Pilots React to The Rehearsal

When it was revealed that the second season of The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder’s documentary-style comedy, would be about aviation safety, the choice felt almost too topical. This season, Fielder focuses on a few very real pilots, whose interpersonal communications are used to exhibit his hypothesis: There’s a deadly communication gap between the captain and the first officer. Change the way they talk to each other, and voilà, safer flights. With what feels like a rising amount of airline incidents, and a January 2025 crash that was named the deadliest in America in over 15 years, Fielder’s call to improve airline safety by changing the way pilots communicate with one another was a risky topic for his deadpan show.

The airline industry is notoriously hush-hush, so it’s not easy to confirm the accuracy of everything Fielder does and says on The Rehearsal. On social media, some viewers have assumed all the pilots in the series are fake, but according to the conversations I had with three pilots, the majority of the series, including the first pilot that Fielder chooses to experiment on, felt pretty real (“I know from friends of a friend that the regional airline that Moody works for was not happy that he was on the show,” said one). Others might be skeptical that the atmosphere could actually be as intense as Fielder purports it to be, but it turns out, it really is that competitive (“It’s cutthroat because we’re subject to Daddy United or Uncle Delta,” that same pilot told me). And while Fielder does touch on the very real mental-health crisis the aviation industry faces, it’s not always clear when he’s playing for laughs.

If it makes you feel any better, the one refrain you will likely hear from every pilot you ask (as I did from the three I spoke to for this piece) is that “flying is still safer than driving.” But could Fielder really prove that on HBO?

How did you get started in the industry?

ADAM*, a former regional airline pilot (now cargo pilot) from the West Coast: My uncle was a flight attendant for American Airlines so I learned about aviation through him. After college, I realized I didn’t want to have a normal office job. I went to a United Express, a regional airline that goes through smaller cities, after being a flight instructor. That’s where I met Moody. He knew his stuff; he’s a very stoic and intelligent kid. After regionals, I got hired by an international cargo airline, and now I’m there.

BEN*, a flight instructor from Texas: I’ve been flying for about two years now. It’s always been in the back of my mind, but it seemed unachievable. I wasn’t in the military. I didn’t study aviation at college. However, during the shortage a couple of years ago, all these airlines had cadet programs in which they sponsor you, and by the time you get your hours, they take you on. I’m doing one of those. Hopefully I’ll have a guaranteed job. I’m still at the beginning of things, but we’re on our way.

CONNOR*, a cargo pilot from the West Coast: I wanted to be a pilot ever since I was little, and once I graduated high school, I went to college for aviation, got my bachelor’s degree, and became a pilot. Now I’m currently flying for a small feeder cargo company that services the smaller communities here on the West Coast. Hopefully, I’ll end up at a big airline.

Can you explain the difference between regional and cargo? And how does that all relate to the airlines?

BEN: To work at a mainstay airline, there’s a pipeline. I’m working as a flight instructor first, getting about 800 hours of experience, and then I’m going to go to a regional airline. At that point, I can get a bigger license, the airline transport pilot license, which I can get at 1,500 hours, and then I’ll be qualified to go to United.

ADAM: At the end of the day, pilots are trained to go from point A to point B as safely as possible. The training is the same; the only minor difference between passenger versus charter or cargo is pretending that you have the flight-attendant crew. Regional airlines are contractors. They make limited revenue and very limited profit compared to other airlines in the industry. Indirectly, that creates a culture at the regional airlines where things are very cutthroat.

Let’s get into the show. How did you hear about The Rehearsal?

ADAM: I hadn’t seen season one, but the producers reached out to me for casting in August 2023 for this season. They had disguised it as “HBO is making a documentary on pilots so we just want to have an opportunity for you guys to share your journey and share some misconceptions about the industry.” I kept getting a feeling that the producers didn’t have enough material. I had no idea that behind the scenes they had an agenda. They invited me for production day, but the timing didn’t work out. In April, I saw the trailer, and I saw the mock-up of the Houston George Bush Air Force terminal that the producers had told me about. That’s when I realized it was all the same show.

BEN: I’ve been a fan of Nathan Fielder for many years. I was watching him on Nathan for You. When he released the first season of The Rehearsal, I was intrigued, and I watched it. I made my trivia team watch that very first episode with me. A few months ago, it was revealed that Nathan Fielder had his commercial license, and he was 737-rated, and everyone was wondering what he was going to do with it. Sure enough, the show was about aviation. So it was up my alley even before this, and it’s a good way for me to introduce Nathan to my pilot friends.

CONNOR: I had never heard of The Rehearsal, so when HBO reached out to me, they pitched it like a documentary. We scheduled a phone call to talk about flying and my personality. I had no idea what they were planning, but it was certainly not what I thought they were going to do. When I told my friends and other colleagues about it, they thought it seemed like a scam from the get-go. Sure enough, it was a real thing, but it was not what was being pitched to me.

