Flying aircraft of every kind, from airliners to crop dusters and balloons, plus the people who plan and direct every flight from the ground.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Airline Pilot: Flies passenger jets for major and regional airlines, sharing the cockpit with a second pilot. Typical pay $227k.
Cargo Airline Pilot: Flies freighter jets loaded with packages and cargo, usually overnight, for carriers like FedEx, UPS, and Atlas. Typical pay $230k.
Corporate / Business Jet Pilot: Flies private jets for companies, wealthy owners, or fractional-ownership firms like NetJets. Typical pay $140k.
Test Pilot: Flies brand-new or modified aircraft to find out how they really perform, including at their limits. Typical pay $160k.
Air Traffic Controller: Keeps aircraft safely separated on the ground and in the air by giving pilots instructions over the radio. Typical pay $145k.
Aerial Firefighting Pilot: Flies air tankers, scoopers, or helicopters that drop water and fire retardant on wildfires. Typical pay $110k.
Chief Pilot: Leads all the pilots at an airline base, charter company, or corporate flight department. Typical pay $232k.
Air Medical (HEMS) Pilot: Flies helicopters or planes that rush critically ill and injured patients to hospitals. Typical pay $123k.
FAA Flight Inspection Pilot: Flies special FAA jets that test the radio beacons and landing systems at airports to make sure they guide planes correctly. Typical pay $150k.
Instrument Flight Procedure Designer: Designs the invisible paths airplanes follow to land in clouds and fog, checking every hill and tower that could get in the way. Typical pay $110k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Helicopter Pilot: Flies helicopters for medical evacuations, news, tours, offshore oil platforms, police, or utility work. Typical pay $100k.
Air Charter / Air Taxi Pilot: Flies small planes on demand for paying customers, carrying people or packages to places airlines don't go. Typical pay $85k.
Agricultural Pilot (Crop Duster): Flies low over farm fields spraying fertilizer, seed, or crop protection, often just 10 feet off the ground. Typical pay $90k.
Bush Pilot: Flies small planes into remote places with no roads, landing on gravel bars, lakes, glaciers, or tiny dirt strips. Typical pay $75k.
Ferry Pilot: Delivers aircraft from factories, sellers, or repair shops to their new owners, sometimes across oceans. Typical pay $80k.
Aerial Survey Pilot: Flies precise grid patterns so cameras and lidar sensors can map land, cities, forests, and pipelines. Typical pay $75k.
Airline Dispatcher: Plans every airline flight and shares legal responsibility with the captain for whether it's safe to go. Typical pay $80k.
Airfield Operations Specialist: Keeps runways, taxiways, and ramps safe and running: inspecting pavement, lights, wildlife, and snow conditions. Typical pay $62k.
Fish Spotter Pilot: Flies small planes low over the ocean to find schools of fish and guide fishing boats to them. Typical pay $75k.
Pipeline Patrol Pilot: Flies low and slow along oil, gas, and power lines looking for leaks, damage, or digging that could cause an accident. Typical pay $70k.
Seaplane / Floatplane Pilot: Flies planes that take off and land on water, carrying passengers and cargo to lakes, islands, and remote lodges. Typical pay $70k.
Aerial Tour Pilot: Flies tourists over places like the Grand Canyon, Hawaii volcanoes, and city skylines. Typical pay $70k.
Flight Service Specialist: Gives pilots weather briefings, files flight plans, and helps lost or troubled small-plane pilots by radio. Typical pay $70k.
Starter: fastest way in
Flight Instructor (CFI): Teaches new student pilots to fly, usually in small single-engine planes. Typical pay $52k.
Commercial Drone Pilot: Flies small drones to film, inspect, map, or survey for businesses, construction, agriculture, and media. Typical pay $52k.
Skydiving Jump Pilot: Flies skydivers up to 13,000 feet, lets them jump, then dives back down for the next load, all day long. Typical pay $40k.
Hot Air Balloon Pilot: Flies paying passengers in hot air balloons at sunrise, steering by finding winds at different heights. Typical pay $45k.
Glider Tow Pilot: Flies the small plane that tows gliders into the sky and releases them to soar. Typical pay $30k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.