I’ll keep this short and simple. I’m Brand spanking new to aviation. I got hired on recently by an aviation company that manufactures personal piston engine planes and personal jets. I’m not training to become a pilot yet but I want to. My ultimate goal is to fly planes for them and to eventually instruct others on how to fly their planes. I’ve read a little bit about getting a commercial license and corporate license but I’m not sure what to do here. I have no intentions of leaving this company just to get my hours at a commercial airline. So what are my options here? I’m sorry if the question is very vague and basic that honestly I don’t even know where to start and I’m not even sure if I’m asking the right questions.
Chris,
Regardless of whether you want to fly for an airline or simply fly for the company you work for the licensing requirements are the same. Btw there’s no such thing as a “corporate license”.
If you want to get paid to fly (or if it’s part of your job) you need a Commercial license. If you want to instruct you need a CFI. Further if your company flies jets that are over 12,500lbs you’ll need a type rating for each type.
There’s nothing complicated here, you earn these licenses and ratings by training. You simply need to find a flight school and start taking lessons. First you’ll need your Private, then your Instrument rating (so you can fly if there’s any weather and don’t want to die), multi -engine rating (if you’re going to fly planes with more than one engine), then after you build 250hrs you can get your Commercial. Finally you’ll need your Instructor cert. Now your company may have insurance requirements that state you need more hours to legally fly or instruct in their aircraft but that’s the company and not the FAA.
That’s about all there is to it.
Adam
Chris,
If you are working full time. you will likely find it difficult to get the training that you need. It is possible, but it will take a long time. A lot of people seem to think that there is value to continuing to work for a company while training, there is not. The aviation (pilot) departments of companies are often very separate from the rest of the company. They do not really care what you did for the company before, they are concerned with hiring qualified pilots. Just something to think about.
Chris