How To Become A Pilot?

@RDV,

Am cool. I had a very luvly weekend. But my weekdays are usually bored. Nothing to do,am not working presently and all my friends go to wrk, i dnt get to see them until weekend. I really dnt like it, but i dnt have a chioce now. Maybe when i get the books, i would occupy myself with reading. Least i forget, hope your enjoyed your trip?

I am going for a professional commercial pilot course (Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Commercial Single and Multi-Engine Instrument). Though they have an advance course(The course includes Multi-Engine Instrument, Certified Flight Instructor and Certified Flight Instructor Instrument Certification.  The initial instructor is Multi-Engine Instructor, followed by Certified Flight Instructor Single Engine Airplane and Certified Flight Instructor Instrument Airplane). I could change my course if it means doing that,

They dnt gaurantee employment,they said one's performance would tell if they would employ you or not,but they do assit their graduate get jobs after training. I intend going for just my training. They are to issue an M-1 visa, is it OK? The P/CPL is for six months, while the Advance is 2 months. what do you think?

Do i need to do all advance courses, if not which do i choose?

How far with jobs out there, good chances for my likes? I would love to go international,How's that? when/where do i do type rating?

Yea, thanks a '000000. I dnt mind the edition, all i need is somthing to read so i can get an insight of what i will meet during my training. As for the school, they have their books, infact, my fees include books, marterails and charts required for the training.

Woo! 10yrs/7000hrs, hmm,  I respect oh. My name is Ajiri.

Am more than great, ful. Am looking forward to the books. Hope i dint bore you with too many quest?

Luvly week. Chao.

@PILOT955,

Thankz mentor, I will do just that. How far with your course? u don finish abi u still dey dere? Hp u dnt mind my langua, I grew up in warri.

Cheers.

@IVY4U


The most important things u need are, Private Pilot, Commercial  Pilot, Multi-engine and Instrument Rating. With all these, you have a professional licence. The private pilot will not appear on your final licence, because it will have been superseded by the commercial pilot licence. So at the end, you should have a commercial pilots licence, with multi-engine and instrument ratings. That is the absolute minimum you will need to get an airline job.

Do not commit yourself to any kind of advanced course at this stage, but keep it in mind. It is very possible to get a job with the cpl/multi/instrumnet, that you will have. The advance course is for people who need to acquire flying hours on top of their licence in order to meet the minimum requirement for airlines. The minimum hours requirement exists in the USA, but for Naija, it is not an absolute necessity. In Naija, a type rating is more valuable than the flying hours. ( I will explain the type rating later)

If they offer you an instructor job after graduating, then you will need to do the 'initial instructor' course you mentioned. But there is no point doing that until you are sure that they are going to offer you a job, otherwise, you end up with instructor ratings, no instructor job, and a visa that will not let you work at another school as an instructor!!! 

They might tell you that it is still useful to do it because you can use it at another school, but check your visa carefully to see whether it does indeed allow you to work as an instructor at any other school apart from the one mentioned on the visa.


Yes, they will assist their graduates to get jobs after training,, but this is usually after you have built up a certain number of hours working as an instructor for them, and subject to your being free to work in the USA. They are referring here to airline jobs, but what you should press them for now, is a guarantee that they will employ you as an instructor at their school after you finish training. If they can give you this guarantee, it allows you to commit to one of the advanced courses, and also might affect the duration and type of visa that the US Embassy will issue to you.

I will check out the details of an M-1 visa, and get back to you, but you can already see I guess, that if the visa is only for 6-8 months, it does not cover you for working as an instructor with them after graduating. A 2 year visa would be more appropriate for that, and in that case, they will have to issue you an I-20 that states that your course is for 2 years.

Now, if you are planning to go just for the training, and return to Naija immediately afterwards, there is something very important that you should be doing now,

You need to start networking now, and acquiring contacts. Try and make yourself known to the chief pilots and recruiters of the major airlines in naija. Its very simple to do,, much like you did with the sponsorship, and will give you numerous advantages. You will get to know each and every airlines entry requirements, meet the people that matter, and decide which type rating will be most advantageous for you.

If you can meet for example, the chief pilot of aero contactors, or Virgin Nigeria, or arik, etc, you can tell them your plans for training, how much you would like to work for them after training, and if there is anything you should do whilst training to give you an advantage in joining them when you finish. You get to know their company in the process of this discussion, they get to see if u are the sort of person they want to work for them (which I am sure you are  ), you learn if they need you to have a type rating or not, and they will also refer you to other airlines if they do not have any vacancies.

When you finish the training and return to naija, you contact the same people you saw before you went, who will now remember you and that makes it easier to get a job.

