How to Become a Professional Pilot

Licenses, Ratings, and Endorsements: There are all levels of pilots, and each possesses a certain combination of licenses, ratings, and endorsements that certify him to operate various aircraft under certain conditions. 

• A license is the standard pilot certification that allows you to fly with passengers. The Private Pilot license (see below) is the first of these. From there, one adds

• "Ratings" and "endorsements" that qualify a pilot to operate specialized equipment under specialized conditions; or for hire.

• Every pilot - recreational or professional - will possess a certain combination of these licenses and ratings.

• I have listed the available Licenses, Ratings and Endorsements in the order that they are most commonly acquired, and in a commonly accepted, linear progression of seriousness / difficulty.

I. Prerequisite, Recreational-level Flying

 (Note, I do not imply that this is an "official category," just a convenient way to group the following 'pre requisite' certifications): Recreational pilots are governed by Part 91, the least stringent set of the FAA regulations. The performance standards for such pilots, and the maintenance standards for the aircraft they fly, are high but nowhere near as high as for commercial and charter pilots.

• Private Pilot License: Note: I go into this in much greater detail in "How to Get Your Private License." The Private License means you are certified by the FAA to joyride with passengers locally or cross country, during the day or at night, but only when the weather and visibility conditions are ideal, and not for hire (although it is legal for passengers to equally share expenses). Ideal visibility conditions are known to pilots as "VFR" conditions, for Visual Flight Rules. There, now you know your first bit of lingo. You're on your way! Note: There are lesser licenses ("Sport" and "Recreational") that place more restrictions on your flying, but I do not consider them worthy of mention. Why would you pilot an aircraft with minimal skills and certifications - especially with passengers?

• Complex Endorsement: A sign-off that certifies a pilot to operate aircraft with retractable landing gear, and/or a variable pitch (constant speed) propeller.

• High Performance Endorsement: A sign-off that allows a pilot to operate a plane of 200HP or more

• Other Endorsements include Tail Dragger and Seaplane.

• Instrument Rating: This is your ticket to fly when you can't see out the windows (IFR conditions, for "Instrument Flight Rules). It certifies a pilot to navigate and fly the aircraft without ground or horizon references. As you may have figured out already, it is called "Instrument" flying because the only way to keep the plane wings-level and flying towards its destination is by reference to instruments and a network of radio navigation beacons. Many Private pilots will pursue this rating just to be better prepared to deal with unforeseen weather or visibility restrictions; and to keep them from getting stranded at a cross country destination if weather moves in and prevents them from taking off again to go home. Thus, it is only practical to fly cross country (point A to point B) for more than a one day stay, if you have an Instrument Rating. It will also lower a pilot's insurance premiums considerably, and is just an all-around good idea.

• Multi-Engine Rating: Although one could get this rating right after getting the Private License, most people get the Instrument Rating first. Just like it sounds, the multi-engine rating certifies a pilot to fly aircraft equipped with more than one engine. In fact, to be technical, the Private Pilot License could be called a 'single-engine rating' - it is just understood. Flying multi-engine aircraft is all about knowing how to manage the induced yaw that results from the loss of one engine, and then landing safely. In short, an ME rating is wholly about emergency procedures.

II. Commercial Categories:

Note that commercial pilots have to first attain the "Recreational licenses and Ratings" listed above. Commercial pilots, and the equipment they fly, adhere to extremely stringent FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations).

• Commercial License: A pilot must have the Instrument Rating before getting a Commercial License. The criteria for the Commercial License is basically that the pilot must demonstrate several additional maneuvers, and all the maneuvers that are required for lesser licenses, to much stricter performance tolerances. Note: There's no rule that says a commercial pilot must have a Multi-Engine rating (see above) to fly a single engine plane commercially; and there's no rule that says that every commercially-flown aircraft is complex, but most are.

• Certified Flight Instructor Rating (CFI, CFII, and MEII): The hardest ratings to obtain, short of Airline Transport Pilot (ATP). CFIs must demonstrate extreme proficiency while flying left-handed and from "the other seat." They must also know how to recover from any mistakes a student pilot might make (spins, etc) and be good teachers besides. Most aspiring professional pilots get their CFI so that they can accumulate the hours needed to be looked at by an employer who's in the market for a pilot. At the hourly rates charged for aircraft rental, the only practical way for most "wanna-be-pros" to get these hours is to work at a local airport teaching students to fly small planes so that their "pilot-in-command" hours are paid for by these students. Important Note: There are completely separate ratings for CFII (Certified Flight Instructor, Instrument) and MEII (Multi-Engine Instrument Instructor).

