The sky is the limit

Depending upon the direction you choose, a General Aviation career can take you from the extremes of the Northern Territory, flying to remote outback destinations to 100,000 hectare cattle stations mustering from the air or even on-call for the Royal Flying Doctors offering a critical link for remote patience to medical help

An airline career may well see you seated in the cockpit of the very latest aircraft technology, the B787 or A380, todays leading wide body jets. Traversing the seas on ultra long haul flights across multiple time zones.

Often I hear from candidates coming into the industry from other careers such as engineers or constructor workers or flight attendants who are now in their late 30’s or early 40’s. They wanted to fly from a young age and all too often where given the wrong information at the outset. Quite often that wrong information was, you are not smart enough. Rubbish, in fact academics or intellect alone will not make you an excellent pilot.

Whatever path you choose, becoming a pilot is one of the limited number of roles that come to mind, whereby you can combine intellect and hands-on aptitude.

By that I mean you must have the ability to manage the maths, science and physics elements of the training as well as a love of getting your hands on technology, something in the industry we call “hands-on-flying”.

You are physically in control of this expensive piece of equipment and have to guide it with every changeable breath of wind and diversity of terrain whilst sharing the skies with a multitude of other aircraft whizzing about.

Sounds exciting, it can be.
Sounds challenging, of course.

Starting on this career path requires grit, tenacity, passion and more than anything planning.

‘Starting on this career path requires grit, tenacity, passion and, more than anything, planning.’

Perhaps you are considering this as a career, as a high school student, now is the time to set in place the right course selections to ensure you meet the entry requirements for a career pilot. That means as a minimum the educational requirements you need to have passed will be HSC or equivalent in English, Advanced Maths, Physics or Chemistry.

If nobody tells you this early enough you might not make the right choices during High School, you can take bridging courses to attain them post graduation but of course it is easier to do them first time around.

Don’t know what to expect from this career? Then I encourage you to jump in a Simulator, they are available for hire in every State and get an initial feel for the big jets. Or ask mum or dad for an introductory flight aboard a single engine Cessna, perhaps for your birthday. You will see first hand the technology, planning, aptitude and responsibility this job holds.

If it grips you at this point then this career may well be for you.

What are your options to become a pilot? Well there are a variety of ways to enter this career and I’ll list the standard ones below;

• Pilot Cadetships: There are 2 kinds of cadetships offered by both regional and mainline airlines:
  The Ab Initio Cadetship – for pilots with little or no flying hours
  The Advanced Cadetship/Traineeship – for pilots who have low flying hours, usually under 1000 
(every airline differs in this regard).
• Australian Defence Force: The Airforce / Army / Navy all offer pilot roles, around 18 or 19 different aircraft both Fixed Wing and Rotary. They offer pretty much every type of flying from Hercs to Fast Jets or Black Hawks.
• Flying Schools;
  Flying schools will take you through PPL and CPL, after CPL you will exit with the a few options;
  Become and Instructor
  Apply to airline cadetships (excluding Ab-Initio)
  Become a General Aviation Pilot (Scenic, Charter, Survey, Station Pilot, Crop Duster, SkyDive, Medivac etc…)

For much more detail for anyone considering this career path we provide a ”Flying Students Workbook”.

Whilst the romance and stature of how a pilots career was once perceived has changed over time, it remains a career that, if committed to, offers just about everything you can imagine to those who are passionate enough to pursue it.

Who’s ready to jump in a simulator?
Why not… you might just have what it takes.