Airline Pilot

There are some days when ­absolutely everything is right in the world, and this is one of them. Dawn and I woke up this morning, three days after my 38th birthday, and sailed Windbird 26 miles from the delightful island of Bequia to the pristine Tobago Cays marine park, flying our colorful spinnaker on a […]

An update on August 24, 2019, to the TSA’s procedures for its Known Crewmember program would have required flight crew to be in uniform in order to use its expedited security screening. Now, the update is on hold after intervention from pilot and flight attendant unions. The change would have gone into effect on August […]

It wasn’t all that long ago that Jordan Sepsey was planning his escape from a food-distribution job. That was December 2016, to be precise. With Christmas approaching, his wife, Julie, suggested he finally go look at flight schools. Sepsey quickly decided to enroll in ATP’s Airline Career Pilot Program at New York’s MacArthur Airport (ISP) […]

For years, any talk of a pilot shortage always included the caveat that the warning didn’t apply to the major airlines. Southwest Airlines is taking no chances. The nation’s largest domestic passenger carrier recently announced a career program called Destination 225° to create pathways for qualified pilots to become future Southwest first officers. The airline […]

When I first began chatting with Rebekah Robertson about her recent upgrade to captain on one of Trans States Airlines EMB 145s, she said the process reminded her of her early days as a flight instructor. Training for the flight instructor certificate includes learning to fly and reach for the appropriate switches from the right […]

The first day at most any new job can be a little stressful. But when you find yourself sitting in the right seat of a 65,000-pound airplane like Bombardier’s Q400 with a training captain in the left seat and a load of real passengers in back, a person’s blood can really start pumping. That was […]

The last time we spoke with Kevin Ardaugh in October 2018, he was about to begin initial first officer training with Envoy Air, American Airlines largest regional carrier. Before his arrival in Dallas to begin two months of intensive classroom and simulator training, Ardaugh completed the required ATP-CTP certification program that prepared him for the […]

Amanda Curless, 29, is a student pilot at ATP’s Daytona Beach, Florida, training center. She completed her first solo on September 25, 2018, and hopes to earn all of her instructor ratings by spring so she can start building the flight time she’ll need to become an airline pilot. “I try to be here as […]

Kevin Ardaugh spent his youth playing and working on his family’s farm in north central Illinois and, for a while, had his sights set on a career as a crop duster. Family members and friends encouraged him to also explore other paths in aviation, and today, at age 30 with 1,500 hours of flight time, […]

Lauren Cohen caught the flying bug while attending high school in Reston, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. “My high school was very focused on getting into college and having a career plan,” she says. “I did a project on the pilot shortage and started considering aviation. When I got the idea in my head, […]