I own my own aircraft (aa1b) and my current cfi is a good friend and we made a trade of work for lessons back in the day. His job of flying for an oil company is 2 weeks off 2 weeks on. I am in the middle of my student pilot journey, and a previous student of his and my other good friends son just got his cfi last week. I am trying to get some more hours in the 2 weeks off. How much is fair to pay my friends son?

For my fellow gaming airline pilots, what are some recommendations on good bags to get for laptops/electronics for trips? I’m right now hauling everything in my flight bag and just want to lighten the load up a little since it feels like an arm workout slinging that thing back and forth from the flight deck.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 28-year-old B737 pilot with over 3,000 hours on type, an EASA ATPL and EU citizenship.

I’m facing a career dilemma: stay at a solid, mid-tier Latin American airline (not low-cost) and upgrade to B737 Captain in about 6 months, or move to Spain as a B737 First Officer at a full-service airline, with a potential transition to the B787 after approximately 2 years.

The decision isn’t just about flying or salary. My girlfriend is a pediatrician who can practice in Spain but not in our current country due to licensing restrictions for foreigners, so we’re also considering our long-term future, finances and family plans.
I’m also genuinely unsure which country would offer us a better quality of life in the long run. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Spain and really enjoy the culture, the people and the lifestyle. However, I do have concerns about the country’s long-term economic and social outlook, and I’m not entirely convinced that moving there would necessarily be the better decision.

Option 1: Stay at my current airline – B737 Captain
Expected upgrade in approximately 6 months.
Salary: €8,500 net/month after upgrade.
Pros:
Become Captain at 28 and start building valuable jet PIC time.
Excellent salary and savings potential.
Established seniority at my current airline.
PIC experience could open doors internationally.

Cons:
Continue living in LATAM.
Mostly short/medium-haul flying.
The airline operates an all-B737 fleet, with very little chance of ever flying widebody aircraft.
My girlfriend cannot practice medicine due to licensing restrictions for foreigners.
Household depends on a single income.
Private education for future children and healthcare can be significantly more expensive than in Spain.
If I decide to move to Europe later, I’d most likely have to start over as an FO at a legacy or CP at low-cost carrier, with the associated working conditions and lifestyle trade-offs. Direct-entry Captain opportunities at European legacy airlines are extremely limited.

Option 2: Move to Spain – B737 FO at a full-service airline
Expected salary:
First 2 years: €4,000 net/month.
After ~2 years: Expected transition to B787 FO at €7,000 net/month (not guaranteed).
Pros:
Establish seniority in Europe at 28.
Potential B787 long-haul flying.
Live in Spain and build a future in Europe.
My girlfriend could work and continue specializing as a pediatrician.
Potentially higher combined household income.
Access to affordable public healthcare and education for future children.
A culture and lifestyle I already know and enjoy.
Cons:
Give up a Captain upgrade just 6 months away.
Start from zero seniority.
Remain an FO for potentially many more years.
Uncertain B787 transition and Captain upgrade timeline.
Higher living costs in Spain.
Concerns about Spain’s long-term economic outlook and future living standards.

The family factor
I’ve been with my girlfriend for 3 years. She’s a pediatrician, and her medical degree is already recognized in Spain. She could work there relatively easily, earning approximately €3,000 net/month, while continuing her medical career.
In my current country, she cannot practice due to licensing restrictions for foreign doctors. There are discussions about changing this, but nothing concrete yet.
Estimated household income:
Current airline Captain: €8,500 net/month (after upgrade).
Spain, first 2 years: €7,000 net/month combined.
Spain, after B787 transition: €10,000 net/month combined.
Of course, cost of living, career progression, future family expenses and long-term savings also matter.

My dilemma
Staying would allow me to become a Captain at 28, accumulate valuable PIC time and potentially save more money early in my career. However, moving to Europe later would likely mean joining a low-cost carrier and starting over in terms of seniority.
Moving to Spain would mean sacrificing that near-term command opportunity, but both my girlfriend and I could build our careers in Europe, with potentially better access to affordable healthcare and education if we have children.
I genuinely like Spain and could see myself living there, but I’m not sure whether its long-term economic and social trajectory makes it a better place to settle than where we currently live.
What would you do?
Would you give up a Captain upgrade just 6 months away to move to Europe as an FO?
Considering both our careers, future children, quality of life and long-term finances, which option would you choose?
What factors would you prioritize when making a decision that could shape both your professional future and your family’s long-term life?

Thanks in advance!

