If you love traveling, have a heart for adventure, and enjoy seeing cities from a vantage point high above the clouds, a career as an aviation pilot may be right for you. Thanks to growth in the aviation industry, job opportunities for pilots abound. In fact, aspiring pilots can find jobs with either commercial airlines or corporations that own their own private jets. With many of the military aviators of the Vietnam War era retiring, industry observers are actually predicting a shortage of pilots in the years ahead. It was once thought that few people could succeed as pilots—but nothing could be further from the truth. Research indicates that as many as 90 percent of the public has the aptitude to learn to pilot an aircraft. In other words, becoming a pilot may be easier than you realize. Of course, you do need extensive training to become a professional pilot. To begin with, you’ll need to secure a private pilot’s certificate. This certificate will allow you to pilot an aircraft with passengers on board. However, the certificate will not permit you to earn money as a pilot. For that, you’ll need to obtain a commercial pilot’s certificate. In order to obtain a well-paying job as a pilot, you’ll have to record plenty of time in the air. Professional pilots say that the typical pilot needs at least 1,500 flight hours before they can secure work. Generally speaking, it can take anywhere from one to five years or more to log that many hours in the pilot’s seat. Flight training can be expensive, requiring students to spend more than $22,000. However, financial aid is available to students who need it. And that training can pay off handsomely, once you secure a commercial aviation job paying more than $100,000 annually. L. Charles Fernandez is the creator of the Six Figure Jobs Blog, a guide to finding six figure jobs in unlikely fields. Source: www.articlesbase.com |