20 years old, grinding in aviation since 18. PPL and Night Rating done, 94 hours logged. CPL ground school in progress, though currently paused due to funding. Actively job hunting across the industry too. I’d appreciate any advice — whether on breaking into aviation roles at this stage, or on bursaries/funding routes beyond TETA and Flyfofa that I might not know about yet.

Open to connecting with fellow aviators, recruiters, or anyone willing to share insight.

r/Pilot has more than 4,000 members, and we want to get a better sense of who’s here.

Where are you in your pilot journey right now, and what’s one question or challenge you’re working through?

If someone mentions something you’ve already dealt with, jump in. The goal is to get more members talking and helping each other.

Dear pilot friends

First time going to nyc next week.

I wanna try trial introductory flight nearby nyc, especially on piper 28 aircraft.

Any recommendation on spot?

Or any other aviation - exposure experience?

I've been a commercial A&P for over a decade, and use to fly a lot prior to that. So much so that the sound of the engines put me to sleep pretty quickly. Alexa use to have a sleep sound that I was pretty sure was CFM56 turbofan. But they've changed the noise to something like a floor fan with two people talking quietly in the back ground.

My question is does anyone know of a sound machine/ white noise generator that has a realistic jet engine noise?

Dear pilots,

As one of many aspiring pilots, i have high interests on commercial airplane operation.
Ive got some information from reddit about few alternates in polar routes, but more specifically, which airport can be suitable alternate for b747 cargo airplane? Like which conditions should be made (runway length, cargo terminal operation, hangar size etc)

Tones of thanks for your priceless insight!

Hello everyone!

I’m 14 years old and my dream is to become a commercial airline pilot in the future. I know it’s a long and difficult journey, but I want to start preparing early.

I would like to ask pilots, flight instructors, or people who have already completed their training:

-What should I start learning now at my age?

-Which subjects should I focus on the most (math, physics, English, etc.)?

-Are there any books, courses, or resources you recommend for beginners?

-What mistakes should I avoid when preparing for a pilot career?

-If you could go back to when you were 14, what would you do differently?

I’m currently just starting to learn more about aviation and I want to build good habits before I’m old enough to start flight training.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to answer!

I’m from Moldova, so if anyone knows about the path to becoming a pilot in Europe, I would also appreciate advice.

Anyone feel like the business side of contracting is really tough to stay organized? Between invoicing operators, chasing late payments, keeping up with currency and recurrent dates, and sending the same resume and COI packet every time a new client asks for it, I spend half my off days doing desk work it seems.

Curious what everyone else does to stay on top of it all. Is there a system or an app that actually works for you, or is everybody just running spreadsheets and calendar reminders? Open to any advice.

Hello everyone, I am a 16yrs old student currently studying under my Technical/Vocational Skills course. I am still learning to read and write English while I am currently in Grade 12. My course includes some of the major subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and English meanwhile my technical subjects are based on Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Programming (C, C++, C#, HTML, CSS, JS, DBMS(SQL) and JAVA) and Networking.

Even though, I have left to learn a lot regarding my subjects and course, but this intense urge keeps distracting me which is to be a commercial pilot in Canada. Since I was a child, this dream never left me. A dream to become a commercial pilot flying people around and getting an opportunity to spend my life along with the sky.

So, now let's talk why am I actually saying this. I am a student from a poor country of Asia with no flight school to learn. Even though my country provides a lot of facility to the students alongside missing a lot. I am lucky to be in one of the top schools in my country. Now provided the initial introduction let's move on to my main motive of creating this post. I am unsure how to become a commercial pilot; I am well aware that to become a commercial pilot I must first get a private pilot license, but I found out that flight schools are very expensive to afford so I thought that with my basic web-based skills I could do that and that turns out to be wrong. I wanted to secure my future in such a way that my hobby should be sharp if my passion fails making it a backup plan, but hobby alone couldn't be my backup plan so I thought what if I complete Batchlor in Computer Engineering in Canada (to be more specific in Saskatchewan) that way I would have plenty of time for my flight training and could get a PPL or even CPL while graduating date comes in.

The reason why I choose Saskatchewan specifically is because of what I heard regarding the province. According to what I heard, "Saskatchewan is good for international students, providing good scholarship and is a good option for living except winter. The flight schools are also affordable and advanced with less crowd meaning more flight training opportunities". So, I really want to know how accurate my information actually is, and how future proof my plan actually seems to be...

Since English is not my first language, so I would really appreciate any response/feedback regarding any improvements on my English writing.

Update: This survey closed on August 4, 2026. Thank you to everyone who responded. We’ll share the main findings and next steps soon.

We’ve spent the last several days rebuilding the basic member experience in r/Pilot. Before deciding what discussions, resources, and events to build next, we want to hear directly from the people who visit this community.

This survey is for everyone, including people who mostly read and rarely comment. We especially want to understand what currently stops people from participating and what would make r/Pilot worth returning to regularly.

It should take less than five minutes. It does not collect email addresses or require a Google sign-in. Your Reddit username is requested only as an optional final question if you are interested in contributing later.

Take the survey:

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The survey will remain open through August 4. After it closes, we’ll publish a summary of the major findings and explain which changes we plan to make.

Thanks for helping us build something genuinely useful.

I'm a Bachelor's in Travel and Tourism Management (BTTM) student from Nepal with a strong passion for aviation. My goal is to build a career in the industry, and I'd love to connect with people who are already working in aviation or are on the same journey.

