Career advice: how to become a pilot

The aviation industry is an exciting career path to choose; becoming a pilot is equally exciting. You’ve made that decision, now you need to figure out how to get there. Fifty years ago your only choice would be to fly in the military; however, airlines now hire both ex-military and civilian pilots. Although choosing the civilian route is more expensive, it does allow you to make more choices regarding your flight training and career. The path to becoming a professional pilot will require you to choose where to complete your flight training, how you will build up your flying hours, and what type of flying—airline, corporate, fractional, or cargo—you want to pursue.

Two types of flight schools exist: college programs that offer a degree along with the flying (bachelor degree in flight operations) or a flight school at a fixed-based operator (FBO) that only offers courses associated to flying. Both options have positive aspects. By attending a college to complete your flight training, you’ll earn a degree in the process (currently, not all airlines require a degree, but more airlines are adding that as a requirement), you may qualify for financial aid that will help cut the costs of flying, and you will have the degree to fall back on in case you no longer want to fly. A flight school is beneficial because it takes less time to complete (on average a year for all of the flight training versus four years for college), the scheduling is more flexible (better for families or someone who needs to work full-time), and it is solely focused on flying.

Once you choose where to complete your flight training, you will follow a sequence of courses, earning different licenses and ratings. First, you will work towards your private pilot’s license, which allows you to fly small, single-engine airplanes in certain meteorological conditions (visual flight rules—known as VFR—means you must remain a certain distance from clouds and poor-visibility weather). After this point, you will work towards your first rating—an instrument rating. Now you will be able to fly by instrument flight rules (IFR) through clouds and weather conditions where there is poor visibility.

After earning your private pilot’s license and instrument rating, you will work towards your commercial license; once you complete this, you will be able to receive money for flying. Then, you will work on a multi-engine rating. At this point, you will be qualified to fly single- or multi-engine airplanes in any type of weather condition for hire. You will have to make a decision: do you want to continue your flight training or try to find a flying job with your qualifications?

If you continue your training, you will earn your Certified Flight Instructor’s (CFI) certificate. You will also want to earn your instructor’s certificate for multi-engine and instrument, allowing yourself the opportunity for more students. Being a flight instructor will officially be your first job as a pilot; however, your primary focus at this point is building your total flight hours.

If you try to find a flying job other than flight instructing, you will not have many choices. Because you won’t have a lot of flight hours or experience, you probably won’t find an airline that will hire you. Other options include flying at a skydiving operation or fly for a banner towing company. Again, like the flight instructor’s job, your primary focus is to increase your total number of hours flying.

Once you have enough flight hours to meet the qualifications at companies, you can start looking and applying for jobs as a professional pilot. Different types of professional flying jobs exist: airline, corporate, fractional, and cargo. An airline is a company that flies passengers on a set and regular schedule; airlines range in size from regional companies that fly small, turbo-prop airplanes to the major airlines flying 747s. A corporate flying job would be flying an airplane privately owned by a company to wherever it was needed to go. A fractional company is similar to a corporate job because both do not follow a set flight schedule; however, a fractional company is similar to a timeshare at a condominium: many different people own a fraction of time with the airplane. Finally, a cargo company doesn’t carry passengers—only cargo—and it follows a more structured schedule than the corporate or fractional company.

Each type of flying has its benefits and its downfalls; the best research is to talk with a wide variety of pilots and hear what they have to say first-hand about their company and type of flying. No matter what path you choose, your experiences flying will be great. And many more options beyond the ones here exist—airshow pilots, aerial photography, and medical flights, just to name a few. You can become a pilot with some hard work and dedication.

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How To Become a Fighter Pilot

Becoming a fighter pilot isn't something that happens overnight. It requires lots of time, dedication and perseverance if you want to be successful. A special type of person is required to join such an elite group. Funnily enough, most people think that becoming a fighter pilot is mostly about flying, when in fact that isn't the case. You also need to successfully train as an officer. So you're primarily an officer, even if you continue on to be a fighter pilot. Your primary job is to defend the USA against its enemies, and any career aspirations are secondary to that.

There are three possible ways to train as an officer - service academy, Officer Candidate School (OCS) or Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). As a high school student, you should apply to a service academy if you want to become an officer. You can choose between the Air Force Academy, Annapolis (Navy & Marines), West Point (Army) or the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. All of them put you through rigorous military training, and you also obtain a Bachelor of Science degree. If you have a strong aptitude to advanced math and science then you'll have a much better chance of succeeding.

If you're planning to enter one of the academies, then be aware that the competition to get in is fierce. You'll need a high school grade point average of 3.8 as a cadet, as well as a SAT score of 1300. This has to include a minimum of 1050 for verbal and math. It's a good idea to have a strong extra-curricular activity record as well, even more so if those activities demonstrate leadership or athletic skills.

So if you want to enter a service academy, earn a commission and receive a college education, the path is simple. It's not easy though - you'll need to perform very well in high school, and not just inside the classroom. It takes a long time to work your way through the application process. You certainly don't just hand over a simple form and expect to be accepted into a service academy. You need three letters of recommendation, extensive paperwork, and even to be nominated by your Congressman. To improve your chances of success, start preparing your application early, and certainly don't start any later than your junior year.

