Financing options for FBO ratings

Marlon

Marlon

Member
I searched around a little bit, and couldn't find the information I wanted on options for financing at an FBO.

I guess a little background information would be helpful, as I would like some inputs/opinions on some issues.
First, I'm 23, single, have a bachelors degree, and I'm attending my local FBO, Mizzou Aviation at JLN, to get my private pilots license. My goal is to fly for hire. I'm not sure which route I would like to take; charter, airline, corporate, cargo. It's really a non-issue. I don't see myself enjoying any career other than aviation and the possibility of owning a business in the future. However, you must have capital before you have a business and I am a broke-ass, freshly graduated college student that makes $9.50/hr working at an auto parts store.
Being that I am broke, but with no debt, I would like input from anyone who managed to finance their ratings.
I've looked at going to school at ATP since they have their own financing option, but I don't like the idea of paying $20,000 more than what I will pay at an FBO to get through flight "school" in 90 days. In addition to that, I'm currently learning from a man who has been an instructor for 18 years and plan on going to finish my ratings with Herb at Prairie Air in Benton, KS who has over 25 years of experience... I don't like the idea of learning from someone my own age. I know how immature my friends are and I would prefer to stay away from that. Gotta grow up sometime, right?
Anywhoo, I could work and pay as I go, but I would really like to get into a career with the opportunity of making more than $9.50/hr after 4 years of service. Plus, unless I find a quality post-graduate job, I'm not going to be able to fly much after the bills are paid.
Does anyone have any personal or secondhand experience with a financial institution that will finance non-sanctioned education such as flight ratings?
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
 
A cheap FBO with a quality instructor is the way to go. So you are on the right track.

I suggest, look real hard for a job that pays at least double what you make now. You can find it with a degree quite easily if you know how to look for such jobs. Just sending in a resume won't do it... pick up the phone and get aggressive while keeping it professional. Look real hard for a sales oriented jobs if all else fails in your degree field. Many of these jobs are not posted so you will need to make a list of 50 target companies and start making calls. And no, you don't have to like sales. You just have to like aviation enough to suffer through that high pressure sales job making $80k+ a year knowing it'll get you to that aviation school in a few years from now! (I speak from experience here)

Most good sales orietned jobs pay a base in the $30k range plus commissions in today's market. You'll make high income toward the end of your first year, $50k to $80k-ish in many cases. The norm is to double your base salary and superstars will triple it the first year. That will be your ticket to your career change. Or in your case, your career start.

The bad is that you won't have much time to fly for two or three years while you work 50 to 60 hours a week. After that timeframe you should have all other debt in order, as in near or at debt free with some money saved up as well. You can then reduce your workload as you begin to fly and transition out of that sales business. The nice thing is, it will take at least a good 6 months of not working for all your sales cycles to dry up so you will have an income while just putting in minimum effort at the job before you finally resign as another person who burned himself out and decided to change careers or just take a break from the stress of sales (very common pattern and why these jobs are always looking for the next superstar!).

Here are some leads for those kind of jobs a new grad can find easily in today's market if they have an upbeat, enthusiastic personlaity and are both money motivated and customer centric.
1) Research and call recruiting firms that do Accounting Recruiting, Medical Recruiting, IT Recruiting, etc. They hire people all the time as turn over is very high to work for them in sales and/or recruiting. It's a hard job, but financially rewarding (this is my prior path).
2) Companies likes ADP (the payroll company) and Waste Management (trash company) hire new grads and start them in sales at $35k - $40k base salary plus commissions and you should make $55k to $60k plus your first year if you are good.
3) And never knock the car salesman. I have a friend who even in this economy has never made less than $100k selling Toyota's and used cars at a god dealership that guarentees a minimum montly draw of $3,000 to $4,000 a month depending on experience and a lot of the staff been there a long time since no one makes under $65k to $70k a year. 90% of dealers are not that great, but 10% truly pay a good commission and an actual base/ draw that you can live on until you ramp up. And once ramped up in a few months life is good. It's a hard job, but rewarding.

Hope this helps you and anyone else reading this. I have first hand experience helping many people as a career advisor. I am an expert in the area of execuitve recruiting and in the areas of career and life coaching as I done this for over a decade now (been a professional pilot as my main career for only 2 years and 11 months now). There is no reason for anyone with a degree to work for under $30k - $40k per year or less in today's market unless they chose such. Or they simply were not given the life skills on how to properly look for a job. I seen the ladder way too much so shame on the colleges for not teaching such life skills or teaching outdated life skills!

