For ‘Take Your Kid’ to work day I went to work with my Dad. My Dad’s a pilot. Our first stop was the ATC (Air Traffic Control). I learned how that your have to take a training course to become an ATC but it is on the job training so you get paid to do it. Its other requirement is a high school diploma. I was unable to get a recorded interview with the ATC workers because you’re not allowed to film in the control tower (tall thing you see at airports). The Air Traffic Controllers at Boundary Bay Airport get paid between 100k-200k a year (not bad for no university degree) and if you work at an international airport like YVR you can make make between 200k-400k a year.

My next stop was the runway where a learned about how to become a pilot. There are three major steps to becoming an airline pilot. Step 1, you have to complete ground school. To complete ground school you have to past a test and have 40 hours of courses. Step 2, you have to get your private pilots license. To do this you need a minimum of 45 hours of flight training including: 17 hours dual, 5 hours Instrument Training, 3 hours dual cross-country, 12 hours solo, and 5 hours solo cross-country. Once you have completed this you can move onto step 3,  The Commercial Pilots License. For this you need the following  requirements; 1500 hours of flight time.  Most people achieve this by becoming an instructor so they can get their hours up and still be paid. A pilots pay varies depending on the airline, whether they are a co-pilot or head pilot and what type of plane they fly.

 

I really want to be a pilot so this was an amazing opportunity for me to see process in person. I found it interesting to speak to the workers at ATC and learn more about other jobs at an airline. This has given me a broader understanding of how an airport operates and has made me even more determined to become a pilot.