Expert: D. Norkus - 7/23/2008

Question
my name is noel,im 32 years old, O experience almost ready to start my PPL and looking for ATP,CFII,  I am also thinking a college degree after my commercial,I have a good job and im going to keep it because I have family and also my earnings are helping the training costs wich I was told could be around 35k to get from cero to CFII in 10 months,I dont know if after graduation I have to put 75% of my time to build up hours for an airline job? and for how long before I get close to 75k a year?Thanks a lot!

Answer
Noel

If you intend to get from zero flight time to CFI in just 10 months while keeping your full time job and supporting your family, you may have a hard time meeting your goal in that time frame. Such a rapid progression is more for those who are doing their aviation studies full time without obligations such as yours. Pretty ambitious. While you could fly 2-3 hours each weekend (8 days per month) you are off work and log the 200+ hours over 10 months it will take to get the flight experience requirements for the commercial pilot and then get your certified flight instructor, it will be very challenging.

To get the time required for an airline job:
You should try and get qualified as soon as possible. Keep abreast of your desired airlines requirements and apply as soon as you reach them. Only a few months ago the minimum flight time requirements to apply (aka simply "minimums") were lower than they have been in a decade or more. However, with the current fuel crisis and so many qualified pilots now unemployed those minimums will be rising. Currently, almost all carriers have stopped hiring. When they do hire again, you can expect to be a competitive candidate you will need to not just meet but exceed those minimums.

As far as the ATP goes, that will be a long, long way down the road as you will need 1,500 hours to get that certificate. Most pilots often have their first regional job before they have an ATP. Especially since in the past year (when hiring was booming prior to the fuel crisis) many airlines hired pilots with 500TT or less- far short of ATP requirements.

If you have no degree at all, it would be wise to get at least an Associates. You do not have to major in aviation. In fact, it may be wise NOT to in case you ever get laid off and cannot find another pilot job. (A situation several hundred or maybe 1,000 pilots are facing right now across the industry.) You can always finish your bachelors online after you have a flying job. The regionals are not so picky, but having a bachelors degree is pretty much the standard at the major airlines.

When can you expect to make $75,000? Well, that can be anywhere from 5-10 years depending on where you get hired, if that company expands and the industry does not tank again. So, in essence, you can't really know. It is a roll of the dice. There are the lucky pilots that got hired at the right time, upgraded in under 2 years and now make regional jet captain pay of $60K-$75K/yr. However, there are others who also got hired at the same time at a company where growth was minimal, the upgrade time was long and the pay is $30K/yr less than that as they are unable to move beyond first officer. Which situation will you be in? No one can say.

You should know going into this that you should NOT do it solely for the money. Do it because you love aviation because one day you could find yourself in the latter situation or even worse, laid off . The sacrifices you and your family are going to have to make financially and personally cannot be taken lightly. Your family must also be prepared to face the fact that you may only be off/home 8-11 days per month. I work with many pilots who have a family and right now for many First Officers it is extremely difficult. The pay is bad, they may get laid off soon and if they don't they may have to move to another base as the airline shrinks our crew bases. I feel for one guy who has a newborn and may have to commute across the country or move if he wants to keep his job as with so little company tenure ("seniority") his options are nil.

Do check out my careers page as it explains a lot of things you need to know- http://www.pilotcareer.info

I think you will be better able to make some informed career decisions after digesting that plus info from the links at the bottom of the site, especially-

http://www.AirlinePilotCentral.com & http://www.jetcareers.com

Both have message boards where you can post questions that will be very helpful.

Good Luck
Dottie