About a week away. I started 2 years ago with my private certificate and told myself if I didn't get to go any further, I'd be satisfied with that. I finished my instrument rating in December and am now on the cusp of earning my commercial certificate, meaning I'd legally be allowed to get paid to be a pilot. It certainly has not been easy, since I work full time and take college classes as well. This week we got hit with a sizable car repair, which pretty much wiped out our emergency fund (thanks to Dave Ramsey, at least we had one). Now I'm working to rebuild the emergency fund and starting to save for my multi-engine rating this summer. I'm certainly not deserving, but God has continued to provide for us throughout the past 2 years. I keep telling myself if I have to quit this path at any point, I won't be disappointed because this is further than I ever expected to be able to go. Even if I can't be a professional pilot, I'm hoping the experience and education I've accumulated will allow me to enter the aviation industry in some other facet.
Are you currently an Air Traffic guy?
If you don't mind my asking, how much do you have invested to this point? I have a private ticket already and am pondering different ways to use my Post 9-11 GI bill. I've thought of trying to go all the way up to ATP, but the regional carriers pay diddly squat and you're on the road a ton. The other option is law school. If you had it all to do over again, would you do it the same way?
BTW, good luck on your check ride.
Unfortunately the professional pilots job is not what it used to be. I spent 37 years in aviation. A flight instructor (2years), crop dusting (2years) and 33 years as a corporate pilot. Thanks to aviation I have flown to all the states, Europe and Africa. When I first started in corporate flying the crew was given tickets to pro sports games and often had dinner with the passengers. We could take our families on trips when there were seats available. Now that happens rarely if at all. I have landed a DC 3 in a VPs cow pasture and shot an NDB approach to a small African airport in a Gulfstream 3. The GPS takes a lot of the work out of navigation today. It is a great career, but you have to live on low pay and put in long hours, for a while, to get a good paying job.
I am using the post-9/11 GI Bill as well, so my out of pocket up to this point has probably been $1-2K. If you do the flight training as part of a degree program (which I am), the GI Bill pays for up to 100% of the tuition and fees (regardless of the cost).
If you do flight training outside of a degree, the GI Bill pays for all of the fees, but it deducts 12 months for every $10K you use. So essentially, you have a flat $30,000 to use.
At the time I started my training the rules were a little different, so it was more advantageous for me to do the degree program. I already have a degree though, so if I were to start my training today, I would probably just use the flat $30,000.
With the new law they are implementing in August 2013, it will be mandatory to have an ATP if you fly for the airlines, even as a first officer. The pay at the regionals only really sucks the first year. I can't really say if I'd have done it any differently. I'm about 1 year away from finishing all of my ratings and certificates, with probably 2-3 years of instructing after that while living on rice and beans. If I had used my GI Bill on something like a petroleum engineering degree, I'd probably be a year away from bringing home an $80-100,000 salary. I would rather be a pilot than a petroleum engineer, but if I don't get a job as a pilot, I'll probably be looking back at that petroleum engineering degree as something I should have done.
Sweet! I leave in August for ATC school. Hopefully its alot more fulfilling than my current job as a Meteorologist in the AF.
F
faler55
Guest
you lucky dog,s alway,s wanted to fly
Do yourself a favor and do not go to law school. Spend a few days on the internet reading about the employment prospects for law grads and you will see that the job market sucks.
At least, do not go to law school unless you have a solid offer of a job upon graduation and passing the bar. Or, if you are so rich you do not need a job. In that case, don't go unless you can get into a top five law school and really need a few years of intense, tedious, very expensive schooling.
jej
- member of the bar for 30 years or so.
Similar threads
