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At work with Brenton de la Harpe: Airline Pilot

Name: Brenton de la Harpe

Position: Airline Pilot

Company:  Cathay Pacific Airways

Highest standard passed at school: Grade 12

High School attended: Kimberly Boys High

Previous occupation:  Naval Officer

Qualifications:

• BA degree (English and Communications)
• Airline Transport Pilots Licence
• Flying Instructors Rating

How did you finance your studies?
I sold chocolates and cordial for Nestle

A typical work day...

I am based in Hong Kong and report for work at flight dispatch at around 22:30.

Before the flight leaves I need to check weather conditions, aircraft serviceability, notices to crew, operational considerations etc. These are routine jobs that are very important to the safety and smooth running of the flight.

We depart for San Francisco/London/other at around midnight. Some flights take 12 hours and relief crew take over for a while so that the pilots can rest inbetween flying.

When we land at our destination we stay in hotels and have time off to do whatever we want to. Two days later we do it all again.

Highlights of the job:

• Being a pilot is exciting and financially rewarding
• Flying to many different destinations around the world is definately a perk!
• Every day, and flight, is different so my job is never boring.
• I often fly with different crew, so am forever meeting new people.
• Pilots need to rest between international flights so we get lots of days off…!

Challenges:

• Having to stay awake and alert after midnight.
• Terrible weather conditions sometimes.
• Long hours can be long  (but alleviated by many days off afterwards).
• Often being away for family birthdays or Christmas.
• Six-monthly proficiency checks in the simulator are neccessary to make sure that pilots are always in top form. Your license, and your job, depends on your doing well in these sessions!

Career path:

To become a pilot you must first get your private pilots license at a recognized flying school or club. Then you must get your commercial pilots license plus instrument rating. For this you need to pass a few exams and have flown at least 200 hours. Once you have this, you can fly for money.

You will need between 500 to 1000 hours before a company will hire you (for insurance purposes). You can build up hours by instructing other student pilots.
Then you may get a job with a regional carrier flying light- to medium-sized aircraft. Once you have an Airline pilots license (more exams!) and about 3000 hours to your credit, you can apply to any number of major airlines in South Africa or abroad and fly the big birds like the Boeing 747 or the Airbus 340.

I trained on the Cessna 150 Aerobat and Cessna 172 for my private licence. For my commercial license I flew the twin-engined Cessna 340. My first job was flying a King Air for De Beers mining corporation, then I flew business jets for the erstwhile Bop Air before flying MD80s for Sun Air. I also instructed part-time for extra experience. I am now flying Boeing 747s with Cathay Pacific, based in Hong Kong.

What next:

I have pretty much achieved  what I set out to do. I love my career and fly for one of the leading Airlines in the world. It doesn’t really get better than this…!