Most companies that employ pilots require at least two years of college training. Courses in engineering, meteorology, physics and mathematics are helpful in preparing for a pilot’s career. Flying is taught in military and civilian flying schools. There are approximately 600 civilian flying schools certified by the FAA, including some universities that offer degree credit for pilot training. Pilots leaving the military are in great demand.

Certification or Licensing

To become a pilot, certain rigid training requirements must be met. Although obtaining a private pilot’s license is not difficult, it may be quite difficult to obtain a commercial license. Before you make your first solo flight, you must get a medical certificate and an instructor-endorsed student pilot certificate. In order to get that, you must pass a test given by the flight instructor. The test will have questions about FAA rules as well as questions about the model and make of the aircraft you will fly. If you pass the test and the instructor feels you are prepared to make a solo flight, the instructor will sign and endorse your pilot certificate and logbook.

To apply for a PPL (private pilots license), you must take a written examination. To qualify, you must be at least 17, successfully fulfill a solo flying requirement of 20 hours or more and meet instrument flying and cross-country flying requirements.

Types of Pilot Licenses

Student pilot certificate – Used for the initial training period of flying. Student pilots must fly with a flight instructor and can only fly solo after receiving appropriate endorsements from their flight instructor.

Recreation pilot certificate – Limits the pilot to specific classes and categories of aircraft, a limited number of passengers, the distance that may be flown from the point of departure, and flight into controlled airports.

Private pilot certificate – Allows a pilot to carry passengers and use his or her aircraft for limited business purposes.

Commercial pilot certificate – Allows a pilot to fly for compensation and hire

Airline transport pilot certificate – Required to fly as captain by some air transport operations.

All pilots and co-pilots must be licensed by the FAA before they can do any type of commercial flying. An applicant who is 18 years old and has 250 hours of flying time can apply for a commercial pilot license. You must pass a rigid physical exam and a written test. Before you receive an FAA license, you must also receive a rating for the kind of plane you can fly (single-engine, multi-engine) and for the specific type of plane such as Boeing 747 or 707.

Sound physical and emotional health are essential requirements for aspiring pilots. Emotional stability is necessary because the safety of other people depends upon a pulot remaining claim and levelheaded, no matter how trying the situation. Physical health is equally important. You must have 20/20 vision with or without glasses, good hearing; normal heart rate and blood pressure, and no physical handicaps that could hinder performance.

Click to Get Best Flight Professional Simulator

To avail of the add-ons as free flight simulator downloads; you have to simply become a member of the site prior to downloading. Due to increasing popularity of these flight sims, many add-on packages are created for both payware and freeware. Though the most well-liked and accepted add-on packages are aircrafts; downloads are available for thousands of repaints, with repaint kits. Flight simulator downloads come with description and image of preview of the add-on, along with a guide for installation.

Several flight sim downloads are available in ClearView RC flight simulator for radio controlled planes and helicopters. A number of flying sites and many remote control models are provided in the program. The models of helicopters included are the 3d Raptors 60 and 90, scale Jet Ranger, Lama, Apache AH-64 and the micro electric Trex450. The wide ranges of RC planes are the light weight Shockflier, 100 sizes 4 stroke aerobatic Pitts Special to the turbine driven F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon.

This high quality download lets you have a normal game pad that is compatible and lets advanced RC flyers use their own radio transmitter with a USB adapter. The other high points of the ClearView RC flight sim are as follows:

Fully configurable flight model RC plane simulation Supports from 3D foam models to Jets True high alpha angles Helicopter simulation Refined flight model with autorotation Advanced set up for editing all flight parameters Doppler sound effects Graphics and sound Movable flight surfaces Shadows and smoke

Rest assured, I have tested out nearly every Flight Sim on the market today, and I have found one which I can personally recommend.

Stop wasting your money and time on disappointing flight simulators.

I have put them all through the test and after hundreds of hours flying I have finally found a winner and I can guarantee it will be the closest you will get to a Real Life Flying experience without actually leaving your house.

Click to Get Best Flight Professional Simulator

1) The first step is a psychological step. You need to make sure you are in the proper mind set and have the proper attitude to learn how to fly. This means you should have a very good reason, at least for yourself, in terms of why you want to become a pilot. And a perfunctory reason will not work. The reason for this is because it takes unadulterated commitment on your part in order to gain a Private Pilot License.

2) Along the lines of commitment, you will need to set aside a large chunk of time weekly for learning how to fly. You could just train on the weekend, but the draw back to this method is that learning to fly could take a long time, a very long time. Therefore, if possible, try to fly every good weather day, and therefore set aside time daily for flight training. It is very important you understand that the closer your lessons are to each other, the less money you will spend in the end. The national average in terms of the flying hours needed to obtain the Private Pilot License is 65 – 70 hours.

