lilrkt,
One thing that seems to be barely touched on here is the number of hours in a day. I work for Airnet and I would say the average duty day of our prop runs is in the 10 - 12 hour range with usually 5-6 hours of actual block time per night. This might not seem like alot however, it is all single pilot operations and come sunrise at the end of an 11 hour day on your last of 5 or 6 legs with approaches down to mins on each a bad night, the last thing you are going to want to think about is going to class or doing homework. I can personal vouch for the fact that it is plain miserable to be fighting the nods at the end of the night. It is imperative that you get your sleep when flying single pilot, night cargo. The temptation is always there to try to burn the candle at both ends but those who do usually eventually get caught in the middle.
You might consider getting your ratings through CFI as quickly as possible and start teaching part time while you still have an income to support yourself and you family. Once you have you ratings, you could then focus on getting your degree and still instruct to build hours. By the time you have both your ratings and degree, you should have enough hours, and the degree, to be competitive in an interview for the next level of your aviation career. Good luck.
Be well and fly safe.
Eas
One thing that seems to be barely touched on here is the number of hours in a day. I work for Airnet and I would say the average duty day of our prop runs is in the 10 - 12 hour range with usually 5-6 hours of actual block time per night. This might not seem like alot however, it is all single pilot operations and come sunrise at the end of an 11 hour day on your last of 5 or 6 legs with approaches down to mins on each a bad night, the last thing you are going to want to think about is going to class or doing homework. I can personal vouch for the fact that it is plain miserable to be fighting the nods at the end of the night. It is imperative that you get your sleep when flying single pilot, night cargo. The temptation is always there to try to burn the candle at both ends but those who do usually eventually get caught in the middle.
You might consider getting your ratings through CFI as quickly as possible and start teaching part time while you still have an income to support yourself and you family. Once you have you ratings, you could then focus on getting your degree and still instruct to build hours. By the time you have both your ratings and degree, you should have enough hours, and the degree, to be competitive in an interview for the next level of your aviation career. Good luck.
Be well and fly safe.
Eas
