Airline Pilot Chicago IL

Being an airline pilot is one of the most exciting careers out there. Sure, there are jobs with shorter hours and much less training – and nearly all careers involve less travel! But, if you’re the sort of person who enjoys traveling to new places, has an eye for detail, and is keen to meet new people, there really couldn’t be a better choice. Being an airline pilot isn’t an easy job, but it’s definitely among the most rewarding imaginable.

The most obvious benefit, of course, is the opportunity to travel. But, the fact is, there is simply no other job that could possibly give you the opportunities for traveling the world than becoming an airline pilot would give you. Normally, when careers try to sell themselves by advertising the travel involved, they’re really talking about limited travel to half a dozen countries at most. Exciting in the short term, perhaps, but after you’ve been somewhere ten times, it probably doesn’t count as exotic any more.

Being a commercial pilot, by contrast, lets you travel the entire planet. Anywhere that has an airport is a potential destination, and if you get a job at one of the larger international carriers, the world is quite literally your oyster, as you can travel to any continent in the course of your job. With generous allowances of time off to match the long hours, you can see the world as part of your job - and you’ll never have to buy a plane ticket again!

When we talk about being an “airline pilot” in this article, we are referring, in the main, to commercial pilots flying passenger jets on domestic or international routes. Indeed, that’s what most people think of first when thinking about becoming an airline pilot. But, of course, that’s not the only type of flying that you can do as a living. Many commercial pilots never fly a passenger jet in their lives. Others prefer to fly cargo or mail routes, and others still specialize in flying small aircraft in exotic locations around the world.

Imagine being a pilot flying a seaplane between islands in the Seychelles for a living. Waking up every morning in your apartment by the beach, knowing that the most stressful thing you’ll do that day is fly some post a few miles across the ocean, and then return with a family of holidaymakers. This is probably the exact opposite of the life most people picture when pondering becoming an airline pilot – and indeed, for some readers, it may not sound like an attractive prospect. This article is mainly concerned with life, as a commercial pilot flying passenger aircraft – but the point is that a pilot’s license opens up a world of choices limited only by your own ambitions. If life as an airline pilot flying for one of the world’s largest carriers isn’t to your liking, there are a myriad of other options open to you.

In a word, yes. Flying is one of the safest methods of travel, and that’s at least partly because of the intensive training pilots undergo to ensure the safety of their passengers. A job as an airline pilot requires you to commit to years of training before you can fly large airliners.

Nor is it just a question of learning which button on your cockpit controls does what. Airline pilots are required to take courses in navigation and meteorology, and become experts in any number of different fields. You’ll be expected to perform a large number of tasks, from working out a flight plan or calculating takeoff and landing weights, to communicating with passengers and air traffic control and keeping records of any incidents or problems with the aircraft.

Once you’ve mastered the intricacies of flying a large commercial jet, you’ll still be at the rank of first officer or co-pilot, and remain at that rank for a good number of years. You’ll be required to spend thousands of hours in the air with more experienced pilots before being permitted to take command of your first passenger flight, and this may not happen till mid-way through your career as an airline pilot.

Finally, all this is very expensive. A commercial pilot’s license can cost up to $100,000 to acquire, and further training is dependent on the support of an airline with whom you have managed to secure a job. There are scholarship schemes to cover the cost of training, but these are very competitive and hard to get into.