How to become a pilot?

Earnings in the amount of several dozen thousand zlotys per month. Travel around the world and business accommodation in prestigious hotels. Admiration of family, friends and followers on Instagram. For everyday pilots, it’s everyday life. How to become a pilot?

A person who dreams of becoming a pilot of a passenger plane should be aware that this work is not only interesting and challenging, but also very difficult, shift, stressful and not very friendly to the body. And visiting destination cities is often only possible if the flight is canceled due to bad weather.

License Types

  • PPL (Private Pilot License)
  • CPL (Commercial Pilot License)
  • ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License)

These are basic licenses. Added to this are a number of others (approx. 20 in civil aviation), entitling to fly on specific machines, under certain conditions or at a certain position.

PPL (A) – Private Pilot License (Aircraft) 

This is a basic tourist license, which allows only recreational flying in good weather conditions (you cannot transport passengers for a living). 

To obtain this license you must, among others be at least 17 years old, undergo over 100 hours of theoretical training and 45 hours of practical training and then pass examinations. The cost of the PPL (A) license is around 20-30 thousand. zł. 

How to become a pilot?
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CPL (A) – Commercial Pilot License (Aircraft)

It is a professional pilot license, thanks to which you can pilot commercial planes (but only machines weighing up to 5.7 tons and taking up to 9 passengers on board). 

This reduction in mass and number of passengers means that a pilot with a CPL (A) license cannot be the commander (captain) of an aircraft with more seats and a larger mass. But he can successfully be the first officer, and therefore the so-called co-pilot. 

Such a pilot, alternating with the captain, can pilot even very large Boeings and Airbus.

What’s more, the vast majority of first officers have just the CPL (A) license, because only by flying this way will they get the required raid for the ATPL license. 

To obtain this license, you must complete the ATPL (A) theoretical course, which includes 120 hours of lectures and 530 hours of self-study. It is required to pass theoretical and practical exams and to fly at least 200 hours. 

ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License) 

This is the highest degree a professional pilot can achieve in civil aviation. This license allows you to control aircraft weighing more than 5.7 tons and taking on board more than 9 passengers. It is a linear license that allows piloting passenger aircraft.

After obtaining the CPL (A) license, IR (A) (instrument flight, regardless of weather conditions) and MEP (L) flights (multi-engine aircraft) and passing the exams, the so-called Linear frozen license – ATPL (A) FROZEN.

Mental and physical conditions

A person who wants to become a pilot must pass a number of medical examinations – the higher the license, the higher the requirements. Disqualifying may be, for example, eye or hearing impairment. Movement coordination, reflexes, etc. are also checked.

A candidate for a pilot must also be a balanced, reasonable, self-controlled, patient, able to concentrate for several hours, with divisive attention and coping with stress.

 

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