If you work in advertising, then you’ve probably spent plenty of time crammed into a coach-class seat on a seven-leg, fifteen-hour aerial journey that began in hell and ended in Duluth. (Or possibly the other way around.) During those endless hours, did you ever think to yourself, ‘You know, somebody’s getting paid to drive this thing. I wonder if I could do that? I’m here to tell you that by virtue of your experience in advertising, you’re already well-prepared to become a pilot. Speaking as both an FAA-certified Airline Transport Pilot and an Organically-certified creative director, I can tell you that the skill sets you’ll need are surprisingly similar. How so, you ask?

Show up prepared.

Just as agency folks wouldn’t walk into a client meeting without a solid grasp of the material to be discussed, smart pilots never depart without adequate preparation. Days prior to your flight, you’ll check the long-range weather forecasts, estimate the fuel required, and calculate your cabin load. In the 24 hours before takeoff, you’ll recheck this information multiple times. Skipping this step can result in occasional inconveniences, such as the Air Canada 767 that ran out of gas and glided to a landing on a racetrack, simply because the pilots had calculated fuel in kilograms while the ground staff had calculated in pounds. (Oops.)

Expect last-minute changes.

We’re all used to accomodating the client who asks for ‘minor’ creative changes (which involve replacing all of the copy and all of the design), two weeks after the final approval deadline. Aviation is no different. First, Mother Nature can be fickle. Epic thunderstorms that suddenly appear in your flight path are her way of saying, “You’re going to be spending the night in Nashville, not New York.” Second, passengers can be equally fickle. I remember one corporate charter flight I commanded, in which the CEO changed our destination three times during the two-hour flight. It’s all part of aviation, just like last-minute rewrites are part of advertising.

Get creative

When the client asks you to slap a big honking ‘New!!!!!’ sticker on top of every page in your site, you can either toss creative integrity to the wind and do exactly what they ask, or you can devise a more creative solution. The same applies to piloting an aircraft. For example, if Air Traffic Control wants you to fly a route that’ll take you a hundred miles out of your way, you change your official, declared destination to a closer airport that you have no intention of landing at. Once in the air (when they’re much less likely to refuse a request), call up ATC and politely ask that they change your destination yet again – back to the place you actually want to land at. This tactic works like a charm, saves plenty of gas, and gets you to your real destination a great deal quicker.

Endure plenty of misconceptions

Folks outside our industry all seem to think that we ad people drink like Don Draper, party like Don Draper, and are paid like Don Draper. (If only). In the same vein, pilots must endure a slew of misconceptions about their profession. Such as compensation – a regional airline copilot makes not $100K, not $80K, but just $20K per year for the privilege of steering hundreds of tons of metal around the sky. Or, consider the supposedly ‘glamorous’ lifestyle of a professional pilot, immortalized in the film Catch Me If You Can. These days, certain airlines won’t even give their pilots hotel rooms for the night; they’ll make them sleep on board the aircraft. (Which explains why I’m writing this in the Organic San Francisco Creative Lounge, and not the captain’s seat of a commercial jet.)

It’s all about who you know

Talent, hard work, and awards will take you far in the ad business. But only so far. As we all know, most exciting new opportunities in this business come from people in our networks. The same applies to aviation. A few years back, I got a call from a former flight student of mine. I’d taught him how to fly, in a small 2-seat Cessna worth $18,000. Over the years he’d done well in business, and now wanted me to captain his $45 million Gulfstream 550 corporate jet. Now if only I could get the same kind of call from Lee Clow…

So there you have it. Truth is, becoming a pilot is easier and cheaper than you think. And while the world arguably has enough ad people, it most certainly doesn’t have enough pilots. Feel free to contact me– I’d be glad to get you started!

— Kareem Fahmi

Creative Director, Organic San Francisco

FAA-certified Airline Transport Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor with 5,000 hours of flight time