So I'm 28 yrs old, had my Private for about 5 yrs, BS degree, decent IT Career.. I tried ATP out full time, didn't like not having a paycheck, so I dropped that to the part time and got my job back... I still ended up not liking it.. The numbers didn't add up when I sat down and looked deeper into it.. Yes I researched the hell out of it for years before starting, but you never know until actually doing something. So after some personal issues combined with the 100 mile round trip just to get to the airport on weekends after working 5 full days at my job, I called it quits. My instructor was great, as was flying the Seminole, and my experience.. but it was all too much too soon. The flying part really wasn't the issue... I had some great actual IFR time, cross country time basically every flight, night experience, all right from the beginning.. I loved that about it.. they push you out of your comfort zone. What I didn't like was that everyone was mostly younger than me and I couldn't connect with them.. I also didn't like the X box in the Office, being forced to drive that far for the sim session on really bad weather days to spend half of my precious weekend watching people play xbox, only to work on the sim for an hour or 2 (while spending 6 to 8 on the premises).. I didn't want any bad blood so I just quit on my own and ate the 1k deposit lost. An issue in my personal life really forced my decision, if that wasn't an issue, I mostly likely would have stuck it out...
So anyway I still miss flying, and would like to give the career a try still, even after all of this hell my life has been for the past 6 years.. I was wondering if anyone knows anyone at OQN or has any suggestions or feedback? I hear there are some good people there and I'd have a good opportunity to network, and get some right seat time.. Not only that, but it's 13 miles away instead of 50 and I don't have to waste any extra time of my only 2 days "off" in the week sitting around watching people play video games when I want to be learning and perfecting my flying (or relaxing with my friends or girlfriend at the very least... errands for which there is no time during the workweek, etc.) I guess to me the advertisements made it seem more professional than it really is, or perhaps it's a location thing and certain spots are better than others.. Either way I just wasn't comfortable with the whole thing, and the long drive and 7 day a week schedule was literally eating my soul. They pressure you to get 10 - 8 hour days per month in, and when you work full time and live 50 miles away, it's simply not always practical. Shame on me for not wanting to naively run up a bunch of debt I guess... but I wanna do this, while not racking it up since I know how little the pay is when you start out.
Sorry to get off topic but I just wanted to know if anyone went the FBO route and got all of their ratings done that way? I'm close to my IFR ticket, and have 18 hrs multi 88 single... Any recommendations for me? I'd still need to get Multi Comm - IFR after I banged out all of the SE stuff.. I guess that was one advantage to ATP, but I can deal with that with a trip to Florida or something when the time comes, especially since the race is to 1500 hours now anyway..
So anyway I still miss flying, and would like to give the career a try still, even after all of this hell my life has been for the past 6 years.. I was wondering if anyone knows anyone at OQN or has any suggestions or feedback? I hear there are some good people there and I'd have a good opportunity to network, and get some right seat time.. Not only that, but it's 13 miles away instead of 50 and I don't have to waste any extra time of my only 2 days "off" in the week sitting around watching people play video games when I want to be learning and perfecting my flying (or relaxing with my friends or girlfriend at the very least... errands for which there is no time during the workweek, etc.) I guess to me the advertisements made it seem more professional than it really is, or perhaps it's a location thing and certain spots are better than others.. Either way I just wasn't comfortable with the whole thing, and the long drive and 7 day a week schedule was literally eating my soul. They pressure you to get 10 - 8 hour days per month in, and when you work full time and live 50 miles away, it's simply not always practical. Shame on me for not wanting to naively run up a bunch of debt I guess... but I wanna do this, while not racking it up since I know how little the pay is when you start out.
Sorry to get off topic but I just wanted to know if anyone went the FBO route and got all of their ratings done that way? I'm close to my IFR ticket, and have 18 hrs multi 88 single... Any recommendations for me? I'd still need to get Multi Comm - IFR after I banged out all of the SE stuff.. I guess that was one advantage to ATP, but I can deal with that with a trip to Florida or something when the time comes, especially since the race is to 1500 hours now anyway..
