Commercial Pilot Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled air carrier routes, or helicopters. Requires Commercial Pilot certificate. Includes charter pilots with similar certification, and air ambulance and air tour pilots. Excludes regional, national, and international airline pilots.
Commercial Pilot is Also Know as
In different settings, Commercial Pilot is titled as
- Captain
- Charter Pilot
- Check Airman
- Commercial Pilot
- EMS Helicopter Pilot (Emergency Medical Service Helicopter Pilot)
- First Officer
- Helicopter Pilot
- Line Pilot
- Pilot
Education and Training of Commercial Pilot
Commercial Pilot is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Commercial Pilot
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Commercial Pilot
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Commercial Pilot
- Bachelor in Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight C
- Associate Degree Courses in Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight C
- Masters Degree Courses in Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight C
- Bachelor in Flight Instructor
- Associate Degree Courses in Flight Instructor
- Masters Degree Courses in Flight Instructor
Training Required for Commercial Pilot
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Commercial Pilot in different industries are
- Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers
- Air Traffic Controllers
- Airfield Operations Specialists
- Aviation Inspectors
- Locomotive Engineers
- Avionics Technicians
- Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians
- Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
- Ship Engineers
- Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters
- Aircraft Service Attendants
- Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors
- Flight Attendants
- Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians
- Remote Sensing Technicians
- Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film
- Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
- Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
- Transportation Inspectors
- Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers
What Do Commercial Pilot do?
- Check aircraft prior to flights to ensure that the engines, controls, instruments, and other systems are functioning properly.
- Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
- Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight according to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
- Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.
- Consider airport altitudes, outside temperatures, plane weights, and wind speeds and directions to calculate the speed needed to become airborne.
- Order changes in fuel supplies, loads, routes, or schedules to ensure safety of flights.
- Obtain and review data such as load weights, fuel supplies, weather conditions, and flight schedules to determine flight plans and identify needed changes.
- Plan flights according to government and company regulations, using aeronautical charts and navigation instruments.
- Use instrumentation to pilot aircraft when visibility is poor.
- Check baggage or cargo to ensure that it has been loaded correctly.
- Request changes in altitudes or routes as circumstances dictate.
- Choose routes, altitudes, and speeds that will provide the fastest, safest, and smoothest flights.
- Coordinate flight activities with ground crews and air traffic control, and inform crew members of flight and test procedures.
- Write specified information in flight records, such as flight times, altitudes flown, and fuel consumption.
- Teach company regulations and procedures to other pilots.
- Instruct other pilots and student pilots in aircraft operations.
- File instrument flight plans with air traffic control so that flights can be coordinated with other air traffic.
- Conduct in-flight tests and evaluations at specified altitudes and in all types of weather to determine the receptivity and other characteristics of equipment and systems.
- Rescue and evacuate injured persons.
- Supervise other crew members.
- Perform minor aircraft maintenance and repair work, or arrange for major maintenance.
- Fly with other pilots or pilot-license applicants to evaluate their proficiency.
- Plan and formulate flight activities and test schedules and prepare flight evaluation reports.
- Pilot airplanes or helicopters over farmlands at low altitudes to dust or spray fields with fertilizers, fungicides, or pesticides.
- Check the flight performance of new and experimental planes.
- Co-pilot aircraft or perform captain's duties, as required.
Qualities of Good Commercial Pilot
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Commercial Pilot
- Air conditioning systems
- Air data computers
- Air pressurization systems
- Airborne collision avoidance systems ACAS
- Airfield lighting equipment
- Anemometers
- Anti-skid systems
- Autobrakes
- Automatic direction finder ADF radio systems
- Automatic landing systems
- Autopilot systems
- Battery chargers
- Channel lock pliers
- Cockpit displays of traffic information CDTI
- Continuous flow emergency oxygen systems
- De-icing equipment
- Desktop computers
- Digital communications display units DCDU
- Digital multimeters
- Distance measuring equipment DME
- DJI GS Pro
- DroneDeploy
- DroneLogbook
- Electro-hydraulic control systems
- Electronic flight instrument systems EFIS
- Emergency exit slides
- Emergency life rafts
- Emergency pressurization systems
- Engine anti-icing equipment
- Engine fire detection systems
- Engine fire extinguishing systems
- Engine indicating and crew alerting systems EICAS
- Equipment cooling controls
- Fire suppression and control systems
- Fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles UAV
- Flight director FD systems
- Flight management systems FMS
- Flight simulators
- Fuel control systems
- Global positioning system GPS devices
- Ground control targets
- Ground proximity warning systems GPWS
- Handheld calculators
- Hard hats
- Head-up guidance systems HGS
- High frequency HF radio communication systems
- Hydraulic landing gear systems
- Inertial navigation systems INS
- Instrument landing system ILS localizers
- Instrument landing system ILS receivers
- Landing pad
- Laptop computers
- Local area augmentation system LAAS receivers
- Long range navigation systems LRNS
- Mechanical nose wheel steering systems
- Microwave landing system MLS receivers
- Multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles UAV
- Multimeters
- Multipurpose fire extinguishers
- Navigation mode selectors
- Nondirectional radio beacon markers
- Oil filter pliers
- Oil filter wrenches
- On-board intercom systems
- Passenger oxygen control systems
- Personal computers
- Personal digital assistants PDA
- Plotters
- Pneumatic emergency brake systems
- Portable collision avoidance systems PCAS
- Power brake systems
- Power generation and distribution control systems
- Power generators
- Recirculation control systems
- Reflective vests
- Safety cones
- Simlat
- Spectrum analyzers
- Stability augmentation systems SAS
- Tablet computers
- Traffic alert and collision avoidance system TCAS
- Transponder landing systems TLS
- Ultra high frequency UHF radio communication systems
- Very high frequency omnidirectional range VOR systems
- Very high frequency VHF radio communication systems
- Vise grip pliers
- Windscreen ice control systems
- Wing anti-ice systems
- Yaw damper systems
Technology Skills required for Commercial Pilot
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Aeronautical charts
- AeroPlanner
- Airdata
- Airline Pilots Daily Aviation Log PPC
- AirSmith FlightPrompt
- ArduPilot Mission Planner
- Calibration software
- CloudCompare
- doXstor Flight Level Logbook
- Electronic aircraft information databases
- ESRI Site Scan for ArcGIS
- Flight simulation software
- FLIR Thermal Studio Suite
- Kitty Hawk
- Litchi
- LP360
- Microsoft Office software
- MJICCS PilotLog
- Navzilla
- Nimblefeet Technologies Captain's Keeper
- Notam Development Group Airport Insight
- OpenDroneMap
- Pilot Navigator Software Load Balance
- Pix4D Pix4Dcapture
- Pix4D Pix4Dmapper
- Polaris Microsystems AeroLog Pro
- Polaris Microsystems CharterLog
- RMS Technology Flitesoft
- SBS International Maestro Suite
- Skylog Services Skylog Pro
- Standard generalized markup language SGML
- UgCS