For every pilot who has gotten you from A to B, there is a missed birthday, a missed wedding and precious time missed with family.
Despite this being the path they chose, Captain George Kailis says “it’s a function of the job.”
“We spend a lot of time away from our home…there’s a lot of sacrifices to be made. Being in the bush I wasn’t around any of my friends or family and I didn’t have enough money to fly back every six months. Sometimes I wouldn’t see my family for 12 months.”
The pilot life is not all doom and gloom, but the road to becoming a captain takes more than just a few solo flights and simulator sessions.