Am I too short as a male at 5'.05" to be a pilot?

Airline Pilot Questions & Answers
1

So I am planning to earn my ATP and to eventually work for major airlines if I earn it, and my question is for civilian aviation: am I too short to fly superjumbo jets like an Emirates A380 for example? Can they reject me as a candiate for a position based on my height at a job interview? I don’t want to spend $93,000 preparing for nothing. That’s 5 feet and half inches btw or 153 cm.

2

No problem man. All airline seats are adjustable and I’d say not really a problem for anyone 5’2” to 6’3”.

I know plenty of Regional pilots & former ATP instructors that are shorter than you.

Look into seat cushions or a pillow for training. Might need to put one or 2 behind your back or sit on one to get right seat position in 172 or Archer. Training aircraft are not as adjustable as Airliners. Not having right seat position will really mess up your sight picture, so take it seriously.

Chris F

3

I’m 5 ft .05inch btw. So you’re saying that’s not a problem?

@Cforero7 I think you can adjust the pilot’s seat to go up or down I believe if I am not mistaken.

4

Bas,

No airline in the US that I’m aware of has any height requirement other than you need to be able to safely and comfortably reach and manipulate the flight controls.

That said I couldn’t say for certain about foreign carriers like Emirates? If that’s you goal you should contact them directly and ask.

Adam

5

@Adam Thanks for the response. Yeah, I meant in the US. Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to one of the active A380 models, not the Emirates Airline itself.

6

Bas,

No airline in the US flies the 380. Production has stopped and most of the foreign carriers will be dumping them as well. The plane was a dud.

Adam

7

An unattractive dud at that.

8

You say it was a dud - was that for commercial reasons (hard to regularly fill a plane that big with passengers) or for aviation reasons (e.g. maintenance, hard to fly, stability etc?)

9

Jeff,

The airplane was simply too large to regularly fill all of the seats it had, this led to not many being ordered from Airbus, and thus the ceasing of production

Chris

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