What are the steps in becoming a commercial pilot?

Private pilot

instrument rating

instructor

multi engine

multi instrument

multi instructor

commercial (not ATP)

commercial instructor

1500 hours flight time (minimum, many airlines want a lot more)

ATP (Air Transport Pilot)

1) You should get a 4 year college degree. Not required, but preferred. Since 95% of all airline pilot applicants hold at least a Bachelor's degree, you won't be competetive without one. 2) You attend flight school. If you have the money, all the necessary training can be completed in a year, although flight training taken through a university takes 2-4 years while you're doing a degree program. At minimum you need a Commercial Pilot Certificate (CPL) with an Instrument Rating and Multi-Engine rating. Most pilots also get their flight instructor ratings (CFI, CFII and MEI) because teaching is one of the few jobs that fresh flight school graduates with only 200 to 300 flying hours can get. It is very expensive. I don't know what country you're in, but in the USA the cost is $60,000 to $100,000 depending on where you train and what planes you fly. 3) After receiving your ratings, expect to spend 3-5 years minimum and up to 10 years working in lesser, lower wage flying jobs before you'll have the experience to be considered being hired by a major airline. You will also have to earn the ATPL rating somewhere along the way. 4) If you go the Air Force route, which isn't easy because very few applicants get selected for pilot training, you are looking at a minimum 10 year committment including the required 4 year degree. The chances for military pilots getting hired by an airline are a little higher than a civilian-trained pilot (60% vs 40%) but there are no guarantees. 5) Either way you go, don't expect to be hired by a major airline before age 28. The average age of most "new hires" at the big carriers is around 34.

Graduate from college, go through either Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard officer candidate school, and then to flight school. Learn to fly in state of the art turboprop T-6 Texan with glass cockpit and ejection seat (instead of a 1978 Cessna 172) for your primary training, and then either a King Air, T-1 Beechjet, or the T-45 or T-38 fighter trainer for your advanced training, and fly a cool military aircraft for 10 years getting your thousands of hours. Oh, and your starting pay will be about 50K a year as a flight student instead of paying thousands of dollars, and will move up to 100K by the time you're getting out after 10 years. You'll only be what, 32 years old or so, and ready for a 30 year career in the airlines. The risks: not getting into flight school, or getting stuck flying helicopters in the Navy. If you want fixed wing in the CG, you'll likely get it. If you go in the Navy, the students with the lowest grades get stuck with helicopters. The Air Force has some helicopter slots too, but very small percentage.

Check the following sites for more information bout becoming a pilot.

General Information

http://science.howstuffworks.com/pilot.htm

http://www.becomeapilot.com/adv_ratings/adv_rating...

http://flighttraining.aopa.org/learntofly/

http://www.alpa.org/DesktopModules/ALPA_Documents/...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aglrc...

http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/FAQ.html

Flight School Listings

http://www.flightschoollist.com/flightschools.php

http://flighttraining.aopa.org/learntofly/school/f...

http://www.bestaviation.net/flight_school/

http://www.aviationschoolsonline.com/school-listin...

The sites below have pilot discussion forums. They too can be a valuable source of information from real pilots. Spend some time browsing them, especially the training sections.

http://www.pprune.org/

http://www.jetcareers.com/

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/

First responder has listed the steps. You will need a fat wallet and a lot of time to do all of this; private, instrument, and commercial will each set you back about $7,000.

It is a long and tedious process and there is a long bumpy road ahead. Patience and persistence is the key; is the name of the game.