Turning a Passion into a Career in Flying

The desire to fly with the birds in the sky is as old as mankind itself. Some of our oldest stories from ancient myths involve man's desire to fly. So if you felt that yearning which in our day in age means getting a pilot's license, you are in good company. But there are as many directions a pilot's license can take you as there are people who want to be certified to fly with the birds.

Your final goals in the airline industry might change and evolve the deeper you get into the culture the airline industry. For many of us, at first we want to get that pilot's license partly for fun so we can enjoy that occasional outing with family and friends and maybe just to prove to ourselves that we can do it. But once the "bug" of flying gets in your system, don’t be surprised if you see yourself involved in aviation full time and turning your passion for flying into a very successful career.

As soon as you to see yourself as a professional in the airline industry, you will do well to change your approach to training and your preparation for your next big step in the world of aircraft and flying. If you are going to follow a path within the world of the big airlines to perhaps work your way up to eventually pilot a big commercial jumbo jet, that is a different educational goal from becoming a sports pilot for fun or to just be able to fly from time to time as part of your business.

Obviously a career as a commercial airline pilot is going to take a lot of time and patience to work your way up to that level in the industry. But if you know that is your long range goal, your trainers and the flight school you attend can make sure you are given coursework that targets that higher level of pilot's license than most "hobbyists" go for. And because you are serious about a career as a flyer, you can also begin to learn more and more about the culture of the airline industry and network with the "right people" for your next big steps in that direction.

But one creative option that is an outstanding way to prepare for a career in the airline industry whether that is to work as part of a large organization or to start your own business is to go after a four year degree in flying or aviation which gives you much greater depth of education. The costs of getting a pilot's license are pretty high. And when you are done, you will have that pilot's license but nothing more. It will be up to you to learn the business side of the airline business.

But by channeling those funds into a full degree plan, you will still get your pilot's license but it will be integrated in with a full program that will give you the business exposure, support courses in accounting and math and exposure to other aspects of the industry such as aircraft repair, flight control and aviation management at all levels of the business. You will come out of this program with a full degree that you can then take on to specialized training or even to a masters or PHD in the field.

This is a worthwhile consideration especially if you think you might start your own flight school or another support business that supports the industry. And it never hurts to have exposure to how the entire airline business works if you plan to be part of it long term. It won't take much to check out what programs are available and it might be one of the smartest career moves you ever made.

Step by Step to Flying

Probably the first big step if you want to get moving on a career that involves flying an aircraft is to get a pilots license that enables you to serve as a private pilot. To put that in context, there are lesser pilot's licenses such as the student's license or the sports or recreational licenses but there are a lot of limitations on those licenses. If you want to be able to fly in support of your business (but not as your business) or to be able to fly with some freedom as part of your private life, a private pilots license is a good step and it’s a natural first step even if you plan to go on to train to become a commercial pilot down the road.

Like any other certification, the path to getting a private pilots license is fairly set in stone. You will have to be in the right age range as you cannot become a pilot if you are younger than 16. With that simple requirement out of the way, the step by step process toward finally realizing your dream of having a private pilot's license is…

1. Research the flight schools in your area and make sure the one you use has a good reputation, a well developed program and equipment to support it and teaching staff that both knows how to fly and knows how to teach. Make sure the flight schools that make your cut are certified to offer pilot training that will result in a FAA recognized pilot's license.

2. Make sure your finances are in order because flight school will run between $3000 and $5000. There are scholarships available and you might be able to use federal student loans through FAFSA if the school qualifies.

3. Enroll in flight school and clear your schedule. Getting your pilot's license should be your life's passion for the next few months.

4. Get a medical certificate that is specific to aviation. A general check up is not enough so work with the school to find a doctor who can help you pass the medical requirements to be able to fly.

5. Go through the ground training to be able to pass the written pilot's license exam that is required by the FAA. These classes will take about four to five weeks to complete.

6. Take AND PASS the written exam required by the Federal Aviation Administration at any FAA testing center.

7. Work with the school to complete thirty to forty hours of required flight time with a certified instructor. You can move through his requirement at your own pace which means as fast as you can afford to get through it and schedule the time with the school and the instructor. The school will provide the airplane as that is part of the fees you paid.

8. Your next to last flying "exam" is a solo flight with no instructor on board.

9. For the final "big" exam, you will go on a flight with an FAA tester who is certified to validate that you know what you are doing in an airplane.

10. Don’t get nervous, you know what you are doing. Pass that final exam and you are home free to receive your private pilot's license nice and legal.

You are going to learn a lot during this process. Don’t be fooled, it is a lot of new stuff to learn and you are basically learning an entirely new physical skill similar to when you learned to swim or ride a bike. So throw yourself into those test flights and get as comfortable controlling an airplane as you are driving a car.

You can do a lot not only to speed up the process but to cut costs by working hard on your own to conquer the skills you need to become a great private pilot. You can study the written the test on your own and complete the FAA test whenever you are ready. But once you have that license, you will be glad you worked hard to get through the process successfully so that from now on you can honestly say to people, "I am a pilot".

Staying on Top of your Game as a Pilot

If they didn’t tell you in flight school as you studied for your pilot's license, you certainly learn it pretty quick after you get into the airline industry that the pilot's license is only the beginning of a lifelong of learning and growing in a field that is always changing. So even after you get your career as a pilot launched and are making a living in the trade, there are always ways you can be working every day to keep up with what is going on not only in aviation generally but with your local airline industry and what is going on even within your own company.

