Table of contents

General questions

1. How to become a pilot?
2. Do I have to perform well in school to become a pilot?
3. Are pilots allowed to wear glasses?
4. Everything about medical suitability
5. How old do you have to be to become a pilot?
6. How do I find the right flight school for me?
7. How much does pilot training cost?
8. How do you finance the training?
9. Are there also scholarships for pilot training?
10. What is the difference between ATPL and CPL?
11. What is a Type Rating?
12. What is base training?
13. What is line training?
14. How do I get a job at an airline?
15. How should I prepare for an airline assessment?
16. What does an airline roster look like?

Personal questions

1. Where am I based?
2. How old was I when I became a pilot?
3. Which aircraft type do I fly?
4. What is my favorite destination?
5. How family-friendly is my job?
6. Last but not least: Boeing or Airbus?

General questions

1. How to become a pilot?

The profession of a pilot is not based on a normal training like in other jobs. The airline transport pilot license (ATPL) is acquired at a private flight school and is comparable to a driver's license. After you have completed flight school, you can apply to airlines and continue with type-specific training at an airline (also check out questions 6 How do I find the right flight school for me? and 11 Type Rating).

2. Do I have to perform well in school to become a pilot?

To make it short: You shouldn't be dump, but you also don't have to be einstein. Education and intelligence are two different things. School grades say nothing about whether you will be a good pilot or not. In my opinion school doesn't really prepare you for a career as a pilot. Of course, solid knowledge of mathematics, physics and english are a basic requirement. The level of the 9th grade of high school is completely sufficient.

However, as a pilot you have to have many more skills: spatial thinking, multitasking and a high level of resilience in stressful situations are basic skills that you can train, but are certainly not taught in school. Detailed training with special software is particularly advantageous when preparing an airline assessment.

However, almost all airlines expect you to have a high school diploma. If your grades aren't that good, that's not an obstacle, but you have to be able to explain clearly to the aviation psychologist why your performance at school was the way it is on the certificate (by the way, you have to do that as a grade 1 student as well - find out more about it at question 15 Airlineassessment).

3. Are pilots allowed to wear glasses?

Basically yes. However, there are a whole range of restrictions, such as red-green weakness, which can, for obvious reasons, rule out the ability to fly. More information about this can be found on the EASA website in Part-MED.

4. Everything about medical suitability

To make it simply, the medical fitness of pilots is divided into three classes: Class 1, Class 2 and LAPL. The highest Class 1 is required for commercial pilots. If you want to get this for the first time, you have to consult not only an aviation doctor (AME - Aeromedical Examiner), but an aviation medical center (AeMC - Aeromedical Center). Here you fill out a medical questionnaire and are examined from head to toe (electrocardiogram, blood pressure, general neurological examinations, hearing test, blood test, urine sample (a drug test is also carried out) and of course an eye specialist examination.

This class 1 medical examination must be repeated once a year when you are young and every six months when you are a little older. Here it is sufficient to see a normal aviation doctor (AME) and the examination is also less extensive.

You can find out more about the requirements for Medical Class 1 on the EASA Website in Part-MED.

5. How old do you have to be to become a pilot?

At the time of the skill test, an applicant for a commercial pilot license must be 18 years old. To take the ATPL exam, the applicant must be 21 years old. More about the difference between ATPL and CPL can be found at question 10 What is the difference between ATPL and CPL?.

6. How do I find the right flight school for me?

In contrast to state universities, which generally do not make money from students, flight schools are private and for-profit. Every prospective student pilot should know this before attending e.g. information events at flight schools. It is clear to me that many people who have not had much to do with aviation initially only see the nice tings about this industry.

However, it should be clear to everyone that many flight schools can sell their product very well. And just like in the supermarket, there are sometimes deceptive packages hidden that ultimately turn out to be a bad purchase. That was also the case for me. I started at a flight school in Paderborn, but then completed my training at another flight school. The subsequent legal dispute with the first flight school ended with a settlement in which I was right in the matter, but in the end I still lost money.

So how do I find the right flight school for me? I won't recommend any flight schools here, but I can advise everyone to look into the subject of ATPL training in detail beforehand. The flight school information events are certainly a good opportunity to get a personal impression. In the end, neither the location nor the price of the flight school should be the deciding factor. I would actually only consider the flight schools that realistically tell you that you can't predict what the market for pilots will look like at the end of your training and that there is no job guarantee. In my opinion, flight schools are dubious if they tell you that you are guaranteed to sit in the cockpit of an Airbus A320 because they see a high potential in you because of your special personality.

7. How much does pilot training cost?

The costs for the training are generally to be borne by yourself and sometimes vary significantly. I completed my training in December 2018 and paid a total of around 65.000 € for it. Due to inflation, costs have certainly increased significantly in recent years. There are a few flight schools that offer a particularly affordable ATPL (e.g. through a so-called scholarship). Costs are often not listed completely or unrealistically and you end up paying significantly more than was stated in the glossy flyer. As of February 2024, without having currently compared the prices of flight schools, I would estimate the cost of ATPL training at a flight school to be around 80.000 €.

