Are you aiming to become a pilot? This career line may attract more of adventurous souls but do understand that there is a big sense of responsibility and stress involved in flying and commanding aircraft especially in difficult times and critical weather situations. To become a pilot, make sure to go through the following steps, helping you to get an insight of the same.
- Get a college education – Most of the airlines prefer pilots with a college education. Commercial airlines prefer pilots having a bachelor’s degree over an associate’s degree. The major in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, computer science or physics tend to be solid educational base for pilots. An instructor used to teach in flight school classes certified as per FAA – Federation Aviation Administration. Just for the record, there are college degree programs available for those who did not learn to fly airplanes.
- Gain flying hours – Prior to getting a pilot’s license, it is mandatory for a pilot to take training and log in at least 250 hours of flight experience. The FAA license flight schools as well as flight instructors aid pilots to earn and gain the necessary flying experience. In many cases in general, pilots start their career as flight instructors and eventually after gaining more flying experience and time, they become commercial pilots.
- Get a Pilot’s license – After gaining much needed flying time and experience, it is the time for applicants age 18 years or above to meet other formalities required to become a pilot. Applicants have to get a commercial pilot’s license issued by the Federal Government. For the same, they have to undergo a physical examination making sure they have good vision, hearing ability and no physical impairment that could impact their flying performance. Also, they have to clear a written examination that involves skill test and safety information, examined and taken by a FAA certified instructor.
- Complete additional training and tests – The additional training, tests and licenses might be required, all depending on the pilot’s position. The FAA proffers different kinds of certification including medical certificates and airworthiness certificates. Few airlines even ask pilots to undergo intelligence and psychological tests.
- Work as a pilot – All pilots need to start from somewhere and most of the airline firms do not prefer to hire inexperienced pilots. In general, in major airlines pilots have over 4,000 hours of experience of flying commercial airplanes. In fact, most of the pilots hired in major airlines first work as co-pilots and gain additional experience via this position. Aside from this, it is possible for pilots to get employment in other industries as well like agriculture, emergency services or reforestation. They advance and grow with their experience. Just for an example, few pilots begin their careers as flight instructors, and continue to learn and get more efficacious fliers over the span of time. Few start their career by flying helicopters or charter planes and after with gaining apt experience, they start working with commercial airlines.
- Advance in the line – Similar to Army, Pilots also follow a ranking system in terms of seniority. As per the contract devised, after gaining years of experience, usually in between 5 to 15 years, the first office pilot might advance to the rank of Captain, depending on their performance. Bigger airlines definitely offer better opportunities in terms of growth and advancement like the director of all pilot positions.
In all, to become a pilot, it is must to get the proper training, either from the military or a flight school, get degree and be ready to experience flying.
