Flying is the dream of every 12th grader these days. The difference is that some of them want to have a flying career and others want a career in flying. We are in the middle of a new boom in the Aviation Industry in India. All major Airlines are hiring new pilots and buying new planes in order to reach a new level of expansion to compete with the super powers of the globe. Career in pilot after 12th class is very lucrative. Let us take you through the process of how to become a commercial pilot after 12th.
Eligibility Criteria
As mentioned before that many students have the sky in their eyes, but they have to have the basic eligibility criteria fulfilled before they can dream of flying an aircraft. The basic qualification in order to appear for the entrance examination is 10+2 i.e. a student should have cleared the class 12th board exams through the science stream with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as the subjects’ needed and should have acquired at least 50% marks.
Online/Offline Tests
Taking the entrance exam is one of the first steps to become a pilot. One must fare well in order to get a seat in the respective institutes. The institutes have their own entrance test and students must clear the written entrance test along with a rigorous physical test to make sure they are fit for the pilot training courses.
Courses to Study
When taking up professional courses like flying and aviation, a career guide helps you a lot to understand the current market scenario about the opportunities, courses and various other important information linked to aviation.
The Pilot Training Course can be taken up by students both in India and abroad. The courses to study after 12th to make your career as a pilot are relatively same across the globe. The only difference is the number of flying hours one has to reach in order to get the license. In India, 250 hours of flying gets you the commercial pilot’s license and on the other hand 750 hours of flying gets you the license for Europe.
Aviation Colleges in India
There are number of colleges which help you get the license and have well designed courses for the same. Let us have a look at the top 10 Aviation Colleges in India.
- Government Aviation Training Institute, Bhubaneswar
- Coimbatore Flying Club
- Indian Aviation Academy, Mumbai
- Jamshedpur Co-operative Flying Club Ltd.
- All India Institute of Aeronautics, Dehradun
- Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy, Secunderabad
- Ahmadabad Aviation and Aeronautics
- Government Flying Training School, Bangalore
- Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Bareli
- West Bengal Flying Training Institute
Most Popular Aviation Colleges of the World
There are some prominent colleges abroad too which offer aviation courses. They are:
- IATA Training Center – Amsterdam, Netherlands
- International Aviation Academy of New Zealand, Christchurch, New Zealand
- CAE Oxford Aviation Academy, Australia/ India/ Netherlands/ USA/ Singapore
- Aerosim Flight Academy, Florida, USA
Fee Structure
The fee structure varies with different colleges. The cost of professional pilot course is relatively less in India when compared with abroad. It takes around 10-18 lakhs to complete your aviation course. On the other hand, it takes around 18-25 lakhs to complete the aviation course in cities like Florida, Netherlands, Singapore, etc.
Pilot Training
Once a student has the educational qualification to become a pilot and clears the entry level written and physical examination, he or she can enter the pilot training academy. The main agenda of the pilot training course is to enable a student to obtain the Commercial Pilot’s License. In order to get that, he/she has to cross the threshold of 200 flying hours.
- This flight time include 100 hours of flight time as Pilot-in-Command.
- 20 hours of cross-country flight time as Pilot-in-Command.
- 10 hours of instrument time and 5 hours of flight time by the night.
Apart from the practical training, students have to follow a syllabus which is an integral part of their pilot education program. It comprises of subjects like Air Regulations, General Aircraft Knowledge, Performance and Planning of Flights, Performance and Limitations of Humans, Meteorology of Aviation, Navigation, Operational Procedures, Principles of Flight and Radio Telephony.
Job Opportunities and Scope
When it comes to pilot job opportunities in India, there is an ocean of opportunities. The students who have the Commercial Pilot’s License get opportunities to work for private as well as public airlines. The job growth in this sector hardly ever comes down as it is highly dependent on Economic conditions of the people and the population of a country. And fortunately, our country is expanding its new horizons into a better economic state as compared to the past.
The soaring salaries and visiting to the different destinations fascinates most of the students who take up this profession. Perhaps some might be set back by the initial fee one has to pay to become a pilot but with the availability of student loans in the market makes it easier for you to pursue the dream. As the candidate completes his training and acquires the Commercial Pilot’s License, he or she gets a job as a co-pilot. As the time goes by and the candidate gets relevant experience, the candidate flies international.
The career opportunities in pilot are great when we compare the Indian standards with the International ones. The number of hours of training is definitely more but the salary earned is three or four times than India. Other countries have a better job certainty and good satisfaction too.
Pilot jobs in India are on the rise as the Airlines industry is a sunrise industry and people value time more when compared to money. So people in the future would prefer to fly than to take any other mode of transportation.
Salary Structure
As we have mentioned before that the salary that one gets after the getting the license is relatively high as compared to other professionals in different fields. Once the license is acquired, the candidate is appointed as a trainee in airline companies. The salary of a trainee is a few thousand rupees ranging from 30,000 to 40,000 a month.
Once the specific training for the airline is complete, the candidate becomes a co-pilot and earns a salary of around 1.5 Lacs per month. The pilot salary per month is a decent amount to recover from the loan amount one has taken for the training course.
In foreign countries, the salary varies a lot from country to country. Talking about USA, the annual salary that a pilot is expected to draw is around $60,000 – $100,000. The same amount of salary of around Euro 57,000-95,000 is earned by a Pilot who works for Airlines which manage employment in Europe.
