Originally Posted by
PeterCR23
You guys have been great and I appreciate the feedback. I am really grappling with my next career move. I do have some 401K savings and own an apartment (investment property) in NYC. I was thinking of selling it and paying off my graduate school loans, with some left over to pay for my flying training.
LAFF - you are ahead of the curve, with your government savings, etc and hav ing a spouse helps as well. Will you start your training at 40? How far along are you?
Don't sell the property. Everything I've read / researched says if you have property do what it takes to keep it as an income stream.
Don't tap retirement to pay for flight training.
I have a PPL and I'll be starting , if all goes well, in spring of 2009.
This september I'm visiting
www.prairieairservice.com to see the place and meet the owner/operator. They offer a similar deal to ATP (minus the CFI, CFII, MEI ratings) for less than 25K. The CFI, CFII, MEI ratings you can get after at ATP for under 10K. Thats 35K for all your ratings. I'm adding another 5K to that figure just for good measure...I'll be visiting ATP in ATL this summer as well.
You biggest challenge will be getting the ME time and a good CFI (lots of students / pay that helps you meet ends) job to get the hours to get to a regional.
There are plenty of people that have made the transition to flying late. It can be done but do your research and protect your money - especially when it comes to FBOs and flight training.
_LAFF