This is a personal portfolio documenting an airline pilot's career progression, flight statistics, and technical visualizations. While the content does not substantively engage with human rights discourse, it implicitly demonstrates exercise of professional freedom, expression, and cultural participation through open sharing of personal work and international mobility. The evaluation is neutral overall, with weak positive signals for freedom of expression and work-related freedoms.
As an airline pilot, I am curious, have you watched the season 2 of Nathan Fielder’s Rehearsal on HBO, that comically addresses the topic of pilot-copilot communication?
If so what are your thoughts on his portrayal of the existence of copilot communication friction. And without intending to dig into your personal business, do you think there is a tendency and survivor (retention) bias for the profession to remain high functioning ______, without recognizing a need for help. Or is this portrayal of stunted coworker dialog an edge case that is amplified from his perspective.
Folks like you (expert in multiple domains) are an inspiration for people like me. I always dream to do something other than my day job. Hope I push through my laziness to do it some day !
That is beautiful. Besides the globe and the cool animations I like the dashboard that shows summary stats.
This made me think. Either Frauenhofer or Helmholtz in Germany used to have a site where you could enter your specific flights and it would tell you your overall radiation exposure. This was meant mainly for flight personnel and it was not nearly as beautiful. The accumulated exposure would be a useful addition for the dashboard.
Looks great, thanks for sharing! One thing I love about software engineering is that you can apply it to so many different aspects of ordinary life. Showing your flight career like this is really cool.
There seems to be some crossover between the software and flying 'communities'. Perhaps this is rather unsurprising given some of the shared prerequisite skills? Is it your experience there are many commercial pilots who code?
Do you expect to get 100% of the way to the sun over your career?
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.
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.
If you're interested in the subject, let me introduce you to GCMap.
GCMap can plot a line between any two IATA airport codes; actually you can put arbitrary number of pairs comma separated; and best of all, they can be passed as a URL param. For example: `JFK-LHR,LHR-CDG,CDG-FRA`
Nice metrics and visualizations! The kind of graph you used for the destination matrix doesn't always feel very useful, but in this case it worked really well.
One thing I immediately thought to check after seeing your hours graph was what percentage of the year you were in flight (or in a plane, I guess). For your peak year (2024), it worked out to be about 8.7% of the year! It probably even higher if you just count your waking hours, but I don't know your sleep habits or how many of your flights you might have slept during.
Amazing visualization. Any plans to add more features to each log? e.g. difficulty of taking-off/flying to/landing, or trajectory with/out turbulence, etc.?
Should add the amount of CO2 emissions per flight since you know the model of plane(s). And if you have occupancy data for each flight, can even determine efficiency.
This is awesome and I love it. Thanks for sharing! I'm just wondering what made you wanna be a pilot instead of sticking with a regular software engineering career, especially since you’ve got a degree in that and, of course, your talent here :)
A lot of people still use paper (and fill it in after landing each flight), but there are quite a few digital options on the market now. I use one called LogTen, which stores everything in a SQLite file behind the scenes which is what I used to make this.
He answered in the post that he uses LogTen Pro[1] which enables querying with SQL[2]. In the SQL post he says the app has an export for CSV but the app stores it in SQLite which you can access and query from directly.
I have only seen a few clips from The Rehersal (the bit with Sully listening to Evanescence), so I don't have much to go on. Pilot communication is definitely something that we spend a lot of time talking about and training (under the larger banner of CRM - crew resource management), and in my experience the industry is making real efforts to be better in this area!
do pilots get to mess around on a laptop while flying? My understanding is that most of a flight is just sitting there waiting for landing to start, could mean a lot of spare time to pick up programming
It’s not a 9-5 for many and time between flights can be significant. Not surprised they do that as a hobby on the side. Not imagining they’re doing anything during the flight.
There are quite a few ex-engineers who fly (though anecdotally, most seemed to have studied aerospace engineering. At this rate, I think I am on track to make it about 10% of the way there by the time I retire (unless supersonic travel comes back in a large way!)
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.
The company that I work for does actually provide us with our cumulative dosage data for the month/year/lifetime, but not at such a granular level. Do you know of any statistical way that I could calculate this?
I suppose I could work out the great circle routes and the approximate dosage in that airspace at a given time?
GCMap doesn't have a whole lot of different map projections to choose from. Having more than one pair on a single map will result in a pretty bad map projection. That's my biggest complaint. They really need to add more better projections such as Mollweide, Winkel Tripel, Robinson, etc. Or they should just have a globe.
Sometimes I wish software development didn’t pay so exceptionally well. I’m interested in so many other things, but it’s hard to justify switching to another full-time field, knowing it would mean a significant pay cut.
