Ethiopian Airlines pilots in the cockpit of a 787 Dreamliner after landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Photo/FILE
For some reason piloting is among the few professions in Kenya at the receiving end of harsh criticism in social media. Some of this might have to do with a general impression that pilots are overpaid for doing simple work.
When I was changing careers to start out as a pilot, some friends remarked that I was going to be a driver. This is technically true and is the reason the Europeans, when setting up a company to rival Boeing, called it the Airbus and not the Air Operating Table.
Pejoratively in Kenya, an engineer is just a mechanic, cabin crew are waitresses and the CEO of an airline is no different from a kiosk owner.
It is, however, worth exploring just how smart you have to be to be a pilot. In any given endeavour, intelligence is an asset.
Pilot training is expensive and modern airliners are complex machines. Since the industry is dynamic, pilots might be expected to learn new airplane types every few years.
Unlike most jobs, mistakes usually have grave consequences. Smart pilots can be trained faster and once qualified will likely make better decisions in normal operations. These decisions will lead to cost savings for the airline down the line.
This discounts any extra skills that pilots might bring to projects within the airline.
With the prevailing market forces, an airline could choose to hire only from the top 100 students in the country and still get enough applicants.
From the point of view of a country though, this would be undesirable. There is only a finite number of geniuses walking around. Most people would agree that it would be a waste to have a polymath working as a janitor.
While aviation is a challenging and exciting field, it would be facetious to say it compares to, say, rocket science. Thus it makes more sense to shunt these smart people to critical science and technology fields.
In any case not all academically inclined individuals will have an aptitude for flying.
Aside from the obvious psychomotor skills that someone will need to exhibit to operate a plane, you will need an ability to multitask, as well as the emotional intelligence to interact with many diverse crew members.
Ultimately since we don’t live in a communist state, people will exercise their freedom to choose whichever professions that stimulate and fulfil them.
Dr Ondieki is a pilot with an international airline.
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