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Code Blue in Flight Blog What is a Code Blue in aviation? Code Blue is the term used to refer to time-dependent health incidents, that is, those in which every
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The pilot career is one of the best considered within the labour market. Everytime we think of a pilot the first image in mind is a passengers plane. But the reality is that there is a wide range of options for this profession in the aviation sector.
Following, let’s explain the different labour offers a commercial pilot may find once the training is completed.
Within the requirements to become a pilot we do not find a college degree. However, before starting any course, the applicant should demonstrate enough maths and physics knowledges that ensure he/she will easily and correctly understand the matters to study.
Nevertheless, there is a university degree called Comercial Aviation Pilot and Air Operations. This is the correct denomination for the badly named “plane pilot career”, which entitles to act as a pilot as well as other different options within the sector such as Air Operations Director or Flight engineer. It is a four-year career during which you will study physics, maths, aeronautical knowledge along with flight simulator training and real flight practices.
In Spain, there are two public universities where to study this degree: Salamanca University and Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona.
On the other hand, Aeronautical FP (vocational training) is, also, a good option to get started in this exciting world and acquire greater knowledge about what an aircraft is, both fixed-wing or rotating. These professionals develop their activity in the aircrafts’ maintenance departments of the different airlines or companies dedicated to activities related to passengers or goods transport, making inspections and hotline maintenance operations as well as in the hangar or workshop. Therefore, this formation can be a good springboard to jump to the pilot training.
Within the pilot training, both airplane or helicopter, there are two options: commercial pilot or private pilot. The difference between them is that, while the first one gets paid for carrying out his/her activity, the second one can get no money, so the work opportunities for a private pilot are non-existent. However, the Private Pilot License (PPL) is the first step to start our pilot career, both aircraft and helicopter.
So, let’s see the different alternatives offered for this profession:
As said above, this is the first image that comes to mind when we think about becoming a pilot and, in most cases, it is the aim as it is usually the option that provides greater stability because it doesn’t depend on temporary campaigns or eventualities. Likewise, the schedules are normally much more stable than, for example, being a private plane pilot where availability depends constantly on the needs of the aircraft’s owner.
To become an airline pilot, we will have to obtain the ATPL license (Airline Transport Pilot License) which, together with the complementary courses (MCC, VFR, etc) will allow us to apply to any airline, provided we comply with the additional requirements each company may require (nationality, languages, ratings, etc.).
This is a pretty attractive option for many pilots. They may act through companies specialized in providing pilots to jet owners; or may be both, Pilot and jet, to people with specific needs; or become the permanent pilot of some millionaire, or high executive, who prefers to fly always with the same crew. Both options involve an almost constant availability that makes personal life reconciliation somewhat complicated. Therefore, it is a good choice for pilots in their beginnings, who are usually young and without family ties, as it is a way to gain experience while receiving a good salary, as remuneration in executive aviation is, often, higher than that in commercial airlines.
To be a private aircraft pilot we will need the commercial pilot license (CPL – Commercial Pilot License). With it, we will be able to act as co-pilot in multi-manned aircraft or pilot-in-command in single pilot aircrafts. To become a commander, we must complete the ATPL practical training of 1500 flight hours.
A charter flight is one that is not commercialized by the usual sales route. Normally, they are linked to a travel agency, as their destinations are often touristic. In some cases, an aircraft is rented to an airline in order not to be adjusted to the timetables set for commercial routes or to take a group of people exclusively, for example, football teams, incentives groups, celebrities, etc.
There are airlines dedicated only to these types of flights. This, often, involves operating from secondary airports, as is reduces the cost of tickets.
We can talk about three kinds of charter flights:
Cargo planes are mainly used for long routes as smaller loads are usually put into the spare space left in the cargo compartments of passengers flights. As the monthly hours limit for a pilot is around 90/100, flying these planes make them achieve that limit in less time and so get more days off to enjoy personal life. However, these flights are, normally, night flights so, if you are a day “bird”, you will have to take this factor into account when choosing this alternative.
Within this option you can work for private companies such as information agencies to cover certain events from the air or, even, as a reinforcement for official services in circumstances where all means are insufficient, Also, for observation and inspection of railways, wind farms, power lines, works and facilities, etc.
