Career in Commercial Flying: All you need to know

By Vikas Kaushik

Career as a Commercial Pilot

Flying in the air is every child’s dream and each one of us at some point of time would have imagined that. While its humanly not possible but one can fulfill the dream by flying planes. Being a commercial pilot is the most glamorous and exciting job in aviation. It is no doubt one of the most adventurous career which requires intensive training but this profession also demands a lot of time, dedication, patience and sacrifice. This is a lucrative field. But apart from all those attractive things the job of a commercial pilot makes him/her responsible for the aircraft s/he flies and the lives of his/her passengers. Pilots are highly trained professionals who fly airplanes and helicopters carrying passengers or cargo.

Academic Qualifications required for a Career in Commercial Flying

As a pilot, one need extremely high logical & analytical reasoning, psychomotor skills, navigation skills, understanding of meteorological reports, operations of electronic and mechanical controls to lead the aircraft under adverse circumstances. Decision making skills helps in leading the flight crew and passengers under climatic and other emergency situations. Science stream with Physics and Maths after 10^th is compulsory to be a pilot.

To become a pilot one has to clear Std 12^th with Physics and Mathematics as main subject with minimum 50 per cent marks. Being a pilot requires a lot of specialised technical training at various levels. In brief, the first level is that of a Student Pilot License (SPL), which allows the student to learn. After getting some training the student is provided with a Private Pilot License (PPL), which allows him to captain an aircraft without passengers. After gaining some training and experience he has to qualify for the Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), which allows him to captain an aircraft with passengers. This license is provided by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The CPL endorses what aircraft you can fly.

Best institutes to train for a Commercial Pilot License:

INDIA

• Bombay Flying Club
• Flytech Aviation Ltd., Hyderabad
• Madhya Pradesh Flying Club (MPFC)  

ABROAD

• CAE Oxford Aviation Academy
• Stanford Flying Club
• CTC Wings (Europe)
• Flight Safety Academy (USA)

Process of admission for Flying Clubs and Academies 

If you are going to take your flying classes from government flying schools there will be an entrance test conducted by the Director General Civil Aviation or the DGCA. Whereas for private institutes, there is no entrance test hence you can directly take admission to these schools if you fulfill other qualifying criteria of minimum graduation marks etc. You will need to furnish the following for admission to a good college or institute:

• All the documents (Std 10^th marksheet, Std 12^th marksheet, ID’s etc)
• Should be physically fit for medical as medical is most important part of this
• All admission formalities to be completed by the student (no agents please)
• Check the background of the flying school and the aircrafts that the school is providing training on

Career Trajectory and Options

Once you embark on your journey of getting flying hours and your licenses, you will pretty much follow this career path:

Trainee Pilot > Junior First Officer > First Officer or Co- pilot > Captain

You could also branch out into training and get a job as an instructor in a flying school, ofcourse you would need to accumulate substantial flying hours for this.

Apart from becoming a commercial pilot, there are other avenues as well.

• Roles in the Aviation Ministry
• Roles in the Air Traffic Control Department

Some institutes provide Placement services after completing CPL but mainly you have are on your own for employment. Internship is very important as it increase the chances of job.

Top Recruiters and expected salary

In India, the top recruiters include Indigo, Air India, Jet Airways. Internationally, the options are Etihad, Qatar and KLM, to name a few.

Currently, pilots are busy with working overtime simply because the demand for this talent is way above supply. No need to curb your desire to fly, if you dream to become a pilot then this is the right time to get your Commercial Pilot License. A well trained fresher pilot can earn upto INR 1.5 lakhs per month.

A day in the life of a commercial pilot

Typical airline pilot duties include making sure the cargo and passengers have been loaded, ensuring the flight instruments are working properly, taxiing the plane to the runway, taking off, maintaining the plane at cruise altitude, making safety and information announcements to passengers, fly the plane to maintain flight level, making an approach to the destination airport, landing, taxiing to the gate, ensuring disembarkation and parking the aircraft. Their job also includes communicating with air traffic controllers, calculating required fuel levels, checking weather conditions and checking aircraft weight.

Career Prospects and challenges

Aircraft maker Boeing (BA) forecast that 558,000 new commercial airline pilots will be needed over the next 20 years. That works out to about 28,000 pilots each year.  While the career prospects appear to be great and the perks are also lucrative. It depends on you whether you take this career as job or passion.  A job may become monotonous but a passion never. Pilots have to deal with a lot of stress on a typical day at work since they are responsible for a lot of lives and the slightest mistake could be disastrous. It is difficult to spend time with family since a lot of time is spent in the cockpit of a plane or in an unfamiliar place.

Vikas Kaushik

About the Author:

A young techie with a dual qualification of being an engineer and pilot trained from Stanford Flying Club. With his expert skills in aero modeling and full IT & Telecom knowledge, he finds his niche in aviation photography and innovative approaches in computers from creating new software to coding. A critical thinker with strong managerial and analytical proficiency who strives for quality in everything he participates in. Questioning the various pursuits of life backed by logical and light intellect with a touch of frankness adds dynamism to his personality. Donning the title of “life guru” as a co-founder of bassekraah.com, he is the one stop solution for all confused teenagers and youth.