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Pilot Career: From Dream To Reality

Everything you need to know to step into a professional cockpit the modern way

Regional airlines no longer require instructing time, and the academies bypass the traditional CFI route.
“We offer the airline the most qualified copilot possible,” adds Raker. “We don’t teach them to be flight instructors.” Pilot demand is so great that the regionals have also lowered minimum flying times to unheard of levels—250 hours in many cases. College degrees aren’t required either.

Academies have agreements with regional airlines in which they feed pilots directly to them at lower hiring minimums than nonacademy applicants. “The airlines that hire our graduates know the quality they’re getting,” says Gary Niskar of Westwind Academy. “Our students have trained to airline standards in our Airline Crew Orientation Program.”

The bottom line is that a sharp, healthy and motivated career-changer can today go from zero experience to first officer, flying for a regional airline, in under a year. The training academies are also an excellent route
for those who already have a degree and only need the flight-training part.

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