The role of an airline pilot is challenging yet rewarding – full of responsibility and lots of travelling around the world. Airline pilots fly cargo planes and passenger planes, both on short-haul and long-haul flights, for business, commercial or leisure purposes. But what skills do you need to be a pilot?
Like any other occupation, commercial pilots come from varied backgrounds with different strengths and personalities. Being the best aviator requires a balanced combination of hard and soft skills. Not only are they responsible for in-flight activities, but they also work as teammates alongside the cabin crew.
What kind of skills do pilots need?
What skills are required to be a pilot? There’s no hard and fast rule of being an excellent pilot, but certain qualities help you stand out among the rest. Here are some of the most essential pilot skills to make you stand out as an aviation candidate.
1. Clear communication
Communication plays a pivotal role in skills for pilots when considering career progression. It’s not just being able to talk and communicate with the Air Traffic Control. They also need to listen to directions carefully and respond to them promptly. Effective, two-way communication is essential.
Even a slight communication error – unclear pronunciation or misunderstanding can lead to aviation accidents. ATC instructions such as traffic information or radar vectors must be properly communicated for safe flight or landing.
2. Situational awareness
Situational awareness involves constantly assessing a situation and everything in your surroundings. Skills required to be a pilot include being receptive – absorbing everything they see and sense around them. Pilot skills like assessing the changes in weather or observing the aircraft configuration are crucial as pilots need to be mindful of the circumstances.
Some important aspects of situational awareness include:
- Spatial orientation
- System awareness
- Mode awareness
- Time horizon
- Quick decision making
Being a pilot, you must comprehend a situation, and make informed decisions based on your knowledge and experience. The biggest decision-making challenge for pilots is time and resource constraints.
There are also other pressure-adding factors such as turbulence that call for immediate decision-making skills needed for pilot.
Mostly, pilots fly by the book that contains the checklist of procedures to overcome a certain situation, but if something out of the ordinary happens, they need to make sound judgements to avoid any fatal outcome as part of the skills needed to be a pilot.
3. Ability to comprehend technical information
A pilot is responsible for all the pre-flight inspections and understands the aircraft and its systems. Hence, technical understanding is one of the skills for a pilot. They use multiple checklists before and after the flight for smooth flight operations and safety.
Some technical procedures and tasks carried out by pilots are:
- Monitoring the fuel supply and weather conditions before providing the flight plan to ATC,
- Operating an aircraft as per the planned routes along with take-off and landing using cockpit instruments as well as visual references for aircraft navigation,
- And, inspecting aircraft engines and other in-flight systems.
4. Teamwork and leadership skills
Leadership is one of the most important skills needed to be a pilot. You must be able to adapt, learn and grow. Being a commercial pilot, you’ll be working with a team. You’ll be frequently in contact with other pilots, cabin crew, and passengers. Therefore, you need to improve your social skills and maintain successful relationships with your peers and colleagues to ensure career progression.
With every pilot, there’s a whole team counting on them for their leadership skills. Being the captain or the person in command, you’ll be giving instructions to not only the First Officer sitting beside you but also the crew members.
5. Composure
Calmness under pressure - one of the skills required to be a pilot that cannot be overlooked. This ability isn’t inborn – it takes years for pilots to learn to maintain their composure and not panic. In catastrophic situations, a pilot must be composed to keep cool and make correct, informed decisions. Whether something in the plane malfunctions or you lose communication with the traffic control, you need to keep yourself focused and not let your emotions take a toll on you.
6. The right attitude – Self-confidence and self-responsibility
One of the skills for a pilot is that they give their fullest to the job. Besides work, there are recurrent training sessions. Only those with a committed attitude can become successful. The best pilots always manage to strike a balance between self-confidence and self-responsibility.
Self-confidence demonstrates that you are assured of your pilot skills and stand by your decisions, yet always seek guidance when necessary. Self-responsibility inculcates integrity in the pilots. A lot is entrusted to them, be it technical information or passenger safety, as thousands of people count on the pilots to deliver on their promises.
7. Time management
Time management is an essential part of pilot jobs. Airlines always schedule the departure and arrival of flights at specific times to ensure a smooth flow of air traffic. Pilots have to manage with strict times so that the flight schedule runs efficiently. Since pilots always have to manage things in advance, it is better to hone their time management skills.
Conclusion
What skills are required to be a pilot? There are several skills needed to be a pilot and all of them are essential. As safety is an integral part of the aviation industry, none of these skills for pilots are overrated. One has to understand there is a lot to lose in case of pilot incompetence. Hence, the emphasis on skills needed for pilot opportunities.
We hope you have understood what skills do pilots need and why they are important. So go on and choose your aviation career and soar the skies!
Frequently asked questions
1. What hard skills do you need to be a pilot?
Hard skills are usually considered technical abilities. Some hard skills required by pilots are:
- Complete command over the aircraft and avionics system
- A great understanding of physics and maths
- Have situational awareness – being aware of the surroundings and knowing the system and procedures to utilise in different situations
2. What makes you a good pilot?
Since pilots often have to work multiple days a week, they need to have good decision-making skills in case of emergency or difficult situations. They must also deal with attention to deal, as a single slip of mind can turn into a disaster for many. Pilots must also demonstrate their ability to remain calm, especially during difficult situations.
3. Do you need math skills to be a pilot?
Strong maths skills are not necessary for pilots. However, they must have average math skills to perform basic calculations or mental math. Pilots usually perform calculations on flight planning software or a calculator. Yet, basic math, trigonometry, and geometry are a must for pilots.
4. What are 3 things pilots do?
Pilots can fly helicopters as well as commercial aircraft. Here are three things that pilots do before flying:
- Confirm the flight plans and check weather conditions before the departure
- Check the flight logs and carry out pre-flight inspections
- Keep the airport and flight authorities informed of safety issues or any changes in the flight plan
5. What problems do pilots have?
Pilots can be interrupted because of disruptive passengers. These passengers get difficult to handle by the cabin crew who have to report to the pilots who can then choose to divert the plane based on the seriousness of the case. Also, during pre-flight inspections, pilots are interrupted by airport personnel such as ground personnel or gate agents.
