I'm a CFI / Commercial / Instrument / ME pilot. I work in aviation and I have my own airplane.

The airline route is brutal and this can be regardless of your loyalty to the company.

The private jet route can be rewarding but kiss your weekends and predictability of life away.

The military would be great in my opinion but you better be prepared to fight and kill regardless of your ignorance or your own personal views.

I LOVE aviation and aircraft and my entire life is dedicated to them - which route you pursue is really your call but none of them are easy - these guys earn their pay with hard work, sacrifice, skill and persistence.

 

Nobody is a Pilot, but I'm sure there are some pilots on here.

 

It cost me just over $6000 to get the hours for my private license. It is very expensive. With 250 required for commercial, which wont get you a job anywhere but a flight school, you have a long, expensive road ahead of you if this is something that you really want to do. It can be frustrating at times, as the lessons seem to go on and on and, and sometimes it just feels like you're spinning your wheels.

If you really think it is something that you will enjoy then you should do it. My plan was originally to go all the way to ATP, but it just got too expensive for me to continue. These are hard times to be trying to enter this particular career, but if you have the funds and drive to do it than I strongly suggest it. My days at the yoke were the best of my life. I'll fly again someday... AFTER law school!

 

I wonder how the economy will affect the industry in the long term? Probably something to consider...

 

sweet avatar!!!

 

Good luck. Its a cool job, but these days pilots are underpaid.

BTW, the guy who crashed into the Hudson. That man is a hero.

I plan on getting my private license next year and buying a small plane with my buddy. Should be fun.

 

We need aviation, it's not going away.

BTW, no doubt it is hard to be a pilot but it is very rewarding and with the baby boomers retiring there will definitely be a demand for pilot services.

 

Wow, I just threw up a lil in my mouth. As an airline pilot, that's one of the WORST places you can go to. Professional pilots that did go there are embarrassed to admit that they went there. Ivy league of the aviation schools? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. It's like saying a Corolla is the elite of the supercars.

For those that are thinking about this career, think wisely. It's not as glorious and glamorous as you think. I'm an airline pilot between jobs. The airline I used to work at has furloughed (laid off) a couple hundred pilots, including those that were part of my training class. They have no idea when they will be back working again. I know several older airline pilots that have gone thru 2 or more furloughs in their careers. The airline industry is one of the most unstable around, and can be vicious. I was at a job interview, and started talking to one of the fellow job applicants. He was a pilot for the now defunct ATA. He had many years of senority there and planned to work there from retirement. Now that it's gone, he has to start from stratch at another airline, all the way at the bottom of the senority and pay. This can be a very treacherous career. Here are some other crappy points.

-Training. When all is said and done, you'll have spent $30,000 to $40,000. I was a flight instructor so I know what exactly is involved. There are the minimums the FAA requires, but seldom do ppl ever finish in just the minimum time. I was one of the exceptions. Why? Not cuz I got mad skillz, it's because I did a LOT of studying and preparing on my own. Flight Simulators are an excellent and CHEAP training tool, not for the the actual flying, but it's great to nail down procedures. Even after getting all my licenses at the bare FAA mins and doing a LOT of shopping around for prices, it still cost me about $20,000 from private pilot to flight instructor. Remember, that's EXCLUDING college.

-Flight Instructing. 99.9% chance that you will have to become a flight instructor. Doesn't sound so bad, until you get into the details. 15 hour work days where you only get paid for 6 hours, and only 2 hours of it are actually flying (building time for yourself). Sleazy flight schools that make you fly in questionably safe planes in very questionable weather. Unfortunately, the majority of flight schools lately is on the sleazy side. Then take into account that for 95% of the time you actually do fly, you aren't at the controls (the student is). You get to watch the same mistakes over and over and over and over. It didn't matter to me as I was a teacher before I flight instructed, and also have experience as a performance driving instructor, but there are a LOT of ppl out there that do not have a knack or desire for teaching.

-Pay. First year pay is around $20k-$25k. It's pathetic. It made me sad to know that the maids that clean the room on the overnights made more money than I did. It's like this for every regional airline. It goes up a bit later, but a lot of new and current pilots are being selfish and diluting the pay for everyone else. By the time any of you considering this career actually get firmly established, it will most likely be even LESS when you're at that point. A lot of pilots have side jobs to supplement their incomes.

-Reserve. When you're a newb at the company, you have to sit around an apartment you share with 7-8 other pilots on call for the company. The reason it's at an apt you share is becuase it's most likely not the city you live in, and you have to do this for 4-5 days in a row, before you can fly home. You go back home for 2 days, then repeat. How long you have to do this depends on the economy and the company, could be virtually a couple days to a couple years. Trust me, it sucks. It's not always in big cities either. Places like Buffalo, Sacramento, etc.

-Family life. You will be away from home 15-20 days out of the month, 3-4 day stretches at a time. I know guys flying freighters worldwide, and they are away from home 2 weeks at a time. This ain't a job you do until you get married and then change, this is something you will be doing the rest of your life, after your married, after you have kids, until you have grandkids. Some wives (or husbands) are tolerant, but some will not be and can strain (or break) your family life.


Now if you're still interested in being a pilot, or you're just sadistic/masochistic, then here are my recommendations.

Get a college degree. The vast majority of people hired nowadays have one. Where you get it from and what you get it in is not important, although it should be a 4 year degree. That said, GO TO A STATE school. It makes little difference where it's from, so state schools is the best band for the buck. Take the money you save and invest it in your training.

Do your training at a good school. My suggestion is All ATPs.
http://www.atpflightschool.com/
Why? One hurdle you'll hit is a requirement from many regional airlines for multi-engine time. Many worthy pilots had to push back getting into the airlines becuase of this requirement. Getting time in multi-engine planes is incredibly expensive/hard to obtain period. Thing with ATP is a lot of the flying is in multi-engine planes. The biggest bonus is after you're done. As long as you show you were competent, you have a good chance of getting hired on there as a flight instructor there. That means lots of time teaching in multi-engine planes which will make you really marketable to the airlines. Also, the students are mostly commercially rated, so less risk of one of them killing you. I've never done any of their zero-to-hero programs (only their 10 hour muti rating course) but if I had to do it all again, I'd do their program. You must be VERY dilligent, as it is a very fast program, or you will end us paying a lot more in additional training, making it very expensive.

Good luck and God bless, cuz you're gonna need it in our industry...

 

I seriously hope that's the money you made in 2007 or you're overstating what you actually make, becuase unless you're one of those pricks that are picking up open time with guys out on the streets, there's no way you're made that much last year.

 

Most of what PilotSH has said is what scared me out of flying professionally. I wanted it BAD, but apparently not bad enough (hence why I'm no longer training). I have chosen another path in life. I'll fly again someday, but for now it's law school.