Other jobs in aviation besides being a pilot?

[devbanana]

Hey, I'm new to the forums.

Lately, I've been reading a lot on the math and physics behind airplanes, and have found it fascinating. I've been quite interested in airplanes for a few years, but haven't really made an effort to learn much more about it until recently.

So I'm interested in airplanes and flying, but unfortunately I'm totally blind so could not be a pilot.

So my question is, what other jobs in aviation are there besides being a pilot? My main strengths are programming, and math. I'm quite interested and proficient in both of these.

Right now I'm a sophomore in college, majoring in computer science, but I just want to know what else is out there.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.

[nervman]

Hey there, since you are already a CS major it's likely you'd want to do something in that field. You could also look at the FAA, they have jobs for computer scientists (normally under that title) working up in the northeast, like the FAA technical center in Atlantic City. The types of things that'd be in development may also relate directly to air traffic control and automation. This area is something that I see as a continuously progressing area. In fact the tools available to an ATC nowadays are quite sophisticated, there's one I've known that would basically take the state of all aircraft in a radar sector and offer sequencing advice to the controller, and as you can imagine it'd have the ability to make very precise and efficient decisions. Still at this point these are aids to the human controller, but I can only imagine what the future will look like a few decades from now. Maybe this is where you come in!

I used to work for the FAA, I'm also a CS graduate, pilot and aircraft owner. I used to be an ATC back in the military and when I got out for a short time (non FAA). I'm a developer now although not in the aviation area. I'd recommend keeping an eye on job openings with the FAA (FAA Career Opportunities) with titles for 'computer scientist', there are plenty and you can look at them just to get an idea of what is out there. Although you are still in college you might have to build up some professional experience in software engineering if you don't have much or any presently.

Anyhow other than that, I'm sure airlines hire developers and even aviation companies which produce hardware and software would also need devs. Good luck with your career. By the way, this is one slow forum, lol.

[airfreddy]

hello:

There are lot of jobs out there from parts al the way up to pilots. So I would look at anything including engineering. I am sure there is something you can find that you like

AIrfreddy

[Zonno]

Originally Posted by nervman

By the way, this is one slow forum, lol.

Unfortunately yes, there are not enough pilots that know about this board.