Building Flight Hours When There's No Appetite for Instruction

Here are nine options beyond the CFI route that will build flight hours along the way to airlines.

Friday, April 07, 2023 at 01:35 PM ET

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Flight instruction requires organizational ability, good communication skills, steady nerves, and the patience of Job. [File Photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Despite a historic pilot shortage, low-time pilots face significant challenges in securing their initial flying job to meet the 1,500-hour rule, as the shortage is unevenly distributed and not at the entry level.
Flight instructing is often the most accessible path for new pilots, despite being demanding, requiring specific skills, offering modest pay, and involving challenging or potentially dangerous conditions.
Alternative entry-level flying jobs exist (e.g., skydiving, ferry flying, some SIC roles) but are less common, often geographically restricted, and heavily reliant on extensive networking for low-time pilots.
New pilots should anticipate their first flying job to be difficult, uncomfortable, potentially dangerous, and not highly compensated, regardless of the specific route chosen.

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It was the spring of 2001, and after years of being foretold, the pilot shortage had finally arrived.

The major airlines’ hiring was in full swing, smaller upstarts like Southwest and JetBlue were rapidly expanding, and the regional airlines’ competitive minimums had fallen well below 1,000 hours. There were rumblings about slowing business-travel bookings for that summer and beyond, but this did little to darken the sunny outlook. Flight schools everywhere were jam-packed.