How to Become an Airline Pilot

The best way to find out how to become an airline pilot is to ask an airline pilot. Know that it is a very long process, and, to qualify as a new-hire pilot at a major US airline, you'll have to have a 4-year college degree (minimum), and years of flying experience. The highest quality pilot training is military training, but the commitment for active duty is long (up to 10 years), the competition for positions is intense, and the program is very demanding. Also, your service may entail serving in combat. To go the civilian route, expect to spend 5-10 years garnering enough flying experience in order to qualify. You must have a perfectly clean police record and must produce proof of citizenship. It is not a job for anyone who is not serious, motivated, and willing to suffer through a lot of intense training. Remember that the training does not stop once hired at the airline; pilots are tested by government-controlled, company-provided evaluations on a yearly scheduled basis, and also on a no-notice basis.

Recent serious erosion of pilot pay and benefits have taken place. Investigate the details thoroughly; as stated above, the very best way to research the job is to talk to the people that do the job.

• Be sure to do your research before jumping into your flight training. Use a reliable source for this information and not marketing from flight schools. Online forums, asking pilots, visiting flight schools to ask about the experience of their instructors are a good way to find out about a school's reputation. Be sure to ask current students what they think of their training privately where they feel free to talk. Be sure to ask if they are flying as much/often as they had originally planned and if not, why not.
• Don't be afraid to look for an instructor at a local airport rather than a big school. While a big school has a lot of advantages, remember that their instructors are generally low-time recent grads from their program. On the other hand, you might find a retired airline captain, military aviator, or maybe just a life-long flying enthusiast with a lifetime of real-world flying experience to share with you instructing at a smaller, local airport.
• Think about joining a Flying/Gliding Club near you to build up your hours.
• A great place to start building time and experience is flying for a sub-regional cargo operator. Flying medical specimens and bank checks. Logging as much as 1,000 hours of flying per year in the process, which makes you a much more attractive pilot candidate for the passenger REGIONAL carriers. With many of the cargo operations, you'll fly every day and be home every night.
• Although flying is a fun job, don't expect to make a lot of money at first. Average starting pay is $19,000 for cargo and REGIONAL airlines. When you upgrade to captain at a REGIONAL airline, you can expect to start out on average at $50,000 per year. Expect to take a substantial paycut if you decide to move over to a major airline once you have the requirements to apply there.After getting more seniority in a major or international airline, you could make up to $200,000 dollars or more.
• As an airline pilot, you will start as a first officer and work your way to captain.
• Having the opportunity to enter training for upgrade from First Officer to Captain at an airline is based on seniority with the company rather than total flight time or experience. If you are unsuccessful in completing the airline's command training, you will be sent back to the right seat as a first officer, or your employment terminated, depending on the airline's policy. At many airlines you have a specific number of attempts allowed to attain captain, after which your employment may be terminated.
• Join the military. Military pilots often become airline pilots after they retire from the military. While it might not cost you any actual money to train this way, it will take a lot of pre-planning and hard work during your college years to make you a viable candidate for a pilot slot in the military. Check with a military recruiter before you enter college, and during college, so you can be sure your college experience gives you exactly what you will need. Don't wait until the end of your senior year and, out of job options, decide to throw your name in the hat for pilot training. You will not be a military pilot this way. Additionally, you will make a substantial commitment to the military and your country to enter pilot training, such as engaging in combat, and the fact that time spent in the military will delay your entry into the airline industry--costing you seniority.
• Also, a high "wanting" to be a pilot will help you. Believe that you will become a pilot and you will.

• Most of the steps and tips on this page apply primarily to people eligible to work in the USA and planning to train, fly, and become an airline pilot in the USA. While some of them may be applicable to other countries and job markets, it is best to ask for more advice in your home country about becoming an airline pilot.
• You will have long absences from home and family. You will never be able to stop that. No matter what is going wrong at home, you will be going back into the sky.
• Flying as a career is a stressful job. A pilot's ultimate responsibility, the safety of his/her passengers and/or cargo means making a lot of personal sacrifices - constant training & evaluation, constant drug and alcohol testing, background checks, difficult hours, long days, and huge liability. Think long and hard before taking on this career.
• Your career will always depend on your maintaining your medical certificate.
• You will always be taking written exams, oral exams, and checkrides multiple times in a year for the rest of your career. Yes, you will still be performing stalls and steep turns on checkrides as a 747 captain. Failing these checks can be an end to your airline pilot career. Failure of any airline training or checking event becomes part of your permanent airman record which is required, by law, to follow you to any new employer for your entire career.
• Anytime you change jobs, by choice or because you've been laid off or your airline has gone out of business, you will be starting at the bottom again at your new airline in terms of your position, schedule, and pay, regardless of experience.
• This was once a glamourous job, not anymore. Airlines have slashed pilot pay, days off, hotel quality and location, uniform expenses, medical and dental plans, and vacation time. Unless the regional carriers radically increase the starting pay ($45,000 or more) it is not worth your time and money for training. That is unless you want to be on food stamps, carry around food on a 4 or 5 day trip, sleep at the airport in operations or a crash pad, and hope you will have enough to pay your bills. If this were not enough, your management will still insist you make too much money. Your experience will never be valued and people that might have a GED will have control over your schedule. This is the reality and some pilots eventually get out of flying all together! And others get some position at the airline that doesn't involve "flying the line" because they cannot hack it anymore. This is about as honest an answer you are ever going to get. They say pilots complain too much. There is a reason for that. Don't be sold on the notion that you are going to make $100,000/yr and get 15 days off a month. Finally, watch PBS's Frontline episode "Flying Cheap." I once heard a fellow pilot say, "If you love flying, do it as a hobby so you will still love it."

• How to Fly a Plane
• How to Listen to Your Local Air Traffic Control
• How to Land an Airplane in an Emergency
• How to Survive a Plane Crash
• How to File an FAA Flight Plan
• How to As you may know becoming an pilot is an extremely stressful job as there is not much break even with your family therefore what ever problems you have the next day you will be in the sky.

• AirlinePilotMentor.com
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• Alaska Air/Horizon Air careers
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• airlineinterviews.com