Educational and training expenses are costly, however, they can be compensated by the decent salaries that pilots get paid. The designation of a private pilot has various other advantages, besides a decent salary.
Imagine being hired as a private pilot for transporting the Manchester United team from city to city for their matches! It is esthetically and even monetarily rewarding for a private pilot to fly an aircraft carrying some of the most phenomenal corporate honchos, business tycoons, sports teams, players, and the crème de la crème in numerous fields. The salary of a private pilot may not the highest in pilot jobs. However, it gives an opportunity to the pilots to interact with numerous popular figures in society. So, if you want to make a living by flying, and you don’t want to get into the extremely competitive field of commercial flying, you can try to become a private pilot. For many private pilots, salary holds importance, but only to a certain level. Many love their profession, as they get to meet new people regularly, and they also get the benefit of doing something they love, in a hassle-free way.
Salary Range
Private pilots are also known as corporate pilots. Corporates are mostly the major employers of private pilots, and they provide them with salary as per market rates. Not only do corporations provide decent salaries to their private pilots, they also provide numerous other benefits to them. These may include, but are not restricted to, stocks, 401K, life insurance, health insurance, and similar kinds of benefits.
The average salary of a private pilot may vary from anything between $50,000 to $100,000. A pilot with a small private firm may make anywhere between $50,000 to $60,000. Pilots who are hired by large corporations are certainly able to earn grand salaries, which can be anywhere between $75,000 to $85,000. The number of hours a pilot flies also is taken into account while deciding remuneration. Sometimes, on an off day, a private pilot may be called by clients to take them to a different city or country for an urgent meeting. This extra time is rewarded, and even for a 3-hour flight on an off day, a private pilot can make $500.
The salary also rests much upon the educational qualifications and work experience of the candidate, not to mention the type of employer. Most of the time, corporate companies hire private pilots directly from reputed flight schools with which they have tie-ups. Mostly, they prefer graduates in any discipline; however, corporates look after pilots with excellent training records and with a Private Pilot License (PPL) issued by the FAA, for American certification. The cost of obtaining a private pilot license is nearly $8,000, and it may vary depending on the flight school.
Flight instructors, co-pilots, and captains are some designations where candidates who aspire to work in a private pilot profession may have to work. Certainly, being a private pilot is a rewarding career option, that offers the opportunity to meet different types of people, visit numerous places all across the country or even outside, take challenging decisions regarding the weather and climate, and most importantly, help big business tycoons reach their destinations safely and on time.