Expert: David A. NewMyer - 4/5/2004

Question
Hello Dr. NewMyer, First I must say thank you for your participation in this online forum, I have read through most of your Q&A's and have found them most informative.

I have finally gotten my PPL after about 41hrs of flight time.  I love aviation/flying and I have wanted to fly ever since I can remember, to which I can attribute the 2 hours of total ground school time it took.

I would appreciate it if you might be able to expound on non-airline pilot careers.  To be honest I am a little apprehensive about being an airline pilot; the thought of taking off, setting the the autopilot for 1-3 hours, and then landing, does not seem that it would appeal to me; though it may just be a false perception on my part. That is even though every time that I see a large plane over head it gives me that rush that I know every pilot gets from flight.

I am 26 and currently do not have a degree,  which often makes me the target of the you-need-to-go-to-school lectures; though I have been blessed with an uncanny ability to learn almost anything easily. I am currently engineering hardware and software in the R&D department of our company and I love what i do, but I am getting a little burned out with the corporate red-tape.  I currently have 2 kids and a wife; and I am having a problem deciding if I should/could move to an aviation career as I have a greater responsibility to be practical than I did when single.

I have been thinking of going into the aviation electronic industry and keeping piloting as a hobby, though from my point of view that industry seems to be very difficult to break into because of regulatory hardships.  Perhaps you could also tell me what is legal to do to the insides of an aircraft.  If I did go into the aviation electronics industry are there any requirements/restrictions put on a test aircraft.

Another uncanny ability I have is getting bored easily with repetitive/monotonous tasks.  For this reason I thought perhaps a job as a search and rescue or life flight helicopter pilot would be great because you never fly the same place two times.  Though I have not been able to get any specific information on getting into these careers.  Maybe you could point out other aviation careers that would give a similar experience, such as: flying different aircraft(test pilot?), flying to alot of different places (corporate pilot?), or maybe not even piloting at all as a career (FBO management flying to alot of different bases?).

I appologize for the rambling, I have just been typing as I think of stuff to ask, but I would obviously be appreciative of any information you could give, or any direction that you could point me in.

Thank you for your time,

Joshua Perry

Answer
Hi, Joshua:

Nice to hear from you and I will try to assist!

As for career areas to consider, you have identified four with what I perceive to be very different job outlooks:

1.  You first mentioned the aviation electronics field as a possibility.  This area is HOT and will remain so since aircraft are becoming increasingly electronic and a bit less mechanical.  The Airbus A-320 and others like it have something like 400 computers and microcomputers aboard...the "yoke" on this aircraft is a joystick that moves the flight controls by electronic inputs and not physical inputs like on a smaller general aviation aircraft or like on an older 727 airliner.  With your "uncanny ability" to learn almost anything, it will hopefully be less of a challenge to you than most to learn the electronics theory and practice that you will need to learn to work on aviation electronics (or "avionics").  To be the best avionics technician that you can be it would also behoove you to become an "Airframe and Power Plant Mechanic" (or A and P) as certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration.  The A and P by itself will require from one to two years of school, depending on where you go to school....in other words, there are both one and two year programs.  As far as learning the avionics, then, that would be at least one more year beyond the A and P.  So, two to three years of learning to get the basic licensing and training that you need to enter this field.  There are about 300,000 to 350,000 A and Ps workiing in the USA of which about a third or so work on avionics.  

2.  Helicopter search and rescue pilot.  This field is quite narrow AND is very competitive due to the military-trained helicopter pilots available in the job market.  There are 640,000 or so fixed wing pilots and only about 7700 pilots certificated only to fly helicopters....and, there are less than 10,000 helicopters to fly in the USA and about 220,000 fixed wing aircraft to fly.  These are just a few of the measures that tell me the overall helicopter pilot job market is small and a small part of that is search and rescue flying...enough said.

3.  Corporate Pilot:  This field is booming since the 9-11 attacks but the field requires LOTS of experience as a pilot to enter it...there is no such thing as "entry level" as a corporate pilot.  Normally you spend a lot of time doing other kinds of flying until you build up the experience to fly in the corporate world.  Once you have all of your basic flight certificates, which will take 18 months to 3 years to get, you will then have to fly hard to gain up to 2500 or 3000 hours of total flight time before a corporate flight department will even begin to look at your resume.  And, by that time, you will need to have in the area of 500 hours of turbine or jet time, with more piston multi engine flight time.  Not easy to get into, but, there are about 45,000 or 50,000 jobs in corporate aviation once you get there....

4.  A non-flying management job in aviation.  Now, there are degrees for this area that you can get on line or in non-traditional, face-to-face formats and maybe not have to move to a traditional campus environment.  Embry Riddle Aero Univ and Southern Illinois University offer off campus Aviation Management degrees in multiple locations around the USA.  The job market includes jobs in Aerospace Manufacturing, Airlines, Airports, Government agencies, general aviation companies and the like which will accept an Aviation Management degree.

For more information on who offers what type of aviation degrees in general, contact the University Aviation Association at uaa@auburn.edu or by calling them at 334-844-2434 to order THE COLLEGIATE AVIATION GUIDE.  The cost is about $25 and this booklet will give you lots of information on college aviation programs.

By the way, as far as test pilots are concerned, these are normally jobs that aerospace manufacturers reserve for their most experienced pilots.....again, not an entry-level job.  One you might be seeing later in your career, but, not right away.

I hope that this answer has helped!  Follow up via Allexperts if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

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