Here's the guide from an American, for an American hahah.
First things First, the road begins by going out and flying. You can find all your local flight schools at
http://beapilot.com
walk in and tell them you want to start learning to fly, they will give you a rundown on their pricing etc. A typical rate for a Cessna 172 is 125 Dollars an Hour. you need 250 hours for your Commercial license, and the instructor will cost you another 45 bucks or so an hour.....you see where this is going right? its god damned expensive.
an outline of the Road
College, 4 years. Required for any Major airline job.
Private Pilot's License
Instrument Rating
Multi Engine License and a High performance endorsement for the singles.
Commercial Pilot's License
Certified Flight Instructor
^^^ start those now, and when you enter college keep working on them, try and get college and the licenses done around the same time/within a year of each other.
from this point - No one, and I mean Nobody in their right mind is going to hire you to fly their airliner. you have to start working your hours in as a Flight instructor, you will teach people to fly just as people taught you to fly for 2-3 years at least.
once you have around 500-1000 hours Total time, you can start thinking of applying to Regional airlines, these are airlines like;
SkyWest
Colgan Air
Air Wisconsin
Mesa Airlines
Gulfstream
Great Lakes
Compass
Horizon air
list goes on, they are the "Bitch" To the airlines, the airlines fill these airplanes owned privately by their respective carrier, but painted in the major airlines colors. they pay horribly and work you hard.
expect to earn another 1500-2000 hours doing This over 2-5 years
Now... you are in a position to apply for a job as a Major airline pilot, IF you get hired you will take a pay cut, but that cut will ultimately turn into a nice Rise over a couple years.
at 16 you're old enough to solo
once you hit 17 you can get your private license
you can get a Commercial license at 18
you can get the ATPL at 21 *if you meet the requirements*
the licenses will cost you around 30-40 thousand US Dollars, the college costs as much as college, pick any Bachelor's Degree you would like. Airlines don't care what you major in, just that you have the 4 year degree.
I Recieved my PPL on 2/25/2009
