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Five Lies You've Been Told About Being A Commercial Pilot

If you aspire to be a commercial pilot, you’re probably familiar with the preconceived ideas surrounding the job. It’s true – flying for a living is noble and glamorous, but like other careers, it has its realities. Read on to know more about the “secrets” of the profession:

It’s high time all the time!

There’s a long and tedious way before being a fully-fledged pilot, so there’s no reason to be skeptical once you’re manning the cockpit. The first few years of the job could become the best years of your budding career, but be warned – the fun wears off after a while. What used to be exciting times of going to new hotels or flying at 35,000 feet could be dreary when years go by. No worries, though! This happens to all jobs. If you love what you do, however, your love for flying will bounce back in no time.

You can fly people for money.

If you’re a commercial pilot, you cannot really render flight services outside your airline. This means you can’t whisk away your family on getaways or pilot for possible clients (even if they own the aircraft you’ll be flying). Having a pilot license doesn’t allow you to fly as an “air taxi.” This would require a fresh set of qualifications and licenses, too.

You’ll actually be “steering the wheel” most of the time.

Professional pilots aren’t actually denying this, but yes, the autopilot does most of the flying. In fact, most of them do even handle landing, too. There are runways that are so advanced they now have “autoland” systems for planes.

Most stressors of the job are about flying.

If you think you’re going to be dealing with flight problems most of the time, you might be a little off track. This career covers a lot of other duties aside from flying, which could induce a lot of stress. With dealing with dispatchers, seasonal operations, timing out, on-time departures, crew scheduling, and diverting, you’re sure to get rattled every now and then.

When something goes wrong, you’ll know it.

Part of the pilot and flight crew’s job is to prevent panic among passengers, so even when there’s a problem, you probably won’t know about it. Most of the time, glitches during the flight are solved without any reason to worry. This is why it’s important for pilots to be level-headed under pressure.

If you know what you want to do in life, you’re sure to achieve it. Equip yourself with theoretical and practical know-how; this starts with a good school that will help launch your career and ambition. WCC offers programs that will get you soaring the skies with flying colors. To know more, visit WCC’s website at wccaviation.com.