want to be a rookie

[pielt]

I have a question for all of you out there.
i am about to graduate from high school and want to be a comercial pilot. what is your opinion. should im look into it, or should i seek some other career?

 

[scuzzer23]

Flying is fun! Just don't do it for the money cause pay is getting worse all the time.

If you want to work for the airlines you must conform to what they want in a pilot. This means no drug charges, DUI's, felonies, or any kind of checkered past. Also vision must be fairly good uncorrected. Most airlines also like to see a 4 year degree, but not necessarily in aviation.

check out www.beapilot.com and then do some research as to where you could train. Take a few flight lessons and see if flying is for you.

 

[Vik]

I suggest going to your local airport, talking to the various schools and doing one or two demo flights.

See if you like it. Why do you want to do it? You might want to do it based on myths and misconceptions.

Question your motive and if its something you really want to do, it beats sitting behind a desk all day .. although its smart to have that on the side.

 

[sqwkvfr]

I have a question for all of you out there.
i am about to graduate from high school and want to be a comercial pilot. what is your opinion. should im look into it, or should i seek some other career?

Find another career field that interests you, go to college and get a four-year degree in that area. If you want to fly for a major someday, you're gonna need that four year degree...and the airlines don't care what your major is.

While you're in college, get your private pilot's license and perhaps your instrument rating at a local FBO...or perhaps you can find a college with an aviation department and you can get a minor in whatever it is that they call an aviation minor.

When you graduate you'll find yourself with a choice...

-If you choose aviation, go on to get your commercial and other ratings applicable to your goals. If later on you decide to get out of aviation or are forced out for medical, financial or other reasons, you have a degree in an unrelated field on which to fall back.

-If you choose to enter the field in which you've become educated, you've still got a fun and satisfying hobby.

Either way, you'll have experienced two different career fields and will be able to make an informed decision about your future.

Why should you listed to someone with my profile? Because I tried it a different way, and I screwed up.

Good luck.

 

[mayday1]

as others have mentioned - get your degree. It will be something you'll always have, and never regret... and getting it later in life only makes getting it more difficult.

I don't have any first hand knowledge about universities offering aviation degrees and/or professional pilot programs (UND, ERAU, Purdue, etc.), but it sounds like they're worth a look if you're serious about aviation. Although before doing anything aviation related - go to your local airport, take a couple of introductory flights, and make sure it's something you want to pursue.

 

[bafanguy]

Get in ROTC in college...go in the military...

 

[nosehair]

Read "Illusions", by Richard Bach. Not as a science-fiction novel, but as a philosopy of flying. If you like the book - you'll probably like a career flying, just for the love of flying, regardless of pay or conditions. If you don't get the book, you probably won't get flying for the love of it - and the money and glory are not a part of it anymore, which is why you will hear so many negative answers.

But it still can be - if you like it for what it is.

 

[AcroChik]

Dear Pielt ~

There have been long and sometimes angry debates on this forum about whether or not a pilot should get a four~year college degree. The real debate is, should ANYONE get a four~year college degree. Undoubtedly, if it is at all possible, the answer is yes.

I am 23 years old, 1.5 years out of university with a math/physics degree, and I can tell you from personal experience that this has helped me advance my career as a pilot. I did not go to one of the aviation schools.

A four~year degree creates the perception in people who might hire you that you can take on and complete long~term goals. Everything about becoming an aviator is about taking on and completing long term goals.

It is also simply glorious and satisfying to KNOW things, and to learn how to know things. It is also cool to not have to leave that part of an employment application blank.

You do not need a physics or math degree to be a pilot. You will not use these things on a moment~to~moment or even week~to~week basis when flying an airplane. My background has, however, helped me in developing creative examples to explain "why it flies," to my students.

I earned (and I do mean EARNED because it is expensive and challenging), a lot of my skills as a pilot while in college. I took lessons and eventually started giving lessons. I believe I truly earned the right to call myself a pilot the day my first student passed his PPL checkout. Other people earned this right on other days.

If you have both the good fortune and the fortitude to pursue this path, I think you will find that it is when you begin to teach others to fly that you truly earn wings. At least, this is how it has been for me.

If you want to pursue the military aviation route, then, I believe, you absolutely need a four~year degree. Do not believe what recruiters tell you.

You will be poor when you start out. Aviation is an industry in a continuous state of reorganization. Wages and working conditions are currently poor for many of us, and the employment market is unstable. But it is, I see personally, an industry where those with the guts and gumption to stick it out can make a good living doing something we love..., in time.

I've never wanted to do anything else. I wouldn't change a thing. If that's how you feel, it is the right life for you.

God bless you and good luck!

 

[scuzzer23]

Find another career field that interests you, go to college and get a four-year degree in that area. If you want to fly for a major someday, you're gonna need that four year degree...and the airlines don't care what your major is.

While you're in college, get your private pilot's license and perhaps your instrument rating at a local FBO...or perhaps you can find a college with an aviation department and you can get a minor in whatever it is that they call an aviation minor.

When you graduate you'll find yourself with a choice...

-If you choose aviation, go on to get your commercial and other ratings applicable to your goals. If later on you decide to get out of aviation or are forced out for medical, financial or other reasons, you have a degree in an unrelated field on which to fall back.

-If you choose to enter the field in which you've become educated, you've still got a fun and satisfying hobby.

Either way, you'll have experienced two different career fields and will be able to make an informed decision about your future.

Very good advice. I could not have said it better. Do not get a professional pilot degree unless you really want to. Get a degree in anything that interests you and has a real future. And remember, most of what I consider fun flying has to do with aircraft with less than a 40 ft wingspan, so you don't have to be a commercial pilot to be a pilot. I could probably live with a non-flying job, as long as I can get my flying "fix" often enough.

Bottom line is this: I am very glad to see newcomers to aviation. We welcome you. But have a backup. Then have a backup for your backup. Hope this helps.

 

[avbug]

I might offer a different perspective. While I won't contest the concept that a degree is of value in distiguishing your resume, I submit that building a flying career is not an overnight process. You don't need the degree before you start flying, or start working a flying job.

If you begin your flying now, you're not going to be encountering jobs for the first few years where anybody will care what kind of degree you have. Or if you have one. If you obtain your certificates and ratings now, you can go to work and then do your degree by distance learning.

A lot of degrees are available this way.

If you're going to do a degree to learn something, I'd say dedicate yourself to it full time. But if you only want a degree to check a box (which to me is the only real value of most degrees), then go distance learning.

Having your certificates and ratings in advance can nip two years or more off the time it takes to get the degree, plus you're already working. If you intend to make flying your career, I can't see any reason to delay it to go to college, unless you're going to train in an entirely different discipline.

If you want a backup discipline, what about doing a two year degree in aircraft maintenance, and flight instructing part time while you do it? You can then complete a four year degree in short order based on your pilot and mechanic certificates, and you'll have a two year degree in aircraft maintenance technology when you're done, as well. You'll have a place to go if you lose your medical, and a skill that may help you get jobs as well as certainly learn aircraft better, throughout your career.