Pilot Education & Training
FAPA provides future pilots with the knowledge and advice they need to make important career decisions. We are experts on everything from the history of the career, to financing training and education in today's market.
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1. Becoming an Airline Pilot: The Good, the Bad, the Useful
There's no way to avoid paying your dues to reach an airline cockpit, but there are quite a few strategies that can make the process much easier. We'll tell you about them here.
2. Business Aviation: How It Differs From the Airlines
Business aviation pilots now fly some of the most sophisticated airplanes on earth to destinations all around the globe. Pay and benefits are top notch. Here’s why Biz Av is no longer just a fall back job.
3. Choosing a Flight Training School
Many of a pilot's flying techniques and aviation knowledge begin at the first flying lesson, choosing the right school to earn your certificates can be critical to future success.
4. Scholarships To Help Pay for Flight Training
There’s no denying that the education to become a pilot is just as expensive as every other profession these days. But we’ve done the work here to point out over 500 scholarship options just waiting for you to apply.
5. Choosing an Aviation College
We take a look at some of the decisions future aviators must make as they try to decide whether they’ll earn a four-year degree from a local academic institution, or a school that offers a degree in an aviation-focused setting.
6. Vets Stop Here for G.I. Bill Details
Veterans of the U.S. military Post 9/11 are eligible for a variety of educational assistance through the VA, including help paying for flight training. All you need to begin is a copy of your DD-214.
7. Professional Pilot Degree Institutions
No one doubts the value of a college degree to a career as a professional pilot. But if you know you’re after a degree in an aviation subject, how do you pick the right school? Here’s where FAPA can help.
8. Airline Pilot Careers: The Best Days Are Right Here, Right Now
Too many potential aviators have turned away from an airline career because the money equation had changed. Guess what, it’s changed again but this time in favor of new pilots.
9. What You Must Know to Earn an ATP
Because all Part 121 operations in the U.S. demand an ATP, here’s a valuable summary of requirements for the FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate.
10. Pilot Career Waypoints
We employ cross-country flight phase point terminology as a conceptual tool in addressing the major preparatory steps leading to the attainment of professional pilot status.
11. Financing Your Flight Training and Education
Getting onto the airline career path remains a challenge for many aspiring aviators. While there might be a job waiting for you at the end of your flight training, student pilots must still find a way...
12. How important is a four-year college degree for today's future airline pilots?
The industry’s ongoing reduced pilot supply has changed the equations of what some airlines are looking for and the ease with which pilots can build flying time.
13. Should You Become a Professional Pilot?
The decision to embark upon a piloting career is a momentous one. The career offers work satisfaction and quality of life that is difficult to equal in any other field. On the other hand....
14. Pilot Careers in the Time of Coronavirus
Part One: The Decision to Become an Airline Pilot.
U.S. airline travel in mid April 2020 decreased 96 percent compared to 2019 numbers, according to statistics provided by the TSA. Regional Airlines Trans States,....
15. The Decision: Military or Civilian
In 2019, we hosted a FAPA Job Fair and Future Pilot Forum in San Diego, CA. Directly across from the venue hotel was the San Diego Padres stadium. As I was looking at the enormous building it occurred to me that, like that building, there are several points of entry into....
16. The Decision: Vocational School or College? Part 1
If you’ve started doing your research into earning your professional pilot credentials, no doubt you’ve discovered that there are a few different paths you can pursue to complete your objective....
17. The Decision: Vocational School or College? Part 2
One of the biggest objections/hurdles to overcome when it comes to earning your pilot certificates and ratings is paying for that training. Vocational aviation schools can charge anywhere from $60,000-$90,000 for the required training; college programs can be double – even triple – that amount...
18. Considering a Professional Pilot Career?
I entered aviation on a whim. It wasn’t a family thing, it wasn’t in my blood, it wasn’t a life-long dream. I didn’t originally go to college to become a pilot. To be honest, I don’t know why I originally went to college; it was just something I was expected to do...
19. Picking the Right Pilot Job - Part One
My favorite burger joint is a place down in Florida. Apart from the never frozen, ground-fresh-daily, combination ground brisket and round steak patties that are cooked at the time of order, (stop drooling on your keyboard), one of the things that make the place so great is the simplicity...
20. Picking the Right Pilot Job - Part Two
It's often said that if you get into aviation for just the money, you are likely to find yourself disappointed at some point in your career. That in mind, your pay and benefits have got to be a part of the equation when it comes to picking the right company.
