Flight school requirements & captain's income?

Question

I'm a freshly gm approved liscence auto mechanic, thinking about changing my field (months before I got licensed), because I do piece worker & rarely beat the clock no matter how hard I try. I'm interested in becoming a pilot. but I'm not sure if I can get in, was told that I'll need 6 university courses. just to get in ..ohh & CAN 40,000 :( if I want to learn @ seneca or 10,000 @ confideration YaY!!the 10000 is not an issue, but wish it was in toronto. Since I came to canada in the 9'th grade, the system was extreemely different & I never took any uni courses.(thought uni was if you want to be a doc or lawyer only) so do I have to go to night school & take all 6 university courses inorder to go to flight school. & after that become an entry level pilot ? estimated timeline would be 6 yrs :( ? howmuch does a Captain bring home annually ? just hope its more than what a licensed & experienced mechanic makes around CAN 70,000.

Answer 1

Learning to spell would be a good start !

Answer 2

Hey, it can be difficult when deciding if you want to become a pilot or what route you want to take to get your licences. First of all, congrats on getting your auto mechanic's licence. Being mechanically adept will help you out in the aviation industry and having a job as a mechanic will help you pay for lessons if you ulitmately decide that you want to get your pilot's licence. Although it seems you're not enjoying it, don't be too quick to jump ship as other industries have their problems too.

In Ontario and Canada, going through a College or University course is only one of the ways to become a pilot. The other option is to do it privately at a local flight school. If you're in Toronto, you choices are:

-Brampton Flying Club

-Spectrum Airways at Burlington Air Park

-Toronto Airways at Buttonville Airport

-Toronto Island

-Markham Airport

-Oshawa Airport

Instead of taking full courses like at a College, you simply take a ground school course and have private lessons with an instructor. This is essentially 'pay as you go' and you have the opportunity to obtain your commercial licence at your own pace. In this situation you'd be able to work full time and fly on the side. Although having a degree or aviation college diploma will help you get a job with the airlines, they're not required like they are in some other countries.

Both Seneca and Confederation are good schools. Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie also offers a subsidized aviation program. While I can understand wanting to stay in Toronto (although leaving Toronto was the best thing I've ever done!) if you want to succeed in Aviation, you can plan on having to leave Toronto for at least a few years after you're done your training to get your licences. I outline the process more indepth in my book, but essentially there are very few entry level flying jobs in Toronto outside of being an instructor.

As for the pilot pay, it really varies. This site, www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/can... gives a good indication of what pilots make. Eventually, a senior Captain for Air Canada can make over $200,000 a year. BUT, it takes decades to make it to that position and a lot of pilots never do. Also somethign to keep in mind is that entry level pay for pilots is exceptionally low. Flight Instructors sometimes make as little as $16 an hour only for when they're flying (which sucks if the weather is bad) and moving up, the first number of years as a pilot are still not very lucrative.  

What I would recommend in your position is instead of dropping everything and going back to get the High School Uni level courses that you need, I'd go to one of the local flight schools and take a few flying lessons. See how you like them and see if flying is something that you think you want to do.

If you're academically adept, taking the College courses might be a good idea, but just a warning, they are hard courses and there's a lot of students that have to drop out after a year or two.

In the meantime, do your best as an auto mechanic. Even if you don't like it, you have a way to make money and pay for flying lessons.

Also keep up the research:

-there's my book "So, You Want to be a Pilot, Eh?" that outlines the different paths to getting your licences and getting jobs

-There's Doug Morris' book "From The FlightDeck: Plane Talk and Sky Science" that gives a good 'laymans' description of what it's like to be an airline pilot

-check out the message board at http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2 to read what it's really like to fly in Canada and some of the pros and cons of being a pilot

-check out http://www.pilotcareercentre.com to find out information about the different types of jobs in Canada.

Good Luck!

James Ball

Author of "So, You Want to be a Pilot, Eh? - A Guidebook for Canadian Pilot Training"

http://www.piloteh.com

http://www.piloteh.blogspot.com