Quote:
Originally Posted by swingdoc
Great thread. What would be the best path if someone knew they wanted to be a commercial pilot?
The surest path is the military. Hard to argue that it's the best training in the world and airlines consider the product (you) a known quantity. They can never be as sure with a civilian candidate.
I was strictly civilian -- grew up wanting to fly in the Navy like my father, but didn't have the eyesight required so I went civilian instead. My older brother went to the Air Force Academy, had a 20 years Air Force career and was hired at Delta 3 years before me. Many of his friends got out in the 80s after their initial commitment and are now senior Captains at various airlines.
It's harder going the civilian route because it's hard to get that flying time when you've got a fresh Private Pilot License. You need the Commerical license to fly for hire and after getting the PPL you'll need to accumulate another 200 hours of flying time to even be eligible for the Commercial ticket. Those hours are costly. (Current rental rate for a Cessna 172 at my local flying club is about $130 per hour, fuel included.)
I built my time by buying into an airplane with a partner, but that still wasn't cheap. Once you've got the Commercial license you can fly for hire, but no airline will touch you. You'll try to get a job, but you will be told that they'd like for you to have 1,000 hours. At the 1,000 hour point, they'll start talking about wanting the ATP (Airline Transport Pilot certificate, which requires a minimum of 1,500 hours.) If you're lucky you find someone willing to take a chance on a low time commercial pilot and you tow banners or fly parachute jumpers or maybe fly checks or night cargo. Just typing this is reminding me of what a grind it was.
I lucked in to a few good deals. My brother's girlfriend was the daughter of Dwight Schar who is now part owner of the Redskins, but even back in 80s he was making a name for himself in real estate. I used to fly Dwight and his family to the Beach (Rehobeth or Nags Head) for their vacations and Dwight would pay for the plane and give me the use of his car while he was gone. 25 years old tooling around in a 450SL or Porsche 911. It was nice.
Then Dwight introduced me to a guy running for Lt. Gov of Virginia and I became his aerial chauffer, flying him to meetings, dinners, and rallies all over the state. I once counted the number of different airports in Virginia I landed at during this time and it was over 80. That really helped me build time.
My rambling alert just went off. Hope this was somewhat helpful.