Deciding to become a pilot is a life-changing step towards an exciting and rewarding career! Flying passengers around the globe as a commercial pilot in an office above the clouds with spectacular views is a job that’s hard to beat! Airline pilots ordinarily earn good salaries, enjoy travel benefits, healthcare perks and have the opportunity to meet new people every day.
Getting your commercial pilot license and becoming a pilot with Baoas Flight Academy is an investment in your future. If you want to study in the U.S.A. and want to know how to become a pilot in Florida, we have the facilities and training expertise at our central Florida Flight Academy to prepare our cadets for an exciting and rewarding career as a commercial airline pilot.
How do you become an airline pilot? You need to undergo commercial airline pilot training and exhibit the necessary skills to succeed. At a glance, let’s look at they key steps to becoming a commercial pilot:
As a pilot working for a commercial airline, you can expect to work weekdays, evenings, weekends and bank holidays completing typically between 39 to 41 hours a week.
What does it take to become a commercial pilot and how can you begin your career as soon as possible? One of the first steps to becoming a commercial pilot is to research commercial airline pilot training programs and flight schools.
As part of a world-leading, global aviation business, our cadets have access to the latest training technologies and systems to aid them during their commercial airline pilot training.
Our Florida Flight School is well equipped with over 90 aircraft and five Flight Training Devices, but aside from our facilities, we have a reputation in the industry for having friendly, approachable staff who provide outstanding training on how to become a pilot in the US.
If you want to learn more about how to become a pilot in Florida, we hold and attend regular events across the country where you can meet the team and get a feel for life at British Flight Academy.
To start your journey to become a pilot in the USA, prospective cadets need to meet entry criteria relating to age, medical and selection. Please visit each of our pilot training programs and courses for full entry criteria.
To apply for a commercial airline pilot training program, you will need to meet the following requirements:
A further step to becoming a commercial pilot is to meet all the necessary requirements. To apply for a role as a commercial airline pilot, you will need:
One of the first steps in earning a commercial pilot license is to achieve your Private Pilot Certificate. You will study for your Private Pilot Certificate at ground school within the Academic Building of our Florida Flight Academy as well as learning to fly a single-engine airplane.
During your Private Pilot License training, you will learn basic flight methods, aircraft maneuvers, navigation, flight planning, and emergency training.
Once this phase is completed you will receive your Private Pilot License (PPL) and legally be able to fly a single-engine aircraft for non-commercial purposes. Learn more about how to become a private pilot in the U.S.
Achieving your Instrument Rating (IR) extends the privileges of your PPL and allows you to fly according to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). Obtaining your IR will build your confidence in flying under different conditions as you will learn to reference instruments in the flight deck and navigate via electronic signals, a core part of any pilot course in the USA.
This module will provide you with commercial pilot privileges in single-engine aircraft. Ground school will include pre-flight preparation and procedures and your flight training will cover FAA regulations such as: radio communications, air traffic control, and commercial operations. All of this is knowledge you need before you become a commercial pilot.
The Multi-Engine Rating is one of the next necessary steps to becoming a commercial pilot. The module will focus on aircraft control, performance, and multi-engine operations.
t’s important to note that earning your Multi-Engine Rating is only available if you’re studying on the PPP and CPT programs.
How many flight hours to become a commercial pilot? Pilots must have a minimum of 1500 hours of flight time before they can apply to become pilots for passenger airlines in the United States.
For this reason, we include the Certified Flight Instructor Certificate in our Professional Pilot Program and offer all our graduates an interview to become a Flight Instructor. Teaching others is a great way to embed your own learning as well as build up valuable flight hours to help you on your way to becoming a commercial pilot.
In our AAPT program, the Flight Instructor Certificate with Instrument Rating (CFI-I) means on graduation you will be guaranteed an interview to become a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) with Baoas in Sanford.
Alternatively, you can complete the following Flight Instructor courses at Baoas:
During flight training, one of the biggest milestones in becoming a pilot is completing your first solo. Here's British Aero Academy cadet Abdulaziz Aldousari reaching that very moment!
Whilst we recommend cadets complete our Integrated ATPL training (which follows the above steps and is the most direct route to becoming a pilot), there are alternative routes to consider to complete pilot training in the UK and Europe.
A degree is not essential to becoming a pilot but does offer an alternative approach when combined with pilot training. We have a partnership with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) to offer pilot training alongside their BSc (Hons) Aviation – Pilot Programme. In approximately 3 years, you will graduate with a degree and your ‘frozen’ ATPL. Integrating this degree into your commercial pilot training may provide access to financial support from Student Finance England.
Our Flexible ATPL also takes you from little to no flying experience to a fully qualified airline pilot, but is completed in a more modular fashion. This means you can take breaks in between phases of training to travel, work, or study. The course retains all the benefits of the Integrated programme.
Modular ATPL training allows you to complete individual courses with British Aero Academy, depending on where you are in your flight training journey.
Our commercial pilot training courses are designed to be the first step towards securing a successful career in aviation, whether that’s becoming a commercial airline pilot for a UK or European airline.
With more than 40 years of heritage in pilot training and a dedicated placement team to secure your role as an airline pilot, you couldn’t be in safer hands than with British Aero Academy.
In order of rank, you can expect your pilot career progression to be as follows:
The cost of pilot training is reflective of the future benefits and rewards you can expect to receive when you become a qualified commercial pilot.
The exact cost to become a pilot will differ depending on the route you take and the Approved Training Organisation (ATO) you opt for.
Our pilot training course costs:
You will complete your commercial pilot training at our flight schools located across the UK and USA.
Each of our British flight schools are modern sites equipped with the latest training facilities including over 100 aircraft, Flat Panel Trainers, Fixed Training Devices and our flagship RealitySeven Full Flight Simulators (including: Boeing 737 and Airbus A320).
With excellent Flight Instructors and state-of-the-art facilities, our aim is to help you learn how to become the most successful commercial pilot you can be.
Please complete the form below to contact our team for more information on our Airline Academy.
