The cover of this book shows a funny cartoon of a pilot kicked out of his homeland Italy and landing in the desert between the camels. It suggests a light-hearted story of the adventures of a pilot in his flying career. But that is not the case when reading this book. Iwan Anzellotti an experienced co-pilot on the MD-80 with Alitalia is confronted with the dramatic developments in the management of Alitalia and decides to look for another airline to continue his career in the air.
That covers the first 50 pages of his book in which he explains why Alitalia is heading towards it’s own funeral. Not a funny part but for the interested readers a good description how politics killed Alitalia. Then he seeks for an alternative and ends up with a successful interview with Qatar Airlines. The beginning is promising and he starts with his basic training for a pilot on the Airbus A-320 in Doha.
He discovers that life in Qatar is not at all what he expected. The heat, the habits of the local people and the unusual way the management of Qatar Airlines is dealing with their cockpit and cabin crews is a confrontation for him. Therefore not so much stories of flight events, but more about the life in Qatar and specially in Doha and the problems he experiences with the management of his employer. Maybe in terms of ‘research’ on working conditions this is an interesting book for the researchers on this topic.
It is not very positive and for the reader a revelation about life there and sometimes shocking the way foreign employees were treated. At the end he decides to quit Qatar Airlines as soon as possible and to start a new career elsewhere. The author is confronting us with a critical view on why he left Alitalia and why his time with Qatar Airlines was not the dream job he hoped for.
I expected more pilot’s stories but was not disappointed as I got a different look of what was life in Qatar certainly in view of the present publications about this country. Tension is maybe not high but the book is informative. The book contains 176 pages and is in a soft cover execution. All in all, a very honest book about what an aviation career can be like. There are not many of these types of books.
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