Career Ladder

Career Ladder

Your rank at Air Child determines which aircraft you may fly, how far your routes can go, and which special privileges you hold. Promotion is automatic and based on real flight activity — no application needed. Ranks are shown in ascending order below.

The rank ladder below applies to the Advanced and Professional career tracks. On the Basic Career track, none of this is rank-gated: you may fly any aircraft and operate Charter Flights from day one, with no promotion requirements to meet.

Cadet rank badge

Cadet

Our entry rank.

  • Aircraft newly unlocked at this rank: Regional, Business, General Aviation, Narrowbody (except A321) (31 types unlocked in total — Advanced/Professional career tracks only)
  • May fly all routes up to 01:30h (Short-haul)
  • Is listed in the pilot roster without flight hours
Second Officer rank badge

Second Officer

From 10 short-haul flights.

  • May fly all routes up to 01:30h (Short-haul)
  • Is listed in the pilot roster with flight hours
First Officer rank badge

First Officer

From 30 short-haul flights.

  • Aircraft newly unlocked at this rank: A321, A306 (Freighter only), A310 (Freighter only) (34 types unlocked in total — Advanced/Professional career tracks only)
  • May fly all routes up to 01:30h (Short-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 03:00h (Medium-haul)
  • Is listed in the pilot roster with flight hours
  • May participate in training flights
  • May also fly to challenging airports with authorization
Junior Captain rank badge

Junior Captain

From 50 SH + 20 MH flights, or 70 flights with 102:30h block time.

  • Aircraft newly unlocked at this rank: Widebody (except A388, B744, B78X, MD11) (45 types unlocked in total — Advanced/Professional career tracks only)
  • May fly all routes up to 01:30h (Short-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 03:00h (Medium-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 06:00h (Extended Medium-haul)
  • Is listed in the pilot roster with flight hours
  • May participate in training flights
  • May also fly to challenging airports with authorization
Captain rank badge

Captain

From 70 SH + 40 MH + 10 EMH flights, or 120 flights with 207:30h block time.

  • Aircraft newly unlocked at this rank: All remaining aircraft categories (except Supersonic) (52 types unlocked in total — Advanced/Professional career tracks only)
  • May fly all routes up to 01:30h (Short-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 03:00h (Medium-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 06:00h (Extended Medium-haul)
  • May fly all routes over 06:00h (Long-haul)
  • Is listed in the pilot roster with flight hours
  • May participate in training flights
  • May also fly to challenging airports with authorization
Senior Captain rank badge

Senior Captain

From 90 SH + 60 MH + 30 EMH flights, or 180 flights with 352:30h block time — and with an active Category III clearance.

  • May fly all routes up to 01:30h (Short-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 03:00h (Medium-haul)
  • May fly all routes up to 06:00h (Extended Medium-haul)
  • May fly all routes over 06:00h (Long-haul)
  • Is listed in the pilot roster with flight hours
  • May participate in training flights
  • May also fly to challenging airports with authorization
  • May operate Charter Flights
Frozen Senior Captain rank badge

Special Status: Frozen Senior Captain

The status of Senior Captain is the highest achievable rank at Air Child and is linked to special privileges. Unlike the lower ranks, it is therefore not set in stone forever. Just like a real flight license, it must be renewed regularly. This happens automatically: the rank of Senior Captain is maintained as long as at least one scheduled flight was completed in the preceding month.

If this is not the case, the Senior Captain drops to the status of "Frozen Senior Captain". With this status, they hold the same privileges as a Captain (see above). As soon as the condition above is met again, the Frozen Senior Captain automatically becomes a Senior Captain again — with all associated privileges restored.

Operating Charter Flights is one of the privileges lost while frozen — a Frozen Senior Captain may not operate Charter Flights again until the scheduled-flight requirement above is met. Because Charter Flights are unscheduled, flying one does not count toward that requirement; only an approved scheduled flight does.

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Flying for Children since 2009