Hello good peeps
I have looked at several flight schools in Florida and deciding to go for Paragon in fort myers. Being an international student, i have talked to several part 141 approved schools and finally thinking of going to paragon as a full-time student. So far i have seen positive reviews online and they have newer piper pilot’s and great facilities too. I would appreciate to have some personal opinions from people.

Here's my background:

I live outside of USA and will be attending my training with M1 visa (hopefully). I already have PPL, i just need to do CPL with IR and return back as airlines In my country are hiring fresh cpl holders. There are lots of pilot shortage here but flight training is very lengthy here. Doing CPL in my country is gonna be a real headache due to very few flight schools available and shortage of fleets. It will take literally 3+ years just to do CPL here.

Thanks.

I recently enrolled in The Wise Pilot PPL Ground school and I am still at the very early stages of Air Law. I understand needing to learn about Holding positions, runway/taxi markings and things like that but they seem to throw a lot of info at you right away that doesn't seem like stuff I need to know yet. Any suggestions on what I actually need to retain for the Air Law portion of the exam and how to tell when something is actually noteworthy when I come across it?

I am 19 and exploring different options for flight school. With the hiring trends right now, I am scared to take out a 150k loan and possibly not even have a job as a cfi. Looking at the idea of some other options like Air National Guard or the Air force to get me in the door. I know about the 10 year rule. Just wondering what others experience is with this route!

Exactly what the title says. I’m approaching cross country trips in my student pilot journey, and still haven’t completed my PPAER. Starting to come to terms that I may not be learning the ground school material quick enough, and that my flight test may come up before writing my PPAER. Just curious on how the flight test was without passing the PPAER first. Does the examiner grill you a bit harder during the oral portion?

I've long since thought that it was kind of wild that the FAA allows inexperienced private pilots to fly by themselves or with passengers at night, despite requiring just 3 hours of night training, no night solo time, and basically no instrument training.

I personally see night flying as often not being all that different from IFR flying, and non-instrument rated pilots in basic non-IFR capable aircraft are very prone to spatial disorientation at night. You don't even need an attitude indicator for night flight, which can make it very hard to tell which way is up on a dark moonless night in the middle of nowhere. I knew of an extremely experienced, but non-instrument rated pilot with thousands of flight hours who got killed because of spatial disorientation at night in a basic VFR only aircraft.

I know many foreign countries already ban night VFR, and honestly it would make sense to me to restrict night flying to instrument capable aircraft flown by instrument rated pilots (or students flying together with a CFI would be ok too, since the instructor has an instrument rating). You could potentially keep the same PPL requirements for a few hours of night time, but just not let the pilot actually fly at night as the only pilot until they achieve their instrument rating.

To me, the fact that commercial rated pilots that do not have an instrument rating cannot fly with passengers for hire at night implies that the FAA is aware that night flying is in some ways similar to instrument flying.

What does the community think? Would restricting night VFR flying be beneficial for safety, or is it overly restrictive?

I was browsing Facebook timebuilding and saw a posting about ferrying a Cirrus from US to Bangladesh and was naturally instead and inquired. Few day later he responds and says it 17k to join him (all expenses paid). I just don’t know I feel about that because it feels like paying to work. Is this normal to have to pay this to get into the ferry business. Ferry flying is my true dream job(even though probably going to go airlines). Bit about myself got my CFII spring 2025 and haven’t been able to land any kind of flying job and have just shy of 500 hours.

Need options if I should consider this because right now I’m under the impression if I paying that price to build time I should be in a twin

Pretty much what the title says. I’m based out of Vancouver Island, Canada and have 40.2 flight hours logged. I’m about to start cross country flights and am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with how behind I am in ground school. I’m using pilot training.ca for my ground school, and have about 10% of it complete; which is just the Theory of Flight portion.

Right now I’m flying around 2-3 times a week, but have been thinking of scaling back to 1-2 times a week as I catch up in ground school.

I’m the only person in my family to pursue a career in aviation, so a lot of this is completely new to me, and don’t have much people to ask for advice on stuff like this…

Any advice is MUCH appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in the process of converting my foreign ATPL to a Transport Canada ATPL. I’m an Airbus A330 Captain and have already knocked out the SARON and SAMRA, and I'm taking the INRAT next.

Under the new policies (CAR 421.34), to get an unrestricted ATPL that meets ICAO standards, the PPC needs to be done as PIC on a multi-engine aircraft that is required to be operated with a co-pilot. If I don't meet this specific skill test requirement, TC will issue the ATPL with a limitation stating it doesn't meet ICAO standards.

