Carlisle jet2 pilot Adam McDonald tells of life on the flight deck

He was a regular at the city’s airport from an early age, where mum Judith McMullen works, and his uncle Stephen Dent, is the manager at travel agent Dawson and Sanderson in Carlisle.

So it’s no surprise that Adam, who was brought up in Houghton, became a commercial airline pilot and now travels the world, having worked for ryanair, British Airways, and current employer, jet2.

“I started working at Carlisle airport when I was 14, washing the aircraft, just the smaller aircraft in all weathers at weekends,” said Adam.

“The planes get a lot of grease underneath where the exhausts are. Cleaning them means they fly more efficiently, and they look good for the customers. After a couple of years I moved to the office and started running that side of it.

“I had my pilot’s licence before I could drive when I was 17. I learned how to fly at Carlisle Flight Training at the airport. My mam has worked there for 34 years in finance.”

Adam, 26, attended Trinity School in the city, before doing his final year at Austin Friars.

“At Carlisle I did my private pilot’s licence and learned to fly a smaller aircraft, which I did when I was in the sixth form. Then I went to Oxford Aviation Academy for 18 months. For five or six months afterwards I didn’t get a job. Then I started at Ryanair, they were the only ones recruiting at the time.

“Lots of people on my course and other flight schools were looking for jobs. You take on a lot of debt to do the flight training!”

In the period between finishing his training and being offered a job by ryanair, Adam worked in Boots at Luton Airport to earn money, and ironically, found himself serving pilots.

After starting work, he was based in Alicante initially, then spent two years alternating between summers in Majorca and winters in Luton. In 2016 he took up a job with jet2, based in Manchester – but then he began to look further afield, literally.

“I had always had the itch to do long haul. I loved Jet2 and I didn’t want to leave but I had to scratch the itch,” said Adam.

He got a job with British Airways and suddenly, instead of doing short haul destinations within Europe, he found himself jetting to exotic locations all over the world.

“Doing short haul you go there and back to places like Alicante, and you are home every night. Long haul you fly to Mexico City and you spend five days there. The flights are longer so you don’t fly straight back,” he said, adding: “You get to see all parts of the world.”

Jeddah in Saudi Arabia ‘was amazing’, as was Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with the Copacabana beach and Sugarloaf mountain, and New Orleans was one of his favourites.

Chennia on south east coast of India was another amazing location. “That was a culture shock. It was just a completely different way of life to over here. The smells, the sights, and the food was amazing,” said Adam.

The longer the flight, the more crew are needed. For instance, a three-man crew flies to Mexico City, but four will fly to Kuala Lumpur which takes 14 hours.

He has mostly flown the Boeing 737-800 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The long haul aircraft have two bedrooms behind the flight deck, and the pilots can also watch movies when they are not in the cockpit.

But for all the exotic locations, Adam only remained with BA for nine months before returning to jet2, and is based at Stansted airport, living in St Albans.

“I loved the job but it is a very different sort of company. BA has 4,000 pilots and 12,000 cabin crew, so you don’t build the same sort of relationships you get with a smaller airline. I missed a place where you know everyone,” he said.

He also revealed that long haul flights means being away from home, and his girlfriend, much of the time, whereas with short haul flights, he can be back home every night.

Of all the airports he has flown to, he says the most difficult landing is at Funchal Airport in Madeira.

“That is one of the trickiest. It is a little island and the airport is on the coast, the island is like one mountain. The winds are terrible due to the mountain, it is very turbulent, and you can’t line up too early,” he said.

Currently a first officer, this weekend he was meant to be getting signed off as a captain, having completed more training, but he says the coronavirus may delay that. “We are doing hundreds of empty flights to bring the passengers back,” he said.

He does though enjoy popping back home. Recently, after landing in Edinburgh, he came down to Carlisle to support his uncle at a trade stand in the city centre for Dawson and Sanderson, and jet2. “He has a really good partnership with Jet2. It is one of his biggest sellers,” said Adam, who often flies travellers on holidays booked with his uncle!