Ryan Fitzgerald
New Member
It's a long story. Hahah. Too much to explain here.
And yes, it's a lil confusing.
Pilot's Opinion
- Thread starter Ryan Fitzgerald
- Start date
It's a long story. Hahah. Too much to explain here.
And yes, it's a lil confusing.
CFIT99
I'm probably commenting ironically...
Agreed....Liberty is a few steps from a cult...UVA is an super elite school that competes with the Ivy League...go there...
14? You should be Bird dogging chicks on Coney Island...
Maurus
The Great Gazoo
After training is finished. Ends up really being 11-12 years.
Ryan Fitzgerald
New Member
Yea, but I'll have all of that done with the AF:ROTC right?
CFIT99
I'm probably commenting ironically...
nope...1.5 years of flight training...then you'r commitment of 10 years (or its around that long)
drunkenbeagle
Gang Member
Plus the 4 years you are a cadet, longer of you go to grad school.
Zondaracer
Well-Known Member
10 years commitment AFTER you finish pilot training. So figure 4 years for University, half a year on casual status, 1.5 years for pilot training, so when you are said and done 10 years later, you will be 34-ish.
Zondaracer
Well-Known Member
Oh man, high school were some of the worst days of my life. I guess I was a nerd though.
But college on the other hand were some of the best days
Seggy
Well-Known Member
I am going to take a stab at this...
Welcome to Jetcareers. A lot of us are type 'A' Personalities and have had our lives planned out for years. Make sure you listen and ask questions on here. We have a lot of experienced folks on here.
They are telling you to 'stay away for your certiticates' as they want you to pay THEM for the certificates at a MUCH higher price. If that is the advice they are telling you I would find another school to go to. With the Cirrus gift, that is within your family, but I think that isn't a good idea. Find a well maintained Cessna and build time there. Also, keep going after your ratings! DO NOT, ONCE AGAIN DO NOT HOLD OFF GETTING THEM.
Once again, if they are telling you to hold off getting your ratings, I would not go there. Get your ratings at a local FBO.
I would just go to UVA or another state university, go after a degree in which you enjoy. ONLY do a ROTC Program if you want to serve our country. DO NOT do it if you think that is a ticket to fly. The last few years the Air Force has put out more UAV Pilots than other pilots. If you want to go into the Air Force only to fly DO NOTdo it. Go into the Air Force if you would be ok cleaning bathrooms to serve the country. If you just want to be a major airline pilot, get your ratings on the side, CFI, get a job at a regional, and then get a job at a major. Much quicker than the Air Force way.
Once again, I would stay away from Liberty University as they have already given you advice that will cost you thousands and in my mind they are already ripping you off. Go to a state school, do ROTC if you REALLY want to serve our country, get your ratings at a local FBO, and enjoy the journey.
Enjoy your teenage years. Stay out of trouble (drugs, drinking, etc.) but have fun. Hope this helps.
Welcome to Jetcareers. A lot of us are type 'A' Personalities and have had our lives planned out for years. Make sure you listen and ask questions on here. We have a lot of experienced folks on here.
They are telling you to 'stay away for your certiticates' as they want you to pay THEM for the certificates at a MUCH higher price. If that is the advice they are telling you I would find another school to go to. With the Cirrus gift, that is within your family, but I think that isn't a good idea. Find a well maintained Cessna and build time there. Also, keep going after your ratings! DO NOT, ONCE AGAIN DO NOT HOLD OFF GETTING THEM.
Once again, if they are telling you to hold off getting your ratings, I would not go there. Get your ratings at a local FBO.
I would just go to UVA or another state university, go after a degree in which you enjoy. ONLY do a ROTC Program if you want to serve our country. DO NOT do it if you think that is a ticket to fly. The last few years the Air Force has put out more UAV Pilots than other pilots. If you want to go into the Air Force only to fly DO NOTdo it. Go into the Air Force if you would be ok cleaning bathrooms to serve the country. If you just want to be a major airline pilot, get your ratings on the side, CFI, get a job at a regional, and then get a job at a major. Much quicker than the Air Force way.
Once again, I would stay away from Liberty University as they have already given you advice that will cost you thousands and in my mind they are already ripping you off. Go to a state school, do ROTC if you REALLY want to serve our country, get your ratings at a local FBO, and enjoy the journey.
Enjoy your teenage years. Stay out of trouble (drugs, drinking, etc.) but have fun. Hope this helps.
Tommay85
Well-Known Member
OP, I admire your enthusiasm and that you have goals. Just be realistic and open minded along the way. I was well on my way on the "fast track" back in the day. I had all my ratings within 2.5 years at UND, became an instructor there and was working on my MEI when I had a change of heart. Accomplishing this at UND is/was a pretty big deal and was a sure fire way to get drastically ahead given the number of flight hours you could accumulate, but luck played out and they were desperate for instructors and pretty much hired everyone that applied, but I looked at everything I had accomplished and realized I hadn't had as much fun as I should have up to that point. I didn't even have a steady girl friend or even randoms for those 3 years after HS graduation. It was all work work work, go go go. IOW, I got burned out.
I did aerial survey and now fly freight in single and multi-engine pistons. 5 years of flying for a living and I'm still flying small pistons, but the pay has been fantastic along the way and am currently living relatively where I want all while being home every night. A bit of the adventure side is still there and I will be continuing to scratch that itch for a couple more years as I look for another job at the moment. Am I happy? Well I gotta say I'm jealous of schedules my airline buddies have and would probably enjoy strutting around the airport in the monkey suit hitting on the ladies. I'm a tad egotistical like that.
Overall, I'd say I'm on the happy side. Back when I started school, if someone told me this is where I'd be, I would have told them they're CRAZY!
I do look back to those months when my motivations changed and wonder, if I had just stuck it out through MEI and then an additional year of instructing, where I'd be now. Pretty solid chance I'd be starting my 3rd year at Air Whisky. Things were still slow back then though and if I knew then what I know now, I'd probably lean more towards the cookie cutter route. It's tough to say if I'd be happier doing that. Like others have said, there's many things you can't control that will affect your path. Your motivations and priorities change.
Jokingly, I'll say this. When you get to college, the ONLY thing that should be on your mind is how you're going to plow as many girls as possible! Class and flying take the back seat! On the serious side, live a balanced life. Don't worry about the grades so much because it doesn't matter, if it does when you interview for a job, then that place is not worth working for. Now, if you can hang with your friends AND get straight A's, you are blessed, if not, don't sweat it. Try to keep it in the grades in the B range though...
I did aerial survey and now fly freight in single and multi-engine pistons. 5 years of flying for a living and I'm still flying small pistons, but the pay has been fantastic along the way and am currently living relatively where I want all while being home every night. A bit of the adventure side is still there and I will be continuing to scratch that itch for a couple more years as I look for another job at the moment. Am I happy? Well I gotta say I'm jealous of schedules my airline buddies have and would probably enjoy strutting around the airport in the monkey suit hitting on the ladies. I'm a tad egotistical like that.
Overall, I'd say I'm on the happy side. Back when I started school, if someone told me this is where I'd be, I would have told them they're CRAZY! I do look back to those months when my motivations changed and wonder, if I had just stuck it out through MEI and then an additional year of instructing, where I'd be now. Pretty solid chance I'd be starting my 3rd year at Air Whisky. Things were still slow back then though and if I knew then what I know now, I'd probably lean more towards the cookie cutter route. It's tough to say if I'd be happier doing that. Like others have said, there's many things you can't control that will affect your path. Your motivations and priorities change.
Jokingly, I'll say this. When you get to college, the ONLY thing that should be on your mind is how you're going to plow as many girls as possible! Class and flying take the back seat! On the serious side, live a balanced life. Don't worry about the grades so much because it doesn't matter, if it does when you interview for a job, then that place is not worth working for. Now, if you can hang with your friends AND get straight A's, you are blessed, if not, don't sweat it. Try to keep it in the grades in the B range though...
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
I agree with the others -- it's great to be ambitious and have a goal, but you are putting the cart WAY before the horse by wanting to have your next 25 years all planned out when you are 14.
To be blunt, you have no idea what you want in life right now. You might THINK that you do...but you don't. I can tell you from personal experience that what I wanted out of life at age 15, 25, and 35 were all very, very different. I'd be very sorry if I'd locked in my "life plan" that I wanted at your age. Just as important, you don't know what's going to happen with aviation, the military, the airline industry, etc, over that VERY LONG period of time. I'm a military pilot, and I can tell you that the USAF I wanted to join as a kid isn't the same one I joined, nor is it the same one I'm in today.
So, the right way to go about this is to have a goal, and then expect that it will be an unplanned route to get there. Remember, all that "in between stuff" that you want to plan out right now is called "life". Life is about the journey, not the destination. I guarantee that your wants and needs during that journey are going to change...and that's a good thing...but don't set yourself up for anger or disappointment if things don't go your way (and it's also nearly guaranteed that things won't go exactly as planned even if you wanted them to)!
The journey from pedestrian to major airline pilot is a long process with a lot of high hurdles to leap on the way to getting there. You will need to focus on each of those individual hurdles, one at a time, in order to get over them.
So, focus on the near-term goals and keep navigating in the direction of the long term ones. Expect that life will get in the way of your plans, and expect to have to chart a new course every so often to adapt to reality.
A few comments on your plan as printed:
- I don't know how wealthy your family is, but your whole plan about the Cirrus is financially terrible and unworkable, IMHO. If you are hard over on owning an airplane, there are much better "bangs for your buck" that would get you what you are looking for in terms of experience. Plenty of threads on this forum on this topic alone to keep you reading for days or weeks.
- Aviation schools are a waste of money for what you get. You won't necessarily get better training, but you WILL limit your career options. Go to a non-aviation school, and get a degree outside of aviation. You MUST have the ability to adapt to a career outside of flying, since you never know what will happen to your health. Plenty of threads on this forum, too, on this topic alone to keep you reading for days or weeks.
