If you want to become a commercial pilot you have to be able to pass a First Class medical. If you have any disqualifying conditions, this career path is off the table.

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/students/presolo/special/pilots-guide-to-medical-certification

When you're done reviewing that link I just gave you, explore the AOPA website to learn more. It's a process that takes, typically, 4-5 years to get to big planes. You have to have a minimum of 1500 hours logged to get your ATP, which means you will be trying to fly as many hours as possible, any way possible, at jobs that don't pay very well.

But it CAN be done, I know several people who are now ATPs that started their journey in 2018 and 2019. One is a long haul cargo 747 pilot, and the other is a passenger airline 737 pilot. Another friend is halfway to 1500 and flying medevacs, but plans to go to the majors once she can.

• Be 17 or older
• Speak english
• medical exam
• Some classroom/self study learning (Laws, theory, equipment, resources and processes)
• 40 hours of training flight time including solo hours after you are endorsed to do so
• Pass an oral exam testing your knowledge
• Successfully Complete a checkride where your skills are examined by an FAA-approved instructor

Congrats your a pilot now. Try not to hit anything and dont fly into icing conditions

Pro tip: Hang out at the local airport and make friends. Sweep the floor for them, hang out and help out with some project. Bring a few beers (Not if you're flying!) Pilots love hanging out with and talking to people about their hobby, and im sure one would be willing to take you up. You never know, you play your cards right and they could help you with some of this training on a discount. (Like just pay for gas and you can use the plane, ect)

Commercial pilot in the US is going to cost you somewhere easily north of $50K.

If you're serious, first thing to do is see if you can pass a "First Class" medical. If you can pass that, move forward. If not, not much reason to go further.

In canada its about 70-80k cad $ for all your ratings (ppl, cpl, ifr, multi) Or about 20-25k cad for ppl starting from zero (about 65 hours)

Depends on what you mean by commercial. If you're talking flying for the airlines then you need an ATP license and a first class medical. If you're talking just a commercial license so that you can fly for hire, meaning flying smaller planes with passengers, for tours, or flying cargo or flying as someones personal pilot it's a commercial license and a second class medical minimum. Best thing to do is find a local flight school and take a discovery flight to see if you even like it. It's a tiny investment and you'll fly with a CFI that can answer more questions for you. Go from there but like someone said if you're talking ATP and can't pass the first class medical for some reason you need to rethink things. Maybe the second class and commercial.

r/flying FAQs would be a great place to start. There are also lots of posts there with tons of information.

Brilliant writeup from Guppie below, and as I am currently in a UAS I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

Okay so technically, there are no entry requirements to work towards your PPL and further, although it will cost you roughly 60k out of pocket, and you will likely not get picked up by anyone with no degree or a levels, so let me help out:

Focus on getting high passes and above in your core subjects, specifically Mathematics, English Language and Physics. Alot of academies will want a grade 5-6 and above in Mathematics and Physics if possible.

In terms of choices, choose what you enjoy, there is no magic formula to become a pilot in terms of choices outside of the core 3 subjects. I would personally advise getting your A Levels aswell, I'd reccomend Maths, Physics and a Humanities subject, although to my knowledge their are no specific A Level disciplines required for an ATPL.

As stated by Guppie in his brilliant writeup, a language will not be neccesary, as by law all communications are in English, although having some cultural awareness and knowledge will be beneficial.

It's a very competitve path, and you have to be the best you can be, although you will not have to worry about the competition if you're the right fit. Try your best, be willing to pay, smash it and good luck mate.

Summary: good core subject grades, ideally 2 stem and 1 humanities a levels if possible/desired, have money or be very competitive for a scholarship.

Late to the party here, but my dads a pilot, and he’s told me that you only really need a grade 5 in maths (ideally a 6, shouldn’t really matter though), the airlines don’t mind what you take at gcse, so just pick what you enjoy. If you want to learn to fly early though and gain some flying experience before a PPL then I’d recommend learning to fly gliders, you can learn from 13 and fly solo at 14, and at the moment claim an SPL from 16, most clubs give under 25 members cheaper flying rates making it relatively affordable for most people (depending on how much you fly), it’s often cheaper then golf! It might help you stand out from the crowd but isn’t necessary.

For reference, i'm a student pilot with 15 hours flight time training for my PPL, to eventually be a commercial pilot.

You need to have an ATPL (Airline Transport Pilots Licence) to be a commercial pilot. This requires you to take 9 theory exams and do real training in an aircraft and simulator.

