Traditionally, there are two ways to become a commercial airline pilot - via the military or by attending a flight school to obtain the required certificates/ratings, then becoming an instructor and building flight time to develop the proficiency required to met the minimum hiring standards of commercial airlines. According to the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), pilots can expect to spend approximately $30,000 on pilot certification alone. In addition, a career with the major airlines may require a four-year college or university degree. Entry-level pilots, according to the association, start earning approximately $28,000 per year; and after ten years of experience, a pilot might see six figures. Federal law requires pilots to retire at age 60. If you are interested, ALPA has a booklet available (http://www.alpa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=123) for PDF download that contains valuable information for young men and women interested in aviation careers. http://www.alpa.org http://www.flightcareers.com/comparediff.htm http://www.salary.com/careers/layouthtmls/crel_display_Cat10_Ser134_Par234.html

The military route aside, here are the civilian routes to an airline career in the United States: An aspiring civilian pilot can do their flight training and earn their licenses & ratings via these routes: A university aviation program An aviation academy program A local flight school or flying club One does not need a degree in aviation to become a pilot. However some chose to go to an aviation university as the curriculum interests them and they can get college credit for their training. There are many 'big name' schools such as Embry Riddle Aeronautical University & University of North Dakota that offer programs that run upwards of $80K for a 4 year degree. Students earn their Private Pilot license, Instrument & Muti-engine ratings, Commercial pilot license and often the Flight Instructor certificates too while doing their degree. However, many smaller schools offer aviation degrees as well for much less money. To research aviation universities go to the University Aviation Association website: http://uaa.auburn.edu/msie.htm Upon graduation you should have about 250-300 hours going this route, unless you became an instructor as part of their program and built up additional expericence. There are also several aviation academy programs that tout their affiliations with certain regional carriers and their 'fast track' to the airlines. Mesa Pilot Development, Pan Am Acedmy, and the Delta Connection Academy are the big names. These are the schools that advertise in Plane & Pilot or Flying magazine each month claiming "We'll make you an airline pilot!". You get the same licenses & ratings at an academy as you would at an aviation university, but not the degree. Successful graduates of such academy programs are offered an interview with the academy partner airline at substantially lower flight experience than they usually require. This is not a job guarantee, but an interview only. They typically cost $60K-80K and graduates typically have 300-500 hours flight time. If a graduate is not hired by the affiliate regional, they do not meet qualifications to get hired elsewhere and need to build their flight experience via other avenues to be marketable as a commercial pilot. A local flight school or flying club is often the most affordable way to get all the necessary licenses & ratings. Some areas do not have flying clubs, but it's worth investigationg as clubs are often not-for-profit, and for their members. They have no overhead or staff to pay so they are often less costly than flight schools on the same airport. One can typically expect to spent $30-40K on their Private & Commercial licenses and Instrument & Multi-engine ratings if done via the school/club route. Here is general Breakdown of the Cost of the PPL done via a local school/club: http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/PPLcosts.html For more information on the FAA requirements for the Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot and Instrument & Mutli-engine ratings, see this link- http://www.flightinfo.com/learntofly.htm Becoming a Commercial Pilot The minimum amount of flight time one must have to take the FAA Commercial Pilot flight test is 250 hours, unless you do your training via "Part 141" school then it's 190. A pilot must have a Commercial license to get a job flying any size aircraft, for any type of business for compensation. The major carriers minimum flight time requirements, aka "minimums" or "mins", are around 2,500 hours and the regional carriers mins are about 1,000 hours (with at least 100 of that being flown in multi-engine aircraft). "Competaive minimums", or what the average flight times of their new hires are, may be significantly above the minimums required to apply. This is especially the case in 2005, as there are a high number of extremely qualified pilots with several thousand hour of flight time in the job market. Obviously a pilot with a brand new commercial license does not meet the airlines hiring minimums. How do they get the flight time required? New commercial pilots can fly several kinds of jobs that will enable them to build up their flight experience to the airline minimums. The typical civilian career path is a timebuilding job to get to a regional carrier, then after several years there they apply with a major carrier. Flying cargo is an option too, however most small cargo operators like Fed Ex feeder or Ameriflight minimums are slightly higher than the regional airlines. Legally, pilots must have 1500 hours to fly freight for small 'FAA Part 135 operators'. Large freight operators like UPS or FEd Ex are considered 'Part 121' (just like the passenger airlines) and their hiring minimums are on par with the majors carriers. Their competative hiring mins are far and beyond their mins(many thousands of hours of jet experience), and like Southwest or JetBlue pilot jobs at these companies are very sought after. "Time building jobs" are: Banner towing Traffic watch Skydive pilot Pipeline patrol Fish spotting Flight Instruction (with the additional CFI license) How do you find such jobs? An aspiring commercial pilot would do well to network in the aviation community as they earned their ratings. Many employers will hire a face they know over a faceless resume. Chatting up pilots already doing these sorts of jobs provides a personal contact for the future. Banner tow & skydive operators can be found in the phonebook or online. This site provide some good advice for skydive pilots- DiverDriver.com. This link has an article about banner towing. Call your local radio station and ask for the contact information for their traffic watch operator. Seek them out with resume in hand. Even if they aren't hiring at the moment, you will be a familiar face if you check back every month or so and they may consider you at a future date. Often the flight school where a pilot does their flight training may hire them to teach for their school when they earn their Certified Flight Instructor/"CFI". (You need this additional rating to be able to teach student pilots.) Getting Hired Once a pilot builds up the additional 750 hours above the 250 they had when they got their commercial license, they can then start to apply with the regional carriers. An applicant may meet the minimums, but depending on that airlines "compatative minimums", they may or may not be asked for an interview. While 1,000 hours is the least amount of flight experience most regionals will accept, it may take a few hundred more to meet 'competative minimums' to get the call for an interview. The above is from my pilot careers website. The rest of the page can be viewed here- http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/FAQ.html You can also find more information about becoming an airline pilot at this website designed to anwser every question one might have about the subject at: http://www.jetcareers.com