8. How do you finance the training?

Many people take out loans for training. These are usually quite expensive because, unlike a car loan, there is no equivalent value as security. I was in the fortunate situation of being able to work part-time from home in addition to my ATPL training and also bring some equity into the training. I therefore only had to take out 20.000 € as a training loan and was able to pay the rest myself, including my living expenses, for around two years.

Some airlines follow a different model. For example, it is also possible to have the training pre-financed so that you only pay back the training when you fly with one of the group airlines. However, such concepts also change over time, so individual case considerations are required.

9. Are there also scholarships for pilot training?

Usually no. There are flight schools that offer training with a partial scholarship, but you should read the contract carefully.

10. What is the difference between ATPL and CPL?

After completing your training at a flight school, you receive what is known as a commercial pilot license (CPL), more precisely a CPL(A) MEP IR with MCC & ATPL theory credit. With this license you are entitled, for example, to fly as a first officer for an airline on a complex airliner such as a Boeing B737 or an Airbus A320 in commercial operation.

In order to work as a captain in commercial flight operations, you need the Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). This is usually acquired when you upgrade from first officer to captain at an airline during a simulator check. The exact requirements can be found at EASA FCL.500.

It may be a bit confusing at first glance: flight schools usually title their training courses as ATPL courses, but in the end you “only” receive a CPL. This is simply because you first need the CPL to fly as a first officer and gain experience. Nevertheless, at the flight schools you receive the full ATPL theory course and it is noted in the CPL license that you have completed the ATPL theory exam.

11. What is a Type Rating?

The Commercial Pilot License and Airline Transport Pilot License only entitle the holder to fly “for money”. Since aircraft types have complex technical differences, there is a type rating for every larger aircraft type. This type rating will be entered in the license after the skill test. For example, if you have an Airbus A320 type rating in your license, you can fly all aircraft in the A320 family (A318/A319/A320/A321), but not a Boeing.

The type rating is usually only acquired when you start working for an airline and many airlines pay for it in full (the cost is between 20.000 € and 50.000 € depending on the aircraft type). The course consists of a one-week theoretical part (including a theory test) and at least eight simulator sessions of four hours each as well as a skill test in the simulator.

12. What is base training?

After you have completed the practical training in the simulator, the base training takes place. Here you can finally fly a real airliner for the first time. Most of the time you are a small group of two to six trainees. There are also two experienced training captains, one of whom sits in the left seat and the second in the jump seat in the cockpit. Then you usually fly to a commercial airport that is not as busy as, for example, Frankfurt or Munich. In my case we went to Leipzig. Each trainee is then allowed to fly 6 traffic circuits by hand to get a feel for the behavior of the real aircraft.

13. What is line training?

Line training sets the start of flying in commercial air transport. You fly as a first officer in normal scheduled operations with passengers (or cargo). However, you will be accompanied by specially trained training captians who will teach you how to get started in the airline world. After 40 to 80 flights, line training ends with a line check.

14. How do I get a job at an airline?

Getting into the airline cockpit always starts with a selection process. This takes place either before flight school (if you go to an airline flight school) or after the training. The selection process usually varies slightly depending on the airline, but can be divided into the following stages:

1. Basic qualification (computer based tests in mathematics, physics, english, multitasking)
2. Simulator screening
3. Interview including aviation psychological assessment and group game

If you have passed all three stages (some airlines complete two selection stages in one day), you get a contract and can take a seat in the airline cockpit.

15. How should I prepare for an airline assessment?

There are special seminars that prepare you for the airline assessment. These range from training for computer tests to group game training and mock interviews to simulate the assessment. Depending on the scope, these courses cost between 700 € and 2.500 €. I didn't take any of these courses, but instead purchased training software to practice for the computer based tests. This software cost around 80 € and was completely sufficient for me. However, what I can recommend to everyone is simulator preparation. No matter whether in the FNPT in flight school or even a full flight simulator. You have to practice flying RAW data and flight schools usually know what is important for a simulator screening. This type of preparation is really expensive, but worth every penny!

16. What does an airline roster look like?

As a pilot, you don't have a classic five-day week with a free weekend. There are airlines that have a so-called fixed pattern. In these type of contracts you work six days and then have three or four days off. Unfortunately, the airline I fly for doesn't have this, so my roster is relatively random. However, there is always a fixed roster that is published in the previous month and then processed accordingly. I can also request up to four days off per month, which will be allocated to me based on availability. An example of a roster from when I was still based in Salzburg can be found here.

Personal questions

1. Where am I based?

I am currently based in Hamburg.

2. How old was I when I became a pilot?

I started flying gliders at the age of 15, did my commercial pilot training at the age of 20 and sat in the cockpit of a Boeing B737-800 for the first time at the age of 23.

3. Which aircraft type do I fly?

At the moment I fly the Airbus A320 family (A319/A320).

4. What is my favorite destination?

In terms of flying, Innsbruck is the most interesting airport I flew to. But I also like Corfu.

5. How family-friendly is my job?

In my opinion, it depends on where you live and which airline you choose. I commuted from northern Germany to Palma de Mallorca and Salzburg for 3 years. In the long term, of course, this is anything but family-friendly. But if you live for example in Düsseldorf and find an airline that will base you there, the job of pilot can be just as family-friendly as other jobs.

6. Last but not least: Boeing or Airbus?

I flew both (although the Boeing B737 only briefly). I prefer the Airbus.