Yet another career changer looking for advice to build a flying career

[killbilly]

That's the thing... I feel really lucky to have had the means to enjoy GA when I did. My sense - and I hate to say this - is that GA is dying a slow death. The costs are the primary reason. My Mooney eats $10-12K a year all-in, flying it enough to justify it, and I think its a pretty good deal. If you want a real weather-capable travelling machine (i.e. FIKI turbo Seneca or something), well, good lord that's a lot of money!

As pilots drop out it will only get worse as fixed costs for everything from fuel to parts to ? are amortized across fewer pilots. Its a death-spiral -- I really hope I'm wrong here. I think that electric aircraft are a likely way out of it, but it will take a few more generations of battery development to make one that has reasonable utility... experimentals as well, though then you still deal with fuel cost.

Which is why I'm considering the career change. With most of the affordable GA birds getting REALLY long in the tooth (especially now with the AD for most little Cessnas), the cost of AvGas (and the likelihood of it only getting more expensive with the move away from 100LL), the potential for user fees, rentals for even older, less-equipped planes teetering around $100/wet, etc., it's just getting to the point that it won't be feasible for even most upper-middle classers to fly for fun. Of course, the general public would be only too happy for that...

Despite AOPA's best attempts, flying is fast becoming a wealthy man's sport.

This keeps me up at night. I have a hard time justifying the costs. I still do it, and my wife supports it. But....damn.

 

[drunkenbeagle]

Update: I applied for, got the call, trained, and am now an FO flying the Mighty Beech for a certain airline that isn't terribly popular among the pilot message boards. I also resigned from my engineering job and am putting my plane up for sale shortly... I will miss it.

Sounds nice as I sit here tapping away on the keyboard, checking stuff off the whiteboard to end the week. Guess I ought to get out to the field tomorrow and put some holes in the sky.

 

[killbilly]

Sounds nice as I sit here tapping away on the keyboard, checking stuff off the whiteboard to end the week. Guess I ought to get out to the field tomorrow and put some holes in the sky.

I did exactly this yesterday, since we had stellar weather.

Man. I hadn't flown since the first week in October and it showed. I was really sloppy.

Resolved to find cheapo 172 to go out and do old-skool practice as soon as I have the dosh again.

 

[moxiepilot]

Immelman keep us posted on how the transition goes as I'm sure there are folks interested in what the transition to the new career impacts in your personal life..