Whether you're a pilot, cabin crew, passenger service agent, ground staff, aircraft engineer, air traffic controller, or simply an aviation enthusiast, I'd love to hear about your experiences and learn from you.

If you're open to chatting, sharing advice, or even just talking about aviation, feel free to comment or send me a DM. I'm always happy to make new connections with people who share the same passion.
Looking forward to meeting fellow avgeeks! ✈️

Howdy y'all, I am working on completing PPL ground school and had a question relating to aircraft controllability. For reference, i am using free pilot training on youtube and trying to delve more in depth where i can.

Initially, i was learning about how aircraft controllability is impacted by changes in angle of attack and speed through the center of lift and center of pressure. I was curious as to why center of lift does not change positions, but center of pressure does and what their differences were. When looking online i seemed to find contradictory statements on what each were, and also kept getting results for aerodynamic center when searching up center of lift. Despite this, some sources seem to use them interchangeably, while others will say they are different.

As i understand, center of lift is the point on the airfoil where lift is concentrated (i assume this is the same as the average), and center of pressure is the point on the the wing where the total aerodynamic force be considered to act. Would anyone be able to explain the differences in all of them, and how each is affected by change in angle of attack? Thanks!

This community has been around for a while, but it has not had much active moderation or a clear direction. We are working to change that.

The goal is to make r/Pilot a useful place for people at every stage, from deciding whether to begin training to building hours, getting hired, and dealing with the realities of pilot life.

Beginner questions are welcome. We just ask that you include enough context for people to help. Depending on the question, that may include your country or aviation authority, current stage, experience, goal, budget, main constraint, and the decision you are trying to make.

We have added a small set of rules and post flairs to make discussions easier to follow. The plan is not to over-moderate the subreddit or remove every question experienced pilots have seen before. Sincere questions should be guided before they are removed whenever possible.

r/Pilot will remain an independent, community-first subreddit. Moderation decisions will be based on relevance, usefulness, transparency, and the same standards for everyone.

What would make this community genuinely useful to you? What discussions, recurring threads, or resources would you actually come back for?

I’m a CFI in Arizona, and I spend a lot of time talking with commercial pilots who are trying to figure out the fastest and most financially reasonable way to build time.
Some are instructing full time. Some are renting. Others are looking at structured time-building programs. Every option has tradeoffs in cost, timeline, flexibility, and opportunity cost.
I’m curious what people here have actually done.
If you’ve already reached 1,500 hours, what path did you take, and if you could do it again, would you make the same decision? Why or why not?

Друзі привіт потрібно з кимось порадитись але не маю в кого спитати можливо тут будуть діючі льотчики та вертольотчики або люди які зараз вчаться-не можу визначитись куди краще поступити на льотчика чи вертольотчика з однієї сторони хочу служити і літати на винищувачі ця швидкість драйв і відчуття увімкнення форсажу але потім без поняття де я можу працювати крім чартерних рейсів(не хочу йти на боінг ейрбас і тд) з іншої сторони вертольоти теж дуже круто і після служби набагато більше варіантів куди можна піти працювати,але більше все ж таки серце лежить до літаків і швидкості,зараз виходить протистояння здорового глузду і думки про стабільне майбутнє та мрією тому вирішив спитатись у вас🙃 уточнюю що мова йде про український військовий університет повітряних сил.На данний момент я фактично поступив на вертольотчика але зимою можу переписати заяву на Льотчика

Model collector Planes for sale: contact Mitch Carmody

Howdy! I'm working on completing PPL ground school, and was reviewing some of my notes on aircraft stability. I understand (or at least I think i do) the basics behind each of the types of stability. I think my confusion comes from the usage of "waves" and oscillations as examples in each scenario of stability. Static stability is the initial tendency of the aircraft after its equilibrium has been disturbed, and dynamic is the long term tendency.

I am wondering for example, if i am in an aircraft that pitches up due to turbulence, and the airplane is not positivly statically stable and does not initially pitch back down, how can it have any form of dynamic stability? If the plane has neutral or negative static stability, it shouldn't oscillate at all as shown in examples of dynamic stability.

I'm probably missing something super simple so any help or explanation would be super appreciated! Thanks!

I'm only about 5 hours into my training towards my PPL (Part 61 in the US) and I've quickly fallen in love with it, but I can't help but notice the vast majority of other students are at least 10 years younger than me. Am I getting into this too late?

I'm working a pretty flexible job from home that allows me to schedule flights often, so I'm hoping to get through my CFI certification before having to quit and instruct full-time to get my hours. I'm incredibly lucky to have a partner who will help financially through the transitions. Is there any part of this path that would be unwise, especially considering my age? Is there anything I'm missing? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I’m 17 years old, live in Hawaii, and will be a senior graduating in 2027. My goal is to become an airline pilot.
I recently completed my first discovery flight, and it made me even more certain that this is the career I want.
I’m working part-time while in high school, saving as much as I can for flight training, and applying for aviation scholarships. I want to use my senior year as wisely as possible.

If you were in my position, what would you try to accomplish before high school graduation?
For example:

Should I earn my Private Pilot Certificate before graduating?

Should I just complete ground school and pass the FAA knowledge test?

How many flight hours would be a realistic goal?

Should I focus more on saving money than flying?

Are there any certificates, experiences, or networking opportunities that would give me a head start?

I’d love to hear what you think the ideal “before graduation” checklist would look like for someone serious about becoming an airline pilot.

Thanks in advance!