Hello.
I live in NYC and I am in in high school. I was looking every where for the right advice on becoming a pilot but I was not sure who to trust. I want to know If becoming a pilot is a good idea. I don’t want to join a profession that doesn’t have many pluses. I want to work for a major airline like American Airlines. If anyone can give me the pay range for a pilot that would be amazing.
-Sincerly
Amear Said
Amear,
Well, for starters I suggest reading through our FAQ section.
https://airlinepilot.life/c/frequently-asked-questions/19
Then for pay scales you can find those on APC.
https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/
Each airline publishes their pay scales on their respective pages.
Is becoming a pilot a good idea? That’s hard to answer since each answer is subjective. Really depends on you. If you’re mostly concerned about pay, then I don’t think it’s the right choice for you. A lot of sacrifice has to be made in the early stages of this career. I made $25k/yr as a CFI for two years. $50k/yr as an FO at a regional for two years. $80k/yr as captain at a regional. Getting through those first 5 years was hard, but I decided to pursue this career because I loved it for reasons besides potential earnings.
Tory
Thank you for your answer. I am interested in this professions but I am not concerned about the money. Becoming a pilot looks like an interesting, fun, and sociable job that I would like to invest time in. And is it possible to tell me what a CFI, and an FO is?
Thank You
FO stands for First Officer
CFI stands for Certified Flight Instructor
If you haven’t already, I highly suggest taking an intro flight to help determine if this is the right fit for you.
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Thank you. How long did it take you to work for your Airline?
Also consider the lifestyle of a pilot. We post our schedules here to give an idea: https://airlinepilot.life/c/schedules/6
It took me a little less than 3 years to start working for a regional. That’s from day one as a student pilot to being hired as an FO.
Tory
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Thank you for all your help.
I don’t want to come off as annoying or intrusive, but are you allowed to disclose which airline you work at. If you are able to, I would like to know.
Not at all. Don’t ever think that. We’re here to help. We have all written biographies on the forum: https://airlinepilot.life/c/pilot-coach-biographies/7
Please let us know how else we can help.
Tory
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Thank you for your reassurance. I will try as hard as I can to become a pilot. And once again, thank you for your assistance
-Amear
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Amear,
I see that you just joined the forum six hours ago. Please take some time to look around the forum, check out the FAQ section and just spend some time reading the forum. We are happy to help answer questions, but part of being a pilot is knowing how to do research and find things out on your own. After you spend some time doing that, we would be happy to help you out.
Chris
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