This work is mainly focused on air spraying crop fields. It is a pilotage that requires a great specialization. Usually, the flight is executed at low altitude, with ground obstacles (special mention to electric wires), sometimes with improvised tracks or risk of bird’s impact, often with serious structural damage. All these conditions require a total control of the aircraft in order to unload correctly and safely on the target to be covered. Frequently, pilots involved in fumigation also cover seasonal fire campaigns.
Normally developed in forests, this piloting also requires great skills. It is an activity with an unconventional, non-standard system as each mission is different. From the area where the water is taken to the fire characteristics, the terrain surroundings and the weather conditions, all this make the enviroment a very volatile and changing scenario.
In addition, this pilot is all alone in the plane having to take lots of decisions, managing every detail such as altitude, paths, radio and airspace manually. Therefore, firefighting pilots must be multitasking people able to accurately read the ground around a fire and its effects on it, so as to foresee its evolution.
These pilots, usually, work in the different annual fire campaigns, and may act in different countries in the same year moving from the Spanish summer to the southern summer in Chile, for example.
The army is a good option to get started in the aviation world if you don’t have the means as training cost is borne by the State. The army pilots serve the national army, in any of its divisions, to which they should be appointed after the initial training period. Once this is passed, they are evaluated and selected to learn to fly different types of aircraft: larger, multi-engine, helicopters, fast jet (short take-off and vertical landing), combat, etc.
The tasks of these pilots range from humanitarian missions, troops and equipment transport to combat zones, to reconnaissance, search, rescue and evacuation of victims. Like other Army Forces officers, pilots must be ready to live and work anywhere in the country or even abroad, besides being able to work in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. If you choose this option, you must know a few years of permanence in the institution are required before you can convert the license into a civil one that allows you to act as a pilot in any of the aforementioned options.
A test pilot is an air pilot with additional training, whose task is to evaluate newly produced and modified experimental aircrafts for the purpose of performing specific manoeuvres, known as flight test techniques. At the same time, he/she shall assess the aircraft for the function it is created. In the case of passenger transport, it will have to be evaluated for the average pilot, ensuring that the product complies with this requirement and the machine is not too difficult to pilot.
This job consists of transporting patients from a specific point to a hospital as quickly as possible, while attended by the on-board health staff. Let’s say it is an air ambulance, normally used in remote or hard-to-reach areas where the road can be slow and complicated. In the case of rescue of wounded people in high mountain points, ravines, cliffs or the sea, it is more common to use helicopters because they are much easier to maneuver than a small plane.
Can be for publishers, sporting events, works monitoring, land prospecting, infrastructures control.
Is a pilot dedicated to providing training, both theoretical and practical, to aspiring pilots through simulators and real flights. Generally, an instructor combines this activity with his/her pilot career.
According to specialized sources, in Spain, unemployment in the helicopter sector does not exist. The number of helicopter pilots trained per year does not cover the high demand. Thus, the few pilots who graduate every year, get a job immediately. This shortage is due to the high cost of training compared to that of the fixed wing, as the machines and their maintenance and refuelling are more expensive. However, and yet for this reason, the job offers are assured in any of the specialities already mentioned for the plane pilots:
“World Aviation Flight Academy has an agreement with the two largest helicopter operators in Spain so that all student pilots who obtain his/her helicopter license in our centres will come out already with a job post.”
As we see, the professional opportunities for pilots, both plane and helicopter, are many and varied. In a world where air transport is booming due to tourism and globalization, the future of aviation predicts a higher pilot demand every year, turning the profession into a safe value.
Every year, the manufacturer Airbus publishes a forecast report on commercial air transport for the next 20 years. The last report, released in 2021, was long-awaited as it predicts the air transport trend after the covid-19 pandemic.
The report shows a recovery in air traffic levels between 2023 and 2025, to the same we had in 2019, at the time that ensures that for 2040 there will be twice as many commercial aircrafts as today.
With such encouraging data for the future of the pilot career, either plane or helicopter, you just have to decide your specialty, choose a quality training that will provide greater guarantees of success and start to live your dream of flying!
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