The Hungry Pilot

I need to add here that I’m writing this blog based on my own experience and view as a pilot who has mostly flown in Europe. I did my PPL (Private Pilot License) in the US, however. After several dozens of additional hours of time-building I converted it to a European license and continued my professional pilot training in Austria.

The New World vs. the Old World

The way or philosophy how we, in Europe, (under EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency) train pilots is a bit different from the US (FAA, the Federal Aviation Agency). It will also differ from other parts of the world which might adopt the American practices and procedures (a popular thing to do), or where they do their own thing. Unfortunately, you cannot work with an EASA license in the US and vice versa, but nobody will stop you from getting both. Converting your license is possible, but can be a minor to major hassle, depending a lot also on your individual circumstances. And even with your flight crew license issues sorted out, you will still need a work permit either in the EU or in the US, or wherever else you wish to look for a job.

The American way:

You will spend less time in classrooms and in front of computers studying theory than in Europe. The whole approach to pilot training is more practically oriented, which certainly does not mean you don’t have to know your stuff. Your examiners will make sure of that during the practical exams.

Certain training providers state that you can have your commercial certificate (Commercial Pilot License, or CPL) in your hands just 9 months after you started, from zero. While this might work out for some, others won’t be so lucky and will take more time to complete their training. Aviation is an extremely dynamic environment, there will always be changes und unforeseen circumstances, and those will be part of your life from day one of your journey.

The 1500 hour rule

The biggest difference to Europe is, that in the US nobody will put you in the cockpit of an airliner with the flight hours you have when the FAA sends your fresh CPL, usually that’s 250 h. You will need to clock at least 1500 h of flight time, and only then a regional airline will hire you. This rule was introduced in 2013 in the wake of the loss of Colgan Air flight 3407. The link will take you to the NTSB‘s accident report on this terrible accident. I will come back to this topic in another post about practical tips and recommendations for your training, and for becoming a better aviator.

At this point we could have an endless discussion about the pros and cons of this rule, but we won’t. Just keep in mind that you need those hours, but it doesn’t matter really how you acquire them. For a lot of people flight instruction is the way to go after basic training, but there are other ways. Dropping skydivers for example, or pipeline inspection, crop dusting, taxi flying for smaller outfits, etc. You might even want to just come up with a pile of cash and rent an aircraft to fly those hours. But thanks to the severe pilot shortage in the US, many regional airlines will support you in one way or another and some might even pay for your hours to help you reaching this magic threshold.

Career steps and how long will it take?

The regional carriers are also the ones feeding pilots to the majors like American, Delta, United etc. Nowadays the regionals all have programs and cooperations in place which will at least guarantee you an interview with one of those legacy carriers, depending on who the regional is flying for. The majors would not look at you unless you had a college degree. For now some of the majors do not require a degree, but this might change quickly as soon as companies are not completely desperate anymore and hire anyone with a heartbeat.

But I digress. In Europe, during the heydays of aviation, there’s a good chance you will find yourself in the cockpit of an airliner with just 200 hours of flight time, or even less (bear with me, I’ll explain). But you won’t necessarily see that cockpit from inside any faster than your American colleagues, due to how training is facilitated. In most cases, and regardless of where you are, expect at least something like 18 months from zero to hero. This, however, will only work for the most dedicated students who also have a certain portion of luck, so they can avoid most of the hiccups and setbacks.

Coming soon: The European way, and training in the US for a European license