3) Plan on spending around $8,000.00 USD to obtain the Private Pilot License.  This includes instructor fee, cost to rent airplane, exams, books, and equipment. Some sources put the cost at about $7,000.00 USD. Again, the more frequently you fly, the lower the end cost will be. Assuming you are average in terms of number of flying hours needed (65 – 70 hours), plan on spending $7,000.00 to $8,000.00 USD.

4) After you have decided that you truly want to gain a Private Pilot License, you understand the  time needed, and you have worked out the financial aspect, you then can start to think about selecting the right flight school. When selecting a flight school, visit every flight school that is within a reasonable driving distance to where you live. The following two steps will help in your selection of a flight school.

5) You need to decide if you want to become a tri-gear or conventional gear (tail wheel) pilot, or both. Do you want to take your check ride in a conventional gear airplane, or a tri-gear airplane. Today, most pilots take their check ride in a tri-gear airplane. But it should be noted that you will be a more proficient and a safer pilot if you are able to fly more then one type of airplane. This diversity includes being able to fly both tri-gear and conventional gear aircraft.

Today, most pilots prefer to stick with a tri-gear airplane from start to finish, when getting their Private Pilot License. Select a flight school which provides both tri-gear and conventional gear aircraft for you to rent, so that you are able to fly both of these types of airplanes.

You can train and take your check ride in a tri gear airplane, and later after you obtain your Private Pilot License, get a tail wheel endorsement. No matter how you slice it, the more different types of airplanes you can get checked out in and fly well, the safer you will be as a pilot.

6) Also, in terms of flight school selection, you need to decide if you want to learn to fly at a FAR Part 141 school, or a FAR Part 61 school. In the United States, flight schools are required to operate under one of these two sets of rules, as laid down by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). One is really not any better then the other. Flight schools which operate under FAR Part 141 provide a more formal curriculum, with slightly fewer hours required for certification, and flight schools which operate under FAR Part 61 are less formal, and hours needed for certification are a little bit more.

But since the hours needed in order to obtain the Private Pilot License almost always is much more then the required hours for certification (65-70 hours is the national average), there is really no advantage to learning at a FAR Part 141 school. Your decision in terms of FAR Part 141, and FAR Part 61, should really be dependent on the type of learning environment you prefer. Some students do better in a more formal environment, while others prefer a more laid back, less formal environment.

7) After selecting a flight school, you then need to select an instructor. Select an instructor you feel comfortable with, both in terms of personality and flying experience. There are basically two types of instructors in the United States. One type is trying to build flying hours and has a desire to move on beyond instruction to a commercial flying job which is more lucrative. The other type of instructor is a career instructor who prefers to instruct, and is not really flying to build hours, but enjoys teaching new students. Career instructors on average tend to be older then hour building instructors.

In terms of these two types of instructors, one is really not any better then the other, and selecting an instructor you believe you are compatible with is what really is important. You need to have a professional learning situation, where personality incompatibility will not interfere with the process of becoming a pilot. Selecting the right instructor is probably the most important component in learning how to fly.

Finally, for most areas of the United States, plan on starting the learning process at the beginning of the summer. You need to have plenty of good flying weather in front of you before you start. If you start in the fall, you may end up having to stop due to bad weather and may need to wait until the spring to continue, which means more time and money. Plan on getting the job done within a few months in the summer.

This holds true for most areas of the country, but not all. Of course, if you are learning to fly in the Southwest or Florida, then when you start is really not a factor.

So there you have it. The steps you need to take in order to become a Private Pilot. The most important considerations are proper mind set and attitude, commitment of time and money, type of airplane you want to fly, and finally flight school and instructor selection.

To quote Leonardo da Vinci “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return”. If you follow these steps, you can experience what only Leonardo da Vinci could only dream of, the archetypal dream of flight.

However, that’s not going to happen fast enough to help The Boeing Company meet a 2008 year-end delivery deadline for its new 787 Dreamliner commercial aircraft.

Chicago-based Boeing, in a move that points to a global shortage of tantalum, has recently pushed its Dreamliner schedule back by six months. The first 30 to 35 of the new passenger aircraft won’t be delivered until 2009, because of both software integration problems and a shortage of corrosion-resistant tantalum fasteners.

Commerce is still in the midst of a two-year-long provincial environmental assessment on its Upper Fir property, 300 kilometers north of Kamloops, in central British Columbia, which should be done by May or June 2008.

With that certificate in hand, the Vancouver-based company will then turn to the British Columbia Ministry of Mines for a permit to work its Blue River property in the interior of the province.

If all goes well, the permit will come through in time for a 2009 spring start.

Tantalum has the highest capacitance of any metal known, meaning the ability to hold and release electrical charge instantaneously. That makes it essential to most electronic devices as the material used for the capacitors found in most consumer goods such as mobile phones, computers and digital cameras as well as in automotive applications (anti-locking brakes, airbag-firing mechanisms) and medical technologies such as hearing aids and pacemakers.