It is for this reason that the best thing you can do for your career as well as for your day in and day out ability to stay on top of the game at the local level is become part of the tightly knit group of other pilots in your area. Pilots are a very unique breed of people and the experiences you have in the pilots seat of an airplane are unlike any other profession there is. So its natural you will won't to be together because you are a community of people who are the only ones that have that common experience.

Networking with other pilots gives you benefits that really cannot be quantified. And you really don’t go about this task in an organized fashion. You do so around the airport in the lounge as you encounter other pilots and you share details about the flying conditions that day or other important things pilots need to know. Not only is that valuable at the time but it can pay off long term. If something important develops during the day, you can find out about that before it affects your flight. Problems with the runway, with the tower or other issues that could dramatically affect your flight fly through a network of pilots far before any official notification.

Your network of pilots will become a network of friendships that can provide a support group one for the other in the case of emergencies. You will learn each others flight schedules and if one pilot cannot perform, there is someone that can step up and handle that flight. The network of pilots can also be self correcting. If one pilot needs some help getting back on top of his game, you and the other of your support group can pull him aside and talk him through he rough patch. That may even mean supporting each other during personal crisis or to get into a 12 step program. But this kind of support means you don’t have to let any pilot just fall out of the program if you are watching out for each other and helping each other when help is needed.

There are other levels of networking that you can tap into as a member of the aviation community that you may not have thought of before. Even though we think of the FAA as that big governmental agency in the sky, this agency is staffed by people who have a vested interest in taking care of pilots and making sure everybody lives up to some standards to the industry is safe and profitable. There are local members of the FAA who would like nothing more than to know every single pilot better to find out how the agency can serve your needs. You may not know this but the FAA holds meetings every other week that are classes for pilots just like you to help you stay up to date with your education and to answer any questions that may have come up about the industry and the FAAs relationship to it. The FAA offers free training and publications all focused exclusively on the aviation industry that you can take advantage of just for the asking. So include the local FAA representatives in your network of professional associations. It will pay you well to tap this huge government resource.

But don’t limit your networking just to these two groups. Get to know the mechanics that take care of the airplanes your lives depend on. You would even do well to stay current with what is going on with the flight instructors who are training new pilots as they are often more up to date on the industry than old pros like you.

Somebody Has to Fly the Goodyear Blimp

Getting your pilot's license is just the start of a life in the world of aviation that can really take you anywhere. While there is a lot you can do with just a private pilot's license, you can take that starting point and go into helicopter flight, flying gliders or even on up into larger aircraft until you get licensed to fly the big jets for the big airlines.

But one specialization that you may or may not have thought of is flying those blimps that you see over stadiums during ball games or over the parades at holidays. We tend to take for granted that they are up there doing whatever Goodyear or whoever owns the blimp wants them to do all by themselves. But somebody has to fly those blimps and your pilot's license is a good launch into what will become a very fascinating job that is unlike anything else in aviation.

Becoming a blimp pilot means finding the right company with the organization that is staffing for that job. But flying a blimp is not a fast paced job in term of the flying you will do. Most of the time a blimp travels very slowly because, obviously, a blimp is large and cumbersome and it really cannot maneuver that quickly. It is designed to hover in place and move slowly over the destination such as a ball game so the top speed you will reach in the air might be thirty five miles per hour.

Another big difference when flying a blimp is that you will hover the craft fairly close to the ground compared to a faster moving airplane. Sometimes you will fly as low as 1000 to 1500 feet which means at that height, you can actually see the people on the ground and at that speed, you can wave at them.

Because blimps are used almost entirely for promotional or recreational purposes, your role as the pilot of a blimp almost puts you into show business yourself. You will have a much greater interaction with people who come to see the blimp so you will enjoy far more socialization that you might as a private pilot which sometimes can be a bit of a lonely job.

By the very nature of why companies keep blimps, if you land that pilots job, you are going to be traveling virtually nonstop. So be sure you really like to see the world and that this kind of travel is not going to disrupt family life. It’s a great job if you are young and have not started your family yet and you just want to have some adventure.

If you wish to make becoming a blimp pilot a real objective, take your existing pilot's license and become certified as a lighter than air pilot as well. It won't be that much more work and it positions you perfectly to fly a blimp. As you wait for the chance to get in the door with the few organizations that do operate blimps, you can go ahead and log some good experience using your pilots license in a charter situation so you have a solid resume of flying when you are ready to specialize flying blimps.

The "big break" you will be looking for is just to get in on the ground floor with a company that owns and operates a blimp. You may have to serve your time as part of the ground crew of the blimp but that by itself is a fascinating job. Here is where you will learn the technical aspects of maintaining a blimp and the safety issues that go into keeping a big vehicle like that aloft.

Your flight experience then will put you in line to apply for the pilot or co pilot position when it becomes available. And by becoming an experienced crew member, you will be in an ideal place if the company decides to add a blimp and needs a whole new crew including a pilot. While the pay of a blimp pilot is not going to make you rich, you will see the world and you will have one of the most unique jobs in aviation. And if you get to fly over the Super Bowl and have a birds eye view of the biggest game of the year, well that’s just another one of the great perks of being a blimp pilot.