My name is David, I’m currently working as a police officer, looking to make a jump to pursue becoming a commercial pilot. I’ve done a discovery flight, loved it, and love the concept of a fresh start getting to work in a industry that will keep you on your toes similar law enforcement.
I have a couple questions I was hoping to get answered.
1: I see lots of talk about getting all my tests done before school. Will this alleviate some of the stresses of ground school, or is there still outside written testing done at a school like ATP?
2: Are airlines still presumed to be hiring for the foreseeable future, barring some catastrophic event similar to Covid? I guess this is knowledge that only those flying at airlines may actually have insight on. I just want to be somewhat certain their will be jobs available when it’s time to start applying to airlines.
3: Are there any tips someone would recommend to someone who is looking at a 10 month timeline before starting flight school? And further any former LEOs who have made the switch and have two cents to chime in?
I appreciate any and all insights. Thank you guys!
That’s the idea. The program is highly accelerated and anything you can do to lighten the burden will help in your success.
The forecast is good for hiring for the foreseeable future but things can and do change. If you’re only doing this because you think getting a job will be easy that’s the wrong reason. When things get tough (and they often do) of there’s no actual desire to fly you won’t.
Again flight training isn’t easy. Make sure this is something you really want to do. Not for the pay, not for the easy.
As always, we all appreciate all service members that are a part of the community. I’ll give my two cents on some of your questions as Adam already hit them spot on:
Completing at least the PAR (which is now a requirement) for Zero Time entry at ATP will actually reduce not only the stress, but workload in the transitioning phases of training. Imagine learning to take negative learning from what you’ve always imagined of driving a car and applying it to taxiing an airplane… it’s different, feet turn, hands adjust throttle… unless you’re a Formula 1 racer… We always recommend completing as MANY writtens prior to entry start to mitigate the workload going into ATP.
Headlines after headlines, the other month Boeing forecasted hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of pilots are needed over the next decade or two:
Have you taken an introductory flight, do you have any prior flight experience? The only way to tell if this career would be something of your interest is to get in the flightdeck of a trainer and actually take a lesson or two. There was a previous LEO, Kyle, from MMU that posted his journey on the forum: