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I'm 19 years old and want to become a commercial pilot which had been my deam since i was little. I have already take several flights with an instructor just to make sure that flying is for me.

I own both  Japanese and Israeli passports. I do not have any flying experience nor adequate knowledge thus I have found a school in Orlando that offers "Zero to JAA ATPL" or "Zero to FAA ATP" program for about $50000.

The problem isn't the money ( I have an external source of financail aid) , So my question is should I go for JAA or FAA?? Since I do not own an European passport most European airliners won't take me even if I had sufficient time. However I heard that the JAA education is much better than the FAA and also easier to convert to FAA.

Ive also heard that Asia is demanding quite alot of pilots. Thus, I seriouly do not know what to do.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

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2 Answers



  1. Newlan Parker on Sep 29, 2012

    Hello Jun,

    This is a difficult question that you are both facing as well as asking. I too have dreamed of being a commercial pilot for a long time. It sounds like you have found a flight school that you would like to attend. I recommend getting there and getting started. As for JAA or FAA and which has the better training, I would not say that one is better than the other. There are well trained pilots flying all over the world. I would think about what you want to fly and where you want to live. What are you into? Where is your family? Think about all of these factors and decide what is best for you. I went through a similar training program in Florida that you are looking at, and I received great training with a lot of multi-engine time. I would also like to let you know that to succeed as a commercial aviator you will need a bachelors degree. Have you thought about getting into a 4-year program somewhere? You would most likely be a student the first two years and an instructor the last two. Just a few things to think about. I was in the military and was lucky enough to fly all over the world and I can tell you, flying is great everywhere.

    Hope this helps.

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  2. lo_fly on Nov 30, 2012

    Hi,
    other than what Newlan said: the biggest difference between EASA (ex-JAA) ATPL and FAA ATP is the knowledge exam. The European one takes an avarage of 8-10 months to be prepared (14 different exams) and is MUCH more difficult than the FAA one.
    That makes the conversion from FAA to EASA pretty hard, the opposite conversion is easier.
    This doesn’t ABSOLUTELY mean that EASA licenses are better than FAA, it’s just a different approach by organizations to train future pilots.

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