Flying high
It is a long haul before a Chinese pilot can get the prime position in the cockpit of a passenger plane
When you travel by air, you often see pilots in uniform rushing into and out of airport terminals. But becoming a pilot is costly and involves a lot of training. In China, 90 percent of the country's airline pilots are trained at the same school. It's the world's largest civil aviation institution - the Civil Aviation Flight University of China. After graduation, pilots must first become familiar with Airbus and Boeing planes before they can work as co-pilots. If they want to become captains, it takes longer. For example, for Air China, a pilot needs to have had more than 3,000 hours of flight time to fly a Boeing 737. For a Boeing 767 it's 4,000 hours. After four years of school, a pilot needs at least five years of flying, during which period there is more training, strict assessment and a brutal elimination process.
China Daily
| From left: A pilot checks jet fuel before his plane takes off; a dozen training planes on the runway at the Civil Aviation Flight University of China; trainees listen attentively to an instructor. |
| Pilots from the Civil Aviation Flight University of China must become familiar with Airbus and Boeing planes before they can work as co-pilots. Photos by Lyu Jia / For China Daily |
| A junior pilot practices stalls; depending on age, a male pilot cannot have more than 20 to 24 percent body fat. |
| A group of students wait to board a plane; 21-year-old Wang Zhenni is the only female student in her grade. |
(China Daily European Weekly 09/22/2017 page4)
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