Olivier Lohman, who says he was hired by his country's largest carrier at 22 and now flies Boeing jets on international routes after starting on regional turboprops in the Arctic, argues that the biggest mistake new students make is starting flight training before they have a clear plan. In this video he walks through the order he recommends, from the first medical to the last checkride, for students in the US and in Canada.

Get the medical done first

Lohman describes the aviation medical as a doctor's certificate that you are fit to fly, with checks on vision, breathing and heart rate that take around 30 minutes. According to him most applicants pass without complications. You can log dual hours before you hold one, but you need it before your first solo. He tells the story of a student who flew 15 hours before his medical was delayed four to six months over a flagged medication history; Lohman puts the loss at about $4,000 in flights plus the skills forgotten during the break. His advice is to see an aviation medical examiner before the first lesson and go straight for the Class 1, which he says costs the same as the other classes and is the one an airline pilot licence requires.

School, training path and instructor

In the US the choice is between Part 61 and Part 141. Lohman explains that Part 61 has a flexible syllabus adapted to the student with ground school largely self study, while Part 141 follows a fixed syllabus with stage checks and ground school built in. In Canada the equivalent split is modular training, self paced and pay as you go, against regulated training with a fixed schedule like a school class. All paths lead to the same licences and he says airlines look at the total hours in your logbook, not at the path. For location he points to weather: Phoenix against Seattle, or Calgary against Gander in Newfoundland, where fog and low cloud cost flying days. He also looks at job opportunities, naming Tampa in Florida with its corporate, medevac, charter and cargo operators. Before starting he suggests meeting two or three instructors, then staying with the one you click with to keep momentum.

Licence order, costs and hiring

The sequence he describes is a first solo after roughly 12 hours, the private pilot licence, the instrument rating, the commercial pilot licence and the multi engine rating, each ending with a checkride after the instructor signs you off. Lohman quotes $55,000 to $65,000 in the US when licences are finished at minimum hours, with some large academies reaching $130,000 or more. For Canada he quotes $70,000 to $75,000 for modular training and $110,000 to $130,000 for regulated training. He recounts a Part 141 student in California whose expected timeline grew from two and a half to three and a half years, with fuel surcharges, landing fees and rentals added, ending $40,000 above the original quote. Lohman closes by pointing to higher pilot pay, retirements after COVID and large hiring plans at US airlines, which he says leave room at the regionals for new pilots.