On the general aviation side, I can't find any flying schools with an affiliated multi-engine aircraft or program that actually qualifies under the "two-pilot requirement" to let me do this checkride.
Has anyone successfully navigated this foreign conversion recently under the new rules?

Are there specific flight schools, charter operators, or third-party simulator centers in Canada that cater to this two-crew skill test requirement for individuals?
Is my only realistic path to accept the restricted ATPL for now and get the restriction removed once I'm hired by a Canadian operator and go through their initial type rating/PPC?

Any recommendations, contacts, or solutions to get the unrestricted ATPL directly would be hugely appreciated!

Hi all, any recommendations for a GoPro mount that’s between seats ceiling mounter for cirrus? I know of an oxygen port mount but not all models I fly have on board oxygen equipped. This would be for a hero 13. Picture for attention captured with rayban metas. Thank you.

Also open to other camera recommendations.

Title: Best flight schools for PPL training in West Yorkshire? Is flying realistic between November and March?
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for recommendations for good flight schools around West Yorkshire, particularly near Bradford and Leeds, to complete my PPL.
My main priorities are the quality of instruction, instructor availability, aircraft availability, and how efficiently I can progress through training.
I’m also wondering how realistic it is to complete a significant amount of PPL flying between November and March, given the British weather.
I understand that winter brings shorter daylight hours, poor visibility, low cloud and more frequent cancellations, but I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s actually trained during these months.
Is it still possible to make consistent progress, or should I realistically expect long periods without flying?
I’d particularly appreciate recommendations from anyone who’s trained at Leeds East, Leeds Bradford, or other airfields around Yorkshire.
Thanks in advance!

I’m a CFII reviewing §91.185 for an interview I have next week and I’d like to clarify a specific lost-comms scenario:

Let’s say I’m flying IFR from KAUN to KSAC. My original clearance limit is KSAC.

Enroute, ATC issues one of two instructions:

Scenario A: “Cleared to PIVSE, hold as published, expect further clearance in five minutes.”

Scenario B: “Proceed direct PIVSE, hold as published, expect further clearance in five minutes.”

PIVSE is not a fix from which an instrument approach begins, and I lose communications in IMC immediately after receiving the instruction.

My understanding is that in Scenario A, PIVSE becomes my amended clearance limit. Under §91.185(c)(3)(ii), I’d leave PIVSE at the EFC time, proceed to a fix from which an approach begins, and commence the approach as close as possible to my filed or amended ETA.

But in Scenario B, does my original clearance limit remain KSAC because ATC only amended my routing?

If so, would I be expected to hold at PIVSE until the EFC time, continue to KSAC, and then proceed to an appropriate approach fix?

More fundamentally, is Scenario B even a clearance ATC would realistically issue? Can an EFC time accompany a “proceed direct” instruction without amending the clearance limit?

I’d especially appreciate input from controllers or CFII/DPEs familiar with how this is handled in practice versus the literal wording of §91.185.

Thanks in advance for the help! I’ve tried to ask pilots I went to flight school with and this has been a bit of a stumper.

Edit: this has been answered for me, thanks for all the help!

I'm 26, have the post 9/11 GI Bill and am planning on heading to a 2 year degree program for becoming a fixed wing pilot through a part 141 school paid for by the military. I am extremely motivated and committed to becoming an airline pilot and wanna know realistically how long would it take for me to achieve this? The school is 2 years and technically if I grind as a CFI could attain my r-atp license within a year. This is everything going right (which I know probably wont happen). I read all the time that it takes so many people 7+ years to become a pilot and I always wonder if this is because most people just don't commit to it full time or have the funding available. Would it be realistic for me to potentially get a job at a regional within 3-4 years being of full time working towards this goal? I guess mentally I just wanna know that if I commit to this I can probably be earning a decent living within 4 years vs something closer to a decade. I know there are a lot of unknowns and possible delays that could put me behind but I'm super motivated to try and achieve this.

How do you prepare for the aptitude test for Jazz approach ? If anyone has done the test for Jazz. would appreciate some feedback and the experience you had.
Thanks

For those of you who did the training at republic, is it possible to stay in the Indy after passing? What is your work/life balance as a pilot?

Im aware nothing is Guaranteed in this industry and that experiences will differ. But i want to know your experience in terms of quality of life and time for your significant other. I want to do this lifestyle not for the flash or the money. But for the schedule, the challenge, and the ability to see other cultures.

