Captain Shawn Angus

Captain Shawn Angus

Boeing 767

“I am now at the stage in my career where I fly overseas. I have never really lost the travel bug I had when I was younger, so getting to travel all over world is a dream come true. A drawback of the overseas travel is the constant fatigue. Learning to manage sleep patterns and the exhaustion can be very challenging.”

Growing up, Shawn had the chance to see his father, an airline pilot, in action. He decided to follow in his father's footsteps when he was 15 years old.

You could say I joined the family business.
 
My father was an airline pilot for 37 years. And his father was an airline pilot -- from 1941 to 1981. In fact, my grandfather was the first pilot to retire from Air Canada with 40 years of service.
 
Because of my father’s job, I was fortunate to travel all my life, and to see my father in action at work. I was able to go on layovers with him and get a good understanding of what the career entailed. But it took until I was 15 years old, on a layover with my father in London, England, that it really sunk in that this was what I wanted to do as a career.
 
I began building time towards my commercial pilot licence in my last year of high school in Kitchener, Ontario. I flew part-time in the summers while I attended university, logging as many hours as possible. But before jumping feet first into my piloting career, I was on foot backpacking across Asia, the UK and in India. I also spent time as a ski instructor in Whistler, B.C. and in Japan.
 
With my father and grandfather as mentors, I had an incredible support network, which was key to my success. But even with their support, being a professional pilot is still a difficult career to pursue. Training is a huge financial commitment. It seems there is always a shortage of good jobs. And it can be very hard to get your foot in the door -- the first job is always the hardest in aviation it seems.
 
Since I started working as a commercial pilot in 1997, the industry has changed significantly. But for me, the job of ‘pilot’ hasn’t changed that much since I watched my father do it. I’ve seen cycles of growth and contraction as various world events and economic factors drive things. But an airline pilot still operates their flying schedule and does all they can to keep the operation safe.
 
People may idealize the glamour of being a pilot. But they may not think about who’s flying the red-eye home for the third night in a row. Working Christmas, Thanksgiving, long weekends and birthdays all come with the territory. Pilots are away from home a lot.
 
I am now at the stage in my career where I fly overseas. I have never really lost the travel bug I had when I was younger, so getting to travel all over world is a dream come true. A drawback of the overseas travel is the constant fatigue. Learning to manage sleep patterns and the exhaustion can be very challenging.
 
Because I’m away so much, I really love spending time at home with my family. I don’t have a normal 9-5 job, so I can sometimes be at home during the week. The trade-off from missing out on many important family events is when I’m able to attend my kids’ school events during the day. I love having that perspective as they grow up.
 
Being a pilot is definitely a give-and-take sort of job; definitely not for everyone, but certainly for me!