Aviation is a relatively small community with many people interested, who are unsure at how to get their foot in the door. This can be a daunting task for people, specifically those of which who do not have long family history of pilots, mechanics, or flight attendants.
I personally come from a family that is not in aviation, my dad is a business owner and my mom worked briefly in the business world after college. I was always interested in getting my pilots license, but did not think it was possible to do as a career due to the time commitment, and difficulty of knowing where to start.
I have put together a list of a few things that are the first things people should do in order to get started in the aviation industry, specifically seeking to be a pilot.
The first thing to do when you are interesting in becoming a pilot is to go and hangout at the local municipal airport. Many of these airports have FBOs (Fixed Base Operators) which typically offer services such as gas, coffee, cookies, and a lounge to hang out. FBOs welcome everybody, not just pilots that fly in. Often times, during the summer, they host weekly or biweekly events that promote up to 30-60 planes to fly in for a ‘hamburger fly in’ or ‘pancake breakfast’. As I said above, aviation is a small community, with one common interest. The people that you meet at FBOs will always be willing to help, and sometimes even offer you to take a ride in their plane with them.
The second thing to help you get started in aviation is to watch YouTube videos. There is so much free content on YouTube to not only learn from, but to get an idea of what your career will be like in aviation. More specifically, there are a lot of videos revolved around flight school that give a good glimpse of what it is like to be a student pilot.
Finally, the next step is to contact a local flight school. Almost every airport has a flight school, that has a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). Contact them and they will point you in the right direction in terms of officially starting training.
Aviation is a small community and has open arms for anyone that wants to join. A friend once told me that every person you meet in aviation, you should treat like someone that has a potential job for you. Since aviation is such a small world, you never know who that person might know, and how that could make beneficial connections for you in the future.
Hi Sam,
This was a very interesting read for me, as I have been curious about aviation for some time. Since my knowledge of aviation is limited, I had no idea that municipal airports would let you hang out and have a cup of coffee with the pilots and other staff. I would like to someday get to the point where I can take on aviation as a hobby, and I believe this blog can be helpful for people like me as well.
This was a really informative post that you put together. I think that it really interesting the steps that many individuals go through to become a Pilot. And prior to this post I did not know what steps were needed to get started in the aviation industry.
Such a unique blog idea! I have always been afraid of airplanes so I feel like people who go into aviation are brave people. Awesome article