Questions to Ask Pilots
Questions for talking with a pilot, at a dinner table or waiting at a gate, that get past what is it like up there. They cover seniority and schedules, commuting to base, layovers and sleep, how much flying is done by hand, recurrent checks, and what passengers tend to get wrong.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What do you fly, and how long have you been on that airplane?
Why ask it
Type and time on type is how pilots introduce themselves to each other, so this opens in their own language. It also tells you whether you are talking to someone three months into a new fleet or ten years deep.
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.
How do you sleep on a schedule like that?
Why ask it
Sleep, not flying, is the recurring problem of the job. Expect blackout curtains, naps split around a duty period, and a real difference between eastbound and westbound trips.
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 is the first thing you do when you get to the airplane?
Why ask it
Gets a concrete walkthrough instead of a summary: the walkaround, the paperwork, the fuel figure, setting things up. The order they describe shows which checks they treat as the ones that matter.
How much of the flying do you actually do by hand?
Why ask it
Corrects the most common assumption in a single answer. Expect a distinction between automation flying the route and pilots managing the automation, and ask when they choose to switch it off.
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 often are you tested in the simulator, and what do they throw at you?
Why ask it
Recurrent checks run through the whole career, and failing one has real consequences. Ask which scenario they least like being handed, since the answer is usually specific and vivid.
Which airport is hardest to fly into, and what makes it hard?
Why ask it
Terrain, short runways, wind patterns and unusual approaches are the details pilots most enjoy explaining. The answer also separates the airport itself from the weather that tends to come with it.
What happens on a day when the weather closes your destination?
Why ask it
Turns an abstract topic into a story with decisions in it. You will hear about holding patterns, fuel limits, and the moment the choice stops being theirs to make.
How does a decision to divert get made, and who else has a say?
Why ask it
Dispatch, air traffic control and company procedure are all involved, so it is rarely one person deciding alone. How they describe the split tells you how the operation really runs.
What is the strangest thing you have seen from up there?
Why ask it
Leaves room for weather seen from above, other aircraft, cities at night, or something over open water. The answers are far more specific than any question about beautiful views produces.
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.
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 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.
How to use these questions
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Read the setting first
A pilot at a family barbecue and a crew walking through a terminal are in different situations. On duty they have a departure time and paperwork, so keep it to a sentence and let them go. Off duty, most will talk as long as the questions are real ones. If they are out with family, ask one thing about the job and then move on, because being asked about flying all evening is the standard complaint.
Where the answers change
- Airline, cargo, corporate, instructing, agricultural and military flying produce very different lives from similar licenses.
- Seniority inside one airline changes schedule, fleet and base, so two pilots at the same company can describe opposite jobs.
- Short-haul means many takeoffs and nights at home; long-haul means fewer sectors, more night flying and longer trips away.
- Someone who retrained at forty has a different story from someone who soloed at seventeen, and both are worth asking about.
Questions to avoid
- Do not ask about crashes, or whether they knew anyone who died. They get asked constantly, and it is not small talk.
- Do not ask them to prove flying is safe. Ask what they check before departure and you learn the same thing without the debate.
- Do not press on medical history, alcohol rules or company discipline. All three touch a license, and people go quiet fast.
- Do not ask an airline pilot to explain a delay you had last month. They were not there and have no way of knowing.
Better follow-ups
- Ask about one specific day rather than the general policy: what happened, what you decided, what you would do differently.
- When a term goes past you, ask what it means. Most pilots enjoy explaining, and the explanation is often the best part of the conversation.
- Ask what the other pilot was doing during the moment they are describing. Aviation stories are mostly about coordination.
- With a newer pilot, ask about training rather than experience. There is far more to say about a first solo than about hours not yet flown.