Airline Transport Pilot
As a kid, I wanted to be an airline pilot. Growing up, my career took a different path, and I ended up graduating as a software engineer and working as an executive in a software company. But it’s never too late to fulfill a child’s dream, and one of the reasons why I am training as a private pilot is to eventually get an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rating. Not for the job (I like the one I have best), but for the challenge, and to make sure that I won’t have anything to regret down the road — Non, rien de rien… In order to get my ATP rating, I need the following, per FAR 61.159 requirements:
- 1,500 Hours Total Time (212.4 Hours currently)
- 500 Hours Cross Country Time (78.5 Hours currently)
- 100 Hours Night Time (14.5 Hours)
- 75 Hours Instrument Time (75.1 Hours currently)
- 250 Hours Pilot In Command Airplane (142.3 Hours currently)
Amazingly, I have enough hours of actual or simulated instrument time. Since all my flying is done as Pilot In Command (PIC), getting to 250 Hours should not be a problem either. The real challenge will be in getting an extra 1,300 Hours on my logbook, including over 400 Hours cross country. About a third of my flights are made cross country now, so getting 400 Hours of cross country time while getting another 1,300 Hours of total time should be pretty straightforward. Over the past 3 years, I have been flying an average of 75 Hours a year. At this pace, it will take me 20 years to get my ATP rating. But if I manage to get 250 Hours a year, I could get there in 5, just before I turn 40. Let’s give it a shot!
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