One way to do this is to get on an 'Integrated' course, where the exams and training is done in a large package, with a training organisation such as SkyBorne or Leading Edge Aviation. These are simple and quick, but cost around 110,000 pounds.

You may also find scholarships for this, such as the British Airways Speedbird academy, where you do an Integrated course for free.

Technically, for the integrated route and its scholarships, the entrance requirement are 5 GCSE's at a pass (4). However, these are popular and difficult to get onto, so having good GCSE's, a Private Pilots Licence and maybe some A-Levels will help with selection on these.

The other route is 'Modular', where you do the training at your requirement, funded by you and in your control. These are cheaper, around 60,000 pounds but depending on your location could be as low as 40k (Can't believe I'm calling 40k low!).

Technically, there's no entrance requirements for this, so you don't need anything, as its in your control.

So, I would recommend trying hard for a good grade in maths and physics, as these are key topics in ATPL exams. Try to take triple science if you can. Otherwise, maybe take geography and do subjects you enjoy and find easy.

Don't take a language, its super hard and not needed as all pilots around the globe speak English by law.

If you have the money, try to learn for your Private Pilots License, its great fun and teaches you how to fly light aircraft, and is required for your ATPL, so you'll be doing it anyway. It costs around 8-10 thousand pounds and you can start learning at 14 years old.

If not, try to take a Trial Flight at your local airfield for Xmas/Birthday. These give you a taste of aviation and also are good experience for interviews on Integrated Courses.

I Hope thats helpful, there's no real requirement so go with the flow, being a pilot is difficult and if you can't get the medical, you can't fly, so be sure to consider a backup career.

Have fun flying if you do, It's great fun :)

TL;DR - Focus on Maths and Physics, Try to take Triple Science. Otherwise, consider geography and take subjects you enjoy. Be sure to consider a backup career and its requirements incase you can't be a pilot for medical reasons.

You just need 5 gcses at grade 5 or above

travel and tourism fr

To help you out, to be a commercial pilot you don't need a degree. But you're really asking about becoming an airline or cargo pilot, which is how people are answering.

Your post history makes me think a first class medical is a bigger barrier than lack of a degree. Not impossible to get the medical certificate, but you will have an uphill battle.

Yes and No

No

Nope, just felt like asking and getting answers to my follow up questions...

Why don't you use the damn search function to find the most frequently asked question on this forum?

My state requires a 16 hour class which includes range time. Need to hit within a silhouette with like 20 out of 25 rounds at different distances (i think it was like 7, 10, 15, 20 yards?) some folks in my class didn't own any firearms and were 100% beginners and no one failed the range portion. The inclass portion had a quize but was mostly discussion on laws and discussing scenarios (along with a visit from a US Law Shield rep......)

In Illinois an 18 hour course spread over 2 days is the max required time commitment (cost of course, finger printing, and submission to the State police) and 30 rounds on target from 10 and 15 feet. A majority of them had to be on target. You were allowed a couple of misses, but I don't know how many. I didn't have any that did. That was all.

In Va, I just sat through a 3-4 hour ppt presentation and filed at the district court house for it. No testing or fingerprinting.

Wisconsin. There’s an education requirement, but they accept hunters safety as the education. That, in turn, can be done completely online, live fire training for that is optional. Once you’ve met the education requirements it’s an online application and fee, and I got my permit in the mail in about a week. So I was able to get a CCW permit without ever touching a firearm. I realized I had no idea what I was doing, and got training after the fact.

I agree. If you consider that many that get a CC have potentially never held a firearm before or since it's a little unnerving.

I'm in PA.

The $10 fee and the 5 minute wait to have the picture for my card taken was a real burden./s

Sus, very sus.

"CCL requirements are so lax"

Are they lax? or are they what they SOULD be....

If you’re a rated pilot, it’s like 5 minutes. Login to the same place you take WINGS courses and take the part 107 for part 61 pilots course. After that it’s just IACRA stuff. 

Just take the test, and register your drone and you are done

Thanks for the feedback back guys. I started working on it this afternoon. So far it's been pretty quick and easy. I have one section left, and have had a ton of distractions. If I was to buckle down and focus I think you could probably do the entire training in 2-3 hours. Maybe another hour for IACRA.

Google is free

If you are already a rated pilot I would think you could go take it without any issues and pass but I don’t think you have too. If you are a part 61 you have to have had a flight review in the past 2 years and do the online training course and you will be certified.

