employment- jobs and career

Career job information for job seekers and find good employment job  

To be a pilot for hire, you need a commercial pilot certificate. You earn your certificate by passing commercial pilot ground school and logging at least 250 flight hours, with allotted time dedicated to certain conditions and maneuvers. After you have logged your hours and passed your written ground school test, you will need to pass a check-ride. A check-ride is something like the driving test we take to get our driver's licenses. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) examiner asks you to plan a flight, quizzes you on aviation matters and then accompanies you on a flight. As in a driver's license test, the examiner requests that you execute certain maneuvers and directs your flying throughout the entire flight. If everything goes well, the examiner issues you a commercial pilot's certificate. To be hired, you need flight experience. Your level of experience is based on the number and complexity of aircraft you have flown, the quantity and complexity of the flying you did (jet or propeller, day or night, local or cross-country, flying with visibility or flying using only instruments, etc.) and which crew positions you've held. Briefly, in the late 1960s, some airlines hired people without certificates or flight time and trained them from the ground up. This was an abnormal practice, and it is unlikely to recur. These days, a major airline hiring a pilot with a freshly minted commercial pilot's certificate (only 250 flight hours) is virtually unheard of. Most successful pilot applicants at major airlines have thousands of flight hours. Secondary airlines (regional or commuter) may have lower requirements.

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Career job information for job seekers and find good employment job  

 

Flight School

  Because the diversity of flight schools is so large, we have decided to devote a page just to explain the buildup and practice of the different.

Common for flight schools
Common for them all is they have a chief flight instructor. This is the person in charge of all flight training and can be compared to the principle of an ordinary school. Depending on the size of the flight school this usually is a person with a lot of flight time and instruction time. Quite often they are retired airline pilots or ex-military pilots with a genuine interest in flying and flight training.

His or her job is to look after all the flight training with the school and you are likely to fly with him on stage checks or progression tests. Depending on the size of the school he may have own students.

Under the chief flight instructor you find from one to several assistant chief flight instructors. They are senior instructors with the flight school or have a lot of instruction time. Like the chief flight instructor they perform stage checks or progression tests. Often they are responsible for a certain area of the training, ex. private pilot courses or instrument rating courses. The assistant chief flight instructor(s) may have own students, and quite often teaching other instructor students due to their experience level.

Under the chief and his assistant(s) you find all the flight instructors. They do most of the training at the flight school. Depending on the instructor certificates held he or she will do most of the flight training with you. Many instructors are fresh out of flight school and work as instructors to build flight time. Unfortunately some are not very interested in instructing, so always pay attention to your instructor’s behavior in the beginning and go to your assistant chief flight instructor or chief flight instructor if you experience no progression. Sometimes the problem is the instructor, not you.

However with most serious flight schools this is not a problem.

Dual Certificate school
These are flight schools offering certificates to more then just their national certificates. Good examples are schools in the United States offering training to both FAA (USA) and JAA (Europe) certificates. These are usually large flight schools and they may be offering it through partnering schools in other countries. Some even have courses leading to both FAA and JAA certificates. This is commonly done by making you an FAA pilot first and build up flight time in the United States (as a flight instructor, small cargo or banner pilot), before you go back to Europe for conversion to JAA. Even though this way usually is a little more expensive it is a good way to build flight time and get dual certificates.

Part 61 School (USA) ,
The FAA has created two sets of rules for flight training; part 61 for flight instructors and part 141 for flight schools [read next]. A part 61 school is therefore nothing more then from one to several flight instructors offering flight training. Most flight clubs and Fixed base operators (FBOs) offering flight training under part 61.

In general, training with a part 61 school is less structured then part 141 but can also be a cheaper alternative. If you are looking to fly for leisure then this is a good alternative as you pretty much find them all over.

There is no difference in the flight certificates or ratings you obtain as they are the same for both part 61 and 141.

Part 141 School (USA)
The FAA has created two sets of rules for flight training; part 61 for flight instructors [read above] and part 141 for flight schools. A part 141 school has been approved by the FAA as a licensed training institution.

The FAA has set some standards to the training syllabus, classrooms, aircraft fleet, chief flight instructor, student pass rates, storing of student documents etc. The flight school has to apply and be inspected before being part 141 approved. Also they get regular inspections to make sure the standard meets the requirements.

All large flight schools and flight colleges in the United States are part 141 approved, and most part 141 schools also offer part 61 flight training.

Many students who want to make flying a career go to larger flight schools and therefore end up in a part 141 program. But it is not a guarantee that you get a good instructor (which is more important than 141 or 61) or get a job afterwards. There is no such thing as part 61 or part 141 certificates. In the end they look the same and you are expected to hold the same standard upon completion.

Ground School, Distant Learning and Online School
In addition to all the flight schools you also have schools only offering the theory part. As there is a lot of reading involved to become a pilot some only offer this part. The benefit is you can get rid of all the written pretty fast and then concentrate on the flying. With distant learning and online schools you can also be anywhere in the world and still do their programs.

Especially pilots brushing up on lost knowledge (there is a lot to keep track of), flight instructors renewing their certificate or pilots converting from one nationality to another use ground, distant learning or online schools.

Also as many part 61 schools do not offer ground school classes and paying an instructor by the hour to teach you may be expensive, doing a class this way may be smart when starting your training.

Airline Preparation School
These are flight schools mainly working with simulator training or checking out pilots for airlines and bigger companies. The fleet often consists of large more advanced aircrafts used for type rating training and their main customers are airlines and companies training newly hired pilots or on staff pilots doing recurrence training. Most are airline owned.

First Officer Program
Not so much a school but we mention it. These are usually small cargo or passenger companies offering time building on their aircrafts for cheap. You can buy bulks from 250-1000 hour flight time and the price varies around $20 an hour for second in command time on multi engine aircrafts. Many even get hired by the company afterwards. If you have the money and want to build multi engine time fast this can be a good alternative. Just remember that you also need to cover living expenses during the period, and you probably won’t have time for an extra job.

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Requirements

Flight Club

  Flight clubs are actually the training institution in the world producing most private pilots. This is because most students training for a private pilot certificate (PPL) do it for leisure flying. Also flight clubs can be found in most cities with an airport throughout the world. Not all of them offer training, but they all lease out airplanes for members to fly.

In the United States, Europe and Australia you can even find some flight clubs offering training up to instrument rating and commercial pilot certificate (CPL).

The huge benefit of flight clubs is they are usually non-profit, meaning the courses and rent fees are less expensive. As the people there are more interested in bringing you onboard as a member rather then making money on you the atmosphere becomes different. If leisure flying is what you are seeking then going to your nearest flight club is a smart choice.

If you are new to flying and not sure if this is the way to go, taking an intro flight or a few test lessons with the local flight club may be smart. They count towards your training needed for the PPL and prevent you from investing a lot of money on something you may turn out not to be that interested in.

Do you have time then doing the private pilot license (PPL) in a flight club before moving on to a flight school is something you should consider. Many students do the PPL at home while in school or working before they move to a large

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