I live in Washington DC/Maryland and in this area, there are flying lessons that van be taken. Once, those lessons have been taken and all tests (find out from the FAA and check aviation guidleines in your state, possibly online), you should be receiving a pilots license. I definitely suggest checking with state guidleines because licenses for commercial and other types are always slightly different. Then go apply with an airline and get ya flight on

I think you actually can't be a commercial pilot if you have or you have had eye illnesses of any kind.

Most people have a misconception of commercial pilots. A commercial pilot is a pilot that has either at least 250 hours part 61, or at least 190 part 141. You also must have the proper hours for each part of flying, such as cross-country, pilot in command, solo time and so on and so forth. All a commercial pilot is, is a pilot that can fly for pay of any sort. A pilot with this low of time though will not be flying for the Airlines. Most regional-airlines require 1000 hours, with a multi-engine rating, CFI (certified flight instructor), CFII (certified flight instructor instrument) is always a plus, also MEI (multi-engine) never hurts. You MUST have a instrument rating as well. This is great information given by by Av8trxx.

Determination, Hard Work, and hands.

Stay away from this industry. It's in a free fall right now. By Christmas 08 there will thousands of unemployed pilots on the streets. If they want jobs they will have to go overseas to such desireable places like the Middle East. Airline piloting was once a respectable job right up there with lawyers and doctors but since 9/11 it has been gutted by corporate greed and out of control stupidity at the highest levels of airline management. The smartest people who want to be involved in aviation don't fly. They get an education and get in the good old boy network at the top of airline management and stick their faces in the money trough that airline employees provide. Airlines like United and US Air only survived 9/11 because pilots and other employees took three pay cuts, lost their pensions and employee stock and took huge losses in quality of life. Airline piloting at some of the majors isn't much better than glorified bus driving and the cargo pilots who don't even fly humans make much more now and get treated far better. Whose to blame? Mostly it's the pilots themselves who bent over for the thieves at the top and accepetd pay cut after pay cut being fooled it was 'to save the airline'. Now that the airlines have 'been saved' and are sitting on billions in unsecured cash the scum bags at the top don't want to give one cent back to the people who made the airline survive in the first place. It's called good old American corporate greed and it's an ugly fact about airline flying. Since there have been airplanes there have been pilots and management trying to destroy each other. Its no co-incidence the airlines that make money have a good relationship with their labor. Those that don't are dying and bleeding cash. Airline management can't figure out this relationship or don't care to as they still get millions for poor leadership. My advice is if you can go into the military and fly then do that. If you spend the $100,000 to become an airline pilot with a degree to go sit in the right seat of a regional jet making $18,000 a year then I'd say you have a tough road ahead because pilots are not only suckers and can't work together to save their profession they are the favorite target of money grubbing executives who really don't care about running an airline. The danger now is with the huge cost of fuel prices airline pilots at some carriers would rather see their beloved airline bleed to death than be torn apart at the hands of coporate raiders and greedy execs. They will do this by wasting fuel and delaying flights to slowly bring the airline down and make it worthless so the exces at the top have nothing left but failed reputations. You have to remember most airline pilots are miliatry pilots trained to be tough and put up a fight when backed into a corner. They expected to confornt enemies on the battle field, not in the boardroom of their homeland. Now that they have had the knife buried in their back by sociopathic executives they are willing to burn their carrier to the ground before leaving anything for the scumbag execs. If things continue as they are, some very famous US air carriers will soon be ashes blowing across history. Not one more cent to management...full pay to the last day. And thats how it really is boys and girls... Signed...US Airline Pilot About to Lose His Job to Incompetent Managment

