There are few new activities you could start doing that have the potential to change your lifestyle as much as learning to fly might. From opening up the possibility of a rewarding new career to finding an engrossing new hobby, this is something that you might want to consider for any of the following reasons.
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Purely for Entertainment
Flying is a hobby that can give you a huge amount of freedom and pleasure in your spare time. Imagine being able to fly anywhere in the world while in complete control of the aircraft. It’s quite an expensive hobby, though, with a private pilot’s license costing up to $20,000. You need to complete at least 40 hours of flying time, while the sport’s pilot license potentially offers an easier way to get licensed. After that, you need to consider the cost of hiring or buying a plane.
A low-cost alternative is to become a drone pilot or fly a radio-controlled craft. This type of hobby is becoming more popular, and our fascination with flying can also be seen in movies like Plane and TV shows including Manifest and The Aviators. The big screen isn’t the only place a fascination with flying has grabbed people’s attention. It is also seen in other forms of entertainment like flying theatres, theme parks, and when you play the Aviator casino game at Paddy’s. This betting game involves a plane that takes to the air, with players deciding when they think it will crash. They win if they cash out before the plane hits the ground, with the multiplier increasing the longer it stays in the air.
As a New Career
Not everyone who learns to fly makes it into a career, but there are some good reasons for taking this option into account. For a start, the average commercial pilot’s salary in the US is over $100,000. It’s the type of career that can let you travel the world while earning an excellent salary and a lot of respect.
The route to getting a commercial pilot’s license isn’t simple, and it’ll probably take at least a couple of years for you to rack up the 1,500 flying hours needed for this; and you could end up spending up to $100,000 in total to achieve it. You can choose to go on Federal Aviation Administration-approved pilot training courses or non-certified courses to learn skills including spatial awareness and fast decision-making.
Once you start looking for jobs as a qualified pilot, you’ll see that you can apply for a variety of roles, such as captain or first officer, with any of the commercial airlines. Alternatives include becoming a flight instructor, working on charity or aid flights, and flying private jets for celebrities and businesspeople. In the case of private flights in small craft, the pilot is responsible for just about everything that happens during the trip, as reported in this article by a pilot in The Drive.
Becoming a pilot isn’t something that’s particularly easy or fast to do. However, it can open up a great new lifestyle while giving you the option of pursuing a new career as a commercial pilot too.
