New Pilot
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Join Date: May 2018
Location: Miami
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New Pilot
Hello All,
I am heavily interested in becoming a commercial airline pilot, and I am having a hard time finding concrete information online.
First, I am concerned with my age; I will be 27 this summer and I have noticed that a lot of new pilots start out very young. Does anyone know if this would be a considerable factor?
Second, I am not sure where to go or how to get started. I was looking at the JetBlue Getaeway Select program it would be a 4 year program and it would $125K. According to their website:
"Once meeting all program requirements, including the FAA's 1,500 flight-hour requirement, pilots will become a new hire at JetBlue. At that time, graduates will go through the same orientation and six-week instruction that all E190 first officers complete."
Any feedback or guidance from anyone who is currently trying to obtain there commercial pilot license or is currently a commercial airline pilot would be greatly appreciated.
Hope you all have a great day!
I am heavily interested in becoming a commercial airline pilot, and I am having a hard time finding concrete information online.
First, I am concerned with my age; I will be 27 this summer and I have noticed that a lot of new pilots start out very young. Does anyone know if this would be a considerable factor?
Second, I am not sure where to go or how to get started. I was looking at the JetBlue Getaeway Select program it would be a 4 year program and it would $125K. According to their website:
"Once meeting all program requirements, including the FAA's 1,500 flight-hour requirement, pilots will become a new hire at JetBlue. At that time, graduates will go through the same orientation and six-week instruction that all E190 first officers complete."
Any feedback or guidance from anyone who is currently trying to obtain there commercial pilot license or is currently a commercial airline pilot would be greatly appreciated.
Hope you all have a great day!
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Mare Nostrum
Age: 41
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27 is not too old. Plenty of guys starting out who are older than you.
Go to your local airport and check out every flight school and compare. You can probably get everything done for $50-70K. If you drop everything and dedicate 100% to become a professional pilot, you can get your ratings between 7-10 months. If you work full time and dedicate your free time to flying, you could be done in a year and a half maybe.
Flight instructor jobs are plenty if you are willing to move to the right place. A year and a half of instructing and you’ll have enough hours to go to the regional airline or your choice. Currently, guys from my airline are getting hired at places like Frontier with just over a year at my company, less than two years to Spirit, less than three years to Jetblue, and we even have had guys with less than three years get hired at Delta but that’s atypical.
There is a lot of hiring and movement right now and the retirements at the majors hasn’t even hit peak yet.
Go to your local airport and check out every flight school and compare. You can probably get everything done for $50-70K. If you drop everything and dedicate 100% to become a professional pilot, you can get your ratings between 7-10 months. If you work full time and dedicate your free time to flying, you could be done in a year and a half maybe.
Flight instructor jobs are plenty if you are willing to move to the right place. A year and a half of instructing and you’ll have enough hours to go to the regional airline or your choice. Currently, guys from my airline are getting hired at places like Frontier with just over a year at my company, less than two years to Spirit, less than three years to Jetblue, and we even have had guys with less than three years get hired at Delta but that’s atypical.
There is a lot of hiring and movement right now and the retirements at the majors hasn’t even hit peak yet.
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: USA
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Zondaracer has some good advice. I might through in buying a simple single engine fixed gear with about 1000 hours left of the engine. It is relatively inexpensive to fly and maintain. The days you are not instructing, hop in and build some hours, fly some triangle routes, volunteer to fly for the local sky diving club and ferry aircraft for fix based customers, etc... I did not get hired by a commercial airline till my mid thirties and still had a great career. Good luck!
