Over the clouds, the sun always shines

To my eyes, one of the most attracting aspects of an air transport pilot's life is its unlimited sunshine feature!

It must be really pleasant knowing that today at work you'll pass over this low winter cloud layer to join natural light in its purest state.

Yes, this is also a reason why I am fighting against the ATPL (Air Transport Pilot License) and its 14 papers. One day, I'll be able to get rid of those 8 octas of sky covered by condensed water droplets, which preferred hobby consists in ruining our winter without hesitation.

Another solution would be to exile myself to the Atacama Desert in Chile. With yearly precipitations under 1 millimeter I think fog would become a less important matter!

The jet engine's complexity

Why is it so complicated to become an air transport pilot?

A glance to the right side gives us some clues.

That complex thing is an aircraft's jet engine. Unfortunately, before being able to use one, we must have fully understood its principles of working. This implies looking in details at some technical points. And between the pneumatic, electrical, fuel or hydraulic circuits the ATPL (Air Transport Pilot License, the public transportation pilot's traffic code) is a really well stocked course. Especially for the "Aircraft General Knowledge" part.

A jet engine simply accelerates some air in order to produce a force that will push our aircraft really fast, allowing it to do its aircraft job: flying. However, it inflicts a cycle of operations to the ingested air that are not easy to understand, at all. On the menu we find some compression, combustion, adiabatic expansion and some theorems named after great scientists to explain all of this.

That is why the piston engine, propeller-driven aircraft suits me totally. It is easy to use and the working principle is just a bit more complex than for a moped.

But let's face it; I won't cross the Atlantic with a moped. This justifies the ATPL!

More details:

Wikipedia - Jet engine