Getting Your Pilot's License

If they didn’t tell you in flight school as you studied for your pilot's license, you certainly learn it pretty quick after you get into the airline industry that the pilot's license is only the beginning of a lifelong of learning and growing in a field that is always changing.  So even after you get your career as a pilot launched and are making a living in the trade, there are always ways you can be working every day to keep up with what is going on not only in aviation generally but with your local airline industry and what...

Probably the first big step if you want to get moving on a career that involves flying an aircraft is to get a pilots license that enables you to serve as a private pilot.  To put that in context, there are lesser pilot's licenses such as the student's license or the sports or recreational licenses but there are a lot of limitations on those licenses.  If you want to be able to fly in support of your business (but not as your business) or to be able to fly with some freedom as part of your private life, a private...

When you boil down to the basics of the things you must do before you can get a private pilot's license, it is basically three things.  You must log 40-50 hours of flight time with your instructor with at least one solo flight in there.  You must pass a flight test where an FAA examiner goes up in the airplane with you to check out your knowledge and skill in handling the aircraft.  And you must be able to pass the FAA written pilot's license exam.   Maybe because it’s a written test, that exam is often the thing that...

There is a singular thrill that surges through you the day get your first pilot's license.  You feel as though suddenly you grew wings and stopped being a terrestrial creature and in a way became a cousin to the birds who were free to fly the skies at will.  That little license says that you have the knowledge and the skills to take an aircraft and sour far above the rest of mankind, even if only for a little while.   So what next?  The instinct most new pilots have is to get out there and show off this new...

If you were to interview many of the people who set off on that quest to get their pilot's license about their motivations, you would get answers all over the map.  And for many the goals are quite ambitious and they might include starting their own private charter company, becoming a private pilot for a business like a church or an oil company or working up the system all the way to the top until they are able to fly the jumbo jets on exotic international flights.   But for many of us, we just want to be able to...