Asperger's Syndrome and becoming an airline pilot.

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Is this the job for people with Asperger's Syndrome, or is it the exact opposite in your opinion? A lot of them would be perfect for the job since a fair number of them can focus for six hours straight and would be experts on airplanes which means that they would be cut out to do the job. The only flaw that I see here is that some might not have decent social skills, but others have learned decent social and communication skills which makes me think that people with Asperger's Syndrome would be decent for a job like if it wasn't an automatic disqualifier according to http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECF ... 1.5&r=PART since they said "A disorder that makes the person unable to safely perform the duties or exercise the privileges of the airman certificate applied for or held" and "May reasonably be expected, for the maximum duration of the airman medical certificate applied for or held, to make the person unable to perform those duties or exercise those privileges" under Neurological. Anyways, is this job for somebody with Asperger's Syndrome?

Surely it would depend on the individual and their own gifts and talents, and ability to do the job well enough.

Having done some light fixed wing flying I found the easy bit is the theory the hard part is making decisions while under pressure in an unexpected situation. You can try to practice for these but until your doing a solo and experience a real life emergency everything is theory, the practice comes when you land it . The experience comes when you walk away..

It definitely depends on the individual.

The concentration factor could offer an advantage, but executive functioning problems can sometimes cause people with autism minor issues with driving, issues which could escalate to a being a bigger problem in a situation of greater danger and authority like being a pilot. This is due to the "detail oriented" way the autistic mind works. An autistic person is often only naturally able to focus on one detail at a time and may miss the big picture. This can be both an advantage (an autistic person will often notice details that NT people will miss) or a disadvantage (things going on in the other parts of the environment are missed). Also, I've never been a pilot, but I suspect the ability to multitask may be involved, which is also something most autistic people have difficulties with.

I'm just offering some thoughts, but honestly the only way to find out if this is a good career for you personally is to try it. Whether or not the AS would be prohibitive, something that would hinder the pilot in doing their job, would depend how it manifested in that individual. If you are interested in doing this, perhaps it would be possible for you to book a taster training session? Experiencing the cockpit environment and feedback from an instructor should give you the clear information you need.

Best of luck!