Learning to fly can be a bit of a challenge. At first, you truly don't know just how much there is to know. There exists a wealth of knowledge, divided among many different resources, that you'll be expected to master during your training. Over time you will get better at seeking out information from these various sources to understand each subject. The expectation is that you will soon go above and beyond the basics, and that you'll truly understand the many aspects of this career field as they apply to the central theme: flying the airplane. But for now, you just know you want to fly, and most likely professionally. So...

What exactly is a flying career?

At the simplest level, a job flying an airplane is incredible: sit in a front seat, look outside, visit new places. It's often touted as luxurious lifestyle, and for good reason. Aviation fully redefined how we view travel - making it faster, sleeker, and more advanced than anything that came before it. But it is not without risk.

You're introduced to the concept of risk very quickly in training. The most significant early encounter happens when you first solo. Of course your instructor has assessed the risk, and decided that you have the capability of flying on your own. But in that moment, all of the flying decisions become yours.

The flying career is a career of decision-making. This pattern repeats with increasing intensity as you continue training. One day soon, you may make decisions on behalf of your students, your crew, your cargo, or hundreds of passengers. The ultimate responsibility for the safe operation of a flight lands squarely in the seat you occupy.

The good news is that we methodically step through every decision. Your personal physiology, the environment you operate in, the aircraft's airworthiness, and the second-to-second needs of a flight all have structured, long-standing processes in place to assist with the work. But at first, these policies and procedures can seem overwhelming.

It's only overwhelming because you're still adapting to the complete picture. With experience this picture becomes more clear, and develops more quickly on demand. Weather will vary, your operating environment will change, but these things will follow predictable patterns. Airport design, ATC communication, and how others operate alongside you will align to comfortable conventions even in a place that is otherwise new to you. Then the last variable becomes your airplane.

Your Airplane

"Your controls."

"Your airplane."

"You have the controls."

These phrases tend to mean simply "it's my turn to fly" early in training, but consider a broader interpretation: "You have the controls" hands you possession of the flight's decision-making. Incrementally, you will be handed more and more ability to decide. But even from the earliest stages, you are being tasked to choose:

• Where are we taking the airplane to practice landings?
• When is it time to begin a descent towards the destination?
• How are you deviating around a pop-up thunderstorm?
• What if a passenger feels ill halfway to your destination?

We have checklists, policies, or guidance on how to make some decisions. But the choices are still yours to make. Your core responsibility to make these choices depends entirely on your ability to see the complete picture, and the most nuanced part of this picture is the airplane.

The Pilot's Operating Handbook for the majority of our training fleet is 117 digital pages in the school's Document Library. Discounting the pages that are charts or equipment list details from the 1970s, you can estimate 200 pages or less of actual reading material. The rest of your learning comes from working with the aircraft ("your controls!"), gaining hours, and adapting to new tasks. You will learn by asking well-informed questions. And in moments where you have nobody to ask, you will learn by arriving at the answer entirely on your own.

Your Future Airplane

Some students dream of flying heavy metal - the Boeing 777, the Airbus A350, an MD11. Maybe you're more into regional carriers and want to work at Southwest, forever squeezing into the 737. Maybe you want to try out the corporate world and fly even smaller aircraft: the Gulfstreams, Citations, or Falcon jets. Maybe none of the above!

Regardless of your path, it's guaranteed: there will be reading.

Speaking from experience: the A320 Flight Manual at one airline is 2,671 pages. The 777 version is 2,175 pages - plus additional manuals for long-range international operations. The job title is "Pilot," but that title carries a certain amount of studying the craft. Your flying aptitude, motivation, and ability to self-start are essential. It all begins with persistence at this introductory step; in aviation, the learning truly never ends.

Your Path Forward

There will be some struggles and hang-ups along the way. And while we all have unique experiences, you can bet someone - whether CFI, another flight student, a mentor, or another person outside of training - has faced a similar difficulty to one you encounter.

So, reach out to people. Be your own best resource, but never hesitate to seek help when things get difficult. This industry rests on a robust support system built over the last hundred-plus years by people who recognized that we must all pull in the same direction. It is a unified effort that led to the safety, opportunity, and excellence that modern aviation provides.

Finally: Aviation gives back exactly what you put into it. If you are dedicated to this career, it will reward you. It may not happen exactly the way you planned or hoped, but as you'll find out: deviating from a plan is not only normal, it's sometimes necessary.