You were always fascinated with planes, but got into flying a little late. How did that come about?
Since I was a small child I’ve always dreamed of becoming a pilot. I didn’t know any pilots in my family, and my teachers did not know about the career track of a pilot, so it seemed about as realistic as becoming an astronaut. So I followed other paths. After university I worked in the business world for several years and I flew a lot as a passenger, mainly with British Airways. I talked to a lot of the pilots and learned about the requirements for the job. I eventually applied to the British Airways cadet training programme. I was rejected, but afterwards they called me and gave me suggestions on how to prepare to make a stronger application the following year. I applied again the next year and I was accepted.
Now I fly with some of the very same pilots that I met when I was a wide-eyed passenger, when I thought those pilots must have the best job in the world. I still think they do, and I feel very lucky indeed to have joined them.
As a passenger, one only sees pilots at the beginning or at the end of the flight. There is hardly any interaction, except for the cockpit announcements. Does it get lonely out there?
One reason that I wrote Skyfaring was to share the kind of experiences I had as a passenger before I became a pilot. The book is what I would tell you and show you if you could join me on a flight.
It’s true that on a large plane like the Boeing 747, we won’t have a chance to personally interact with many of our customers . But there are often times in the airport before or after a flight — on a lift, or simply walking — when we’ll have a chance to talk to travellers about the flight. I think a lot of travellers are still fascinated by flying and welcome the chance to talk with their crew.
We also still have visitors to the cockpit. It’s usually a family with young children, but not always. I think many adults retain a childlike interest in flying, and we joke that we welcome visits from children ‘of all ages’.
On long flights, for example from Indian cities to London, we have three pilots in the cockpit, and we each get a few hours off during the cruise segment.
As you are flying often, how difficult is it to strike that balance with family life?
It can be hard to be away from home for long periods. But the Internet has changed this experience in a number of ways. Most obviously, it allows me to stay in touch with. But it also allows me to take care of a lot of the paperwork of life while I’m in a hotel far away.
Air crew quickly become experts on how to manage the challenges of long-haul travel. I find that I try to get onto local time. Many of our flights to Indian destinations arrive very late in the evening, local time. If I sleep on UK time, then by the time I wake up in Delhi or Mumbai, for example, I’ve missed half the day, and that means less time to explore before it’s time to fly back to London.
In the book, you talk about place lag. Could you give one example of place lag that astounded you?
Perhaps my favourite example is from the day I flew from Mumbai to London as a pilot, and then on to Boston as a passenger, and then we drove to my home town, which is in the hills about two hours west of Boston. After we landed in Boston and got on the big highway that leaves the city toward the west, it started to snow lightly, and I couldn’t believe it—my mind was still in Mumbai, I think.
A few hours later we pulled off the main highway, onto a smaller road near my home town. We passed a restaurant called the Bombay Grill. I suddenly couldn’t believe that this was possible. Imagine how long that journey would have taken in the 19th century. This is place lag at its most extreme — to go from a warm, tropical city, one of the largest metropolises in the world, to this cold and grey place. How, I wondered, could these places be linked by a name, and perhaps by the life of the owner of the restaurant, and also, on that day, by myself?
Does an aviation catastrophe, such as a crash, weigh on you as you set out for the next flight?
Safety is the highest priority of everyone who works in the airline industry — it’s always at the forefront of our minds. The training for commercial pilots is extremely rigorous. In addition to the years of training before we fly, every six months for the rest of our career we spend two full days in a multimillion-dollar flight simulator, undergoing training and exams in a machine that exactly simulates the airliner and the world. We also have annual exercises together with the cabin crew, annual written examinations, and exams in the actual aircraft. It’s all a part of making aviation such a safe and reliable form of transportation.
You have flown to India. What has been your favourite route here?
My first trip to India was a flight to Mumbai in 2007. It was also only my second trip as a pilot on the Boeing 747. So the wonders of that airplane and that city will always be linked in my memory.
I’ve recently flown back to Mumbai and I immediately fell in love with the new Terminal 2. So many airports follow a similar pattern of glass and steel, and can seem anonymous; it’s lovely to see one that’s architecturally unique. I particularly love the columns and ceiling of the pickup area outside the terminal—I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere else in the world.
I’ve also flown to Bengaluru and Delhi. One of my best friends from university is the Indian-American poet Kirun Kapur. She has always encouraged my writing and she helped me so much with Skyfaring . She’s lived in Delhi and her father, Inder Kapur, worked there for many years as a journalist.
How often do you take photos while flying? What has been the most amazing view you have come across?
I often take photos from the window seat when I’m flying as a passenger. In the book, I speculate a little bit about why so many of the best photos from airplanes include something of the airplane itself — the wing, or the iconic oval line of the window frame. I think the sight of the plane itself reminds us of the miracle of flight. It also reminds us that this is a view many of us can easily have.
I particularly like it when our flight path briefly follows a river. Once I flew from London to Singapore. We left London at night and the sun came up over northern India.
I saw the Ganges clearly below us. The plane roughly followed its course until the river turned north-east near Varanasi, from where we continued south-east.
Someday I would like to visit the river in person, on the ground—that’s a feeling I often have in this job.
Name: Mark Vanhoenacker
Profession: Pilot, British Airways
In previous life: Was in academia and business
Claim to fame: Author of a bestseller