Expert: Malcolm Dickinson - 3/12/2009

Question
QUESTION: I'm a 16 year old Junior in high school. I have been so confused on just trying to figure out the path I need to take in order to get a private, then a commercial license. I have great grades and have been considering the infamous Embry Riddle, but I really don't have the money for it. I heard local airports might offer commercial licenses, but I wouldn't know. I would much more preferrably graduate highschool and get a commercial without any other extra mumbo jumbo you get with universities. How many local airports, if any, actually offer commercial training. And what is the adverage cost for the training. As you can tell, I obviously do not know much in the subject so anything you can tell me would be useful.
--David

ANSWER: Hi David,

Any flight school at any airport can give you the training required for your private, instrument, and commercial certificates.  If all you need is the commercial pilot certificate, then you can get that without ever leaving your home town.

You didn't mention the reason for your interest in a commercial pilot certificate.  If you are thinking of becoming a bush pilot or crop-sprayer pilot, then all you need is the commercial certificate. However if you were thinking of working for an air carrier or airline, keep in mind that airlines won't hire you unless you have a bachelor's degree from a 4-year university.

Embry-Riddle is a very good school.  There are also several other four-year universities that offer specialized aviation programs that include pilot training.  I know such programs exist at the University of North Dakota and Purdue, but there are others as well.

As far as the airlines are concerned, your bachelor's degree does NOT need to be in an aviation-related field. You can go to Harvard and major in English Literature, or to your local state college and major in agriculture, or anything in between. What the airlines want to see is

- bachelor's degree
- commercial pilot certificate with instrument and multiengine ratings
- 500+ hours of pilot in command time
- 50+ hours of multiengine pilot in command time
- A clean record (NO aviation accidents, NO traffic tickets, NO positive drug tests, NO arrests).

Remember that there are two ways to earn those three pilot credentials. You can do it as part of a college curriculum, or on your own. Personally I went to a 4-year college, graduated, got an office job, and THEN (when I could afford it) went and earned the pilot credentials on my own at the local airport.  I would recommend you consider that route, since it gives you a steady career to work at while you are doing your pilot training.

The average cost to earn a private pilot certificate is about $6000 I think. That's just my guess - you could probably find a better estimate at www.beapilot.com . You can also call up your local flight school and find out how much thyey charge per hour of "dual instruction given, wet" - multiply that by about 50 and add on another $1000 for books, materials, and test fees.

The instrument rating (which comes next after the private certificate) takes about another 40 hours of dual instruction, so multiply the local flight school's rate times about 40 hours plus another $500 for materials and test fees.

The commercial certificate (which comes third) takes a weekend - about 10 hours of dual instruction. However this must be in a "complex airplane" (one with retractable landing gear) and those airplanes cost more per hour to rent - probably $150 - $200 per hour plut the cost of the instructor.  So figure another $2500 for the commercial training.

Perhaps the biggest cost is that, before you can earn your commercial certificate, you must accumulate 250 hours of pilot time. You'll get about 50 hours of PIC time during your private training, and another 25 or 30 during your instrument training, so you'll still need about 170 hours more before you can become a commercial pilot. Multiply that by the rental rate at your local airport and you will realize that you are going to need another $15,000 or more beyond the cost of the first two certificates.

For a list of the exact number of hours required for each rating, see
this FAA list of hour requirements: http://tinyurl.com/angut6

A third option is to go to an all-at-once cram school such as ATP ( http://www.atpflightschool.com/ ).  They put you through all the certificates and ratings with no delays, flying every single day until you finish. It's fast, gets you hired by an airline, but it costs 50,000. (It costs less if you do the private certificate, or private and instrument, first at your local airport.)

A fourth option (by far the least expensive) is that you could join Civil Air Patrol, a national organization that is a bit like boy scouts for aviation enthusiasts.  High school students who join CAP can get pilot training at drastically reduced prices, and in some cases can earn their private, instrument, and commercial certificates with free instruction and with airplanes renting for as little as $50 per hour, saving tens of thousands of dollars.  I would suggest you find your nearest CAP unit ( at www.gocivilairpatrol.com ) and if you join, attend a 9-day-long program called the "National Flight Academy" in summer 2010.  This would get you all the way to solo and you could finish up your private certificate in August 2010.  However it does require a willingness to wear a military style uniform for a couple hours a week, so it's not for everyone.

Remember that airline pilots start out making only about $20,000 per year.  If you stick with it for 20 years you could be making $100,000 but then again most pilots never make it that far.  That's why it's good to have a bachelor's degree before you start - so that you can get a good job elsewhere after your piloting career is over.

I hope this helps. If you have further questions, feel free to write again.

best,
Malcolm

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: This was just the answer I was looking for, thank you. Yes, I do wish to do something beyond crop-dusting(which may be a good side-job since I'll be in Iowa). I'm going to get a commercial license and either fly passenger planes or maybe shipment for Fed-Ex or something. But I was just curious about a couple more things. Will normal scholarships pay for flight training, and would you perhaps know of any pilot-specific scholarships?

Answer
Standard college scholarships pay only for tuition, room, board, books, and could not be used for flight training.

There are many flight training scholarships available but of course there are also a lot of people applying for them. The best way I am aware of to get flight training scholarships is to apply for them through Civil Air Patrol. The other source of information about flight training scholarships would be AOPA ( www.aopa.org ). AOPA offers a free 6-month membership to students.