Bigger is not always better!

Would you like to fly a bigger plane is one of the questions I got asked a lot on Instagram? Or why are you flying such a small aircraft? Do you need a different license to fly a private jet?

Today I’ll try to explain you everything from the beginning. Every pilot who has the ambition to fly commercially has to do a course to that will give you the possibility to get a CPL (commercial pilot license). When you finish your flight school to have about 165 flight hours in total with a CPL in the pocket. With your CPL you are more or less allowed to fly every aircraft type in the world, except maybe military aircraft? Not sure. Anyway now you are coming from school with your papers ready and the company who will hire you can give you a Cessna 152(small plane but so nice) to fly a passenger every day to school or you can start directly on the Airbus A380 (very big) So, the license is exactly the same and both allowed to fly passengers commercially. Now the next step is an ATPL after (Airline Transport Pilot license) You could apply for this after 1500 flight hours and some other limitations that are quite boring. With this becomes an exam and you have to do some extra things in the simulator. With this paper, you are allowed without any limitations to fly and even become a captain in some companies. (I did my ATPL check 1 year ago.) So now that this is cleared we can continue.!

Would I like to fly a bigger plane? Sure but I really don’t care about the size of the plane that much, for me the range is more interesting to know. For example, I fly a challenger 300, this aircraft has the same range or bit more than the 737 with passengers. My plane is smaller but I fly higher, a bit faster and mostly I can stay at the destination for at least one night like my passengers. With bigger planes usually comes a bigger range to fly. Now the next Example: let’s imagine that you fly the biggest plane in the world, the A380 from Airbus. This thing is massive, big range, big wings, everything is so-called supersized on this aircraft. BUT! These aircraft need such a long runway to take off and land that it is unable to fly at som many airports. While the Gulfstream 650 (big private jet) has a bigger range is smaller than a 737 can land almost everywhere and fly higher and faster. So every aircraft has its own pros and cons. For me, it wouldn’t really matter. I can only say I like the private aviation business right now and the operation is challenging and very nice.

Last but not least. Why am I flying such a small aircraft? Well, I got rolled into private aviation and never regretted that for a second. It has been such a nice experience so far. The Bombardier Challenger 300 is a mid-sized jet as they call it (same category as a Boeing 737) and it doesn’t feel that small. You can read more in my blog about private or airline! (click here)

If you have any questions feel free to ask them below.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.