Paying for School

D

Dreampilot

Well-Known Member
Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum so don't bite my head off. I understand flying is a dream come true and maybe not all hyped up to what it is suppose to be. I really would love to become a pilot but there is absolutely no way I am going to go 40,000 in debt for a 20k job and then the threat of being furloughed. I really could use some detailed info on how exactly some of you paid for flight training and how you are doing now. I know it might be a little personal but it would be great to know how others did it and I could learn alot from all you professional pilots. Thanks alot.
 
Nobody says you have to spend 40K. Find an FBO with a cessna 150 or 152, and do all the hours you can in it. You will come in under 40. As far as earning the little money that pilots do get, remember that is entry level. It is in no way good, but can and will go up if you stick it out. There are no guarantees. You have to really want to fly for a living to actually do it. Think it all through before you commit. Work on the private, and if you like it enough to where you want to make it your living, well, decide then. Take it one step at a time. As you will see mentioned on the forums here, there is no sure fire magic way to do this. It takes commitment, determination, and sacrafice. Best of luck to you, and welcome to JC.
 
Ok, i don't mean 40,000 but its going to be close to that amount and I was curious of how others paid for it or other alternatives. THanks
 
I'm doing the same research myself and found some great alternatives.
Where are you located?

I found a great community college who is a Part 141 school and works with the FBO of your choice..
 
i'm doing all my training at a local FBO, which I also got a job at doing line service. having a job there gets me 5% off training costs (instructor, plane, fuel, books, etc.) I could make more working at wal-mart, but gtetting your foot in the door of a local fbo and being there to see the "other" side of how flying works is a great experience. you get to talk with pilots, learn alot from just being around the airport, and it might open up opportunities for you in the future (such as CFI) as for the cost.... borrow from a family member if you can, that way you don't have to give your money away to some bank.
 
btw, there's been plenty of times where I wasn't sure the cost was worth the "rewards" but everytime i'm up in the air I realize I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. it's sitting on the ground with your credit card being scanned through the machine once you get back that sucks.
 
Is Money An Issue?

Firstly, there is going to be a financial investment in order to reach your goal especially in the aviation community. No, it may not reach the 40K you mentioned, but the cliche' "short term sacrifice for long term gain" is probably the right term you would use.

I work with many who graduated for Embry Riddle, Purdue, and Cinncinati, who received their commercials and ATP certificates in addition to receiving their BS degrees. That initial low pay doesn't last very long, but then again, the upward curve to higher salaries is sloped much higher than many other occupations out there. Even our engineers types, who typically start with salaries in the high 30s/low 40s pay slope doesn't rise like I've seen in aviation community.

There's going to be an initial outlay of cash to reach your required level of experience to get hired. Yes, you'll begin with a couple of low paying positions moving up to bigger and better positions. After two or three years, I don't believe you'll be complaining about salary.
 
Hey, I have an idea! Don't friggin waste my time with stupid comments. Some of us are actually getting value from the forums and could use less of a swamp of crap to wade through to get more of the same.
 
vaporpilot said:
Hey, I have an idea! Don't friggin waste my time with stupid comments. Some of us are actually getting value from the forums and could use less of a swamp of crap to wade through to get more of the same.
Click to expand...

Hopefully handled in PM, just like this should've been.
 
My Two Cents

I feel for Vaporpilot's frustration and agree with him in regards to Chris_Ford's posts and I agree with MFT1Air posts on training.

Just for the record I am also doing research for training vs. cost but. I am currently a flight engineer in the Navy. My aircraft is the DC-9 old but beautiful I've been sitting the seat for 13 year. Now that being said I have read the posts ie "Why are you paying 40k for a 15-20k job" and I think you are discouraging people. They are investing in there future. You should just tell them to do there homework. Visit the school take pictures, request information a nice book also is the "Proffessional Pilot Career Guide" by Robert Mark tells about all facets of aviation not just airlines.
The thing is you are paying 40k for experience (licenses) and then some company hopefully picks you up once you attain their hiring minimums and you do well in the interview. Now your a low time still wet behind the ears pilot, given the opportunity to fly a CRJ or some other very expensive platform with trusting paying passengers in the back. Yes you make your miserable 20k a year. NOW you gentlemen (Chris), tell me how much is flight time in a CRJ worth? Have you run the numbers genious. I bet that makes up for you missing 20k or whatever you feel your vast experience is worth. Now when your experieced and are not having to be constantly monitored by the Captain then you rate a pay raise, I'm sure to your first paying employer your a gamble.
So my feeling about the future for myself is suck it up, somebody pays you to fly airplanes. Enjoy the experience have fun, have faith and the money will come. If you don't already understand and can't except the sacrifices I suggest not following the career path, go be a doctor.
"It takes a few steps of faith to start a new career" quote I like it.
The biggest thing is look at the big picture, you pay for college add up a student loan for a four year degree, guess what your not guaranteed 80k walking out of school. Same difference here.
 
