Have you ever thought you might want to be a commercial pilot but had no idea where to start or what an aviation career would look like? Being a commercial pilot takes an immense amount of training and dedication until you get your certifications to fly, but it can be a rewarding career worth pursuing!
If you were wondering what a career as a commercial pilot looks like and what all the perks are, here are some of the benefits of being a commercial pilot and the career pathways you can take to become one!
Perks Of Being A Pilot
The most obvious perk of being a commercial pilot, and perhaps the benefit that appeals the most to many aspiring pilots, are all the travel opportunities you will have. Not many jobs allow you to travel to as many different countries and cities as a commercial pilot does.
You may even get to visit places you had never even heard of or thought to visit before! Depending on your schedule, you should have plenty of opportunities to explore the cities a bit in your downtime between flights. Furthermore, your friends and family can benefit from your career choice, as you will be able to give them travel discounts or upgrades to business and first class!
Other benefits include flexible working hours—you will not have a typical 9 to 5 week—with great salaries and health benefits. You also will not have to worry about bringing work home with you, as once you leave the cockpit, your job is complete until your next flight. If you want a job with high satisfaction levels and plenty of opportunities to see new places and meet new people, then there is no greater career than being a commercial airline pilot!
Career Pathways
There are two main career paths to becoming a commercial pilot: civilian and military. When you enter the civilian route, the first step in your career is attending flight school, of which the most popular path to follow currently is to attend an Accelerated Flight School. These flight schools offer full-time, fast-paced, and structured training to help their students through partnerships with regional airlines after as little as 10 months of training, making this the fastest path to becoming a commercial pilot.
This differs from Traditional Flight School, where students rent a plane and flight instructor, and complete various licenses at their own pace. Finally, Aviation Degrees offer a route through a college or university to earn your certifications. While some schools have their own aircraft, others will send students to an affiliate flight school to practice flying.
In addition to the civilian paths you can take, you can also opt for becoming a military aviator. While this pathway will give you the most flight time of any pathway and is a very lucrative career, giving you opportunities to fly aircraft unlike anything you can experience anywhere else, it is a far more rigorous path.
You will have to pass stricter medical and physical standards, and you will have to graduate from basic officer commissioning programs and earn a bachelor’s degree before beginning your pilot training. Upon graduation, pilots must give eight years of service, but because of their experience, military aviators have opportunities to transition directly to an airline afterward.
Courses
If you have your heart set on becoming a commercial pilot, then consider joining us at Airlink Flight School. We offer two training programs to provide you with the experience you need to get certified as a commercial pilot.
Our Part 61 Private Pilot Program will give beginners the experience they need to start their path to becoming a pilot. Meanwhile, our Part 141 Commercial Program is an accelerated training program that will set you on your path to becoming a commercial pilot within 6-12 months. If you would like to enroll in either of our programs, contact us today to begin.