As a non pilot no prior flight experience other than flying drones for fun for years I did my part 107 though pilot institute and highly recommend. I started the course on Friday at 5 and took the exam Monday and passed with a high score. It wasn’t the easiest but not hard either. The pilot institute has been a great asset to be able to utilize for rule changes or refreshers

1. I hate saying this sort of thing but did you google these questions before asking on Reddit? This is an incredibly broad question that gets asked all the time and there are a thousand articles and answers on Reddit on the various ways to go about becoming a pilot for a career. You should absolutely do it!
2. Have lots of money. Most people recommend against any sort of loans for flight training. At a college program you might be able to do student loans to pay for the flight portion. But bear in mind flying is on top of tuition, not included.
3. Work at an FBO as a ramper. Fueling planes, washing, customer service. You’ll make connections.
4. Being a good student in general is what you should do. Be a well rounded person. But having a strong understanding of math and physics is good, but certainly not an end all be all. Being a great communicator is probably the most important skill of all.
5. How short are you? Unless you’re like 4’9” you shouldn’t have an issue. Worst case you carry around a booster pad with you, it’s not as uncommon as you’d think. I’m 5’8” and there’s a couple planes at my flight school where I’d like a booster as with the seat all the way up I still can’t see the cowling.
6. Again, Google is your friend here. Everyone’s situation is different. Money is the biggest factor.
7. Wearing glasses is totally fine as long as it’s correctable. Do NOT get diagnosed with ANY sort of mental thing. Depression, anxiety, adhd, etc. and do NOT take any sort of medications that could even be contrived as being a medication for a mental condition. If you want to be a professional pilot, read up on the medical requirements for a first class medical. FAA puts out information on it, same with AOPA.

it’s a really cool career that has the potential to be very low paying but also could be very high paying. Depends on your timing and luck and effort.

Before you commit, go do a discovery flight!

The best careers are when you know what you want at a young age.

Just do ROTC or a military academy. That’s an easy way to get flight hours, then transition out or stay.

I did a million careers and am 40. When I got out of active duty enlisted at 20, I joined ROTC at 22 and later became a lieutenant through that program. While I was in, 1 guy became a dentist, 2 lawyers through JAG and 3 pilots. All friends, we’d go drinking and chasing girls.

It happens fast, it’s not that hard, you can do it. If you want to be a pilot, surgeon, sniper, attorney. It’s all pretty easy and debt free via the military. That’s advise I’d give my son too.

Something I wish I did was join the Air Force right out of high school so after those 4 years the military will pay for my flight training. There’s no reason to go in debt or take a loan when those 4 years go by so quick. Get a simple job in the Air Force like an office job. After those 4 years you’ll be 22 and plenty of time to have an amazing career in aviation.

-Get a medical first -Fly some before joining any school strictly for aviation. I would recommend getting a PPL during college. -The fork in the road starts in college — military or civilian route? ROTC? OCS? ANG or Reserve slot (I recommend this route). With glasses, the mil route is probably a no go however. -Do well in school and finish college -pursue Mil or Civ route. -there are many opportunities to have something block you from becoming a commercial pilot, health mainly but also attitude and ability, so have a back up career in mind if possible and be ready to shift because the economic cycle with airlines can be brutal.

Time and money depends entirely on which country you live and have the right to work. You also need to define what you mean by commercial pilot. A commercial pilot just has the ability to legally get paid to fly, not necessarily an airline pilot.

In the US if you want to be an airline pilot you must be 21.

18

The FAQ has a ton of information. Circle back here if you have additional questions not answered there.

> Does anyone here have a process that they would recommend? Should I attend a school? Should I find a smaller aviation club and learn there?

There is no set in stone method. Since everyone learns differently, you will need to find the "system" that works for you.

The biggest differentiator, especially at the beginning, is the quality of the instructor. No matter if it is at the top end big time outfit with brand new shiny expensive airplanes, or the small sleepy airport place with a high time paint peeling trainer aircraft, if you are paired with an instructor who is unable to teach you, or is unable to connect with your way of learning, the experience will be long, painful, and expensive. But on the flip side, if you can find someone who has a real gift of teaching and a passion for aviation, then you can progress quickly, have fun, and possibly progress rapidly.

So as you investigate an individual school, don't neglect inquiring about the individual instructors. Perhaps start with a personal inventory of how you successfully learn new information and skills. Then sharing that information with the chief instructor may aid in being paired with the right instructor for you.

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Other items are covered in the FAQ's. Also, there are many other e-books on this subject and can be found by googling.

Read the FAQ.