What's the best way to become a commercial pilot without joining the military?

Question

I've been tossing around the idea of becoming a pilot lately. I've loved flying ever since I was a little kid. I would want to work for a domestic airline such as Southwest or Continental flying the 737. How much schooling and flying hours do I need? What certifications do I need? How would I acquire these prerequisites? Again I would prefer not to join the military. Thank you!

Answer 1

The cheapest and fastest way to be a commercial pilot and the way I wish I would have gone, buy a Cessna 150 for $18,000 find and instructor and fly the pants out of it. After you have your commercial and instructor ratings, you can teach in your airplane and build hours after you have the minum hours needed to apply you can sell your airplane and you'll most likely get at least 2/3 of the money you put into buying the airplane and you'll be able to fly when ever your instructor can not having to wait for someone else to bring the rental airplane back.  

It's all about building time the cheapest way possible.  

My $0.02

Answer 2

My friend goes to the local aerodrome every now and thenand goes up with an instructor for a few hours, its not cheap, but now he's done 15 hours he is allowed to fly solo.

He was suggesting to me that he could get a training posistion down in birmingham that train pilots for like £14k.

alternativly some of the major airlines do apprenticship schemes.

(sorry for my bad spelling, its late;) )

Answer 3

Most people will tell you that you have to be from the military in order to fly for commercial airlines. If you are a dumb a$$ (like the guy above) and believe straight up numbers without a brain to think for yourself, then yes you might believe this.

Straight up: 95% of commercial airline pilots are from the military. You might simply say "oh I need to join the military", but that is because you don't understand numbers.

The reason it is 95% is because in order to get a pilots license required for commercial aircraft, you have two options:

Join the military and let them pay for the license, or pay your own way. Which for all the qualifications you need is around $30,000 to $35,000. The basic pilots license will cost around $3500 - $4500, but commercial pilots for 737 size and up are much different.

If you choose to pay your own way, your odds at getting a job are right on par with those pilots from the military, so about 50/50.

The reason why 95% of commercial airlines pilots come from the military is simply because most people cant afford the $30,000 - $35,000 it takes to pay your own way in to the experience needed.

You don't need to take my word for it though, look up a local pilot school and talk to an instructor about what it takes. They can give you better details than any wannabe pilots on here can tell you!

P.S. - This is a skewed number. Nowadays that 95% is dramatically dropping as all the babyboomers retire. That fact is the military just isn't looking for as many pilots and the demand for commercial pilots is going up. That leaves a huge open gap.

Nowadays it is becoming more commont for one to obtain a private pilots license, start flying small airplanes and doing small jobs like cargo hauling, crop dusting and working your way your rankings.

Don't expect high pay though, you can expect to start around $18,000 for crop dusting and work up from there.

If flying is what you want to do, you can certainly do it without joining the military, just go talk to a local pilots school.

Answer 4

Try Delta Academy look it up on yahoo

Answer 5

Sorry, but if you want to have the slightest chance of becoming a commercial pilot, the military is the ONLY route. They give you training and flying experience you can never equal by going to a private training school. Ex-military is where almost ALL commercial pilots come from. That's just the way it is. Anyone that tells you otherwise is full of s**t.

PS:  If you mess around with drugs, you can forget about ever becoming a commercial pilot.