What qualifications should I possess in order to become an airline pilot? What is the career scope of a pilot?
The job of an airline pilot offers a glamorous lifestyle with great salaries and the opportunities to travel. But becoming a pilot is also a very expensive proposition. You have to get a commercial pilot’s license (CPL) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Only those who have done science with PCM at the +2 are eligible to apply.
You have to register 250 flying hours with a flying club like Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy, Rae Bareli; Pinjore Aviation Club, Ambala; and School of Aviation Science and Technology, Safdarjang Airport, New Delhi, and clear a set of exams, before you are given the license. You can get the CPL from abroad too and get it converted to the Indian pilot license. While getting into Air India or Indian Airlines may not be that easy, a number of private and foreign airlines do offer attractive salaries to their pilots-starting from Rs 45,000 for trainee pilot to Rs 165,000 for confirmed pilots. Initially, you have to work as a co-pilot and it’s only with experience that you are given the command of a flight.
However, the course is very expensive, around Rs five lakh. To check your suitability for the job, ask yourself whether you are capable of quick thinking, can you keep calm during a crisis, whether you have quick reflexes, are you comfortable working with machines, how physically fit are you. It’s an erratic life-you have to report at unearthly hours, be away from home for days on end. so in all likelihood, you will watch Diwali festivities from your cockpit, rather than from the courtyard of your home.
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