I'm in highschool, is this a good plan?

ryan1234 said:
You may want to consider enlisting in an Air National Guard unit in a flight crew position... maybe a loadmaster or flight engineer. After you get back from Tech School, you should have a few dollars in your pocket as well as a part-time job... and they'll pay for your tuition for a state school. Once you get a degree, you can apply to go active duty (through OTS) or compete for a pilot slot in the unit your with.

Like Hacker said, the military isn't for everyone... and it's not what a lot of people think it is when they join. The good news is that no matter your career path, there are some great people on this website to offer you their experience and suggestions.
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Coming from someone who is in the Air Guard, I would suggest you highly look at this route. I signed up for 6 years and they are paying 100% tuition for a Bachelor's degree in whatever from any state supported school. I also get the Federal G.I. Bill and a State "Kicker" for the job I enlisted in on top of that. When I'm going to school full time and going to drill, I receive close to $900/month and the tuition is already paid for. All this for going to college.... I also received a $20k signing bonus.

When I signed up, I was interested in getting an Engineering degree and figured that it would take me 6 years to complete that degree anyways. If your going to college full time, you can devote one weekend a month to go to drill and a couple of weeks during the summer to go somewhere and GET PAID to do it.

If your interested in Aviation and have a Air National Guard unit nearby, I would suggest you at least take a look at this route.

I'm not out a single penny for my degree, the G.I. Bill and drill pay I receive pay for all of my books and fees, and it also helps pay the car payment, hangar payment, and gas money to get back and forth with plenty left over for spending money. The $20,000 I received went to flight training, airplane parts, a downpayment on a new car, and guns and whatever else.

Once again, it's not for everybody. But for a little work one weekend a month, a trip every now and then that you get paid to go on, the benefits you get in return are very hard to beat.

www.goang.com
 
Any aid you receive is most likely only going to cover the school part. The flying part is above and beyond what any aid is going to pay. I was lucky and my flight was only $20.000 for all my ratings in addition to the schooling and I was able to pay for all of it. Make sure you fill out the horrible FAFSA form and only apply for the grant money.

Like other people have said, treat debt like a disease. Do whatever you can do to prevent it. Start a savings or money market account from your local credit union or ally.com

Work, work,and more work will help you pay for it. Then find scholarships or any other program you can do.

At the college I went to we had a lot of guys do volunteer firefighting and flying for the free room and paid food. That saved them a cost of the dorm. Not sure how that works in New York because of the city setting there though.

Keep flying with the Civil Air Patrol. You will meet people there that can help you or you may hear about other opportunities for work or free school money. If you are close to an airport, see if you could work some weekends at the FBO fueling planes or grunt work. I found my first job after instructing by sitting at the airport and a pilot asking me if I'd like a job flying a King Air.

Don't be afraid to wait. I was not accepted to the flight school I had set my dreams on. I still went to the university hoping I would be accepted ti the flight program later. Instead I lost focus and was kicked out of the university because I had such low grades (0.7). I refocused my life worked for two years at my parents friends corporate art framing shop and made some great contacts in aviation there surprisingly. I also had a job at an aviation store in Seattle. My coworker at the store told me the best school to go to was a community college. I was skeptical and didn't believe him until all the chief pilots and airline instructors told me the best pilots they've flown with were from this same little community college in central Washington that my coworker was always talking about. A year later and at the age of 22, I took the jump and applied to the community college. They didn't accept me right away because of my previous grades with the University. I gathered 5 or 6 letters of recommendation from coworkers, bosses, and presidents of companies I worked for. I was accepted into the flight program and for the next two years of my life the only thing I focused on was school, work and then the girls on a Friday night. I made it through with a 3.9 GPA and on the dean's list for grades all years I was there. I did so well that I was the first one to graduate from my class and they asked me to come back and teach for them. I taught at the college and a few years later worked flying a King Air and now I am sitting waiting for my Captain upgrade at an airline.

You never know how it is going to work even with the best laid plans things will go wrong. I would never have thought in a million years that I would be where I am today but that's life and how it happens.
 
FlyingScot said:
Anyone else thinks its funny, first two civilians say go with the military, I wish I had, then military guy comes on and says don't do it.
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I definitely didn't say "don't do it". I said, in a nutshell, "think a lot about it before you do it because it's not as simple as many think".

Most importantly, given who is posting the information, which bit of advice are you going to be inclined to believe?