It is one of the pecularities of the job, in that I will be "at work" for 4 days, but only actually strapped into an airplane for 8-14 hours at the beginning and end of that - the rest is mandated (and much needed) resting.
Thank you! I have text comments/remarks for all particularly memorable flights (for all of the above reasons you mentioned, plus famous passengers, family on board, etc), but some of those are quite private and also difficult to show in a visualisation like this.
I would love to track more data over time, but balancing that with it being easy to collect is the challenge!
Thanks! My father being a pilot certainly played a large part, not in the sense that he forced me into it, but rather that I had the opportunity to sit on the jump seat as a kid (pre-9/11) and it planted the seed quite early.
After finishing my degree, British Airways had opened their cadet pilot scheme - windows of opportunity like that are usually short and infrequent, so I went for it! The nice this is that I can still code and keep up on the software engineering trends (what I tell myself while checking HN for the n-th time in a day) on the side, and I think it is also a safe set of skills to have in case I can no longer fly (pandemics, losing my medical, etc)
Content describes international flight operations and career mobility across multiple countries, implicitly demonstrating freedom of movement.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Author operates Airbus aircraft internationally from London to destinations including Canada, Spain, Portugal, and other countries documented in flight visualizations.
Career timeline documents geographic relocation from Canada (initial training) to UK (2014 BA cadet scheme entry) with subsequent domestic base changes.
Destination matrix visualization explicitly shows departures and arrivals across numerous international routes over years of flying.
Inferences
The documented ability to work and travel across multiple countries suggests practical exercise of freedom of movement and choice of work location.
International flying is presented as normal and valued professional practice, framing mobility as central to identity and career advancement.
Author freely publishes personal career narrative, technical methodology, and invites reader engagement, demonstrating freedom of expression.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Author publishes personal career narrative and technical work on a public website with no authentication, paywall, or apparent editorial oversight.
Website explicitly invites reader engagement: 'If you have any suggestions or questions regarding this or anything aviation related, please get in touch!' with RSS and social media sharing options provided.
Content includes detailed technical explanations of methodology (SQL queries, visualization techniques, data sources), openly sharing intellectual work.
Inferences
Public publishing without apparent censorship or suppression demonstrates practical exercise of freedom of expression.
Multi-platform engagement mechanisms (RSS, BlueSky, X links) and explicit invitation for feedback indicate the platform enables diverse forms of engagement with expressed ideas.
Author creates and shares original technical visualizations, explicitly positioning this work as communal and inviting others to participate.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Author has created multiple original data visualizations: 3D globe models, GitHub-style flight calendar, destination matrix, cumulative hours analysis, and flight time vs. distance plots.
Technical methodology is publicly documented with specific tools named (LogTen Pro for logging, SQL queries for analysis, D3-style visualization approaches) and mathematical approaches explained (great circle distance calculations).
Author explicitly states 'This page has been a labour of love' and invites participation: 'If you have any suggestions or questions...please get in touch!' positioning readers as potential collaborators.
Inferences
Creating and publicly sharing original technical/scientific visualizations and methodology constitutes active participation in technical culture and knowledge creation.
Invitation for reader suggestions and mention of planning 'more graphs to this page' frames technical work as communal and collaborative rather than purely individual achievement.
Career narrative describes progression in chosen profession with no indication of exploitation or unfair labor practices.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Author describes joining British Airways in 2014 through a competitive cadet scheme and progressing from First Officer through different aircraft types over 10+ years.
Career narrative includes self-directed technical skill development (learning SQL, creating data visualizations, building 3D models), demonstrating agency in skill selection.
Content contains no discussion of wage disputes, labor violations, excessive hours, or coercive working conditions.
Inferences
Progression through a chosen specialized profession and voluntary skill development suggests exercise of freedom to select and advance in a career.
Framing of work as valuable and meaningful activity (describing it as 'labour of love' for the portfolio) positions professional achievement as intrinsically rewarding rather than exploitative.
Educational pathway is described with multiple programs accessed across countries, demonstrating opportunity for education.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Author's educational trajectory spans: glider pilot and instructor rating via Canadian Air Cadet scholarships, PPL in Canada, Integrated ATPL course at FTE Jerez Spain, and British Airways cadet scheme training.
All educational institutions and credentials are named specifically, indicating formal recognition and structured pathways to professional qualification.
Author explicitly credits Canadian Air Cadet scholarships as enabling access to initial aviation training.
Inferences
Access to multiple educational programs across countries through both scholarships and formal training schemes demonstrates opportunity to pursue specialized education.
Detailed documentation of educational credentials positions learning and formal qualification as centrally valued in the author's professional identity.
build 1ad9551+j7zs · deployed 2026-03-02 09:09 UTC · evaluated 2026-03-02 10:41:39 UTC
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