Airline Pilot. Net

The passengers are looking with envy at the two young pilots as they entered the glass door leading to the front door of the B747. I could understanding the envy, as in many other aircrafts, the captains are in their 50s, with the blue or black caps covering the silver color or white hair.

Airlines pilots hold a very responsible position, taking charge of multimillion dollar plane and responsible for the life of hundred of passengers. They work with no fix time, sometime departing at mid night and arriving in the late afternoon. They work shift and travel to foreign lands.

What is the qualification to earn this high paid career. Not very high actually. The minimum required for an airline pilot is a ‘frozen’ Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL). They need to undergo a written exam as well  200 hours of flight training, including flight tests. Commercial pilots are put in charge of a machine that is literally worth millions of pounds and therefore to become a pilot you need to develop a number of key skills. Although this job has a number of benefits, their is also a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the pilot as they are responsible for all the people on board. They must ensure they arrive at their destination safely.

There are well aver 10,000 pilot had been trained in UK alone. There are thousands more flying various size of aircrafts. One thing about the career, they are very mobile and they are operating about the same standard. Thanks to the standard set by ICAO requiring specific kind of training to get the license.

Your career as pilot in an airline, may need some time to rise to the peak. There is a specific career path that a pilot had to follow. In one airline that I am familiar with,the pilot join as fo for the smallest fleet like F50 and gradually move up the aircraft ladder as FO till the biggest fleet of B747. Then he will move down to smallest fleet as captain and move up slowly as captain. This method ensure that, as a captain, he had a wide experience . Promotion to the position of captain usually requires at least 2,400 flying hours but this is dependant on each individual and salaries can range from around £25,000 to £80,000 or more a year.

The year of training and flying develop the leadership quality in the captain. He knows he has to lead in the sitution of emergency, that gives him the air of pride and confident.