Becoming a commercial pilot (3)

Hello steemian,
@ceepee brings to you door the steps to becoming a commercial pilot. I blogged about becoming a pilot few days ago and I promised to give you the steps to becoming a commercial pilot.

To become a commercial pilot is easy and not easy. If you ask me, I will say is easy, not because I had it easy, but because flying was my passion. I couldn't think of anything other than flying. But is not easy, because it gets really though on the journey and 3/4 out of 10 usually gets through the journey. Irrespective of that, there are a few that are exceptional that would tell you is a child's play.
So here is how to begin your pilot career as a commercial pilot.

First, you need to be 18 years or more, and you need to have a Class 1 medical licence, that means passing the required medical fitness test to be issued a class 1 medical licence. Your medical licence basically is your pilot licence. Once your are out on medicals, your licence is as good as not valid. So for pilots, your medical fitness is very very important to you.

Second step : When you have your medical licence, you can now apply for Student Pilot Licence(SPL). These licence permits you to fly a plane, a single engine with weight not more than 12,000 pounds. You are not allowed to carry a passenger. You only fly with your instructor on board until your first solo flight.
As a student pilot, you are working towards getting your Private Pilot Licence(PPL). There are couple of flight exercises you will have to learn and be able to fly and maneuver before you can pass to your solo flight. During this phase of your training, you learn to takeoff and land the plane and also learn basic radio communications between pilots, control tower and other air traffic .
Take off, well is easy but landing will take some time to perfect. As soon as you get your landing right, you are good to go solo.
Now let's talk a little bit of the solo flight. Is a big deal for every pilot. Is what make you call yourself a pilot. Every student pilot look forward to the day they go solo. Some schools will give you a certificate for going solo. But believe me, when your instructor get out of that plane and you are alone, the feeling is not the same. There is this feeling of nevoursness, you want to get everything right so you don't make mistakes. Many end up missing out on one flight setting or something. The most important thing is to get yourself and the plane down safely. Is the most exciting day of a pilots life. There is always a standing ovation waiting for you upon landing safe, air traffic control announces you on air, in some very busy airport, Pilots flying commercial jets congratulates you, you become the attention of the moment. There is a solo party waiting for you, so is so much fun.
Cessena 150

And here is the cockpit picture. You can see is much different form the jet cockpit on my previous post.

These one is a glass cockpit (g1000). Mainly automated.

The next stage is getting your Private Pilot Licence. This you can achieve by perfecting the exercises you have done before and do some more solo flights. When your instructor feels you are good enough, he signs you out for you checkride(flight test). A few oral test and practical flying and you have your private pilot licence.
As a private pilot, you can carry passengers and can get rated on a higher performance plane. But you cannot get paid for flying. You can fly for free, gain experience and go places. But you are already a pilot. You are qualified to go for your commercial pilot licence

Forth stage: Night Rating. You learn to fly at night. This is not so hard, as most times, you will have an instructor with you. But you will have to do some few hours of solo flights to get your rating. Good thing is you can now carry a passenger since you have your pilot licence. Especially for long flights, as there are chances of getting lost. There are no check rides for night rating, which makes it fast and quick to get.

Now you 50% into becoming a commercial pilot. The rest is easy. How fast you can finish depends on you and the weather most times. At these stage, you get to fly at least a total of 100 hours pilots in command ( mainly solo) flight to build your confidence as a pilot. You will be required to do a long flight on the little single training airplane to gain confidence in flying. When you have the required flying hours, you can now get tested and given you commercial pilot licence.
Now you are a pilot who can earn for flying. But you are limited to single engine plane and virtual flying only. You cannot fly using instrument as your references, you only use outside references and is limited to only virtual flying conditions. Is a very huge limitation, as you will barely get anyone to employ you for a job.
What you can do is improve yourself to get multi engine rating and instrument rating.

I will continue on the ratings you get as a commercial pilot on my subsequent post. I really hope this will help someone out there.

Please leave your comment and ask your question.