Expert: David A. NewMyer - 6/30/2007

Question
Hello,
 
 I am currently in high school approaching my way to becoming a pilot.  I have a few questions for you.  I currently live in San Francisco, California, and would like to work for Northwest Airlines.  My questions are.

-Where should I attend for school?
-What trainning would I require to have to work for NWA?
-What would I start out flying?
-What would my wage be?

Hopefully you can anwser my questions, thank you very much!


Answer
Hi, Lucas:

Thanks for your questions.  I will try to assist.

1.  Where should you attend school:  There is quite a selection of universities and colleges that offer aviation.  Please order a copy of the COLLEGIATE AVIATION GUIDE from the University Aviation Association at www.uaa.aero or by calling them at 334-844-2434. The cost is around $20.  Some of the top aviation schools to check out are:

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Purdue University
Western Michigan University
University of North Dakota
Kansas State University Salina
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

2.  What training would you require to work for NWA?

The training requires you to build both flight certifications and flight time.  In the flight certification area, you will need the Federal Aviation Administration Private Pilot Certificate first followed by the FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with Multi Engine and Instrument Ratings.  You will then most likely need your Flight Instructor (Airplane) Certificate to be able to teach others to fly and, in so doing, build your flight time.

As far as building your flight time, you will need to have something like 500 to 1000 hours of Pilot in Command (or PIC ) in turbine aircraft in order to be considered for a pilot job at Northwest.  This would go along with something like 3000 to 5000 hours of total flight time.

3.  What would you start out flying?  In flight training, you would tend to fly smaller, single engine and multi engine piston aircraft such as Cessna 172s, Pipers and others.  The twins would be Piper Senecas or Cessna 310s.  You might also teach in those same aircraft as you build your flight time.  Then, many of our current students are proceeding directly to the right seat on a Regional Airline jet aircraft such as a CRJ or a Embraer Regional jet.  This is the type of aircraft where you would need to build that 500 to 1000 hours of Pilot in Command (or CAPTAIN) time.

4.  Wages.  The flight instructor wages are anything from an hourly wage like $12 an hour to a monthly salary up to $2400 a month.  Regional Airline pilots do not make that much to start (for the first year they make $18,000 to $22,000 a year.  But, the ten year captain's salary for a regional airline can be as much as $90,000 to $100,000 a year, depending on which airline you end up with.  I am not sure of the Northwest Airlines pilot salaries since they just went through bankruptcy reorganization and have cut salaries somewhat.  I would expect that the starting (probationary) salary at Northwest is something like $25,000 to $30,000 a year but it jumps after you complete probation.

I hope that this information is helpful to you.

Sincerely,

David A. NewMyer, Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Aviation Management and Flight
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
http://www.aviation.siu.edu