How did you pay for your training

JA Yawd Bwoy

JA Yawd Bwoy

Well-Known Member
As most of you know (if you read my post) I am getting (have not been interviewed yet because the person that hires employee's is on vacation) a job at a supermarket called A&P. Now here is the thing making 8.15 a hour working student part time which amounts to barely 200$ a week is preety much not even one full flight lesson not to mention books, a headset I am still saving up for, materials, and let me not forget transportation getting to the airport, so I have turned to my fellow JC'ers for advice.

How did you pay for atleast your PPL portion of you flight training? I need all the advice I can get because as much as I don't wan't to even think about loans it really makes me think how am I going to pay for my PPL training? I have asked users like Seggy about Credit Unions and things like that but I would like a much broader perspective and being that all of here are in the same boat (or have been) I thought I might as well ask.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance:)
 
i did all of mine by paying as i went. unless you have tons of money, which im guessing you dont have an excess of this or you wouldnt be asking, then it takes a little longer to finish your school this way. I usually tried to do 2 lessons a week. some weeks you wont fly this much because of your instructors or your own schedule, so the lighter weeks balance out the more expensive weeks that include flights like cross countries, or mock checkrides. I did my private the same way, and unless you have access to a plane to get 250 hours for your commercial, you will have to do the same thing. it may put you a year or so behind your buddies who got loans, but ask them how they feel when you are both flying the same thing in a few years and they are still paying thousands off on their loans. to each his own, but paying as you go worked just fine for me, and left me debt free too!! good luck!
 
I had enough saved up from high school for the private and most of the instrument. I had various full time jobs, including running my own technology business and used that to help me build up enough time for the Commercial and CFI. It tooks me 6 years, but I completed it all, with no debt. Luckily for me, those 6 years, 2001-2007, were pretty crummy for pilot hiring.
 
My boyfriend paid for mine.

Not kidding, actually. He did.

I had to marry him 4 months later though........... :D
 
MQAAord said:
I'm teasing :)

We'd been together for years, like 6 years. It was pretty obvious we were going to be together for a while.
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I thought he would of been more concerned that your father had done a "preflight" on one of his aircraft if he got out of line.:bandit:
 
ComplexHiAv8r said:
I thought he would of been more concerned that your father had done a "preflight" on one of his aircraft if he got out of line.:bandit:
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Dad's not a fan of pilots. Which is funny, because he is one. (In addition to his A&P IA he also has a CMEL and his own 310!)

I think it stems from his A.F. days, when he was a weapons tech on the F-4s at Ubon. He still thinks pilots are overpaid prima donnas, despite what he's seen and heard first-hand from me.

I told him about JC, I thought he'd make a good addition here. He told me JC seemed anti-mechanic. I told him he was full of crap. JC is so not full of pilot snobs who think they're too good for mechanics. I don't even think he actually READ any of the forums. If he did, there's no way he'd say that.
 
I bent over and let Sallie Mae have her way with me.
I am glad I got the variable interest rate, down to around 6%, HAHAHAHA
 
When all is said and done, with interest paid, I went thirty grand in debt to pay for my flight training. Took out a few sallie mae loans and put about $5000 grand on a credit card, which I am working on paying off.

Worth EVERY penny for me.
 
Saved up around $30,000 myself and Grandfather gave me a 0% interest "loan" for around $20,000. I still owe him around 15, but he says there is no rush to pay him back. Score! ;)
 
Pay as you go for me. No debt but am now 33. Do what you have to do to find a job that pays more than 8 bucks an hour.
 
I had help from family and I also did line service to help out when I was working on my private. Have a very interesting story on how I paid for my private checkride but that is for another time.
 
Also some advice, my school the boss would hire people to wash aircraft or if you were knowledgable about vehicles as an assistant to the A&P, do clerical work, etc. I'd try to get one of these jobs (especially if you can worm your way into working with the A&P -- keep a log of your hours and after 1000 you can get your airframe or powerplant yourself.) and tell the boss: 'Hey, I'm young -- i only need $X amount to live on a month. Anything over that how about giving me as a credit for flight time at a rate of $1 for $1.5 of credit?'

That gives him the bonus of 1) motivating you to work hard. 2) reducing his overhead by compensating you in product rather than dollars, which is cheaper for him. 3) you get cheap flight time.

Win + Win.
 
I came to college in the fall of 2006 and had about $30,000 or so saved up in my savings account and various bonds and stuff like that. During the summers I work for a petroleum company doing whatever needs to be done and put in 40 hour weeks.

It was plenty to pay for the private license by itself, but the college was about $7000 a semester for me, and now I'm pretty much out of money.

I'm not doing the commercial aviation route anymore, but I'm doing the ATC courses, which are still pricey. Hopefully over the summer, I'll make enough to cover next year's schooling.
 
You need to find a job that pays more. When I was in college I worked at the Four Seasons Hotel as a valet, and later as a bellman. I would average about $40-60 in tips for a six hour shift as a valet and $70-110 as a bellman. After I graduated I got a day job that paid $14/hr and worked at night at a sushi restaurant that brought in another $70-100 in tips for a 5 hours shift. You're not going to be saving a lot on $8/hr, so you should either find a new job or negotiate something like Spira mentioned above.
 
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