Originally Posted by
Fegelein
You don't need to "invest" $100,000+ to get into this career. I paid around $10K for my private, instrument, commercial and multiengine ratings and was at a major 5 years later.
What about CFI, CFII, and MEI? Never got them? Maybe I could see a PPL in 50 hours at about $100/hr plane + instructor+supplies for someone smart, but that's $5k right there and damned cheap too. You got all the rest for only $5k? That's $25 an hour to reach 250, no money left for exams (that's 4 checkrides at a typical cost of $250 each), you're really stretching credulity there. A more common estimate is $20-30k for average folks for that set of tickets using economy airplanes, doing a lot of safety piloting and cutting corners on everything esle. It is not uncommon for people to end up north of $50k even so. I think mine was $30k or so through MEI. I was lucky about saving money on most of it and got one ticket for free (CFI).