Captain Prithvi Tiwary - It Is Important Maintaining a Good Situational Awareness (Pilot From India)

                                                                       

“Those who dream to fly....those who fly their dreams....always find their happiness and peace on the wings”. A good pilot's qualities are many, but if we have to name the most important one, it would be maintaining a good situational awareness. 

1. Tell us about your choice of profession and journey.

My choice of professional is working as a commercial pilot working with one of the leading airlines in India.

I have been employed for about 8 years now.

I finished my 10+2 in 2011. As soon as my board exams were over, I joined Chetak aviation flying school in Aligarh. I was always very enthusiastic about flying so I finished the theoretical part of my training on my first attempt.

Then came the fun part of flying a 4-seater aircraft (Cessna 172r) for 200hrs as part of the training program. Unfortunately, by the time I was done with 80 hrs of my training Chetak aviation closed down due to financial troubles. 

So, I went to Pinjore, a small town near Chandigarh to finish the rest of my training.

After finishing my training, a commercial pilot license was issued to me. The next part of my training was to learn the bigger flying machines like the Airbus 320 or the Boeing 737. I chose the Airbus as I've always been a fan of the incredibly advanced French aircraft.

For the training (also called a Type Rating) I joined Central Training Establishment, Air India, based in Hyderabad in 2013. Finished in 2014 and joined my present company in 2014 September and my career finally achieved it's first "Take off". 

I worked as a First officer (commonly known as Co-pilot, and incorrectly known as "2nd Pilot") till 2018 after which I got my command and am now working as a Captain (also known as Commander) in my present Airline.

 

2. What qualities according to you make for a good pilot?

A good pilot's qualities are many, but if we have to name the most important one, it would be maintaining a good situational awareness.

It means one must be very alert to your surroundings to be aware of any minute changes which may present a potential threat to your flight path.

For this, you need to have good discipline which would include resting properly before your flight, maintaining a healthy diet, and most importantly a healthy mind. You have to be an absolute expert with your books and know all procedures inside out so that if the time comes you can apply all the procedures with ease.

 

3. What is the best flying advice you have received?

 The best advice I have received is a line we often hear as pilots: “A superior pilot is a pilot who uses his superior knowledge to avoid using his superior skill".

This means that while you might be a very skillful pilot, the art of flying this aircraft well is avoiding getting into a situation in which you'll have to call upon your "superior" skills to get out of an adverse situation.

 

4. What advice would you pass on to someone aspiring to be a pilot?

My advice to any upcoming pilots would be this - Those who dream to fly, those who fly their dreams, always find their happiness and peace on the wings no matter what, no matter where, no matter when, no matter how!!

Flying is the safest and most compassionate of all professions, all u need is to respect the limitations, the aircraft, the environment, and humans, aircraft limitations are in the manuals, the environment is the variable, and the challenge is to know your own each day!

And some great wise men in the disguise on the wings have defined flying as:

"Flying is nothing but constant correction of your mistakes."

What it means is that do not try to be a pilot who can't make mistakes, try and be one who is constantly correcting them! For that, you need to accept that there will be mistakes, but you will need to develop the necessary tool of "awareness" to correct them.

 

5. What does success look like to you? And what is your end goal?

I am not a very ambitious person, so I have always wanted to be in command of an airplane. So after achieving my command and having the privilege of flying this beautiful aircraft every day is exactly what success feels like. While my end goal is not something I've decided yet but at some point, I would like to be an examiner in the A320.

 

6. Who is your inspiration and why?

The person who's always inspired me has been my late Grandfather, Capt S.N. Tiwary, Air India. Seeing him in uniform when I was a toddler always made me dream about wearing the same four stripes someday and I'm happy I achieved it.

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Interviewed by - Abigail Beaucasin