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“Calm at 38000 feet.”

Over the past week I’ve been sharing previews from something I’ve been quietly working on.

Today I’m very pleased to say that it’s finally ready.

After more than four decades flying airliners, I’ve written a guide to help explain what’s really happening when you fly, from turbulence and aircraft noises to the remarkable safety systems behind modern aviation.

It’s called Calm at 38,000 Feet, and it’s now available on Amazon.

This is actually my first attempt at writing a book, so thank you to so many of you who encouraged me to put my thoughts down on paper and share some of the perspective I’ve gained over the years in the cockpit.

I wrote it because so many of you have messaged me saying you love flying… but still feel nervous when the aircraft hits a few bumps or when something doesn’t sound quite familiar.

This guide simply explains the things most passengers are never told.

No complicated jargon.
Just a captain’s perspective on how flying really works and why it’s far safer than most people realise.

And the good news is… I’ve already started working on more stories to share with you, because after forty-four years of flying there are quite a few adventures still waiting to be told.

Thank you again for all your support.

I hope this little book helps many of you sit back, relax, and enjoy the view from the window a little more.

Captain Chris ❤️✈️👨🏼‍✈️

#calmat38000feet
#fearofflying
#captainchriscalm

Friends and colleagues sometimes ask me how much money I make from Instagram. The truth? I don’t make a penny. What I do earn, however, is something far more valuable;experiences that money can’t buy.

This experience was provided by @ultimatewarbirdflights at @leeds_east_airport

Like this one: flying a P-51 Mustang in formation with the legendary Spitfire. Two of the most iconic aircraft in history, side by side in the sky. Moments like this remind me exactly why I fell in love with aviation.

Aviation has given me a life of adventure, discovery, and connection that goes far beyond a career, it’s a passion, a privilege, and a way of seeing the world from a perspective few ever experience.

I share my journey here every day. Not for likes or follows, but to encourage the next generation of aviators; whether it’s pursuing flying as a hobby, or like me, turning it into a lifelong career.

Because in the end, it’s not about money. It’s about chasing the sky, embracing the challenge, and experiencing pure freedom every time the wheels leave the ground.

#AviationPassion #Spitfire #P51Mustang #PilotLife #WhyIFly

Global Pilot Shortage continues in 2026 despite worldwide new hiring push

Thousands of highly experienced pilots are retiring every year, while airlines around the world are expanding fleets, adding routes and competing aggressively for qualified crew. The result? A global race for talent unlike anything I’ve seen in my career.

And here’s the interesting part…

The pilots entering the industry today won’t just have opportunities… they’ll have choices.

Major airlines are increasing salaries, improving lifestyle agreements, creating cadet pathways and investing heavily in training pipelines because they know one thing for certain:

Without pilots, aeroplanes don’t move.

But while the opportunities are extraordinary, the standards cannot drop. Flying modern airliners safely across oceans, through weather systems, into some of the busiest airports on Earth still requires experience, discipline, resilience and an enormous amount of dedication.

And here’s another important point…
You don’t have to be 18 years old to start.
More people should consider becoming a pilot as a career change.
I’ve met former teachers, engineers, police officers, military personnel, business owners and people from completely different walks of life who eventually found themselves sitting in the cockpit of an airliner thinking:
“Why didn’t I do this years ago?”

If you’ve ever looked up at an airliner crossing overhead and wondered what it would be like…

Maybe that thought is there for a reason. ✈️

#learntofly #pilotlife

Sometimes your partner chooses the exact moment your brain is balancing 200 moving parts to ask something like…

“Did you remember to buy dog food?”

And suddenly you’re staring into the middle distance wondering whether to laugh, cry, or divert to another continent.

Most people get interrupted while replying to emails or watching Netflix. Pilots get interrupted while mentally calculating landing performance, crosswind limits, traffic spacing, fuel states, weather deviations and whether the guy ahead is planning to vacate the runway sometime before Christmas.

Which is why receiving a text from my wife just as I’m about to land probably wouldn’t be ideal…

“Can you pick up avocados?”

Meanwhile I’m on short finals, configuring an Airbus worth hundreds of millions of dollars, talking to Air Traffic Control, monitoring windshear, briefing the missed approach and trying to make the landing smooth enough that Instagram calls it “butter.”

Thankfully phones are turned OFF on the flight deck, because trust me… nobody wants their Captain suddenly distracted by:

“Are we still on for dinner Tuesday?”

Timing is everything in aviation… and perhaps the final approach at 140 knots isn’t the best moment to ask where the scissors are kept.

#textmessage #avacado #netflix

Concept credit to @cristinaionescuu

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#pilottraining #privatepilot #instrumentrating #cfi #cfii

Toronto local Elman @temporarywindow captures some of the best airliner images and videos at @torontopearson International, and I’ve featured several of his incredible shots here before. His camera has often followed my @airbus A330 and A350 arrivals… but in the interests of fairness, we’ve teamed up this time to showcase this beautiful slo-mo capture of a @boeing 787 touchdown.

Now, can any Boeing pilots, engineers or Dreamliner experts explain exactly what’s going on with the bogies here?

Watching this slowed down footage, the landing gear appears to oscillate back and forth quite dramatically during touchdown. I’m obviously slightly biased after thousands of hours flying the Airbus A330 “Butter Machine,” where the trailing bogie geometry tends to produce that incredibly smooth and progressive touchdown sequence… but the 787 looks very different in comparison.

Is it the bogie geometry?The semi-levered gear design?Runway surface interaction?Weight transfer dynamics?Or simply how the Dreamliner’s landing gear is engineered to absorb energy?

