Originally Posted by
AZPilotMike
To be fair, I have been at this a long time and I certainly don't appreciate the tag that I am acting like a certain generation. I received my first CFI/CFII fixed wing in 1997, worked at it hard and then 9/11 hit, pushing me out for several years. I then worked all the way back up to a CFI in rotorcraft, opened my own tour business and had that taken away by 2008. I am now back current again, with all the needed ratings and to be honest a little gun shy as this may be my last chance at 38 years old.
I was very polite and simply wanted to some advice as I don't know that I can afford any mistakes. While I agree that the journey is great and very important, it can be derailed easily, as has happened to me several times. I was told long ago to seek the council of those that have been or are going through something to avoid the pitfalls they may have suffered.
As for the search function, I did use it, but lots of the info in them is either buried, not timely anymore or the conversation had devolved into something altogether different.
Thank you for your reply.
There really is no way to know what the perfect path is with the airlines. Outside of graduating from the Naval Academy with a 4.0 GPA, flying fighters off of a carrier, and then going straight to Delta, it is very uncertain.
The best thing to do is to be good at what you do, be professional, market yourself, and network. Your path will likely not be clear, but be ready to jump when the time is right.