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Avoiding the most common mistakes pilots make is key to your success. Avoiding these mistakes requires that you prequalify yourself as a pilot before you consider starting the training process. This volume will cover even more than 10 potential pilot mistakes and all the important factors that need to be considered before investing in pilot training. By making allowance for these factors now, you will avoid the costly mistakes many prospective pilots make and prepare yourself for success as a pilot. Regardless of your reasons for becoming a pilot, this volume will provide you with all the information necessary to prequalify yourself as a pilot, commercial pilot, or airline pilot. If you are only interested in becoming a non-commercial pilot then you can focus on the following subject titles:

? *FCC Radio Operators License ? Initial Flight Lesson ? Logbooks (Electronic logbooks are optional for non-commercial pilots) ? Drug Testing and Usage ? *First Class and other Medicals ? *TSA Flight Training Validation

For readers interested in becoming commercial or airline pilots, the entire volume contains essential prequalification information for you. Gaining an understanding of the commercial aviation and airline industry and insight into how hiring, firing, and everything in between, is essential to your long-term success as a professional pilot. This volume and the others that follow will provide you with the inside perspective on gaining and holding onto the coveted position of commercial and airline pilot. Whether you are just starting the process of becoming a pilot, or you are already a commercial or airline pilot, the information in this volume is critical for you to achieving your career goals. One of the first and most fundamental concepts to understand about the aviation industry is that it is cyclical in nature. The aviation industry�s economic and operational health is driven by external factors related to the economy both within the USA and around the world. Other significant underlying factors include fuel prices, governmental regulations, war and peace, and a host of other lesser factors. These factors are known as aviation industry �drivers� in that they drive or control the financial and economic health of the aviation industry. As would be expected, commercial aviation operations and airlines typically hire pilots when enough of their industry drivers are working in their favor such as the economy is growing, fuel prices are low or stable, or other drivers are positive. For simplicity sake, if you think of the cyclical nature of your chosen industry as a wave, you will need to do your best to catch a ride on the cyclical wave of the aviation industry prosperity when it is on the upswing. You will then want to ride the wave as long as possible, while at the same time preparing yourself for relative down periods when you are waiting for the next wave of prosperity. What all this means for you is that commercial aviation and airline-hiring opportunities come quickly, go just as fast, and you must be prepared to take advantage of them. This is the reason the first volume in the set focuses with such intensity on getting you qualified as a commercial and or airline pilot and keeping you qualified. Being a commercial or airline pilot is a profession that requires the individual pilot to be independent and direct his or her own career. There is no human resource department to rely on for direction and no single approach that will bring you guaranteed success in your career as a professional airline pilot. For this reason, it is up to you as a professional pilot to concentrate on the wide range of factors discussed in this and other sections of this book that you have control over. It is also imperative, that you maintain the required level of self-discipline such that you keep yourself qualified as a commercial or airline pilot. The information in this section and throughout this book is based on up-to-date, time proven formulas that have yielded success for countless numbers of pilots. It is up to you to read, study, and take ownership of the professional airline pilot guidance offered in this book, and by doing so; you will be ensuring that you have the best opportunity for success. The qualifications required to become a commercial pilot such as commercial charter or corporate pilot are generally no less stringent than those of regional and major airlines, though some exceptions do apply. Having said this, if you strive to meet the qualifications necessary to become an airline pilot, add some additional flight experience in the form of pilot in command hours also known as PIC, you will likely meet the qualifications of most commercial pilot positions. For this reason, the remainder of this volume will focus on airline pilot qualifications knowing full well that this will also be setting you up to meet the requirements of becoming a commercial pilot. Below is an expanded checklist of what you need in the way of qualifications to both become a commercial and or airline pilot and what you need to do to remain qualified as a professional pilot. Carefully study each of the qualification sections and make sure that you continually strive to meet the qualifications in each of them on an ongoing basis. Professional pilots who work toward meeting these qualifications will give themselves the greatest opportunity for success as pilots.

• Education: To be successful in obtaining a position with a regional airline in the USA you will typically need to have graduated from high school or have obtained your GED. There are exceptions to this requirement, but without fulfilling this educational requirement, your options will be severely limited. For some regional airlines, it can also be useful to have a two or four year degree, but it is typically not a requirement.

A four-year college degree is nearly essential when attempting to secure employment as a pilot with a major and some national airlines. Therefore, to give yourself the greatest possible opportunity to become a pilot with a major or national airline in the US you need to plan to obtain your four-year college degree. On the other end of the education spectrum, having a law degree can limit or even eliminate your chances of getting on as a pilot with some airlines. It seems that these airlines believe that hiring a lawyer as a pilot increases the chances of lawsuits. Foreign airlines are a mixed bag when it comes to educational requirements. Some of the largest foreign airlines in the Middle East and Asia require four-year college degrees while others do not. It should also be noted that foreign airlines seem to have considerable flexibility with respect to their minimum hiring requirements. These foreign airline-hiring requirements typically rise and fall relative to the availability of pilots. There is no requirement that your two-year or four-year college degree be in aviation science or anything related to aviation to be an airline pilot. However, many universities give work experience credit to airline pilots who major in degrees related to aviation. Work experience credit can significantly reduce the total number of credits needed to graduate.

If you are interested in obtaining a degree in aviation, whether it is online or on campus, you can find out more information from the University Aviation Association (UAA) or by directly contacting universities. You may also want to consider having a degree in something unrelated to aviation, given the cyclical nature of the airline industry and likelihood of being furloughed (Laid-off) at some point. Having a degree in something unrelated to aviation could be considered a backup position when it comes to being employable. With a non-aviation degree, you could then seek employment outside of the aviation industry while you await new airline pilot hiring opportunities. Tip: If you do not have a four year college degree already, consider getting your college degree online while progressing in your training and pilot career. As previously mentioned, degree programs offering Aviation Science majors often give you credit hours for flying for a Part-121 airline while you are attending college. Continuing to pursue your pilot career while also attending college online will enable you to simultaneously build your professional experience and increase your airline seniority. In addition, you will be fulfilling the requirements to become a pilot with a major or national airline. If you are not interested in obtaining your college degree, you can still gain excellent airline pilot opportunities with US regional airlines and many foreign airlines.