The world’s largest tantalum producer, Sons of Gwalia Ltd., now known as Talison Minerals, has, historically, supplied up to 55% of the world market from its Greenbushes and Wodgina mines in Western Australia. In the West, that market percentage could run as high as 85%.

However, SOG disclosed in July, 2004 that it may have run out of its surface high grade (300 g/t with a 55% recovery rate), forcing capital spending on underground mining of lower grade deposits.

Shortly afterwards, the public company went into receivership, and was purchased and renamed by private American interests only this year.

Drill results since Commerce started staking its Blue River property in 2000 have established Upper Fir as a viable mine site with a 6-10-year life.

The prospective mine life may double or even triple with the results from 18 more holes drilled this past summer. Those results not only confirmed that the Upper Fir carbonatite is sub-horizontal, allowing for open-pit mining, but also enlarged the strike area to more than a kilometer north-south and more than half a kilometer east-west.

(Carbonatites are rare rock types containing equally rare minerals, including niobium and tantalum.)

As well, this past summer’s exploration turned up two new carbonatites – Lower Gum Creek and Lower Switch Creek – about two kilometers east of the Upper Fir deposit. Currently, the company is expecting the results back from the drilling of the Switch Creek site, spurred by one anomalous sample from the late 1980s containing 2,900 grams per tonne (g/t) tantalum. That compares to an average of 200 g/t in the Upper Fir deposit.

While work is now concentrated on the Upper Fir, Commerce had staked an area covering about 500 square kilometers, including the Fir and the Verity properties. Last month, the company doubled its property by staking another 95 claims covering more than 100,000 acres to the south of the Bone Creek watershed.

The new claims cover a large ultramafic area about 12 km southeast of the Upper Fir deposit, and give Commerce ownership of mineral tenures in areas where mine infrastructure may be built.

The Upper Fir property has an indicated resource of 8.6 million tonnes, grading 208.9 g/t Ta2O5 and 1,372 g/t Nb2O5, and an inferred resource of 5.5 million tonnes, grading 208.2 g/t Ta2O5 and 1,349g/t Nb2O5.

The Fir deposit has an indicated resource of 5.65 million tonnes grading 203.1 g/t Ta2O5 and 1,047 g/t Nb2O5, with an inferred resource of 6.74 million tonnes, grading 203.1 g/t Ta205 and 1,047 g/t Nb2O5.

The Verity property has an inferred resource of 3.06 million tonnes, grading 196 g/t Ta2O5 and 646 g/t Nb205.

The metal niobium has a wide range of properties – heat resistance, high thermal conductivity, elasticity, corrosion resistance, and the ability to form a stable and adhesive layer of oxide.

But it is most prized for its use in steel alloys used in pipelines, cars and structural steels. A 2% alloy of niobium can triple the tensile strength of steel from a PSI (pounds per square inch) of 40,000 to a PSI of 120,000, making it a reasonable alternative to vanadium.

Niobium’s price has also skyrocketed this year, from US$7 per pound in January to its current level of around US$28/lb. Encouraged by the healthy market, Commerce last spring staked 88 claims in Quebec’s Labrador Trough, surrounding eight claims held by Virginia Mines Inc. (TSX: VGQ).

Those eight claims cover most of the Eldor Carbonatite Complex, an elliptically-shaped area approximately 7.75 km by 2.5 km with known, localized high concentrations of niobium and tantalum. Grab and channel samples have ranged from 1.15% to 11.4% Nb205 and 0.046%-0.21% Ta205.

In May, for the price of 710,000 shares and 290,000 share purchase warrants, Commerce took over those claims from Virginia Mines and embarked on a summer of soil sampling and line cutting. The results of those assays should be available by November.

The Eldor Carbonatite compares in size to the Araxa Carbonatite Complex in Brazil, which measures about 4.5 km in diameter. It contains the world’s largest known deposit of pyrochlore, from which niobium is obtained, and is mined by the Brazilian company, Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao (CBMM).

CBMM, currently supplying up to 70% of the world market, says it has enough reserves to meet the global need for niobium for the next 500 years. But the private company may not be meeting the same disclosure standards as Canadian public companies. As well, buyers looking at the quality of CBMM’s product are known to be checking around for other suppliers.

While Commerce has had a standing invitation for partnership proposals, a recent private placement of $32.746 million, added to the $7.5 million already in hand, means the company can now manage on its own.

Another $45 million could be raised through the exercise of warrants bringing total financing to just over $80 million, enough to get Blue River into production.

With the Yellowhead Highway and the Canadian National Railway both crossing Commerce’s property, the company will have an easy choice of sending its tantalum concentrate, processed at the mine site, to either Vancouver or Edmonton.

The next step would be to turn the concentrate into tantalum oxide, but Commerce hasn’t yet considered whether it would build its own processing plant, partner with another company or hand off the product at that point.

This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.