The bad news is that just because you made it into the service academy, pilot training slots are still extremely limited. Being accepted by the academy is a piece of cake by comparison. However pilots are in demand right now, as all the military streams are struggling to retain the pilots they have. So if you're keen to be a fighter pilot, it's a little easier than usual to obtain a slot. How long that lasts, nobody knows.

You might also find that The Reserve Officers Training Corps is the best option for you. With this, you study at a college or university as normal, but add in the officer training requirements. On top of your regular studies you will have to attend military training and courses, spend at least one summer on a training camp and attend weekly meetings. Most of the time you live as a civilian, only donning your military garb when you're actually attending military classes. When your officer training is complete, you can then apply for specific programs such as pilot training. Competition is tough, and you'll need to pass some rigorous academic, medical and testing requirements to be successful.

For those who decide a little later in life to become a fighter pilot, The Officer Candidate School (OCS), sometimes called The Officer Training School (OTS), is the best route. Within 4 months OCS will take a college graduate with no background in the military and turn him into an officer. Again, you have the opportunity to apply for pilot training school when you qualify as an officer, but the competition is just as fierce. It's also necessary for you to begin training as a fighter pilot before you turn 27, so this third option is only available for a limited time.

Steve Dolan always wanted to be top gun but didn't quite make it. Find out how you can make the grade by clicking on Fighter Pilot Training

By Steve Dolan

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Pilot Salary Range

Amongst various airline jobs, the job of a pilot is one of the most challenging and popular jobs. Pilots are trained professionals who are provided with licenses to fly airplanes and helicopters, in order to transport goods, services and passengers from one place to the other. To become a pilot, one needs to get trained under a government registered pilot training institute, that impart training for a substantial period of time and then give a license that permits the individual to enter in the pilot profession. There are many types of pilots, besides the commonly known airplane pilots (that carry passengers) and helicopter pilots (that fly choppers owned by big business tycoons). Commercial, agriculture and military sectors also need pilots for the completion of various tasks.

Various Pilot Salary Ranges

The pilot salary range is mostly decided by a bargaining agreement between the airline management authorities, government rules and regulations, and a committee on behalf of the pilots. Based on the negotiations between these three parties, a standard is set and according to some fixed rule, like the number of hours the pilot is flying and other parameters, the pilot salary range is fixed.

Helicopter Pilot Salary Range

The pilot salary range of a helicopter pilot is usually between $70,000 to $105,000. On an average, the helicopter pilot salary is near about $80,000. Read more on helicopter pilot jobs and helicopter pilot training.

Airline Pilot Salary Range

Airline pilots transfer passengers from one place to the other. Many top brands in the US have been paying their airline pilots salaries as low as $50,000 and as high as $160,000 annually, depending on the flying experience and technical expertise of the pilot.

Commercial Pilot Salary Range

Commercial pilots transfer goods and other products of the companies to various destinations. Often, they are also required in transferring people from one place to another. The pilot salary range of a commercial pilot is usually between $30,000 to $130,000 annually.

Agriculture Pilot Salary Range

Agriculture pilots fly planes that are required to water and fertilize crops. An agricultural pilot usually earns $40,000 a year, besides $50 for every flying hour. As the agricultural pilots gain an experience of 3 to 4 years, they can earn $50,000 per year plus $75 - $100 per hour of flying. An agricultural pilot flies between 500 to 1000 hours a year.

Military Pilot Salary Range

A military pilot is employed by the various defense departments of the US government (like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, Coast Guards and Reserves). The military pilots are trained to fly planes ranging from small turbo planes, helicopters, fighter jet planes, small executive jet planes and often large planes. The salary of a military pilot is usually between $21,000 to $99,000 annually.

Corporate Pilot Salary Range

Almost half of the companies in the US have active flight departments. Corporate aviation accounts for nearly 75% of the airlines traveling and the corporate pilots are responsible for transporting business heads, executives and corporate bigwigs to various countries for meetings and business purposals. The corporate pilot salary range depends on the complexity of the plane a pilot is flying. Complex planes, that require a lot of technical expertise, command higher salaries (an average of $100,000) and for simple planes the starting salary is $60,000. Captains and first officers are the two types of pilots that are required in corporate flights. Every flight must be assisted by a first officer. The pilot salary range for corporate pilots who have been promoted to captains earn between $41,000 (initially) to $130,000. The first officers with much lesser technical expertise earn between the salary range of $21,000 to $100,000.

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The airline industry often goes through many ups and downs, however, the demand for professionals pilots is always high. According to the US government research, it is expected that nearly 14000 pilots will be required in the US by the end of year 2016. So, seeing the prospects of the aviation sector, it is a lucrative choice for students who aspire to become pilots. Enrolling in an accredited pilot training institute is the first step towards the realization of the dream to be a pilot. The pilot salary range varies every year with the economy fluctuating due to oil prices and other financial factors, however, these factors are secondary, as the whole world is affected by similar problems, so if you have the passion to fly, get started right away! All the best!

By Kundan Pandey

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