- ROTC is a fine option if you want to fly for the military. It is a poor path to take if your actual goal is simply to fly for the airlines. It is a 10-year commitment AFTER you graduate training, it is a very tough route that has many of it's own pitfalls and failures, and is not for the faint of heart or casually-motivated. You will NOT be able to run your family business and do ROTC while in college, nor while you are an active duty officer. Plenty of threads on this forum on this topic also to keep you reading for days or weeks (seeing a trend here?).
Take it one step at a time, dude. Focus on the "near rocks" that are an immediate threat to your future (like being a high school kid, doing well enough to be able to get into college, figuring out how to afford college without debt), and explore all the aspects of things that you want to do. You're not missing out on anything by not "having it all figured out" at your age.
Trust me, you wouldn't want it any other way.
To be blunt, you have no idea what you want in life right now. You might THINK that you do...but you don't. I can tell you from personal experience that what I wanted out of life at age 15, 25, and 35 were all very, very different. I'd be very sorry if I'd locked in my "life plan" that I wanted at your age. Just as important, you don't know what's going to happen with aviation, the military, the airline industry, etc, over that VERY LONG period of time. I'm a military pilot, and I can tell you that the USAF I wanted to join as a kid isn't the same one I joined, nor is it the same one I'm in today.
So, the right way to go about this is to have a goal, and then expect that it will be an unplanned route to get there. Remember, all that "in between stuff" that you want to plan out right now is called "life". Life is about the journey, not the destination. I guarantee that your wants and needs during that journey are going to change...and that's a good thing...but don't set yourself up for anger or disappointment if things don't go your way (and it's also nearly guaranteed that things won't go exactly as planned even if you wanted them to)!
The journey from pedestrian to major airline pilot is a long process with a lot of high hurdles to leap on the way to getting there. You will need to focus on each of those individual hurdles, one at a time, in order to get over them.
So, focus on the near-term goals and keep navigating in the direction of the long term ones. Expect that life will get in the way of your plans, and expect to have to chart a new course every so often to adapt to reality.
A few comments on your plan as printed:
- I don't know how wealthy your family is, but your whole plan about the Cirrus is financially terrible and unworkable, IMHO. If you are hard over on owning an airplane, there are much better "bangs for your buck" that would get you what you are looking for in terms of experience. Plenty of threads on this forum on this topic alone to keep you reading for days or weeks.
- Aviation schools are a waste of money for what you get. You won't necessarily get better training, but you WILL limit your career options. Go to a non-aviation school, and get a degree outside of aviation. You MUST have the ability to adapt to a career outside of flying, since you never know what will happen to your health. Plenty of threads on this forum, too, on this topic alone to keep you reading for days or weeks.
- ROTC is a fine option if you want to fly for the military. It is a poor path to take if your actual goal is simply to fly for the airlines. It is a 10-year commitment AFTER you graduate training, it is a very tough route that has many of it's own pitfalls and failures, and is not for the faint of heart or casually-motivated. You will NOT be able to run your family business and do ROTC while in college, nor while you are an active duty officer. Plenty of threads on this forum on this topic also to keep you reading for days or weeks (seeing a trend here?).
Take it one step at a time, dude. Focus on the "near rocks" that are an immediate threat to your future (like being a high school kid, doing well enough to be able to get into college, figuring out how to afford college without debt), and explore all the aspects of things that you want to do. You're not missing out on anything by not "having it all figured out" at your age.
Trust me, you wouldn't want it any other way.
fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
Then one day a girl walks in with big boobs and a short skirt. Suddenly your life goals change...
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
Re: the college recommending you not get any more ratings past PPL. They are not necessarily trying to con you, but the rules that the FAA apply to them will not allow it. Most college's training course guidelines from the FAA (called a part 141 Training Course Outline) will not allow them to apply any flight time past Private Pilot to their courses. I work at LeTourneau University and we have the same set of rules, as does almost every other school.
If you can swing a down payment and the upkeep on a Cirrius, then why not just use that money and continue with your training at your local airport. Once you have your PPL and instrument rating, then you are very close to qualifying for your commercial pilot certificate. Once you are done with that, you can get your CFI and start working. If you do that with the level of intensity you are describing, you will get done with your training faster than if you went through a college.
If you can swing a down payment and the upkeep on a Cirrius, then why not just use that money and continue with your training at your local airport. Once you have your PPL and instrument rating, then you are very close to qualifying for your commercial pilot certificate. Once you are done with that, you can get your CFI and start working. If you do that with the level of intensity you are describing, you will get done with your training faster than if you went through a college.
Seggy
Well-Known Member
Excellent Points. Thank you for bringing that up as well.
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
I am still waiting for that to happen!
ZeroPapaGolf
Well-Known Member
So you should take that not to mean that you should delay your ratings to please their 141 requirements, but yet another reason to do it yourself. You already have 40 hours. By the time you are 17 you'll probably have 200 hours. All that time will be worthless if you go to a school like that. Do it yourself and you'll be instructing before the 141 guys have even gotten started filling out their loan applications.
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Ajax
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You misspelled "college"
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
Nonsense! College sucked, high school was epic!