Advice!!! New to the Site

[josh12]

Hello to everyone, I'm new to this site!

I'm a veteran with Post 9/11 benefits, I have exactly 19 months of benefits left and I want to use it with MSU/ATP. I'm looking for a career change, flying is something I wanted to do for a very long time and now maybe is my chance. I have been looking into different schools and what my benefits cover and what suits me right now is the MSU/ATP program. I live in the NY, so there is not too many choices up here. I have a family and moving at this point doesn't seem like its going to work. I have made contact with MSU and they are telling me that I can finish one of their program in about 16 months. Sounds kind of fishy to me but lets say I do, what direction can I go after I'm done with MSU? At this point I would like to fly cargo! ex. Empire airlines, West Air, Mountain Air.....
I'm open for all advice!

Thanks for the time!

 

[dbrault17]

Not willing to move is gonna make this career kinda hard. Not impossible but hard.

 

[ProudPilot]

Well if you want speed, ATP may be a better choice, especially in a mountainous or warm climate. MSU has great instructors and good aircraft, but winter up here will slow you down. They are also not quite set up for speed the same way ATP is. You must get your CFI/CFII at least and MEI will certainly help. You will have to instruct or do the side gigs (pipeline patrol, banner towing, skydivers, etc) to get to at least 500 hours, if not 1000 hours. Then going for cargo is a decent idea. If you can last 4-5 years on 20-25K a year, you can do it. I made less than that and had some support, and it was tough, really tough.

You have to go into this with the mindset that it is like a really long self taught course. Lots of studying, lots of practice. Speed is one thing, but the mindset is everything. Doesn't matter as much as to where you go, but what you learn. When you start to look for jobs, being able to sell yourself as a profitable safe addition is everything. A 4 year degree is also a good idea, but you can always do flying quick and do an online course while flying. There are a ton of jobs though that now require a 4 year degree, do you have one yet?

Good Luck.