Just don't think 40,000, think 350 400 dollars a month. That's what your loan repayment will be on that amount. If you're lucky you can get your parents to pay it for you. I'm unlucky in this department, my dad does live within an hour of my school though. So I live with him and get to save a few hundred dollars a month. There's a loan payment right there. Just start looking around at what you spend money on in a given month. Figure out how to save a few bucks. Get a roomate, move to a cheaper apt, move in with a family member etc etc. I'm not sure how you would do it with a family. So if you have one of those I would suggest abandoning them. Perhaps you could pull the I'm going out for a gallon of milk routine, just drive to an airport and never come back. These are all practical suggestions.(sarcasm)

Seriously though, I honestly don't know how much the rest of the world makes. How much lower is the starting salary at a regional as compared to other college level four year jobs? I'd guess maybe 10,000 less. Not a ton in the grand scheme of things. Most careers that are lucrative/hard to get into have this sort of pay scale. My girlfriend is currently in her last year of her PHD for psychology. She came out of the University of Michigan with decent grades and a four year degree and took a job making 18,000 a year. Did that for a year and a half or so, the whole point was to get a letter or recomendation to get into grad school, which it did. Right now my sister is working for americorp and lives off of food stamps with a four year degree from a decent school, also with grad school in mind.

My Dad went from flying F-14s at a very livable wage, to uncertainty and at least a 50% pay reduction in a recently deregulated airline industry. He made 600 bucks a month his first year at SWA, we could have qualified for food stamps. Now he makes 200,000+ a year. I'm not sure if any of us will ever see that kind of pay. We probably won't have the foresight or luck to get on with a company like Southwest at the begining of their run. However, he seems to think a lot of us will. Or as he says you'll probably break 100,000 which isn't too shabby in the rest of the countries eyes.

I know this post is long winded. I have the same fears as you do, but sometimes I have to write something like this to get me back on track. The airline industry sucks right now, but it has to turn around eventually. The pay may not be as high as it was in the past. However, I'm sure you'll be making as much as your peers in other industries. While only working 3 days a week.
 
A few options:

1)Borrow money from your parents if they're able to help, or
2)Get a full-time job and fly on your days off.
3)Cut coupons. Seriously.
4)If you have a car payment, sell your car and buy something cheaper.
5)eBay some of your stuff to make some extra $$$
6)Live at home (if able)

Anyone, please add more if you can think of any, but the bottom line is you want to have the lowest possible amount of debt/loan payments when you're done.

I did a combination of the above and don't have humongous loans staring me down for the next __ years.

Good luck to you.
 
You could sell your body to science after you die. Or perhaps be a male prostitute. Sell plasma/blood. Honestly I don't know. In college we would often have beer soaked think tank sessions devoted to the subject of expansion of capital (or is it ol?). Here's some of the options we came up with but didn't implement.

1. Create a porn site. We decided there were enough porn sites with pretty girls. What we needed to do was create a new fetish. Fetish porn represents something like 70% of all porn created.

2. Keg delivery service. The beer distributer was 30 mins away at my school. This was the only place to buy kegs. This seemed like a far distance in the college world. I considered implementing a surcharge for delivery. Alas I couldn't figure out the legalities.

3. A Krameresque delivery of aluminum cans to Michigan (10 cents a can) as the border was less than an hour away. It was hard to compete with the bums for this one. That and most recycling machines wouldn't accept out of state cans.

Otherwise I'd start dating old rich ladies/men. Men might be easier to get money from, might be hard if you're heterosexual. But hey, we all have to make sacrafices for our future.
 
Rick's Route

Dreampilot said:
I am new to this forum so don't bite my head off.
Click to expand...

First off...welcome to Jet Careers!

Dreampilot said:
I really could use some detailed info on how exactly some of you paid for flight training and how you are doing now.
Click to expand...

I took a more unconventional route. After a pissing a year away at college, i felt a strong desire to do my part to help defend our country. I enlisted in the Air Force as an air traffic controller. At the time, an enlistment bonus was offered to controllers. So, i took that money and used it for my Private Pilot's License...thanks Air Force! I, like the others that have commented, choose to go the local FBO route. All in all, i don't think i spent over $5,500.

I'm now looking to pursue my Instrument, Commercial and CFI. This is where the Air Force comes into play again. I'm eligible to receive VA benefits which will pay *up to 60% off all approved cost.* Not a bad reward for an enlistment in the Air Force!

Hope this helps Dreampilot!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top