Stay away from this industry. It's in a free fall right now. By Christmas 08 there will thousands of unemployed pilots on the streets. If they want jobs they will have to go overseas to such desireable places like the Middle East. Airline piloting was once a respectable job right up there with lawyers and doctors but since 9/11 it has been gutted by corporate greed and out of control stupidity at the highest levels of airline management. The smartest people who want to be involved in aviation don't fly. They get an education and get in the good old boy network at the top of airline management and stick their faces in the money trough that airline employees provide. Airlines like United and US Air only survived 9/11 because pilots and other employees took three pay cuts, lost their pensions and employee stock and took huge losses in quality of life. Airline piloting at some of the majors isn't much better than glorified bus driving and the cargo pilots who don't even fly humans make much more now and get treated far better. Whose to blame? Mostly it's the pilots themselves who bent over for the thieves at the top and accepetd pay cut after pay cut being fooled it was 'to save the airline'. Now that the airlines have 'been saved' and are sitting on billions in unsecured cash the scum bags at the top don't want to give one cent back to the people who made the airline survive in the first place. It's called good old American corporate greed and it's an ugly fact about airline flying. Since there have been airplanes there have been pilots and management trying to destroy each other. Its no co-incidence the airlines that make money have a good relationship with their labor. Those that don't are dying and bleeding cash. Airline management can't figure out this relationship or don't care to as they still get millions for poor leadership. My advice is if you can go into the military and fly then do that. If you spend the $100,000 to become an airline pilot with a degree to go sit in the right seat of a regional jet making $18,000 a year then I'd say you have a tough road ahead because pilots are not only suckers and can't work together to save their profession they are the favorite target of money grubbing executives who really don't care about running an airline. The danger now is with the huge cost of fuel prices airline pilots at some carriers would rather see their beloved airline bleed to death than be torn apart at the hands of coporate raiders and greedy execs. They will do this by wasting fuel and delaying flights to slowly bring the airline down and make it worthless so the exces at the top have nothing left but failed reputations. You have to remember most airline pilots are miliatry pilots trained to be tough and put up a fight when backed into a corner. They expected to confornt enemies on the battle field, not in the boardroom of their homeland. Now that they have had the knife buried in their back by sociopathic executives they are willing to burn their carrier to the ground before leaving anything for the scumbag execs. If things continue as they are, some very famous US air carriers will soon be ashes blowing across history. Not one more cent to management...full pay to the last day. And thats how it really is boys and girls... Signed...US Airline Pilot About to Lose His Job to Incompetent Managment

Are you feeling lucky? If so, take a chance, hope things turn around, and go for it. I have 12,000 plus hours, and can't find a job anywhere since my airline closed. If you love flying, and your pay is not important, start taking lessons. Realize that it is not what it used to be except for Fed Ex, and UPS pilots. You have pilots willing to work for $18,000 a year flying $50,000,000 jets. What is wrong with that picture? Very few careers will you have so much expensive training with so little return for so many years!