Simviation Forums

I have a question and i figured some of you must be real pilots and possibly even commercial pilots....I was just wondering what is a really good school to go to to become a commercial pilot because i find searching google doesnt help at

Well it would depend on where you are located, but there are many fine college in the US that offer aviation related degrees.

That being said, there is a growing trend for pilots not to actually go to college for aviation, but for something else, just acquiring your license on the side.  The reason being, aviation is a very competitive career, and at this time, not a well paying one for many.  Sure if you stick it out, or get lucky as a corporate guy, you can make a decent living getting to fly.  But it never hurts to have a backup plan and degree to fall back on.  For example, our local FBO owner and chief pilot has a degree in History, and is state licensed to teach it.  Granted he may never need it, but if aviation takes a nose dive, or even if a medical condition grounds him, he has a career to fall back on.

Myself, I attended Louisiana Tech University, started in Professional Aviation, then switched to Aviation Management.  Now I work in airport operations, so I get to be around airplanes all day long, and just fly as a hobby.  I just got burned out on flying all the time, and didn't want to ruin my favorite hobby.

"Commercial pilot" means a pilot who holds a commercial certificate. It's commonly done as an add-on to a PP.
There's really no special school for that; just about any school or independent instructor can provide that training.


Here are the requirements:

[i]Be at least 18 years of age

Hold a private pilot certificate

Be able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language

Accumulate and log a specified amount of training and experience; the following are part of the airplane single-engine land class rating requirements:

To back up on what these guys said. Many of the airlines haveschools on several different airports, such as American Airlines and JetBlue Airways. And of course you can always go the Air Force route, but actually flying a plane in the airforce is much harder than trying to find a job as an ATP. [The Navy actually owns the majority of the planes. ;] ]