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Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

jameshard.ing

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Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#111

Post by phkahler »

jamesharding wrote: post #14
iamspoilt wrote: post #11

Having a computer engineering background, what motivated you to become a pilot and switch careers?

I had always been interested in aviation, and I was fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time after graduation to join an airline on a sponsored "cadet scheme". I still (hopefully evidently) very much love software/engineering, but I guess I chose the path of "professional pilot, hobbyist engineer" over the alternative of "professional engineer, hobbyist pilot".

>> chose the path of "professional pilot, hobbyist engineer" over the alternative of "professional engineer, hobbyist pilot"

Both pay well for a job, but as a hobby the costs are very different ;-)

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#112

Post by jamesharding »

mattfrommars wrote: post #104

If I understand OP journey, was he fortunate to have been scholarship to fund his studies to become a pilot? I was looking into pilot school here and they cost upwards to $100k

Exactly this. When I joined, the company offered a cadet scheme where the company would underwrite the loan required for your pilot training (84,000 GBP in 2016), and then that amount was repaid to us over 84 months of employment (while on a reduced cadet salary). It essentially spread the cost of training out over 7 years.

The current cadet scheme is better in the sense that you do not have to take on a personal loan for the flight training!

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#113

Post by vmh1928 »

mattfrommars wrote: post #104

If I understand OP journey, was he fortunate to have been scholarship to fund his studies to become a pilot? I was looking into pilot school here and they cost upwards to $100k

Air Cadets appears to be a part of the Canadian Armed Forces and intended to provide an on-ramp for young people interested in different aspects of the Armed Forces (Army, flying, Naval.)

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/service...

Qualifications to join the Air Cadets. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/service...

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#115

Post by halilkoklu »

jamesharding wrote: post #84
halilkoklu wrote: post #82

Inspiring profile with beautiful charts. Glad to have found someone else with a similar background who decided to fly jets. I had a good run as a software engineer and executive for the last 20 years. I have just completed my Airbus 320 type rating waiting for my base check. I will be flying for a national flag carrier.

Congratulations, and thank you! I moved from the A320 to the A350 just over two years ago, and they are remarkably similar to fly (by design)! I would go so far as saying that you could hop in the A350 sim with zero training, and you would be able to operate it to a safe standard.

I've got my eyes on the A350 for ages now so I'm glad that I landed on the Airbus fleet (80/20 odds in favour of Boeing here at my airline).

I've got two possible progression tracks from here: 1. gain experience on the A320 for a year, get upgraded to the A330, after two years get certified for the A350 to fly A330/A350 mixed. 2. spend years on A320, upgrade to captain, many more years, then finally upgrade to A330 as captain, then two years later A350 added.

I am planning to fly jump seat to see all the types we're flying.

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#117

Post by darkwater »

jamesharding wrote: post #112
mattfrommars wrote: post #104

If I understand OP journey, was he fortunate to have been scholarship to fund his studies to become a pilot? I was looking into pilot school here and they cost upwards to $100k

Exactly this. When I joined, the company offered a cadet scheme where the company would underwrite the loan required for your pilot training (84,000 GBP in 2016), and then that amount was repaid to us over 84 months of employment (while on a reduced cadet salary). It essentially spread the cost of training out over 7 years. The current cadet scheme is better in the sense that you do not have to take on a personal loa…

And what of you failed the final examination? Could you try more than once? Would that have affected your hireability at the company?

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#119

Post by undebuggable »

My IT career is rather nowhere, my glider training terminated before going solo, at least have equally cool domain. Good to know someone is succeeding overall in all these, haha. Entertaining post and engaging data presentation!

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#120

Post by voxleone »

Very cool. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading through your detailed flight logs — the way you’ve documented your experience, from distances and time in the air to the nuances of roles (P1, P2, PICUS), was fascinating.

As someone concerned with these matters — developing SpinStep, a quaternion-based library for modeling orientation and vector state evolution in physical systems — I found myself unexpectedly inspired by your data. It got me thinking: could these kinds of spatiotemporal logs, with their emphasis on direction, roles, and environmental influences, be approached through something like rotational state modeling?

For example:

.Aircraft headings and orientation changes could map naturally to quaternions.

.Role transitions (e.g. P1 ↔ P2) resemble discrete state changes within a continuous system.

.Wind effects or flight network patterns might even be modeled as external fields influencing orientation over time.

I hadn’t envisioned SpinStep in this context, but your log offered a compelling perspective. Whether or not it leads to something concrete, I just wanted to thank you for the inspiration.

.https://github.com/VoxleOne/SpinStep/blob/main/README.md \

.https://github.com/VoxleOne/SpinStep/blob/main/docs/01-ratio...

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