If you can spend a week or so in Lagos, and just go to the airlines offices at the airport. Tell them you are a trainee pilot looking for information, advice and an application form, and that you would like to talk to the chief pilot.



International?  , Madam!!!,  , one step at a time.

Your job chances are very very good. All airlines in the world realise that women pilots are severly under-represented, and would love to have more women pilots, especially if they are enthusiastic, competent and good natured. You sound like you are all these things, so i guess u will have no problems.

The most important thing in flying, is experience. The more experience you have, the easier it is to switch jobs. The key to it all however, is your first job, that is sometimes the most difficult step, because at that point you have no experience, and the airline is taking a gamble on you. Good training record, good personality and a good first impression help them to decide that the gamble is worth taking ( and going to talk to them like i suggest above is a way of showing these qualities).

Once you get that first job, concentrate on getting about 2 years of good experience. Once you have that, you are very marketable, and can then join an airline that will offer you international. I have friends that spent 2 or 3 years in Bellview and Chachangi, and now fly in UK for various airlines. If your first job happens to be with Virgin Nigeria or Arik or Aero, then you might not even need to leave them to fly internationally. And on top of it all, if your future (?)  husband happens to be a citizen of UK, USA, etc, you will even be able to relocate there and join a foreign airline.

TYPE RATING

Your CPL/IR/Multi only licenses you to fly small, 6 seater planes as a professinal pilot. For passenger airline work, you need a rating for the particular type of aircraft that you will be flying. Hence, you will need a 'Type Rating'.

Some airlines sponsor and arrange the type rating themselves. Other airlines prefer you to have a type rating when you apply to them for work.

A type rating can cost anything from 15K Dollars to 50K dollars depending on the aircraft type, and where you do the type rating training. Ordinary flying schools do not do type ratings,, only specialist flying schools do them. For example - http://www.alteontraining.com/training/flight.aspx

Because of the high cost, and the risk that a candidate might not pass the course, u can see that most airlines these days will prefer for you to do it yourself. That way they don't have any risk.

The bigger airlines however prefer you to do it on their own approved course with their own chosen instructors, so that they know the standard you will be trained to achieve. So, they will sponsor you for the course, but they will deduct a percentage of the type rating course from your salary for the first few years, or you will sign an agreement that if you leave the company before lets say 2 or 3 years, you will pay them the cost of the type rating back.

Right now, Virgin Nigeria and Aero are the only ones I know who sponsor you for the type rating.

So, the cheaper option is for you to get a job with one of these 2 after you graduate. They will then sponsor you on the type rating, and you will be employed by them from day 1, so they will actually also be paying you a salary whilst you are on the course.

If you will be joining another airline, then you will probabaly need a type rating for the type of aircraft they fly, so gather information on what the different airlines fly and then choose which one to do your rating on. You cannot do more than 1 rating so you have to choose well, or choose something that is commonly flown by different airlines, e.g Boeing 737.

You will get more of an idea of this when u talk to the airline chief pilots.

The course itself is very straightforward. You study all of the systems on the particular type of plane, eg electrical systems, engines, airconditioning, hydraulics, etc (you will also have studied these in a general way during the CPL), and you will do all the flying training you did for the CPL again, but this time in a simulator of the aircraft type you are training for, then you will practice all sorts of emergencies in the simulator, and finally you will fly that same aircraft for real, doing circuits like i described to Pilot995 in my earlier post.

It is during the type rating that you will start to feel like a reaaaaaaal pilot    and start to use big oyinbo grammar that nobody outside flying will understand

So, I think that is enough typing for one day. 

will let u know about the books soon. in the meantime, check also http://www.pprune.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=37

join that forum too if you can, its got valuable info and insights sometimes

@IVY4U, see this girl na because i dey net i dey type all this oyibo, i be waffi too na come dey AIR FORCE, na my Oga i wan dey speak english to, 4 here we dey KISS(keep It Short n Simple/Stupid) so my sis i dey SPOKED this gramma like u 4 here, as for my training its going on ok, but beginin to have serious back pains from pulling a lot of G's like i said i can't say anything bout their aircraft here can't even snap photo with their pilots here except in muffty

hello my people, can any body tell me how the nigeria pilot make

@IVY4U,

well done. Keep chasing and hassling them at VN. Dont be shy. Just be polite and persistent. Keep trying to meet the different managers at their flight operations dept, and let them know that all you are looking for at this stage is advice on how to develop your career. You will remember them, and they will remember you when the time comes that you really need them.

I have a couple of very good friends at Aero. I will speak to them too and try and get you a contact there.

Its good that you are in Lagos. That makes it easier to send you the books. I will send them to the KLM Office at MMIA and you will have to pick them up there. Send me an e-mail with your full name, to raydavecta@hotmail.com

take care,