How to become a commercial pilot

Flying is only part of the job and you must remember the importance of ground work, ongoing training, safety, maintenance and customer service too. The nature of the industry means that, as a commercial helicopter pilot, you must be able to relocate to where the work is, work irregular shift patterns and always give priority to safety.You can start your flying lessons at 17 all the way till as old as you want if you just want to fly for leisure. But I am pretty sure most of you would love to become a pilot as a life long career rather than for leisure. To do that, you need to enroll yourself in a flying school that provides you up till a commercial pilot license.For those seeking the commercial pilot route there are scholarships to learn to fly at civilian flying clubs. These usually are limited to 35 hours training which, if obtained, could save the applicant some 5000 pounds in his basic training.

To cover back the huge cost invested in you by the airline, you are normally bonded between 7 to 15 years. According to Cathay pacific, their total cost for their cadet pilot is a cool HKD 1 million. Not a small sum of money.At this point, you should hold a Private Pilot certificate, Instrument rating and Commercial Pilot certificate. These ratings are the very minimum you will need to work commercially. You are, however, probably not qualified enough to go after that dream job just yet.Flight Instructor is the dream job. Pilots who enjoy teaching and flying build their career around flight instruction. Many of them learn the business and build an excellent reputation in their first few years of instructing. They then go on to open their own flight schools. A Flight Instructor career is both challenging and rewarding if you enjoy teaching.

Being a commercial pilot is not as hard as you might think, and the demand for pilot's due to the growth of regional airlines and corporate aviation travel is making this a great aviation opportunity.A pilot that is learning how to fly, at the stage in your aviation training you fly with a flight instructor until you are skilled enough to fly on your own.Find out if the school has a Cadet Force, if it does then join it. cadet forces provide a wonderful source of information and opportunity. During your time in the force you will have many chances to learn about what is involved in a flying career.

It is the flight dispatcher who is primarily responsible for selecting the route of flight for any given flight on any particular day. A flight dispatcher has unlimited resources available to them to assist them in planning a safe flight. There are several factors that determine what route is chosen but weather, traffic volume, time of day and geographical area are generally the most important. Thanks to phenomenal weather forecasting capabilities it is becoming easier every day to plan flights around actual or forecast thunderstorm activity. There is also a rule called 60 to 1 that assists them in determining the proper lateral offset to navigate around a thunderstorm. All U.S. airlines have rules for operating in areas where there are thunderstorms. They require that a certain amount of lateral offset be maintained per foot of vertical development of a thunderstorm, they also may require an even larger lateral avoidance at altitude based on the actual winds aloft.