If you are wondering whether there is a job in this world that gives you an office in the sky, that is the pilot! Becoming a pilot when they grow up is almost every childrens dream, and it is surely an exciting new adventure if the dream come true when they grow up. So how long it takes to become a pilot?
When we call someone as a pilot, actually we rather to say he / she is a private pilot, or a commercial pilot. The time it takes is different due to different pilot career path and their training school schedule.
How Long it Takes to Become a Private Pilot ？
4 – 6 months
Private pilot is the first step for everyone who want to start the pilot journey, it roughly needs 4 – 6 months for students who has 0 experience. Based on our experience, the real time is also fluctuated due to different student’s determination and aptitudes; and their choice for full-time flight training or part-time training. So students have to wait 6 months to fly like a pilot until they get the certificate? No worries, students may have chance to fly aircraft together with flying school instructor in the first week when they start the lesson, and excellent student can even take their first solo flight journey after 2 months only. All students can expect to have the PPL done in 6 months, and then just fly freely!
How Long it Takes to Become a Commercial Pilot ？
7 – 10 months
It needs another 3 – 4 months to obtain commercial pilot licence after completing PPL, so the total time would be 7 – 10 months if you want to become a commercial pilot with 0 experience. Once you complete the flight training and examinations, you will have the CPL certificate issued by FAA.
How Long it Takes to Become an Airline Transport Pilot ？
3+ Years
The airline transport pilot should be the real pilot we were asking for the question – ” How Long it Takes to Become a Pilot ”, they are the pilot in everyone’s mind who can fly passengers between differnt provinces, or evern differnt countries. So how long it real takes to become an airline transport pilot?
An Airline Pilot will not only need this Commercial Pilot License, they’ll also need an instrument rating and 1500 hours of flight experience. It sounds not so difficult to start from private pilot to commercial pilot, but 1500 hours flying time is never an easy thing to do, and it always needs at least another 3 years for getting the ATP certificate successfully.
How Long it Takes to Become a Pilot Captain ？
10+ Years
What is the ultimate end goal for every airline pilot? 99% pilots’ answer should be working as a captain in a big airline company such as Delta or American. It means much higher salary and benefits!
It is really really amazing, but its road is also full of thorns. You already spend 3 years to become an airline transport pilot from 0, and smoothly become a first officer in a normal airline company; if everything goes smoothly, you could be the captain after 3-5 years in this standard company. Now you have the ability to work for Delta or American airline and get the new opportunity to join them, but you still have to start as a first officer again in this big company. The problem is some first officers have waited decades to become a captain while others can upgrade in just a few years, but we’ll set an average range of 5-12 years from first officer to captain at a major airline. That means from 0 experience all the way to major airline captain, one can expect a timeline of 10+ years.