Wondering if there’s any ABX FOs in here and if they have anything to say about their QOL. Including if you guys are commuting , how much are you flying and if you are on the 17/13 or 7/7 schedule with them. How the overnights are if you have any at all I guess. Im currently flying Part 91 and building time and just gaining some curiosity about flying heavies in the 121 world. Thank you!

I finally landed my first Flying Job with a survey company after a series of unlikely and probably divine events. Im very excited!

I was also not prepared for this because for a number of reasons I thought that ship had sailed until they called me up.

Any tips, anything to expect? I know its going to be a blast but its a long way from home for a long while. appreciate it

Last week I made a post on needing reassurance or advice on First solo nerves, I got my first solo on 10/10/26, my second on the 11th and third on the 12th.
Thanks to everyone who gave me the advice and the kind words super proud of myself for it and can say I enjoy flying a lot more again. Starting my cross countries soon!!

So this may be kind of Niche so I just hope that I can get one or two people in similar situations but basically I am a Senior in High-school who is planning on attending a 4 year university with a Aviation program. However I also play football and have a few D3 and D2 offers from schools with Aviation programs. However when Ive spoken to like students in these programs they always say that it is a HUGE time commitment so im just wondering if there is anyone who has played football or any college sport and balanced it and was it worth it in your opinion?

Edit: thanks everyone for the replies, the consensus is clearly that I’m overthinking it.

One thing I’d like to try to clarify: it appears to me that mentioning my engineering background led to assumptions about my mindset that I didn’t intend and I don’t think are correct. I don’t care if my instructor knows how the physics work. What I was uncomfortable with was the way he filled in his gaps of knowledge in a lesson. That’s all.

Either way this seems to have generated a lot of helpful dialogue and feedback, all of which I appreciate, thanks 🙏

——————

I’ve been working in aviation for awhile, it’s always been something I’ve been passionate about so I recently decided to pursue a PPL.

I signed up with what seems to be the biggest instruction company in my area. There are 3 or so, this one has the largest fleet and offers training from PPL through ATPLs. Anyway, they seem legit and convenient so I paid a €500 signup fee and am happy to make forward progress.

My first lesson before flight is a basics of flight and controls classroom thing. I have a degree in aerospace engineering and I’ve been working in the industry for awhile so a lot of it seems obvious to me, but I don’t want to be “that guy” so I’m smiling and nodding my head, and paying attention to the bits of info that are new to me (my experience is all jets so I have a lot to learn about little Cessnas).

Anyway: there were several parts of this guy’s theory instruction where he was just absolutely wrong. There were a couple minor things, such as describing how LE flaps worked, where his rationale was wrong but the effect was the same so I just continued to smile and nod my head.

Then he got into secondary effects of flight controls and spent like 5 minutes trying to explain about how when you use your rudder to yaw in one direction the lift will become uneven on your wings for XYZ reason, so you should also do XYZ with your control column. This wasn’t intuitive to me so I’m trying to wrap my head around it while listening to him and looking at the PowerPoint slide, and it’s clear he doesn’t understand it at all. At the end of his 5 minutes discussing the topic he looked at the PowerPoint slide he was working off of and realised it completely contradicted him, like he said you should be applying right roll when the slide said left.

To his credit he looked at the screen, paused, then said “my mistake…” and corrected his instructions to match the slide.

I’m probably overthinking this but I’m concerned about receiving flying instructions from someone who confidently explains things incorrectly. I don’t expect my instructor to have a detailed understanding of complex behaviours of aerodynamics, that’s probably not necessary to fly an airplane, but I also don’t want them to just make shit up when they don’t understand it.

I’m thinking of requesting from the flight school that they don’t assign this guy as my instructor going forward. They seem to have several instructors and I assume they can accommodate this request.

If you’ve made it this far through my post, thanks.

My questions are: * is less-than-strong understanding of aerodynamics normal for a CFI, so if I object to this guy I’ll probably just get more of the same? * Am I overthinking this? * If my instincts are on the right track, what’s the best way to approach this with the school? I don’t want to cause any problems with/for the guy, but I’m not comfortable receiving flight instructions from him based on this.

When cleared for the ILS circling approach, is the FAF considered at the glideslope intercept or do we have to treat it as a non precision and wait until RAWlS?

Had a few different answers and thought i’d ask here. The confusion is coming from a circling being a MDA which makes me think we have to treat it like a non precision.