For what it's worth, you get jobs by this process (you need to tailor it to your style, but this is a simple best practices benchmark):
(1) Sending in a resume to a hiring managers, not HR
(2) Making several phone calls to people NOT in HR by knowing how to navigate around the gate keepers
(3) Personally showing up to drop of a resume to those people who expressed willingness to help you based on those calls
(4) Showing up one more time to drop off "thank you in advance for helping me cards"
(5) Following up with another call to everyone to thank them and get more referrals/ names
(6) Now if all else fails contact HR (and I have a process and script for this but it's way too long to type here since with HR you must tread lightly).
(7) Now be well prepared and win that offer in the interviews
(8) And 3 weeks to 4 weeks later you'll have at least 3 job offers to pick from with more on the way!
 
Find a better day job, no way you will be able to make things happen on $9.50/hour.

It is a really bad idea to borrow money to get into flying.

Consider looking into gliders - there are a number of glider operations in your neck of the woods, it is much cheaper, you can start doing it for hire far sooner, the total time all counts towards airplane ratings, and you will meet folks that can help you out.

My tailwheel, time I needed for a Comm airplane ticket, and initial CFI were all covered by the local glider club - from zero to airplane CFI ended up costing me about $16K (over many years), though I've spent a fair bit of money on purely recreational flying that wasn't necessarily needed for any ratings during that time.
 
Thanks for the input.

I actually worked for a company in a stepping stone position that said they would promote me eventually to a sales position, but come to find out, they wanted me to wait until I was 26 so I could rent vehicles, while out of town, under my own name. I promptly left.

I think I would actually like a sales position... I loved the sales management class I took in college, plus it seems as though I would learn some valuable life skills along the way.

I have knocked car sales positions. I turned down an interview after they guy told me he should have hired me in place of the other 3 guys he just hired... I approached him using the same strategy that Texas recommended. I suppose if being a car salesman is what it will take to succeed, so be it. I could honestly sell the • out of any car, running or not.

I will ask around my FBO to see if anyone has experience with gliders.

I don't like the idea of getting into debt to get into flying, even with my rough figures of payments equivalent to a cheap car payment. Especially with the volatility of the airline industry. I guess the best advice that I can take is to find some experience outside of the industry to fall back on in case of a furlough.

Thanks for the advice again, any more information/direction would be helpful. I am young, but old enough to admit that I'm naive. Trying not to screw up my life before I start it...
 
Spent 70K (all my ratings and degree) without going into debt by working in construction for a couple years.

My friend paid for all his ratings by mowing lawns for 2 years.
 
Man, I am so glad to see you thinking the way you are. Debt of any kind can be a dream-killer, to paraphrase our fearless leader here.

Let me ask you something (and you can PM if you want to answer that way) but what do you know how to do? You're in an auto-parts store, which means you've got some basic systems knowledge. Got any other skills? Do you know computers at all? Can you build a bicycle? Cook?

If you sit down and think about it, you probably know how to do a lot more things than you realize, and you can often parlay that into other work. I know a guy who makes an extra $150 a week jailbreaking iPhones and fixing Xboxes. There are guys who advertise on CL for doing bicycle repairs. Be creative - what do you know how to do?

Ever consider working the line at the FBO? You might make the same money or slightly more, but you'd also be making some very good contacts.

Finally...if you can swing the hours and work your way in, bartending can be a good gig. The hours can suck, drunks generally suck, and many owners are as crooked as a politician. But the money can be good, at 24 you've still got the stamina to handle the hours. If you've got a neat appearance and you're easy to talk to, it's a pretty good gig. It's something I enjoyed in my 20s. In my near-40s, no way.

The other plus side to bartending? The women. You'd be ASTOUNDED.
 
My friend in New Haven is a bartender and makes way more money than I imagined by simply handing out drinks to people. It helps that he has a bit of charm, too. And he's been meeting tons of women. All it took to get the job was a knowledge of beer. Since he and I both have the same knowledge of beer and drinks, I told myself if I ever lost my current job, I'd probably start bartending.

OP, you definitely have your head on straight. Keep it that way.
 
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