Choosing Your Path—Part Two: Learning to Fly the Civilian Way

In Part One of Choosing Your Path, we explored the benefits and the obligations that come with learning to fly in the military.  Military flying is rewarding, valuable to the nation, and definitely the most economically frugal option available to those who want to turn flying into a career.  But, it isn’t for everyone.

Maybe you are enlisted or non-rated prior service and are looking to make your airline dreams a reality in the shortest time possible.  Maybe the military just isn’t your thing—family commitments or other responsibilities make the prospect of lengthy deployments and frequent moves a bit more onerous than you’d like.  Or, like the author of this piece, perhaps you are just a smidge too blind without your glasses to get through the Air Force medical exam.  No matter what your reasons are, there are plenty of options available in the civilian world to get your pilot career underway.

As we mentioned in Part One of this series, there has never been a better time to start flying and make it a career.  According the latest Boeing Pilot and Technician Outlook, 214,000 pilots will be needed to fill the ranks at the airlines in the next 20 years.  There is a shortage, and the airlines are already feeling the pinch.  Many regional airlines are offering significant financial hiring incentives to qualified applicants.

But, we are getting ahead of ourselves; this article is about how to get started.  There are as many paths to the cockpit as there are people who are interested.  This article will offer a few tips that will make the journey less bumpy, and will give you a chance to compare the civilian experience with the military one.

The Structure of the Industry

It is important to first understand that not all airlines are created equal, and you can’t expect to take the civilian training route and end up on a wide body at Delta right out of the gate.  There are but a few major airlines, or airlines that pay like major airlines:  Delta, American, United, Southwest, Alaska, FedEx and UPS.  These airlines are the “brass ring” for many pilots.  They offer eye-popping compensation packages and excellent quality of life.

Beneath this premier level is a tier of regional airlines; there are a great many of these, but some of them are: Piedmont, PSA, Air Wisconsin, Skywest, Republic, Mesa, Trans States… The list goes on and on.  If you’ve never heard of these airlines, don’t feel bad.  They operate smaller regional jets and turboprops painted in the colors of their parent carrier, sometime with the words “express” or “connection” painted on the side.  Regional airlines pay less and the pilots work harder; this will likely be your first airline gig as a civilian.

In between the two tiers is a multitude of small airlines that operate jets of many sizes in niche markets.  The pay and quality of life at these airlines is as variable as the names they go by.

First Steps

So now that we have a handle on the structure of the airline business and understand that the regionals are the first paying airline job we can expect to have, we have to figure out how to get that first airline job.  Many major airlines require a college degree.  If you don’t have one, get one!  It makes you more competitive in the long run and makes for something of a backup plan if things don’t pan out.  You can study for a degree in something even while you fly; there is no reason to put this off.  This is doubly true if you are a veteran and have access to educational funds through the Montgomery GI Bill.  You earned that money, so use it!

Leaving college aside, choosing a flight training facility is the first concrete step that you’ll take to getting to that first airline job.  There are hundreds of places to learn to fly in the United States; but if flying professionally is your goal, you should select a school that specializes in professional pilot training.  These schools are certified as “pilot schools” by the FAA under a set of regulations known as FAR Part 141; they offer government approved curriculums that will enable you to complete your training in the minimum amount of time.  Many of them are acceptable to the VA for the use of GI Bill funds; if you are prior service, this is a huge benefit that will save you a ton of money in the long run.

In training, you will begin by earning a private pilot certificate.  This will be followed by an instrument rating, a commercial pilot certificate, and finally a certified flight instructor certificate.  Here’s the thing:  Just because you have a commercial pilot certificate does not mean you can go out and fly airliners.  Federal law requires that the airlines only hire pilots who can qualify to hold the highest available level of pilot certificate, an airline transport pilot certificate.  To obtain this certification, you not only must complete a rigorous course of study, but you must have 1,500 hours of total flight time.  Since you can earn a commercial certificate with as little as 250 hours, you’ll need to find some way to build the additional time.  Buying time renting an airplane isn’t going to be an option unless you have an unlimited bank account.  Therefore, being a fight instructor will probably be your first paying flying job.

With this in mind, try to find a flight school that offers two things:  guaranteed flight instructor jobs for their graduates and some sort of hiring agreement with regional airlines.  This will give you a career path from the start, and will allow you to plan your timetable with some element of certainty.

The Costs

Learning to fly in the civilian world is not cheap.  Getting started in this career as a civilian will require a significant outlay of money in terms of cash and loans to get you through.  How much the cost will be depends on the school you choose and whether or not you are also earning a college degree.

If you already possess a degree, or plan to work on that once you are hired at a regional airline, a course of study at an FAR Part 141 school will cost between $49,000 and $75,000.  Costs at four year universities that also offer professional pilot programs are rather startling:  It can cost as much as $48,000 per year for tuition plus another $15,000 to $25,000 per year in flight costs.  In the university flight school environment, you could easily spend $200,000 over four years.

While the price tag is most certainly one that induces a serious case of sticker shock, it is important to remember that there are opportunities to defray some of these costs.  Most university programs have merit and need based scholarships available, and many FAR Part 141 flight schools also have way of finding financial assistance for their students.  If you are a veteran, you can use the Montgomery GI Bill to help cover the price of admission to your aviation career.  Many students in both systems secure loans to help them pay for the cost of training to fly.

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