I am thinking abouty becoming an airline pilot but do i need to get a...?

Question

4 year degree in order to be upgraded to captain?

Thanks

Answer 1

In some airlines you need a degree to be hired as first officer.

Answer 2

There are still a few cases in which it is not an explicit requirement, but in practical terms, yes.  A college degree is absolutely required for air crew employment.

The best way is to go through the military, and all military pilots are college graduates.

Answer 3

yeah, degrees r important these days. not like before when education wasn't as important.

Answer 4

No!

Most major airlines (National, International and major Regionals) do not offer promotion based on education as they train inhouse.  Promotion or rather the chance to be promoted after suitable training is based on seniority, that is how long you've been with the company and your pilot ranking number (#1 is the most senior pilot in the company, #x*x is the most junior based on hiring date).  This is because to be a successful Captain you need a shed load of stick hours under your belt and the only way to get that is by flying a lot

One thing to note, many large airlines that operate heavy jets prefer to recruit their pilots from the ranks of the ex military pilots, in particular fighter and bomber commands as the pilots are already jet trained and it saves the company literally a few million dollars in training costs. Also they know the pilot has been properly trained to a far higher standard than found in general aviation.

Edit: For Doug Below: It's neither a typo of BS. The fact is that flying for QANTAS under the old pilots contract required you to fly an average of 120 stick hours a month and to make up your hours not flown for vacations.

Here's his totals (from log books)

Pre RAF (glider) 210 hrs

RAF 1952-1966:

Jet fighters: 13,350 hrs (includes 24 months of combat missions, cyprus and Aden)

Prop: 1480 hours

Qantas:

1966-1976 - Boeing 707 - 14,400 hours

1976-1995 - Boeing 747 - 27,390 hours

Total:  56,800 hours

Answer 5

No, a college degree is NOT  required, but to be competetive with the hundreds and thousands of applicants for each opening, it's a darned good idea to have at least a 2 year degree and preferrably a 4 year degree or you could be easily overlooked even if you have a lot of flight experience behind you. A degree is proof that you have at least some brains, the ability to learn required information and pass examinations, and that you can start something and finish it. They don't really care so much as to what field of study you have chosen but knowing you have a degree and what your GPA was does reveal important clues about your character. As for getting a degree, choose something that interests you and could possibly employ you if you cannot fly for some reason or you get laid off from flying.

p.s. I highly doubt that anybody could possibly have acquired 56,000+ hours of flight experience as the guy above claims. While it is theoretically possible, it must be a typo or it's BS. In the airlines you are limited to 1000 flight hours per year and must retire by age 65, and in the military they don't fly as much as the airlines do.