iflyadash8

It depends on whom you ask. Some people are single and it doesn't matter to them. Others are married with kids and they try and bid the schedule every month that will have the least impact of their lives.

It depends on whom you work for and what their labor contract says about how often you work. You have to remember; seniority controls absolutely EVERYTHING in this career. It controls how fast you upgrade to Captain, how many days you get off, how good of a schedule you can get you can have holidays off, etc.

I'm DAMM lucky that my wife supports my career. Or else we'd probably be divorced. Make damn sure she understands everything that this career entails.




Again, this depends on whom you work for and what their labor contract says at the time you’re hired (assuming the company has a union and a collective bargaining agreement.) There’s no way to answer that question since you don't know which airline you'll end up at and even then their contract will change as far as the work rules are concerned about every 5 years or so.

No, that means that their company treats them like shit and the pilots at that company put up with it. One example is Great Lakes Aviation and Continental Express or Expressjet. (Yes I named them, fuck it they brought it on themselves) Pilots at those airlines currently start out making $18,000 per year or less. That's PER YEAR. You can literally make more working at McDonalds. Seriously. You have to understand, management at airlines know that there are thousands of pilots wanting to fly for their companies. Those applicants have this attitude that "I just want to fly so I'll do anything to get there." As you progress through your flight training, you will hear people talking about this sort of thing. Right off the bat, I would like to encourage you NOT to whore yourself out to fly for any shitty company that doesn't pay you enough to live on just so you can say, "I fly for an airline and I wear a uniform!" Upper management at airlines, especially regional airlines know that applicants have this attitude, and they totally exploit it by paying shit wages knowing that people will line up for the job just so they can wear a uniform. Please don't do this. Everytime somebody takes a shitty job for such a low wage, you're telling management that it's ok to pay professional pilots, people who have so much responsibility in their jobs, $18K per year. I know you have a burning desire to fly for an airline, I had that same feeling myself. But I want to let you know now, that if people would stop whoring themselves out, management would get a clue and start raising the starting wage. Unions have fought tooth and nail to get management to pay a livable wage, and when people take such low paying jobs, you undermine their efforts.

I know that you probably don't care about union issues but if you're going to be an airline pilot, you'd better start listening now because when you get here, I GUARENTEE you, you will not be concerned about building flight time anymore, you will be concerned about management doing everything they can to pay you less than they already are.

Now that I'm off my soapbox, I can tell you about training. There are a lot of requirements to getting each license and rating. I'm not going to go into serious detail about each and every requirements, your instructor will go through that with you when you start training. Always remember to ask your instructor LOTS of questions. And if he/she doesn't want to answer your questions or they give you bullshit answers, switch instructors. Remember it's your money.

First off, you will start with the Private Pilots license. 40 hours minimum training required by the FAA but the average completing time is 50-60 hours. This license allows you to fly for fun basically. You can't get paid as a pilot with just a private license. And you can't fly in the clouds either. After that, you will get the Instrument rating. Notice that this is a RATING and not a license. A rating is a separate addition of a privilege added to a license. (Commonly called a certificate) The privilege being that it allows you to fly in the clouds. You still can't get paid as a pilot. Next, you’ll' get the Commercial certificate. (License) This allows you to get paid as a pilot. Since you got a new certificate, you don't have to go through instrument training all over again because you got the instrument rating at the lower private pilot level. When you're tested to get your commercial certificate, you're tested for flying on instrument at the same time, so in the end you end up with a Commercial certificate with an instrument rating. Notice I haven't said anything about twin-engine aircraft yet. Everything up to this point will be flown in single engine aircraft. (You can start from the very beginning in a twin if you want to but unless you're filthy rich or daddy owns an airplane he willing to let you train on, I wouldn't recommend it.) Next with your Commercial certificate and instrument rating in hand, it all depends on what you want to do. Now, you can get paid to fly but you have to be realistic, who's going to hire you to fly their airplane with only 250 hours or so in your logbook? Because that's all the flight time you will have when you finish training. You have to build time somehow. So some people get their certified flight instructors certificate. Others get the multi-engine rating then get the certified flight instructor certificate. This allows you to teach people how to fly. You get paid working (not much, you've been warned) and you build flight time. There are also different ratings you can get put on a CFI certificate, the CFII (I stands for instrument, allows you to teach in the clouds) and the MEI (multiengine instructor rating, allows you to teach in multiengine aircraft.)

In the end, you need to build flight time. Most people if not all who went the civilian route were instructors at one point in time. Like I said, I did it for about 2 years. You can't get on with any airline until you meet their flight time requirements. The regionals like Horizon only a certain amount of flight time. It's 1200 hours of total flight time and 200 hours of multiengine time. How do you get that time? It's the old catch 22. When you get out of training you only have 250 hours. You can't get a job with such low time. But how will you build hours if no one will hire you? For most people the only job you can get with such low time is being a flight instructor. Teach for so long in single and multiengine airplanes and get to the minimums at the particular airline you want to apply for and when you reach that time, apply. Also in this business it's who you know more than what you know. If you have good enough contacts, you might get a big break. It’s happened more than once in this business. If you're in the right place at the right time, doors will swing open for you.

This ought to get you started. Just remember, when you start, ask your CFI lots of questions. Good luck, maybe I'll talk to you on the radio one day. Or maybe you'll be my first officer. Hopefully I will have upgraded to captain by then Any more questions, just shoot.