My mentor wanted to know why i decided to learn how to fly for my project and what was my interest. So i gave her the following:
If I could be any animal I would be an eagle that flies in the sky. Not only can I not picture myself at a desk job, I love the excitement of flying, and flying is in my blood. Starting in WWI my great- great-great-uncle Hap Arnold learned to fly by the Wright brothers. He also flew in the war. After that he came up with the idea of the United States Air Force. Following him, one of my uncles is still in the Air Force and another was a fighter pilot but now flies for Frontier Airlines. Aviation has allowed my family to travel to cool and exotic places and earn enough salary to live a lifestyle that they love and work really great hours. A pilot is my career choice because it offers excitement, good money and perks I want.
The history of flying started with Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903. The brothers invented the first heavier than air machine (Avjobs). Flying really caught on in WWI but commercial aviation was slow because of people being afraid of getting into planes. Aviation grew through the U.S. government not only flying for fighting but for delivering the mail. Henry Ford was one of the first to mass produce planes and he hired nurses to take care of the sick passengers. (Avjobs). Aviation grew with Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight and modern airplanes. WWII brought many inventions, jet propulsion which led us to the jet age. Today flying is part of our everyday life.
To become a pilot you must first obtain a pilot’s license. This costs about $8000.00 and takes about sixty hours. (Physics) It takes another sixty hours to obtain your instrument reading. Next you have to pass written exams and check rides and start racking up flight time. When you have 6,000 total hours of fly time you can get your commercial pilot’s license (ATP). (Physics)
Airlines will sometimes pay some of the cost of the STP certificate, which usually costs $20,000.00. Some colleges offer aviation programs and you come out with a (IFR) Instrument Rating.
I feel I am well suited to be a pilot. First I am good at communication and have an easygoing personality. Because I have been playing sports all of my life I have great hand-eye coordination. I have proven I can do the work to be a pilot by how far I have come in my academic career.
There is no typical day in the life of a pilot. For a commercial pilot you go through security to the lobby of the airline you work for. Within the lobby you collect all types of Information: for example, the weather of your flight path, the coordinates, and a doughnut and some coffee. Then you take all of the information collected and you put it into the plane’s computer and the plane maps out your flight. After you get everyone on board the plane, wait for clearance for takeoff and head out on your way.
The average salary for a pilot in New York starts at $40,000.00 a year and can go up to $200,000.00 at the height of a career. (Payscale) Salary depends on your seniority: the longer you are there, the more pay you get. Health benefits are involved and also other perks. Vacation time starts at about 2 weeks a year and grows as time goes on. Pilots can see a lot of the world but all of the traveling can be tiring and stressful. (Payscale)
The aviation field is tied to the economy so when the economy is down not as many pilots are needed. In general, flying is here to stay and there will always be a demand for pilots. Besides commercial there is always an option of flying for the military. More than anything I want to be a pilot and it’s going to take me a long time, but slow and steady wins the race.
Works Cited
(Aviation history). Avjobs.com 9/29/09“Median salary by hears experience.”
Salary Survey for Airline Pilots. 2009. http://www.payscale.com.
Undergraduate admissions. Ithaca, 9/16/09 http://www.ithaca,edu/
Undergraduate admissions. Colorado State University, 2009 http://www.coloradostate.edu.
Warren. (Becoming a pilot what do you need) Physics Forums. March 1/05
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