Expert: Paul Soderman - 3/31/2011

Question
dear sir,

sir i am in 10th standard and my favourite subject is pcm and I will take pcm..........will u pls help me by telling me that is there any scope in becoming aero engg? and after becoming aero engg can i opt for a commercial pilot???, is there any growth of scope in jobs of pilot as by seeing today??..............tell me wat is better aero engg or comm pilot??.........i am having interest in aircraft and i literaly puzzled in between these two options.............guide me as my tutor.and one thing more can u pls tell what are the scope of aero engg and commercial pilot in abroad??
plzz do reply

thank you........

Answer
Aeronautical engineering is not a path to becoming a pilot. The education would certainly be useful to a pilot as he would understand better how a plane can fly, and all things being equal it might give you a leg up, but I suspect few commercial pilots are aeronautical engineers.  They most likely got their position through military training or other means of accumulating flight time.  As for jobs, in the U.S. commercial pilot jobs are very hard to get because there are more pilots than positions. The more important question for you is - what would you rather do - design airplanes or fly them.