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Career as a...pilot?

H

Harabec

Golden Member
Howdy.
I was wondering if there are any commercial aircraft pilots around here, or if anyone knows them and can tell me about working as one.

It is pretty costly compared to any random engineering degree (about 8 times the costs here in Israel, half as much if I do it in the US) but it is the only thing I know I'll like and want to do right now.

I don't mean jets, but small single or twin-engine piston aircraft like the Cessna 172.
 
Is it THAT easy to join the air force and become a pilot? 😵

Down here I could sign up to be a commercial pilot with Singapore Airlines with any random diploma or degree. Obviously there's an interview and tests to gauge how suited you are to the job. While in their school, I believe you get paid a full wage too, about 6k in US dollars a month I believe. After that you have to fly for them for several years as part of the contract (commercial pilot's cost a pretty penny to train, as you can imagine). But the pay as a commercial pilot in SIA is so high that I don't think I'd quit if I got in. Not till retirement.

Meh, I'm probably going to start earlier with a private school though. I like planes and the idea of flying. Still can't decide whether I want to be a journalist or an airline pilot more.
 
Guys, joining the air force is not really an option, too late and it is an extremely tough course anyway 😛
Unfortunately airlines here don't train pilots - they don't need to, with the large number of trained pilots available and a low number of planes to fly.
 
Your last post suggests there isn't much of a market for you in Israel anyway. Something to think about. Anyway, if you want a foreign adventure, there are a number of private flight schools training commercial pilots in the U.S. Several famous pilots have graduated from them.
 
Originally posted by: ironwing
Your last post suggests there isn't much of a market for you in Israel anyway. Something to think about. Anyway, if you want a foreign adventure, there are a number of private flight schools training commercial pilots in the U.S. Several famous pilots have graduated from them.
Click to expand...

You can get famous flying commercial planes? 😵
 
Originally posted by: ironwing
Your last post suggests there isn't much of a market for you in Israel anyway. Something to think about. Anyway, if you want a foreign adventure, there are a number of private flight schools training commercial pilots in the U.S. Several famous pilots have graduated from them.
Click to expand...

I have actually looked into this a bit. The difficult part is, even after you graduate and get all your certs/licenses you have to log an assload of hours in the air before most companies will even bother looking at your application. Unless you can find some sort of sweetheart deal, logging the necessary hours is expensive as hell.

I met a guy who flies banners over the beach and he said he actually takes a loss (albeit a small one) doing it but its still a good deal to him because he gets a ton of hours in for almost nothing.
 
I bet pilots pick up alot of chicks. "No babe, I can't drink anymore, I can't be hung over tomorrow when I fly people across the world. Because I'm a pilot".
 
Originally posted by: jmmtn4aj
Originally posted by: ironwing
Your last post suggests there isn't much of a market for you in Israel anyway. Something to think about. Anyway, if you want a foreign adventure, there are a number of private flight schools training commercial pilots in the U.S. Several famous pilots have graduated from them.
Click to expand...

You can get famous flying commercial planes? 😵
Click to expand...

Look up some Embry Riddle alumni. 😉
 
Someone I am related to is part owner of a flight school.

He said that guys get their various licenses working up to instructor. They then teach flying to make a living and get their air hours up. While teaching single engine, you are also working toward multi-engine certification on your own time. Then you start teaching multi as well.
Once you reach a certain number of hours, you can apply to the airlines. When the airlines were really hiring years ago, he told me they had quite a turnover, because once those magical number of hours were reached, the instructors were scooped up to fly those big airline affiliate commuter planes (twin prop engine jobs).

The key to this equation is that once you are an instructor, the student is the one paying for you to be in the air adding to your hours.

 
Originally posted by: OokiiNeko
Someone I am related to is part owner of a flight school.

He said that guys get their various licenses working up to instructor. They then teach flying to make a living and get their air hours up. While teaching single engine, you are also working toward multi-engine certification on your own time. Then you start teaching multi as well.
Once you reach a certain number of hours, you can apply to the airlines. When the airlines were really hiring years ago, he told me they had quite a turnover, because once those magical number of hours were reached, the instructors were scooped up to fly those big airline affiliate commuter planes (twin prop engine jobs).

The key to this equation is that once you are an instructor, the student is the one paying for you to be in the air adding to your hours.
Click to expand...

also you need about a couple thousand hours for props
 
If you want to be poor in the US, this is really the way to go.
There are so many people that can fly, that the little airlines pay crap. $20k a year. There are lots of retired Air Force pilots that compete for the big planes. If you are not in the league of the retired USAF pilot in hours and time in large planes, why would they hire you?

My brother is a Corporate Pilot and doesn't make that great of a salary, lives in a small town, gets by. He loves to fly.

His advice, get a good job. Make sure it pays well, rent a plane and fly for fun.
 
Originally posted by: dwil
If you want to be poor in the US, this is really the way to go.
There are so many people that can fly, that the little airlines pay crap. $20k a year. There are lots of retired Air Force pilots that compete for the big planes. If you are not in the league of the retired USAF pilot in hours and time in large planes, why would they hire you?

My brother is a Corporate Pilot and doesn't make that great of a salary, lives in a small town, gets by. He loves to fly.

His advice, get a good job. Make sure it pays well, rent a plane and fly for fun.
Click to expand...

A lot of good advice there. You really need to LOVE flying to make it a career. While it's true that B777 Captains can break $300K per year... the reality is that only 0.0006% or so of pilots are in that category. Bottom-feeder commercial operators and even Regional airlines don't pay squat, and it's practically a given that your first flying job (besides instructing) will be in that category. Nobody becomes a pilot to get rich.

Another thing to consider is the recent increase in the pilots' mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65. By either of those ages, most pilots are or will be Captains. They've now been given 5 more years of "life". You can bet your house that there will be VERY FEW retirements in the next 5 years. Every day, pilots have been hitting 60 and forced out the door. Now, as of today, absolutely no pre-existing pilot is within 4y 361 days of that. What this means is that there are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of pissed off First Officers who suddenly aren't going to upgrade to Captain anytime soon because no vacancies will be opening up. This same scenario tumbles downhill to the lowly regional outfits, which are where new pilots generally break into the game. My guess is over the next few years, it will be a little more difficult than usual to get your foot in the door because of this, until the retirement mill works this clog out.

<---- pilot-turned-dispatcher
 
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