From graveyard to ASA.
It has been a while since this thread has been active so I thought I would add my two cents. This is my first post after being a jetcareers lurker for 4 or 5 years. Has jetcareers been around that long? After working the graveyard shift for four years, I took the aviation plunge. In Oct. of 2003 I left law enforcement and in just a couple of weeks I will start class at ASA. While law enforcement was a ton of fun, flying and instructing has been awesome. I started my training at delta connection academy and finished up and instructed at Falcon Aviation Academy. Needless to say the entire process is a large financial burden. I will not be making 1/3 of the money I was making as a sheriff's deputy for many, many years. If you are married I strongly suggest having a long discussion with your spouse about a career change. Anyways, the entire process is a lot of work and dedication is very key. I thoroughly enjoyed my training at Falcon Aviation Academy and having the opportunity to fly and teach in new aircraft was a huge plus. They treat there students and intstructors top notch. While I normally agree with and enjoy articles written by Wayne Phillips, you don't need to buy type ratings or pay for training in order to get to an airline job in under two years. I firmly believe that during airline interviews you will be respected more if you earned your flight time, versus paying for it. Whatever or wherever you chose to do your training please don't pay for your training it only hurts everyone and the entire industry. Beyond that just to add to the last couple of posts I spoke with a recruiter from Customs last month and it sounds like they are having a hiring freeze until 2006, due to integrating border patrol pilots and customs pilots together under homeland security. For those of you howling at the moon and dreaming about flying I wish you the best of luck. One more thing, a wise man in aviation once wrote about the importance of net working. I can't tell you how much that has helped my career and there are tons of pilots that I should thank. Many on jetcareers and they didn't even know it. So to finish up it is possible to go from working the road to an airline pilot in 21 mos.