Commercial Prize

I have questions about being a Commercial Pilot?

I have a few questions about being a commercial pilot (I am 15 years old) 1. I've never flown before, I live in VA, is there any places I can learn to fly? 2. How much would that cost? 3. Should you go to Aviation school, and if so, what schools are good? 4. What are the age requirements? 5. What are the hours needed and licenses you get? 6. What is the price from start to actually becoming a pilot? 7. Should I go to Regular College, and if so, what courses are best? 8. How hard is it to actually become a pilot once you have the hours? 9. What is the income of a commercial pilot? 10. What is the schedule of a commercial pilot (working hours) If I missed anything, please tell me. I want to know as much as I can about becoming a pilot. Just kind of tell me the routine of becoming a commercial pilot. You can answer some of the questions or all of them. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. 1-Just about any airport will have a training center 2-Depends, contact them, but it will shoot a good portion of a $10,000 bill 3-It wouldn't hurt but not necessary 4-you can start anytime but you need to be 17 to get your PPL 5-about 40 hours for your PPL, 250 for the CPL and 1500 for your ATP 6-Depends on where you learn and the equipment you learn on 7-College isn't necessary unless your planning to go wit the airlines and ANY degree will do, they don't care what you major in. 8-Easy 9-Varies 10-When you say Commercial pilot, do you mean flying for the airlines or just a Commercial rating?
2. most airports have some kind of training program.. you'll just have to give them a call or go and visit them.. you need a minimum of 250 hours to get a commercial rating and each hour costs (on average) 100-120 bucks an hour plus the cost of flight instruction, 30-40 bucks an hour.. so its rather expensive but you wont have to pay the instructor fee all the time.. a good portion of the time is spent flying solo.. i would budget atleast 30,000 dollars probably more like 40-50k.. that money should include your private, instrument, commercial, and multi engine training, hopefully.. after all that you can get your CFI ratings.. but they are optional.. its up to you if you want to spend the money on them.. i would try to get a flying job before investing in the CFI ratings.. if the job market is tough, then go for the CFI.. I went to Western Michigan University.. they have an aviation program that is pretty good.. the cost of a university program combined with flight training is very expensive though.. but you can be assured you will fly some of the best equipment out there.. you dont necessarily need a degree in aviation to get a job if you got all the required certificates.. but it wouldnt hurt if its what you truely want to do.. if you go to college but choose something other than aviation then take whatever you want.. your flight instructors should teach you everything you ever need to know.. right now, the job market is booming for young pilots.. WMU is having a hard time convincing their students to get their CFI ratings cuz all the students are immediately getting better jobs.. I just graduated in april and got a job on a turbo prop hauling freight.. the going rate for new hires is anywhere between 15-30k a year.. doesnt matter if you're a flight instructor or a regional airline pilot.. oh, by the way, if you want to work for one of the major airlines, you need a degree, and i wouldnt be surprised that by the time you're ready to enter the industry that most other companies will follow suit.. the schedule varies depending on who you work for.. instructors work days for the most part.. im a line pilot and so im on call 24 hours a day 6 days a week for the most part and i do go on a lot of midnight flights.. not sure what its like to fly in the airlines.. i would think that business pilots fly banker hours but i cant be sure on that either.. If i could go back and do it all over again, i would do as much flight training as i could before i left for college and i would not do any of my flight training through the college, just to keep costs down.. i would choose a cheap aircraft to do my training in.. its all the same training whether your in a new cessna or an old one.. i would probably get a degree in aviation administration or aviation flight, but without the flight training, if possible.. and if the job market is good, i would not get my CFI ratings.. but if it was bad, then i would get the ratings..
3. 1. You can get your private anywhere as long as you can find an instructor. 2.Your private will be about $10000, and a commercial is about $40-50,000. 3.Most colleges are good, but some are incredibly overrated. WMU and ERU are very expensive and their students dont have much of an advantage at all, if any. You really want to look at how much of a passion the school really has. Northwestern Michigan College is pretty good, they have a pretty decent rate of employment, and they are willing to work around just about anything. Many of their students are from other schools that didnt stand up to their names. 4.you must be 18 for your commercial. You can take the written up to 2 year before, since it expires after 2 years. 5.You need at least 250 hours to get your commercial, and 500 to get a job. 6.Its about $50,000 including room and board. 7.All schools have different requirements, go for one that lets you fly from the start, many people find they cannot handle the pressure after wasting 3 years going to class. 8.Its not that hard, you just have to wait for openings. Its quite hard to actually get the rating though. 9.Commercial pilots start at about $1500 a month, but after a few years it goes up significantly. 10.Schedules are all over the place. It depends if the guys at dispatch like you, if seniority matters (which is not always the rule), and what routes are being flown. It can really really suck, or it can be really really sweet. I think the one thing that people dont expect when in flight training is how hard it can get. You have to be really self motivated to learn everything, you really need to push yourself. You dont just have to read the books and pass the tests, you have to remember every single detail because you are going to need it. Good Luck, you are pretty far ahead of the game, usually people dont even think about this stuff. We get some pretty ignorant questions