Whatever the explanation, it’s fascinating to watch in slow motion because it really highlights just how much engineering, movement and load absorption is happening in just a fraction of a second every time a heavy jet lands.

A huge thanks again to @temporarywindow for another outstanding capture from Toronto Pearson.

#b787 #dreamliner #slowmotion

Felt cute, might delete later 🥰 ✈️

The Mach Loop in Wales is plane spotting like no other.

No airport fences.
No lounges.
No coffee shops beside the runway.

Just rugged Welsh mountains, freezing winds, rain, mud… and the sound of military jets suddenly echoing through the valleys at eye level.

Only the most dedicated and hardy photographers make the climb into the Loop, often waiting for hours in unpredictable weather for just a few seconds of pure aviation magic. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a fast jet appears threading its way through the mountains with incredible precision and speed.

The images captured there are more than just photographs. They’re moments of raw energy, skill and timing frozen forever.

As an aviation enthusiast, I completely understand why photographers from all over the world make the pilgrimage to the Mach Loop.

Because when everything comes together… the light, the weather, the aircraft and the timing… the results are simply spectacular.

This cool videos and images were captured by @acephotography who clearly understands both the patience and dedication it takes to photograph military aviation in one of the world’s most iconic plane spotting locations.

The Mach Loop isn’t just plane spotting.

It’s aviation theatre at full power.

#machloop #a400m #tornado

Top Gun Day

Today is Top Gun Day… and it’s hard to believe that the original Top Gun first hit cinemas 40 years ago in 1986.

Few films in history have had such a powerful influence on aviation and the people drawn towards it. I honestly don’t know many pilots flying today who weren’t inspired, motivated or completely captivated by that film at some point during their journey. For so many of us, it wasn’t just a movie… it was the spark.

When the film came out, I was a young Australian bush pilot flying charters, night freight and instructing during the day with about 2,500 flying hours, while applying to the major Australian airlines and chasing the dream of becoming an international airline pilot. At exactly that stage of my life, this movie was pure motivation. It kept me inspired, focused and believing that one day I’d make it into the left seat of a big jet.

It made aviation look cool, exciting, adventurous and rebellious. It inspired tens of thousands of future pilots, engineers, cabin crew and aviation enthusiasts around the world to look up when they heard a jet overhead and dream about one day being part of that world themselves.

Forty years later, the original still holds a special place in aviation culture. Then came Top Gun: Maverick, which somehow managed to capture that magic all over again for a whole new generation and became an epic success in its own right. And now, with a third film reportedly in development, the legacy continues.

For many of us, Top Gun wasn’t just entertainment… it was inspiration at full afterburner. ✈️🔥

How did Top Gun inspire your life?

#topgun #topgunday #topgun40

80 years young… and still teaching pilots how to really fly.

The de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk — affectionately known as the “Chippie” — first took to the skies on 22 May 1946 in Downsview, Canada, and next week this beautiful little aircraft celebrates its 80th birthday.

Entering RAF service in 1950, the Chipmunk replaced the legendary Tiger Moth as the RAF’s primary trainer and introduced a new generation of pilots to more modern flying, with features such as flaps, brakes, radios and an enclosed cockpit.

The RAF version, the DHC-1B-2-S3 Chipmunk T.2, even adopted a “bubble” canopy which inspired fighter aircraft of the era, including the P-51D Mustang and North American Sabre.

Over its production life, 1,284 Chipmunks were built, and remarkably around 350 are still airworthy today, many lovingly cared for by private owners who continue to keep this iconic aircraft flying for future generations.

To celebrate the occasion, up to 80 Chipmunks are expected to gather at Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green Airport on 22 May, with plans for a spectacular “80” formation flight marking eight decades since the Chippie’s very first flight.

For so many pilots, the Chipmunk wasn’t just an aeroplane… it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with aviation.

If you’d like to learn more about this timeless trainer, you can pre-order Chipmunk at 80 by Ben Griffiths@chipmunk_gbxgo

#chipmunk #dhc1chipmunk

Most Dad and Lad activities are somewhere between a BBQ, a fishing trip, a football match or go-karting… and they’re all brilliant in their own way.

But every now and then life throws you an 11 out of 10.

Flying an L-39 Albatros fighter jet through the valleys of Northern Italy with @migflug alongside my son was one of those moments. The speed, the noise, the adrenaline, the G-force, the snow-covered peaks of Mont Blanc flashing past the canopy… absolutely epic.

As someone who’s flown for 44 years, including Spitfires and Mustangs, I can honestly say this was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

The best part?

Looking across at my son and realising we were both feeling exactly the same thing… pure awe.

Some memories become stories.Some become core memories.

This one became both.

11/10. Highly recommended.

#migflug #fatherson #jennie

Monday Motivation

Nothing truly worthwhile in life is ever easy… but the pride, satisfaction and sense of achievement that comes from turning a dream into reality is absolutely priceless.

The journey to becoming an airline pilot isn’t just about learning how to fly an aircraft. It’s years of early mornings, self-doubt, study, sacrifice, failed exams, financial pressure, time away from family and moments where giving up feels easier than continuing.

It starts with that very first flying lesson… hands shaking on the controls of a tiny training aircraft… and one day, if you stay disciplined, committed and obsessed with the dream, you find yourself sitting in the left seat of a Heavy Jet watching the sunrise at 38,000 feet with hundreds of people trusting you to take them safely across the world.

And in that moment… every setback, every struggle and every sacrifice suddenly makes perfect sense.

Aviation gave me a life far bigger than I ever imagined as a young boy staring through an airport fence dreaming of flight.

If becoming a pilot is your dream… keep going.

The turbulence along the way is part of the journey. ✈️

#mondaymotivaton