Too many folks think that becoming a military pilot is just like any other job, but it is actually extremely different. I think a lot of civilian folks who aren't actually in the military don't grasp all of those nuances because they don't really know about them. One important one is, if you're just interested in flying, then don't bother. There is too much else involved in being a military officer for it just to be "about the flying". Another one is, it's called "the service" for a reason. Your dreams, hopes, and choices often mean absolutely zero to the military in terms of what types of jobs you get, where you live, how much you work, etc.

It takes a certain kind of person with a certain type of motivation and dedication to make it happen AND be happy with the outcome. Someone who enters into that path lightly and has very specific "demands" will probably end up very disappointed.
 
ryan1234 said:
there's a huge, huge level of bureaucracy and other BS
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Truth

ryan1234 said:
the military won't think twice about screwing you over.
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Truth. Starred in that show more than once, and sometimes with some pretty spectacular results (in a very bad way).

ryan1234 said:
I would say if it's not something you really, really want to do after years of research... don't do it.
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Shack. It takes complete dedication, otherwise you are likely to face some pretty hefty disappointment.[/quote][/quote]
 
When you're in high school there's almost no such thing as a bad plan- provided the word "jail" isn't associated with it.
 
Ahhaha these forums are awesome. I was just talking to Bushmaster about baseops. They all want to get out and fly for the airlines. All the guys at the airlines want to go fly in the military. If you wanna do both I guess the the guard/reserve is the best bet till it goes away. Course the Navy guys on here seem pretty content with the military over the AF.
 
scoobs said:
Ahhaha these forums are awesome. I was just talking to Bushmaster about baseops. They all want to get out and fly for the airlines. All the guys at the airlines want to go fly in the military. If you wanna do both I guess the the guard/reserve is the best bet till it goes away. Course the Navy guys on here seem pretty content with the military over the AF.
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Same issues hold true for those of us on the Navy side. Long deployments that are getting longer and more frequent with budget cuts, ground jobs taking precedence over flying (the whole officer part), not having enough hours in the day to get everything you need to do done, etc etc etc. Its the coolest flying you can ever do, and I'm lucky to have spent my 20's (and very soon my early 30's) in the cockpit of a single seat fighter, but like any job that awesomeness comes with a price. Would I do it all over again? Hell yeah I would. Is it for everyone? Definitely not, and I think this fine print kind of stuff bears repeating so that people know what they are getting into and can make an honest assessment about it for themselves. I love what I do, including the non-flying stuff, but it's not all dogfights and choker whites :)
 
Somehow I think our Anal Naviator brethren are suffering from the same fun police that the USAF is.

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Boris Badenov said:
I posted my "way too negative" advice because it's what I see as true, which is obviously all any of us have to contribute...LOL, I guess.

According to your profile page, you're a 180 hour private pilot. So maybe zero experience as a professional pilot...but at least you've got "cojones", and as you point out, that's all you need!
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I haven't updated that in a few years lol. But I mean we want to try and motivate new comers into this career, not just tell them to go to Pharmacy school or w/e.
 
A marine pilot told me flying in the military was the best office job ever. He said where else do you get paid to strap a jet to your back, interesting way to look at it.
 
Cessnaflyer said:
Great backup degree ideas that people never think of is Agriculture. I'm surprised how little people don't think about it, but everyone needs food and is always going to be bought.
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One of my best friends back in NJ is an Ag. major.
 
jspeed87 said:
I haven't updated that in a few years lol. But I mean we want to try and motivate new comers into this career, not just tell them to go to Pharmacy school or w/e.
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Personally, I think we also don't want to blow sunshine up people's asses either. Boris has a very good point. It can be a good career, and I love my job, but in the same respect, people need to hear both the good and bad. It takes a lot of time, effort and dedication to survive this career. Some will pay for their ratings, get into the career, and not make it, leaving a sizable investment left in the wind. It's just reality. Aviation can be a terrible mistress, so the young crowd should have all information about the career at hand, both the good and bad.
 
I just wanted to chime in and say that even on the non-avaition civilian side, it's tough to find a job. I spent months working at a Spencer's after college just flinging my resume in all directions. Probably the lowest point in my life was getting yelled at by some middle-aged housewife because our store didn't have any fart machines. Then, I remembered that two months prior to that I was handed my second degree in a foreign language.

I drank a lot of beer after that shift.
 
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