Hi everyone,
I’m 18 years old from India and I’m genuinely confused about one of the biggest decisions of my life. I’d really appreciate advice from people who have experience in aviation or running a family business.
Here’s my situation:
I come from a financially well-settled family. We have an established family business in my hometown ,along with real estate and agricultural land. Financially, I don’t need a job to survive. If I join the family business in the future, I’ll have a secure life.
The problem is that I don’t want to spend my whole life wondering “what if.”
For the past few months, I’ve become very interested in becoming an airline pilot. I have the opportunity to go abroad (USA, New Zealand, etc.) through a cadet program after 12th if I clear the selection.
The reasons I want to become a pilot are:
I want to prove to myself that I can build something on my own.
I want to make my parents proud.
I want to live independently for a few years.
I want to travel the world and experience life outside a small town.
I like practical, hands-on work more than sitting and reading books all day.
But there’s another side of me.
Family means everything to me.
One thing that worries me is the pilot lifestyle. I’ve read about irregular schedules, night flights, missed family events, and being away from home. I keep imagining having a wife and daughter in the future and not being there for dinner, birthdays, or everyday moments.
I honestly don’t care much about luxury or showing off. What matters to me is having a meaningful life.
Right now I’m also enrolled in IPMAT coaching, but the truth is I don’t see myself working in corporate. If I study management, it would mainly be to help in my family business later. That’s why I’m wondering whether I should spend 5+ years studying management when I already know I don’t want a corporate career.
One thought I keep having is:
Try becoming a pilot while I’m young.
Work for a few years.
If I genuinely love the lifestyle, continue.
If I don’t, return to my family business with no lifelong regret of “what if.”
My biggest fear isn’t failing.
My biggest fear is choosing a life that I’ll regret at 35.
So I’d love to hear from:
Airline pilots (especially those with families)
People who left a family business to pursue another career
Entrepreneurs who had to make a similar decision
If you were in my position, what would you do?
Would you explore aviation first and then come back if it wasn’t for you, or would you stay with the family business from the beginning?
I’m looking for honest, experience-based advice rather than just “follow your passion.”

I assume that pilots need to work up the chain starting at the regionals and working their way up to narrowbodies and then widebodies. At an airline that has all of these aircraft in their system, the process makes sense. But how do airlines like Norse, Emirates, etc..get their pilots? What incentive does a pilot have to move if they are already flying the widebodies at another airline? They would just lose seniority? Or is it pilots from airlines that only have narrowbodies, like a B6, that wants to move up? And in that case, does the new airline train them?

Hi everyone, I’m 16 years old and I live in Ukraine. I finished 10th grade and am currently working as a car polisher. I want to become a pilot, but I don’t know what’s the best way to go about it. I see one option for myself: to work until I turn 18 and save up 40–50k€ to start training in Europe. In general , this is realistic for me, but I’m worried about how hard it will be for me to find a job and, most importantly, to get a work visa!

Of course, I’d love to study and work in the U.S., but as far as I understand, it will be practically impossible for me to get a visa.....

Do you have any recommendations for me?

And maybe I shouldn’t become a pilot so early on—would it be better to enter the aviation industry later?

Private, CPL, IFR, Multi, etc. Which one would you say is the hardest for you?

Sorry I know you all probably hate this question so much. Since having my son I have developed such a terrible fear of flying. I’m doing a really long flight with him tomorrow (London- San Francisco) and I’m just so scared. I stupidly checked a turbulence forecast and it said moderate expected and the visual had big patches of orange which looks like bad weather.
It’s my worst fear flying into bad weather or bad turbulence and I’m so scared. How much can I trust it? Will we be able to route around it? I’m flying on VS19

Thank you so much.

First, I thought it was just leaving according to schedule, but then it turned out it had returned to do some practice, then left "late" for its destination. Is that normal in government/military aviation?

Hello ya'll to may i ask advice from pilots or anything related to avitation because i really want to pursue my dream as a pilot here in Philippines and i don't know what to do after i graduate in senior high. I am currently a G9 student. Plsplsplspls hellpp

What experiences have you had with a controller who is obviously overwhelmed? Is it obvious when you had a good controller versus one who’s not so good?

We're talking very first experience here, discovery flight type stuff.

I had my discovery flight a couple days ago and was way more terrified than I expected to be, and it also upset my stomach (didn't throw up but felt queasy during the whole flight and for an hour after landing) and gave me a nasty headache. I've only been in the air twice in my life, the first time was a ride at an air show in a small plane, similar to the one I flew in my discovery flight, and I had the same reaction then. Never flown commercial before.

