Cost of tuition to have a career as a pilot question

[Av8trxx]

I'm not looking to to be a millionare I just want to be able to pay the bills. I'd be extremely happy if I could have a career flying and not be in bankruptcy court.

As a new hire pilot you will be lucky to do that in this day & age.

Take the advice about getting your ratings first and then make career decisions. Do not quit your day job & jump into the deep end of flying without getting your feet wet first!!! You just may drown...in bills if you don't starve to death first!

A friend of mine was a sucessful business owner who left her job, sold her $800K house and went to a regional as a midlife career changer. Three years later she left and went into day trading to 'earn a good living again'. Living the dream is often not quite the same as living in the reality of the daily grind, especially at the pay you get. There is no doubt some aspects of this job are really great but do not get starry eyed over the career type ads you see the magazines. They can't illustrate the kind of sacrifices personally & financially you will have to make and endure for years to get to a descent paying position these days. That is if you can. Life at a regional will be the new reality for many post 9/11. Consider that possibility too. Good Luck

 

[Draginass]

"I'd be extremely happy if I could have a career flying and not be in bankruptcy court."

No you won't. Trust me. You have a completely false impression of what it's like to fly for a living.

 

[pilotyip]

fly because you like it

Talk to as any many people in the profession as you can, start with your PVT, fly a while, don't quit your engineeering job until you are sure. A high school drop out can make a living flying an airplane and have a skill level equal to anyone out there driving airplanes, in fact I know one at a major. Anyone with a certain level of skill and some desire can become a pilot. I love flying, do it as much as I can, and I enjoy flying anything with wings, and that is reason I came back to aviation. But I think sometimes pilots have a misplaced why they fly, if you go into because you like flying, you will not be disappointed. If you are in for the money, you may be disappointed. If you want money stay as a engineer.

 

[Caveman]

Keep your day job and earnestly begin to get your private, instrument, and commercial certificates. You can do this in a year at your local FBO if you fly 3 times a week. When that's done decide whether or not you want to make the change in careers. If so, go to DCI Academy and enroll in their program that will get your CFI, CFII and MEI and an interview with a DCI carrier after 800 hours of dual given. The CFI ratings at DCI will be extremely expensive but the opportunity to interview at a decent regional will be well worth it. The alternative is to quit your day job now and do all of your training at DCI. The cheaper route would be do it as I described above. That way you would pay for your primary training at the local FBO and only spend the big bucks for your instructor ratings. Plus, until you got your commercial certificate you could still sit on the fence before fully committing to be a pro pilot.

I did the midlife career change to be a pilot and I have only one regret: I should have done it sooner. Yeah the pay stinks for a couple of years but only for 3 or 4 years. Don't listen to the naysayers. Most of them are pretty jaded and most of them have never done the 9-5 gig either. I love being a pro pilot even though I only make 'crappy regional pay' (about $70K this year).

Good luck.

 

[Flyingtoohigh]

This may start sounding like a broken record, but...

Keep your day job and get your private pilot's license and instrument rating on the weekends, days off, mornings, etc. I'm willing to bet that there is a flight school located within a 30-minute drive of your house if you live in a city of 15,000 people or more in the United States. Forget housing costs and stay at home with your family and earn your basic certificates. The licenses and ratings that the FAA issues are no different at a big dollar "professional pilot program" than the ones issued at your local airport. Do not pay up front, too many people have lost incredible sums of money that way.

If you think that earning enough to pay the bills and fly at the same time is easy or fun I'd like to offer you a little perspective. Pilots only get paid when they fly. You are not paid for your time sitting around the airport between flight students, looking at weather and filing flight plans, and sitting on the ground when the weather is bad. The entry rung of the industry is flight instruction where 10-12 hour days are the norm, six days per week. You will not get paid for 12 hours a day and may only get paid for a couple of those hours depending on your student load.

Don't get too discouraged. If flying is your passion by all means pursue it. We urge you to stick a cautious toe in the water first by earning your private pilot's license from home before you up-root your life, family, and financial stability for a job that leaves little room for any of those factors.

 

[bernie19]

Thanks to everyone for all the great info. I really appreciate it. I know I want to fly but I'm not sure how a career flying will be. I'm 31 years old and just got married. I have the usual bills, home, car, credit cards, studen loans, but I have no kids. So I'm not sure after reading some of these posts if it's agood idea to pursue a career as a pilot. If I did follow that career path I'd wouldn't be in it for the money, I'd be in it because I want to fly. If the money comes gret but I don't want to be making $8.00 an hour in 5 years from now when I'm 36 years old. I'm also assuming it would be a big lifestyle change from the mon-fri 9-5 routine? Is it all long hours and on the holidays and weekends? I can handle that now but who knows when I'm 40, 45. Thanks again...

 

[philo beddoe]

You could be committing financial suicide if you already have a lot of bills.

Are you ready to make less than $30k per year, for possibly many years? And maybe less than $20k for a while?

Are you ready to weather an airline furlough or shutdown?

Are you ready to spend many holidays and weekends away from your family, then finally get some seniority and a better schedule, only to upgrade to captain and start all over again being gone for days on end.

You're new. You think flying will be thrilling forever. It won't be.

When I first got my driver's license, I looked for any reason to get to drive. You could wake me up at 4am to drive 90 miles for a can of cat food and I was thrilled.

That lasted for a few months. When was the last time driving to work thrilled you? That is what line flying is like.

I drove pizzas, I flew the line. After a long enough period of time, it is amazing that the thrill level was darn near the same.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy flying for a living. But it is not thrilling.

As far as prestige, forget it. Everyone's a pilot these days.