The Airline Transition Manual is an insightful look at the airline industry and helps readers understand and navigate the industry if they are pursuing a career in aviation. Why was this an important book for you to write?  

We felt this book was a vital piece of mentoring the next generation of airline pilots who are experiencing never before seen career opportunities at a very early stage. In this accelerated time frame to go from student to professional pilot, every last resource needs to be provided so these pilots can hit the ground running on day one at their airline. While a lot of focus in the industry has been on the physical aspect of flying, there is a complete other side to the industry that deals with how pilots become effective employees, and steer clear of trouble. Mentorship is often about teaching those who come after you the lessons you had to learn the hard way, or from your own mentor who wanted to see you succeed. While this book won’t replace the invaluable experience of having a real-life mentor in the field, it will help propel a new pilot’s perspective on their chosen craft and see them counted as a professional in far shorter time than they would if they had to learn some lessons the “hard way.”

How much research did you undertake for this book and how much time did it take to put it all together?

Much of this book was outlined, written, and edited from the author’s decades of experience in the aviation industry. That said, the writing process, fact checking, data collection, source citation, and accuracy checking consumed a majority of the eight months it took us to turn around a first draft that was field tested with aviation and airline experts. That process saw a complete rewrite of the book to broaden the audience and add in additional content. From start to finish, our book took a year and four months to complete.

What is a common misconception you feel people have about working for the airline industry?

Bias and misconceptions are rampant in any industry. When you add in the mystery of aviation and airline operations, there is a ten-fold increase. That leads to some generalizations and misconceptions about pilots and airline staff that at times is unfair and other times, borderline rude. The misconception that airline crews have a “significant other” in every city is completely false and has caused strain in many relationships. Divorce rates are higher in aviation because of the amount of travel and general lack of understanding of what the job is and why it seems as though we may not do anything for hours at a time while other times we are too busy to answer the phone. This leads to breakdowns in communication which fracture the relationship over time. That is one reason we felt it incredibly important to add in the spouse chapter. We also encourage everyone with an interest in the airline world to read the book.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?

No matter if the reader is a prospective pilot, a parent of a pilot, a spouse of a pilot, someone within the airline industry, or is a member of the traveling public, we hope that this book can help reveal some of the mystery of what has generally been known as a career field shrouded in secrecy and a degree of mysticism. While we certainly hope our target audience, the upcoming pilot, will find value in this manual for years to come, anyone with an interest or curiosity in airlines and aviation will probably find this book an incredibly interesting revelation about an industry that has long been misunderstood and often looked at in wonder.

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