Click here to preview your posts with PRO themes ››

What was your initial reaction to the show when you watched it?

ADAM: While I’m supportive of Nathan’s ideas, when you watch the show, you can see that there is a little bit of a forced agenda or some Hollywood editing. From the get-go, his show focused on pilot communication. I don’t know the statistics on it, but I would imagine pilot communication only represents a very small amount of crashes. I think the show attempting to solve the issue is hard to execute because it doesn’t feel like there is enough expertise or expert guidance on how to legitimately change to help make the industry safer. But I’m still happy that Nathan can put a little bit of a spotlight on the industry and some of the struggles the industry is facing, like the mental-health side of it all.

BEN: As far as the aviation aspect of it goes, it’s spot on. For years, there’s been an issue with the captain being in control and the first officer being afraid to speak up, which is why they introduced crew resource management in the first place.

CONNOR: I was in shock. I was watching it with my significant other, and when they were going into the details about the first officer and his girlfriend, we were cringing. The fact that that could have been us and our dirty laundry! I’m talking about it with friends at work. We all think it’s a little bit weird, but that is Nathan’s kind of comedy. It’s out of the box. One of my friends described it as a “millennial pause,” the kind of humor where it kind of takes a second to get the joke, and that felt spot on.

ADAM: Nathan being one of the leaders of the show, he knows the grit that it takes for airline training, or at least pilot training, and that makes me think he’s not going to let the show go too negatively. They’re trying to find this balance, and I see it. At the end of the day, it’s still entertainment.

Do you think the show is going to make people more scared of flying? Or less?

ADAM: The show is trying its best to blend what happens to pilots with the Hollywood angle. Are there definitely errors I see because I’m an airline pilot? Absolutely. The producers are telling a story with a comedic spin to it. Since Nathan has a pilot’s license, it feels more trustworthy. That had to have taken over a year and a half. In the first couple episodes, they were able to scare a couple of people with the emphasis on the fear that pilots don’t talk and that if enough pilots don’t communicate, more crashes will happen. There is a little bit of a wrinkle to that. I think if a person watches all six episodes, that fear would go away.

BEN: My buddy’s wife, who is afraid of flying, has been watching and the first episode scared her. But she’s still watching. Hopefully, she gets more comfortable. She doesn’t want her husband going up in a small plane with me, though. On Reddit and other websites, I’ve seen folks posting about watching their pilots speaking in the airport. Nathan mentioned that they don’t do that, but now they are speaking at the airport. A couple of pilots have even said things like, “Make sure to be out in the terminal in front of the customers, speaking with the first officer or captain like we’re friends, so they feel more at ease.”

Do you think The Rehearsal shows pilots in a negative light?

ADAM: In general, no, but it has a wonderful opportunity to show that pilots are human too, and there’s a spectrum of characters. For example, Captain Jeff. I’ve flown with guys like him. He’s a walking HR nightmare. But in this industry, reputation is one of the most important factors. All pilots talk. Everyone knows each other. We all know this dumb story that happened on our airline. Once you have a name attached, it’s like, Oh, that’s the dumb guy who did that shit? So if Jeff’s airline didn’t know about his character, they do now.

BEN: What the pilots were talking about in regards to seeking help from a professional therapist is very real and still a rampant problem to this day. There isn’t a good solution on the horizon like there is for crew resource management. If the FAA doesn’t like what you are saying to a therapist, you can be grounded for an extended period of time. If you’re taking SSRIs, forget about it. For many pilots, alcohol is the only solution. The rule is you need to wait eight hours to fly after drinking, but you need to wait 60 hours to fly after taking Nyquil. If you have allergies and can’t fall asleep, what do you think a pilot is more likely to do?

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve seen on The Rehearsal?

BEN: The Sully episode was super-funny. That was a really good bit where he was listening to Evanescence as he landed the plane.

CONNOR: Just how detailed it is, because normally with Hollywood, it’s made up. But they’ve done a really good job. I have a buddy over at Empire who texted me right after the first episodes. He goes, “Those are our uniforms. I can’t believe they got that.”

What do you hope people take away from this show?

Ben: At the end of the day, it’s a comedy. Who knows what’s going to happen? Nathan had that opportunity with a congressman, and some folks say he squandered it. Some folks say he got nervous, but at the end of the day, he’s going to do what he does for laughs. I think he is enough in the culture of aviation to want to make a positive change. And regardless, I think by bringing this conversation to the forefront, he is making a positive change.

ADAM: I hope that it inspires people, both passengers and potential future pilots, to be more outgoing. For passengers to come and say “hi” to their pilots and vice versa.

*Names have been changed to protect anonymity. These interviews have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.