Do you need a four year degree to be a regional pilot?

Question

Currently an A&P with a major airline and lately I have been entertaining the thought of becoming a commercial pilot. I only have a two year degree in aircraft maintenance. Do I need a four year degree to go with all the flight training necessary?

Answer 1

Sean is correct, you don`t necessarily need a 4 yr degree, but with all the competition out there you would be hard pressed to compete. Check out www.atp.com, they have all the info and connections you may need. They will even set you up with a counselor that will tell you which way to go considering your particular situation.

Answer 2

Most likely.

Keep your job, pilots are the airline's whipping boys. The pay increase to justify the costs of the training wont occur for probably 10-15 years. You start at $20,000 a year as a junior regional airline pilot and your gf/wife will leave you because you arent making any money. You go on foodstamps and live in a one bedroom apartment with 6 other pilots in the same situation. Its reality and its seems like you already have a career you can build on.

Answer 3

Not necessarily. I'm going to a private flight school with a career as an ATP in mind, and a lot of people have gotten hired from my school with only an associate's degree. Obviously employers prefer the higher degree, but it's really about the hours you have built up. You'll need your Commercial license, Instrument rating, usually at least 500 hours multi-engine time and some other stuff, like your ATP (airline transport pilot and Class 1 medical certificate) if you want to be an airline pilot. Regionals are usually where you start out, and it doesn't normally pay more than 25 grand a year....but if you do well you get bumped up the pay scale REALLY fast.

Answer 4

No, you'll be competetive with an associates degree once you have the ratings and flight experience to qualify. I was hired by a regional with only a 2 year degree. However, if you want to be competetive a 4 year degree can't hurt, particularly if you were ever to try applying to the majors.

However, you probably make far better money now as a mechanic than you will with a regional. Starting pay for copilots is only about $20k and it doesn't go up very fast from there. Top pay as a captain after 10 years is only around $70k on one of the larger regional jets. With the dismal shape of the airlines you could wind up being a copilot for a regional for a very long time, assuming that you can get hired by one when you're ready and they stay in business.

Couple that with the high cost of pilot training and then having to work a year or several building time after flight school, you would probably set your retirement (401k, IRA, etc) back a very long way by making the switch unless you already have a lot of money in savings. You'd probably be financially better off putting that training cash into an investment or toward paying off a mortgage.

I'm actually contemplating getting my A&P because the outlook for pilots is pretty shakey at the moment, and if I ever lose my medical I'll need something to fall back on. Also, as a professional pilot, almost 1/4 of my 23 year career has been spent on furlough or laid off because of air carrier woes.

That's my 2 cents worth, take it or leave it.