Always pleased to speak to aspiring pilots 🙂 My grandfather was a pilot, my dad was a pilot, my mother was a flight attendant, and my husband is a pilot – we’re an aviation household for certain!

HOW TO GET IN
Traditionally, there have been two methods to get the needed coaching: be a part of the navy or go to one in all the couple schools that focuses on aviation (Embry-Riddle, North Dakota, there is likely to be others). The schools and the needed flight hours are eye-wateringly costly; 25 years in the past, the value was $100k for the 4 yr diploma and the flight certificates. For the navy, your daughter would do ROTC at any faculty of her alternative (or a service academy, if she’s very athletic). She may go to school without spending a dime on an ROTC scholarship, however she gained’t know if she acquired a pilot “slot” till her senior yr; she’d must be comfortable with another job in the navy in case she isn’t picked for aviation. While the Marines do have some fastened wing ( = airplanes vs rotary wing = helicopters) property, her choices in the navy are actually the Air Force or the Navy. The Navy is extra fighters, whereas the Air Force has cargo jets, flying fuel stations, radar planes, and extra along with fighters. For the final 20-ish years or so, flying for the navy has include an 8 yr obligation that begins after the pilot finishes 1.5-2 yr flight college, so principally a ten yr dedication. That large dedication is as a result of the value is so costly and so they spend a lot time coaching child pilots.

I don’t know in the event you’ve seen headlines about the looming pilot scarcity, however as a result of there’s a compulsory federal retirement age for pilots at age 65, the airways have been making an attempt to get inventive with the best way to fill their ranks. All of the legacy carriers (= United, American, Delta = the large guys which have been round since the starting of economic aviation) have now opened their very own flight “academies.” You’ll must analysis these. I don’t know something about their necessities (do you want a bachelor’s to enter? what when you’ve got an affiliate’s and can end your bachelor’s whereas there?) or their value (is there a price? if not, do you owe a dedication like the navy? pupil loans?) or their audience (mid-career job changers? 18 yr previous college students?).

WORK-LIFE
Most folks do not know what pilot and flight attendant schedules appear like. Unless they’re making an attempt to earn more money, they work usually not more than 15 days per thirty days. A pilot or FA indicators as much as work a sure variety of hours per thirty days. As a child pilot, she’ll “sit reserve” (on name). Brand new pilots get the tremendous quick calls – e.g., be right here at the airport in 2 hours. For these calls, you need to be situated inside X minutes of the airport. When you’ve acquired just a few months beneath your belt, you get extra discover, and could be inside X hours of the airport. When you get sufficient seniority, you’ll get a daily schedule. What’s “enough?” When my dad began flying, the airways had been filled with WWII pilots and he needed to sit reserve for years, and the pay is fairly crappy. Today, child pilots are solely sitting reserve for six months as a result of senior pilots are retiring so quickly.

A daily schedule is named a “line.” You maintain a line and also you bid a line. When sufficient pilots above you have got retired that you simply graduate off reserve, you’re stated to have sufficient seniority to “hold a line.” Certain strains all the time go to the seniormost pilots – the ones with a 36 hour layover in Turks & Caicos, for instance 😉 A child pilot gained’t have the needed seniority to carry that line; the extra senior pilots will snap that one up. A younger pilot will be capable of maintain a crappy line with icky hours and locations, nevertheless it’ll be yours and you may plan round it.

Pilots and FAs put of their bids each month for the totally different strains based mostly on what they need to do. Have a dentist appt on the twenty first? Great, prepare to be dwelling that day. Recital on the thirtieth? Ditto. Pilots and FAs all the time “go out on a trip” for 2-4, not often 5, days at a time. You, passenger, are solely going from hub-to-destination, however your crew has different locations to go, in order that aircraft will get freshened up and exit once more in 90-ish minutes. The crew will do 3-5 “legs” in a home day, relying on the size of legs.

This could range by airline, however FAs and pilots signal as much as fly a variety of hours/journeys per thirty days.

Pilots and FAs have federally mandated crew relaxation necessities, so there’s a restrict to what number of hours they will work. At the finish of day 1, the crew will verify and see that they’re staying in the Airport Hilton or no matter tonight, in order that they’ll name for the airport shuttle, and so they’ll decide them up, and every crewmember will verify into their very own resort room, all paid, and so they’ll meet up in the morning in the foyer and catch the airport van once more. The rooms are paid however meals is just not, however there’s a modest per diem. And they’ll do that for 2-4-5 days: fly to 3-5 cities per day, keep at a resort, return to the airport and fly to a different 3-5 cities… Yes, it’s completely exhausting. But you select your schedule! And say you personally hate the Hilton in Cleveland that the airline has a contract with…nicely, simply don’t bid Cleveland once more. And you possibly can select what number of days you’re dwelling between journeys.

My dad died once I was younger (automobile accident, not aviation) and my mother was all the time capable of assist out and be as hands-on as she wished to be (she was an superior Girl Scout Cookie Mom <3) and she or he may all the time make recitals and that form of factor. But there have been loads of issues she wasn’t round for as a result of she had literal locations to be. The older you get, the higher your schedule will get (as a result of it is simply you and your folks bidding that Turks & Caicos journey). But when she was dwelling, she was out there throughout the day, which was nice for serving to out at college.

DOWNSIDES
Did I point out this life is usually a grind?

Need I point out winter storms or pc meltdowns?

The aviation enterprise is cyclical. Is there cash to be made for pilots? Yes. Is it assured? Nope. Wait half an hour for some airline to have some disaster. My mother is totally satisfied that airways by no means really earn money in the event you stability out the unhealthy years with the good years. And what occurs when there is a downturn? Layoffs and furloughs. Which means your revenue dries up and the solely factor you are good at is not a viable option to earn money. For a pattern disaster, American Airlines is in a bunch of ache proper now as a result of they’d ordered a bunch of latest Boeings which are years delayed and so AA is flying older planes that are not as gas effecient which is reducing income – airline execs must have crystal balls to do their jobs nicely. AA is hurting so badly they’ve turned off their pilot hiring, regardless that they’ve the oldest pilot workforce in the US.

Union contracts expire and you may work years with out a contract. Strikes usually are not unusual.

There are different concepts simply on the tip of my tongue, however I am unable to bear in mind them, so this should do. Hope this helps!