Muslim Lifestyle

The best office view in the world

Issue 5 May / Jun 2004

First featured in issue 5 - May/June 2004

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Mubashir Khan, 32, has been flying for four years and knows that a lot of skill and determination is required to be successful in this field. “Becoming a pilot goes beyond just the qualification, it requires general skills such as communication skills, team work, and also confidence.”

“It is not necessarily that one must have a degree before becoming a pilot, after your A- Levels if you are interested and determined to become one, the major requirement is to undertake the necessary flying training. Recruitment processes are very competitive, they usually employ based on skills, knowledge, intelligence and health. However, a pilot must be responsible and disciplined because the lives of over 300 to 400 people on board depend on him or her. Maximum skills and competence is required at all time.”

“Years ago, to qualify as a pilot, an applicant was tested by riding a horse, if he was good with the horse, it was regarded as one of the major skills needed to train as a pilot. These days with the coming of sophisticated technology and computers, any kid who is very good with computer games is capable of training as a pilot.”

Despite the daunting responsibility and rigorous training Mubashir loves his job. “When you fly as a pilot, you have a sense of freedom of the air and a fantastic view of the world. Even coming to London at night is fantastic. My favourite view recently was heading towards South Africa and the sun was rising Behind Mount Kilimanjaro. It was a fantastic thing to see. Also you get to meet a lot of people around the world and visit exciting and interesting destinations.

“I love this job for many reasons; it was a dream come true, apart from being a job, it is also a hobby. It is not a regular 9 –5 job which doesn’t appeal to me. It has its funny hours especially if you are working for a large national carrier. Like on Eid day, I didn’t get to enjoy the celebration like other people because I had to go to bed early as I was flying out of the country the next day.

“I have been to places in the world where I never would have thought of going on holiday. I do a mixture of long haul and short haul work; by short haul I am referring to domestic destination in the UK and European flight and long haul which is Trans Atlantic; Africa or the Middle East.”

Despite the money involved in training Mubashir thinks that it is worthwhile. “I often hear people say how expensive it is to train as a pilot. It is just the MBA; people take loans to study or obtain an MBA. It costs a lot but it is also a promising career with great benefits.”

“After I went back to Pakistan airforce I got a release and came back to London to join the PAOC as a maintenance engineer. Because I’d done flying training at Luton flying club while I was training and I had a pilot licence I wanted a flying job so I applied to Pakistan airlines. There were no vacancies for pilots so I was selected to be a flight engineer.”

Afzal worked as a flight engineer throughout his flying career. Flight engineers were used on the larger long haul flights such as the Boeing 747, along with two pilots. “Basically the flight engineer’s and pilot’s duties are the same. They fly together; there are certain procedures that I am responsible for. These include all the electronics, pneumatics, pressurisation, and engine performance, all that is our responsibility. In those days the systems were not that advanced so you needed a good professional flight engineer.” However with advances in technology the role of the flight engineer has been all but eliminated.

Afzal has experienced it all in his 42 years of flying. “Emergencies happen all the time. Things like engine failures but it’s no problem because you have procedures and you have been trained in it so Alhamdullilah everything turned out to be ok. There were emergencies but everything ended up fine. Allah is with us so it’s alright.”

Towards the end of his career, Afzal was based in Jeddah whilst working for Saudi Arabia airlines. Being away from families is a reality of the job but can be difficult to deal with. “I was away from my family for a long time. My family was in the UK while I was in Jeddah. They used to come during the holidays. In that period in Saudi Arabia we liked it because we could go to Mecca and Medina. We have done Hajj and many Umrahs.”

With erratic working schedules and due to the very nature of the job it would seem that to carry out prayers and to fast would be an extremely difficult task. “In Ramadan we used to get a circular from the airline which said that you are not supposed to fast as you are travelling and so it is not obligatory but we did fast even during flying. The reason was that our job was flying, if we didn’t fast in Ramadan we would never fast. I can’t say that I recommend it but I fasted.”

It was a different experience working for Saudi Arabian airlines during Ramadan. “In Saudi Arabia they would change the schedules. They are very strict in this respect, during Ramadan when it is iftar there are no departures, they wait for one hour.”

Afzal also managed to offer prayers during flights. “If it is prayer time, because we are three pilots, we have automatic systems, two can control the systems, the third while on automatic control offer their prayers. That’s what we used to do. There is no compulsion, out of the three whoever wants to do it can do it otherwise you can pray when you land at a transit station.”

Afzal recommends becoming a pilot. “It is a very fulfilling career. Normally you should go to the airforce of the country; civil-wise it is very expensive. The demand is there but it seems to be decreasing, there used to be greater demand. Because of advancements in technology we have new systems and even though the aeroplanes are much bigger they don’t need too many crew. But whoever wants to do it, it is a very good idea.”

“I didn’t know anything about flying, I started flying at zero hours on my license log book. After three years I was able to complete an airline transport pilot license which one can only get once you have 1500 hours. After this success I returned to England to convert my American license to a UK license.”

“I saved up some more money and then I converted my license by doing a course at the London Guildhall University and then undertaking some flying near London. Once I passed everything, I was qualified as a pilot in the UK.”

The many years of hard work paid off and Amin has been working as a pilot on KLM airlines for the past two years. “From my experience I would encourage anyone who is determined to be a pilot to go for it but also bear in mind that is a difficult industry to get into. Expecations are high but it is worth the effort and time”