Soaring to great heights
> Scott Rais has a job that many consider to be a dream, but it isn’t as easy as it seems
ADAY in the office for many of us means a nine-to-five desk job, but for pilot Scott Rais, his day consists of the ineffable joy of soaring through the sky, and looking down upon golden skies and starry nights. While becoming a pilot may seem a rewarding profession, both financially and for the opportunity to travel the globe, Scott urges young aspiring pilots to think twice before pursuing this career path. He cautions that you should only go for it if it truly is a passion, as you might not have as much freedom as you expect, nor time to spend with your family. Besides working as a pilot, the 26yearold is also a model. His first foray into the modelling industry started when he was two years old.
“I started off with diaper commercials, and it kind of grew from there,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the diaper brand is no longer around today, so I don’t think I did a good job for it when I was a baby.
“Right now, I’m doing it part-time because with my busy schedule it’s quite hard to get modelling jobs.”
When did you decide to become a pilot? I decided quite late, in my opinion. I was around 16 at the time and it was my mum who suggested it to me. I wanted to be an architect at first, but I changed my mind when the possibility of becoming a pilot came up.
Do you remember your first ever long-haul flight? Yes, my first ever long-haul flight as an operating crew was to Incheon, South Korea. It was a beautiful experience but it was very tiring! Before this, I used to do a lot of short-haul flights so doing long-haul was new to me. The rest of the crew members were really nice and we even took a group photo so I could remember it always.
How bad is it really if I don’t switch on airplane mode during a flight? Certain countries and airlines have actually lifted the ban on using mobile phones. So it really depends where you are, and which airlines you fly. Some countries even leave it to the airline to decide.
Recently a few airlines in China have lifted the ban, but airplane mode still has to be switched on. I think there needs to be more research into it before we know exactly how [it] interferes with our aircraft systems.
How does it feel to be responsible for so many lives? I don’t feel scared, and I can’t feel scared, we have 378 lives on board. It’s not about feeling scared, but it certainly is a huge responsibility getting people from one destination to another. I’m a senior first officer, also referred to as the co-pilot.
The captain on the other hand, makes all the decisions. I think maybe when I become a captain one day, then I’ll feel [the] burden.
As the captain, you think about everything from A to Z. Usually, if anything happens, the authority will question the captain first.
One famous incident was the flight on the Hudson River, there’s [been] a movie made about it, starring Tom Hanks. The pilot managed to land the plane on the Hudson River with zero casualties, but still, the authorities were scrutinising his decisions.
What is your aspiration in life? To simply put it, my aspiration is to live a greener life. I think that is one of the reasons why I became vegan. I want to reduce my waste on planet Earth. We as human beings play a huge responsibility in taking care of Mother Nature.
I don’t think people realise that we are leaving a huge impact on the place we [call] home.
We need to be more considerate in what we do, reducing plastic usage, or
perhaps becoming a vegetarian can also make a change. No doubt that we are leaving a huge carbon footprint behind, so let’s say if everyone takes the train instead of driving, it can really benefit the environment in the long run.
But I know some people might criticise me and say, I’m a pilot flying a 200-tonne aircraft and leaving such a big carbon footprint, but in my company, we have what we call ‘green operating procedures’.
We try to minimise our carbon footprint by using single-engine taxis, turning off the air-conditioning during take-off, and so forth.