air shows, flying clubs, and small airports are the easiest places to have a long conversation with a pilot.
What tends to open the conversation
- Ask about the aircraft, the training, or the approach into a specific airport. Concrete questions get long answers.
- Admit what you do not know. Pilots are used to explaining, and a real question beats a knowledgeable-sounding one.
- Ask about the parts of the job outside flying: dispatch, weather planning, scheduling. Almost nobody does, and it is most of the work.
- If you are a nervous flyer, say so. Most pilots will walk you through why the thing you are afraid of is not the thing they watch.
What to leave alone
- Do not ask whether they have nearly crashed. It is the question every pilot gets and it ends the conversation.
- Do not ask about an ongoing incident or investigation. Airline crews are typically restricted from discussing them.
- Do not ask a pilot to explain a delay they were not involved in, or to comment on another airline's safety record.
- Skip jokes about autopilot doing all the work. Ask what the automation actually does instead and you will get a real answer.
If you're thinking about flying yourself
- Ask what their training cost and how long it took to reach a paying job. The numbers are large and pilots are candid about them.
- Ask about medical certification, since a condition that grounds you is worth knowing about before you spend anything.
- Ask whether they would recommend instructing to build hours, and what they would do differently.
- Ask about an introductory flight at a local field. Most pilots would rather take you up than describe it.