When I was in middle school, my mom and I were driving through a suburb of Chicago, when a small Cessna passed overhead.
My mom, knowing my passion for Microsoft Flight Simulator was bordering on an unhealthy obsession, asked, “Hey, have you ever thought about flying one of those?” I laughed and said, “No, that’s too small. If I do become a pilot, I’ll just go fly for the airlines.”
Oh, young Andrew, if it were only that simple.
What I didn’t know—and I wager a lot of you reading didn’t know when you started exploring this career field—is that the path from that car to the flight deck of a Boeing 787 (my current ride) is not as simple as applying for a pilot job when a position opens.
Notwithstanding the litany of things you need to do to get hired by an airline, the part of the equation of which I had no basis of knowledge was how the pilot certification process even started. I didn’t know the answer to the question: “How does someone become a pilot?”
One barrier to entry for prospective pilots is that many without a relative or family friend already in aviation never get to connect the dots on how to actually execute their dream—and thus never take the first step. Or, worse, they are told from a trusted adult or source that you need perfect vision, need to go into the military, or even get a doctorate in aviation to be a pilot.
I promise you that no one is more ill-equipped to explain how to become a pilot than someone who is not a pilot. But then, where does someone go to find this information? Where did I go?
In my sophomore year of high school, my adviser asked me what career fields interested me. I told her the only two I had seriously considered were architecture and aviation. She lit up and moved some papers around her desk to find a sheet advertising a career day at Southern Illinois University (SIU). I applied and was selected to attend the event where, for the first time in my life, someone laid out the steps I needed to take to become a pilot.
So, the big question for me at that time was do I start now while I was still in high school or wait until college? Luckily, I had an amazing support system that allowed me to start training at a local flight school in the Chicago suburbs.
As I started researching my options, I was made aware of the limitations of my first flight school during my tour of the facility. It mentioned that its training was conducted under Part 61, and as such, I wouldn’t qualify for the lower-time requirements in a Part 141 program.
OK, but what did that mean for me?
The school said that the upside was that my training would be more fluid, could move at my pace, and focus on areas in which I needed extra help. However, I was more likely to take longer than the minimum required experience to take my private pilot check ride. The school guessed I would need about 70-80 hours of time before I would be ready for my private.
OK, I thought, not bad. I passed my check ride two weeks before going to college, cutting it very close indeed.
With my fresh private pilot certificate in hand, I showed up at SIU ready to fly as much as possible. After a few lessons where I was “standardized” in flying the university’s Cessna 172, I sat down to begin my first time-building course.
My instructor placed a stack of papers in front of me and said, “Here is what you need to do, in more or less, this order. Questions?” I had a few. How did my instructor know this was the right order for me? What if I needed extra time? What if I wasn’t able to keep up? Where is the bathroom? The instructor smiled and said, “Trust the process.”
At the end of the day, every pilot must have a certain set of certificates and ratings to operate as an airline pilot. In the United States, this is an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, with a Multi-Engine Land and Instrument Rating (MELIR).
While the military has its own program to certify pilots, if you go the civilian route, you are given two overarching choices. Schools that follow Part 61 training like I went through high school and the ones that follow Part 141 training that I attended in college.
But what is the difference?
Part 61
Part 61 training is really just any civilian training that doesn’t follow an approved FAA curriculum. In place of an approved FAA course of training, your instructor will be in charge of charting your progress and ensuring you have all the required skills prior to taking your check ride.
The positive for this type of training is that it will be tailored exactly to your needs. The downside is it is up to you and the instructor to ensure you meet all the aeronautical experience requirements under Part 61 before you take your check ride. This opens up the opportunity for items to be missed or skills to become rusty if your instructor isn’t great at building these courses for you.
Most local small flight schools (think one or two airplanes) will most likely fall under this category. Consider this option if you are still in high school, wanting to fly just for fun, or maybe have a limited schedule to fly due to family and/or work commitments.
Part 141
Part 141 is the term for an FAA-approved pilot school. The regulation is robust and requires the flight school to build, submit, and receive authorization to follow a specific course of training for each certificate and rating.
If you find a school that has an approved Part 141 curriculum, then you most likely will hear it touting the lower costs. It does this because the FAA grants schools with an approved Part 141 curriculum to authorize students with lower flight time to take their check rides.
The FAA feels that the course of training is so complete, thorough, and encompassing, that it grants a slightly lower hour requirement to these courses. The positive in this environment is that the training curriculum is structured to where the school should cover everything you need to know. The downside can be the lack of flexibility in the training program (though some exists) and the fact that most pilots will wind up needing additional lessons above the required minimum coursework to take their check rides—which means additional money over and above the quoted costs.
Consider this option if you are making aviation and piloting a career, or you prefer a more structured approach to learning.
There are certain funding programs, like VA/GI bill programs and scholarships, that require you to attend a Part 141 school. Do your research on these requirements before signing with a
particular flight school. Almost every “accelerated” flight school, in which you receive your rating
in 12-18 months, are operating under Part 141. These schools are not for everyone as the pace is very fast.
Career Prognosis
If you’re about to start flight training and plan to make piloting a career, you may be asking yourself which one of these programs your future employer would rather see. Honestly, it depends.
While the structure and rigor of a Part 141 program is generally viewed as a positive indication that you will be able to keep up with airline training, it doesn’t guarantee it. Likewise, there are some amazing freelance flight instructors that produce amazing pilots in the minimum amount of time the FAA requires.
What will stick out to a company and a pilot interviewer is the amount of time it takes you to attain ratings and certificates. Meaning, if the national average for earning your private pilot is 60 hours, and it took you 110, expect your interview to have some questions involving that. Whether you were at a Part 141 or 61 program, that raises a red flag.
When I was a union representative in 2016, we were at our quarterly meeting with management, and all the base representatives were able to ask questions of our leadership. In turn, the managers had asked us to do something for them.
They noticed that the highest success rate for new pilots in training was from college and Part 141 aviation programs. They asked us if there was a way to prioritize those pilots getting the premium aircraft slots because they were confident they would be able to keep up and pass training with no issues.
The other options?…Not so much.
This story was written by Andrew Ross, cofounder of VATH Publishing. Ross is also a pilot at a major U.S. airline.
If you would like more recommendations and a complete explanation on how the airline pilot profession works and how you can best manage it, pick up your physical or e-book copy of “The Airline Transition Manual ”at www.airlinetransition.org.