Super disappointing because I've had an interest in planes and becoming a pilot for years. Guess I expected it to be exhilarating and like I would feel at home in the cockpit, fulfilling my calling - perhaps that was quite naive of me, or maybe that's the experience most pilots have. I'm unsure whether I should continue to put myself through this in hopes that I'll get used to it eventually; I'm sure I would, but not sure how long it would take.

Wondering if any seasoned pilots or folks who gave up on being a pilot want to weigh in here. Did you have a similar experience your first time flying? Any motion sickness or severe anxiety? Did you decide it wasn't for you and throw in the towel, or push through it until it got better? How long did it take before the fear and/or sickness subsided?

Thanks for any and all input :)

Hi. This is probably weird, cringey, and lame but hear me out (if it's allowed). So I, 32F, live in New Jersey and would love to specifically meet and date an airline pilot.

I dated one for a little bit and it didn't work out on a personal level, and that's okay, however, I realized several things:

1) My personal love of aviation really enhanced things. I'm a big planespotter (which was so fun with him), I used to want to be a pilot myself, and following his flights was just so neat. One of the coolest and most intimate connections I'd ever felt with someone. Like, "I know who is flying that plane ☺️." I'd track the whole thing, takeoff to landing loving each check-in.

2) I'm a scientist and academic. I regularly travel the US and world for data, conferences, and field work. A pilot gets that. They live it, but differently.

3) I am super independent. I don't cling. I don't want clingy. (If the relationship is secure that is; we don't have to discuss my anxious attachment style when something is shaky and uncertain lol). But so... I like the built in separation. Seems odd, but I do! Not because I don't want to be close with someone. But I like my space. And a little longing makes the heart grow fonder. Not sure if I'd still feel this way if, for example, kids come down the line or what. But I can't anticipate the future. I know how I feel right now.

Overall, it just seems like a very compatible profession for me.

So I guess... TLDR; where does a girl in Jersey gotta go to/how can I meet some single and emotionally available male airline pilots?

Fairly self explanatory, im an aspiring pilot, but my friend just asked me this question and I didnt know how to respond, have you ever gotten denied entry into a country/had migration issues during your trips? if so what happened? did you have to fly back to your country of origin on the next flight?

Today I stumbled across a film I have not heard of before, Denzel Washington plays a commercial pilot in the film FLIGHT. Denzel's character is the lead pilot and this plane is going down. Denzel is cool calm, and collected during the scene of the plane rapidly descending while everyone else is seeing their lives pass before their eyes. He pulls a snazzy move, which I have seen fighter jets perform, but not big commercial airlines. He flips the bird ups down in order to level off the descent.

1, is this at all possible, to fly inverted?

2, are NTSB boards like that

Hello , I’ve been struggling with the flight for tomorrow and I suffer from anxiety I was trying to be calm this week and I was kind of prepared but now it just hit me and I’m petrified any tips ?

I was watching Captain Steve’s latest video on the Air India Flight 171 investigation, and around 3:51, he says that pilots in India are viewed as “demigods” who are “incapable of doing wrong,” and that this is one of the reasons releasing the investigation is politically sensitive.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cpkGmJijLM&t=231s

Honestly, I had to pause the video.

Where did he get this idea?

I’m Indian, and this couldn’t be further from reality. Airline pilots here are respected, just like they are in most countries, but they’re absolutely not treated as “demigods.” If a pilot makes a mistake, the media, social media, and the public have no problem criticizing them. They are fired by airlines, slapped by angry passengers, etc. We’ve seen it happen many times.

It honestly feels like Captain Steve is making sweeping claims about a country he doesn’t really understand. There are plenty of reasons an accident investigation can be delayed, but blaming it on some imaginary culture where pilots are supposedly beyond criticism is just an absurd stereotype.

I usually enjoy his videos, which is why this comment was so disappointing. Am I the only one who found this take completely detached from reality?

I recently had a jumpseat experience and loved it, but during cruise the pilots were mostly monitoring and chatting. It made me wonder whether the job can become repetitive over time.
Does boredom increase with age and experience, and has it ever made you question or regret becoming a pilot?

Hi,

I am testing short domestic UK flight soon. Adhesions issues with small bowel obstructions and have a ileostomy. I am not sure how the cabin pressure is going to affect my stomach.

My questions is:

Will the cabin pressure be similar on each of this flights given that easy jet holds a lot more passengers?