Bonus Ep 90 - What It’s Really Like to Be a British Pilot ✈️ (Real English Conversation)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
People don't realize this, but I did my first solo flight after 10 hours in a plane. Yeah. I mean, sometimes when you've got the top crosswind we can do, you're actually looking out the plane with one angle and the runway is this angle. Wow. Usually while I'm having my breakfast, I'll look through who I'm flying with.
Do you ever think, oh, it's with that person? Sometimes, yeah.
So you have to be a certain height. Oh, he's the heightest. Yeah. Well, you have to be able to touch the pedals. Not a lot of people know, but you also do fly with your feet. Is it just like a car? The feet is how you go left and right.
Hello and welcome to the British English Podcast. My name is Charlie, host of the show. And this show is all about helping you better understand British English whilst having culture-led conversations. And after befriending somebody who is a pilot and playing tennis with them and hearing about the anecdotes that come up as a pilot, I thought, I've got to get this guy on and give you some exposure to... behind the scenes of a pilot. So yeah, that's what we're going to do today. And this is Mark, the pilot. Hello, Charlie. Thank you very much for taking the time away from your joystick or what is the other one? Yerk. It's called a yerk. Yerk. Yes, the yerk. How are you today?
I'm good. Thank you for inviting me on. I know you've been asking me when we've played tennis quite a few times, but every time you're beating me at tennis, so I've not really been keen to say yes, but yeah, finally. Yeah. Yeah. I have beaten you every single time.
It's been close. So I wanted to know, firstly, how did you become interested in flying?
Well, I wasn't one of these children that knows they want to be a pilot since they're five years old. That wasn't my story. I wasn't always dreaming of being a pilot. It was quite random and quite spontaneous how I became a pilot. My background was in finance and economics. I did a degree in that. And then I worked for a bank for a couple of years. and basically yeah it wasn't satisfying me it wasn't it wasn't ticking all the boxes I couldn't see myself sat behind a desk uh crunching numbers on excel so yeah I mean I was looking at all sorts of different careers right and then yeah one Christmas one of my parents friends is a pilot and I ended up sat next to him in a pub in Christmas and Yeah, just started talking to him and asking him questions.
And he was telling me about his life. And I was like, wow, that sounds pretty cool. And then two months later, I was on a course.
Two months later, that's quick. Do you think two months later from this conversation, I might be on a course?
Maybe.
You fancy it? I mean, it's a cool idea. I was going to come to it later, but it seems relevant. I think we talked about this whilst playing tennis once, the perception of piloting amongst general people. Would you argue that... In the 60s, it was a bit more glamorous.
100%. I mean, anyone that's seen Catch Me If You Can, especially playing by Leonardo as well. It's, yeah, it's quite glamorous in them days. I mean, I think Ryanair and Michael O'Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, sort of spoiled that a little bit. But there are certain elements. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Yeah. So still, still glamorous.
Yeah. Not as much, but yeah. Yeah. What age were you at that point? So, I think I was probably around 22, 23. Yeah. Quick pause before we carry on.
I don't know your exact level of English, but in this conversation, you've probably already heard a few intermediate to advanced expressions. and there are plenty more sneaking in as we go. Now, I could stop and explain each one, but that would absolutely kill the flow of the conversation, and we don't want that, right? So instead, I've created a free PDF that goes with this episode. It breaks down the key vocabulary, gives you clear meanings, natural examples, collocations, and a few cheeky quizzes to help it actually stick. If you want it, just scan the QR code on screen right now or click the link in the description, show notes or comments section. And that link will take you to this screen that video podcast viewers can see right now.
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