The Most Typical Professional Career Path or "Why You Have to Love to Fly": If an aspiring professional pilot were to enter one of the common, "from-the-street-to-pro-pilot-in-six-months-to-a-year",  commercial flight schools, he would emerge at the end of that training pipeline with the certifications listed above, and he would probably have about 300 hours of pilot-in-command hours logged. At this point, he will have taken out a loan for approximately $35,000 to get where he is, and he'd have the ratings he needs to legally be a pro, but not enough hours to be looked at by any employer or - more importantly - any employer's insurance company.

To get those hours, he would then typically fly several years as a CFI at a local airport, teaching students. At some point in the "newly Commercial Rated" or CFI phase, he may land a gig flying small courier planes for hire. Courier pilots are the ones you hear buzzing in and out of small fields at 4 in the morning, with a small baggage area filled with paychecks, in weather that would keep sane pilots on the ground. It is penance, in a way - paying your dues. But these pilots are still in the will-fly-for-food mode.

These pilots will often pick up any "right seat" hours they can, flying as navigator for "left seat" contacts they make friends with along the way. A common way to meet such contacts is to work as a line service technician at a local airport, fueling and towing, and taking care of their planes - and the pilot's needs. If the aspiring pilot in the right seat is serving as a required crew member (that is, in a plane that requires two pilots), they can log these hours as pilot-in-command time as well as gain a lot of priceless experience from the captain in the left seat. And hey, sometimes they might even get paid for this, but usually not.

Still want to a professional pilot? For those who make it past the CFI / Right-Seater /Courier / Line Service phase - at perhaps 1,000 hours - there's the "right-place-at-the-right-time" prospect of getting hired to "left seat" a small business turbo-prop (like a King Air, say) or at maybe 300-400 hours may be considered for a right seat (copilot) position with a regional airline. At this point, you start to feel that you have arrived.

Once a pilot reaches about 3,000 hours, he will either settle into a fairly secure, pampered, well-paid, existence as a "King Air class" or Lear Jet corporate captain who "works" maybe three to fourteen days per month until they retire comfortably. To do this, a pilot will need to obtain "Type Ratings" for the aircraft they wish to fly.

• Type Ratings: Once the aircraft being flown goes beyond 12,500 pounds, the pilot flying it must have a Type Rating. As the name suggests, these ratings differ from other ratings in that they are specific to the type (and, in most cases, the model) of aircraft being flown. For example, for a pilot to fly a Lear 35, she must have a Lear 35 type rating. This rating would not qualify her to fly a Lear 45, or a Falcon that was in the same performance class. Note: Sometimes an aircraft manufacturer will have several models similar enough to each other that one Type Rating will cover a few different models. Also Note: Some six- month professional pilot courses will include an entry level type rating, but - due to minimum hours requirements - few of these programs will have as part of a package the ATP rating (see below)......

III. Big Birds

• Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Rating: a.k.a. "Heavy Equipment Operator." As I stated earlier, these ratings require a certain minimum number of hours logged before they can even be undertaken. To fly a 727, or any jetliner, a pilot must possess both the ATP Rating as well as the Type Rating for that specific aircraft. Not only will a typical ATP have several such type ratings, but the currency requirements and FAA check rides for each type rating are so frequent and so stringent that these pilots deserve your full confidence. These pilots are better than machines at this point. The only pilots who could claim to be better-trained are military and Space Shuttle pilots.

• A side thought: Having said that, the instructor I got my Private license from was an Air Force Flight School Instructor until he retired as a Lt. Col. Then he went to work at Delta Air Lines - retiring again...this time as a Captain with all the available type ratings. Last I checked, he had over 19,000 hours in the air! That's more than double what the average Space Shuttle pilot has logged.

• Nearly Irrelevant but Interesting trivia: The world record for flight hours is over 65,000 hours! That's seven years straight in an airplane seat! The guy is like 85 years old now and last I checked was still flying. Of course, ALL his time is in crop dusters. It matters the KIND of time you have as well as how much to a potential employer. Delta Air Lines wouldn't look at Crop Duster Grandpa twice (or once, even) with nothing but single engine piston time - no matter how many of those hours he had. Most pilots try to log as much Multi Engine and Turbine time as they can - or HP or Complex time at least. Looks good in yer logbook, and that matters.

So, if all that work sounds like a fascinating ride - rather than a HUGE obstacle - to becoming a Professional Pilot...then you probably have the right mindset for getting there. A good pilot is always training, is an information and training junkie, is willing to pay his dues, and I've never met one for whom it had become boring or just routine - even after 20+ years of doing it.