Dream of Being a commercial airline pilot. What should I do?

Question

I'm a 16 year old junior in high school and dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot. I love planes and everything about them so it would be a dream come true of mine to become a pilot someday. However, I have NO idea about how to go about doing this. If you could please explain to me all the steps it will take to become a commercial airline pilot, the average pay, the pros and cons, and any other info i may find helpful that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Here's a brief but relatively complete overview: http://science.howstuffworks.com/pilot.h... Be sure to follow the links and not the ads.

This question is asked daily on Yahoo Answers, so search the board. There are lots of good answers.

Get this book: http://www.aviationcareercounseling.com/... It's the best $25 you'll ever spend if you seriously want to become an airline pilot.

Go to a smaller local airport, visit a flight school and talk to a flight instructor.  

Answer 2

Learn to fly and work on your commercial and instrument during your high school years.  (Pass the Private Pilot written exam before Private Pilot flight training.  --Same with the rest of your training.  Schedule very frequent lessons).

Become a flight instructor and instruct during your college year summers.  (Read extensively.  Know the typical accident scenarios).  

Graduate.  

Fly in  entry level pilot jobs.  (Instructing, fire patrol, pipeline patrol, powerline patrol, traffic watch,  USDA aerial surveying, phone coverage surveying, flying checks, flying film, flying explosives, hauling skydivers, towing banners, aerial photos, etc.)  You might well  be eligible for food stamps.    

Get multitengine rated.    

Stay incident-free and accident-free.  (Get well informed).  

Fly in  entry level charter, corporate, airline or other pilot jobs.  (Be ready to learn plenty.  When asked in the captain upgrade interview what you have learned as a copilot you should have plenty to list).

Upgrade to ATP and captain.  

Become a check pilot.  (Know the company calls, callouts, checklists, approach briefings, standards, standard ATC phraseology, etc.)  

Upgrade to faster aircraft and better companies.  

Get 1000+ hours of captain time on a large jet.  

Try with major air carriers.

Answer 3

Good choice of career. There is a big demand in thefuture for Commercial pilots.

First, go to the local airport in your town that has a flight school. get a CFI, certified flight instructor to take you up for half an hour or so and see what its like.

For training, there are many universities and colleges that offer Pilot courses. that is one way and it is much cheaper. The other choice is to cough up a lot of money$$$ and go to the private school. You may be able to get a grant. they are much faster and better to get into commuter jobs and other pilot jobs.

Last choice, try the Airforce. can't get it cheaper and better elsewhere.

The bad news is that until you become experienced and log plenty of flight time, the pay is not that good. Most commercial entry level jobs pay as little as $36,000 per year. Once your are first officer with decent logged time then you get a bit more money. This also depends on where you are working.

An experienced first officer flying for an airline makes about $6000-$10000 per month. experinced capitans flying 747 make good money, about $18000-$20000 per month.

There are some good news. By regulation you will only be allowed to fly 1000 hours per year. NO OVER TIME. The calculation based on a 40 hour work week, shows that you will only be workling for 6 month out of the year.

There are also some airline jobs that may actually pick up the tab on your training and you will be trained by them directly. You will then have to work for them for decent pay, under a contract for a specified period of time. This may be one of the better choices because if you are thinking of a long term career with a company, they will put you through their training. You will receive specialized training that will get you to the capitans seat much quicker.

Good luck