I need some advice

[Niuflyer22]

So, here's my situation, I will be graduating college with a BA in history in about a week. I have my private and some instrument training. I began instrument training at a part 61 school in August however by October due to pressure from work and school as well as my flight instructor quitting that got side tracked. I definitely want to pursue a career as a professional piole, and right now I am trying to decide whether I shoud:

A: Go back to the local part 61 school and try to finish my instrument commercial, CFI, and multi engine there while working.

B: take a full time job, live at home for a year or so, live on the cheap and save up some money and then go to a 'fast track' school such as All ATPs

C: take out large amounts of loans and go to a 'fast track' school right away. (I will be graduating from college with no debt)

Any advice that anybody has would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CFIse]

Let me assume that you want to be a professional pilot at the airlines.

In which case time is of the essence. Right now you can be hired at a regional with a commercial and a pulse. That may not be the case forever, and if the "pilot shortage" does cease to exist and the minimums go back up you may have to go back into time building mode which will delay your career further.

So you should consider doing whatever you have to do to get the hiring minimums at your regional of choice as soon as possible. The risk is that if "as soon as possible" turns out to be too late - you're saddled with a bunch of debt and no easy way to re-pay it on a CFI's wages (although it's not going to be a picnic on an FOs wages either).

People will tell you to CFI for "experience" and to "pay your dues", but mostly they're just pissed off they had to do it, and that currently there is the opportunity to skip that step and move on with your career.

There you go - advice worth every penny you paid for it.

 

[charlie1017]

People will tell you to CFI for "experience" and to "pay your dues", but mostly they're just pissed off they had to do it, and that currently there is the opportunity to skip that step and move on with your career.

Niuflyer I suggest you check out the "777" thread that's active right now... You'll see what REGIONAL and MAJOR airline pilots think about this...:bandit:

 

[Nick]

Niuflyer22 -

I would do option A.

You will have already completed the four year degree that will be necessary down the road if you want to take your flying to the step beyond regional airlines (if you want to fly for the airlines. Do you?).

It is nice to have as little debt as possible and if you shop around for an experienced CFI that isn't going to bail out of the flight school during your training, they could take you from where you are now in your flying up to your flight instructor certificates with more personal attention and better preparation for what is ahead. Just make sure that while you work, you get the flying sessions in regularly. The more you wait between them the longer it will all take in the long run and that costs you money.



I would like to offer a slightly different view of some of what CFIse said:

In which case time is of the essence. Right now you can be hired at a regional with a commercial and a pulse. That may not be the case forever, and if the "pilot shortage" does cease to exist and the minimums go back up you may have to go back into time building mode which will delay your career further.

I suggest not thinking of any flying you do after your commercial as time-building. Sure, if you want to fly for a 135 cargo carrier, or a local charter company, or a regional airline, you are working on building up flight time and experience to prepare for them. But I would not consider this "delaying your career." Why? Because at the time you are flight instructing or towing banners or ferrying planes, that is your career. It might not be type of job you'd like to finish your career in, but it is the beginning step in career as a professional pilot. If you are going to be a CFI who is concerned about delaying their career, save the students a headache and don't even instruct in the first place.

People will tell you to CFI for "experience" and to "pay your dues", but mostly they're just pissed off they had to do it, and that currently there is the opportunity to skip that step and move on with your career.

For me reading the thread, this one really came out of nowhere. I even put that confused smiley face in there. Nobody I know is pissed off that they had to flight instruct before working at a more complex flying job. If I had skipped that step in my career, I'd have skipped a year of making more money than I am now to fly a plane that weights twenty times more, I'd have missed a lot of fun flying in a place I had not seen much of in my life up to that time, and I would have really not seen enough of general aviation flying because even if you like airline flying better, there will be moments where you wish you could just do a lap around the pattern at the end of the day because you feel like it.

Congratulations on graduating.

Looks like I'm considered old skool by post count now. :rawk:

 

[bdhill1979]

A job at the airlines will ALWAYS be there.

Having a degree and no debt is rare; I think you should keep that going.
That will allow you to go at whatever pace you are comfortable with; fast or slow.

Right now I am instructing, and working for two private airplane owners flying them around in a part time fashion. I am building experience and getting payed a lot more than I would for the first few years at a regional airline. If I ever decide to go to the airlines I will have a comparatively broad range of experiences to draw from; the longer I wait, the more experience I build.

Of course the gig I am in is pretty fun, I get to go on payed vacations regularly, all the while instructing as well. I may never leave it.

There are a lot of jobs outside the airlines that pay pretty good, you just need to not be socially retarded and go make friends and connections, something this site is wonderful for; as a matter of fact a member of this site called me with a student referral today. When there are meet and greets, go. Come to the next Network Jet Careers, I went to my first one back in October and it was a very rewarding experience to meet a whole lot of people in this business.

Taking the "slow road" does not necessarily mean arriving too late.

 

[airjets]

I would definitely go with option A.
Since I'm still in school, I was thinking about save as much money as possible while in school and go to the academy after I graduate. However, after visiting my local FBOs and reading a lot of forums here I decided to do the training at local FBO while attending school.
Like other people said, you might be able to train with seasoned veteran instructors. If you are lucky, you might be able to train with their chief instructor who would have more than 2000 hrs of TT and 1000 hrs of dual given. I've seen an instructor who instructed since 1970s. He obviously took a break in between, but still that's a lot of experience behind. Also, some instructors are an active or retired air traffic controller or retired major airline captain. So you would be able to get a lot of feedbacks and insights from different point of view. My instructor is an active air traffic controller, so I get a lot of useful informations. The other reason to go with option A is price of the training. If you find a cheap FBO, you would be able to do your private~multi with anywhere between 15k~20k.
Academies like ATP cost more than 50k. Also, the personal attention you get from local FBO is amazing. They really care about you and want you to succed. Some FBOs would make a lot of arrangements to fulfill your needs too. Like me, my FBO allowed to me to borrow their ground school instruction DVD for free. You would not be able to make connections that you would make at academy, but I think local FBO is the way to go

 

[CFIse]

If you don't want a career at the airlines then by all means take your time. But in an airline career seniority is everything. Ask anybody who was furloughed, went from the left to right seat or who dropped down an equipment category or ask anybody who is working Thanksgiving, Xmas and New Years.

The ability to get hired with 250/10 won't last forever, it's a window to get in the door (how's that for destroying a couple of metaphors at once). Sure, airline jobs will always be there, the question is, in 10 years do you want to be in the bottom 10% of seniority or do you want to be at the mid-point - and believe me, you want to be at the mid-point.