PrettyFlyGuy, thanks for the reply! Always nice to hear from somebody who's been in public safety. I agree, I think they're both great careers. If I was currently flipping burgers or making $40k at Small Town FD, I wouldn't think twice about going all in for the airline route, but it's just hard to think about leaving such a stable (and honestly, easy) job. But I'm sure as you know firsthand, I love my job but I'm already tired of waking up in the middle of the night for BS EMS calls.

Sliceback, I know I need to get in ASAP, but I guess I didn't realize exactly how important it is. I'm working with a good instructor but I'm not getting to fly as much as I want...I may need to consider trying to go to a bigger school where I can fly more often. ATP Flight School is seriously tempting ("6 months" they say from Zero-to-"Hero") but I just can't do it.

When I weigh my options between ATP Flight School and staying at the FD and doing it on my off days, it's basically either going $80k+ into debt and quitting the FD versus finishing my flight training completely debt free, respectively.

How important is working with one specific instructor? I think I can seriously pick up the pace of training (literally almost 20 days a month) if I go to a bigger school and am willing to work with multiple instructors. I just feel like an instructor/student relationship is important.

And as far as building time, do airlines care if your 1500hrs are mainly from instructing or if it's just plain flying around? The reason I ask is I have enough saved I can pay cash for an IFR Cessna 150 or something and try to get my certifications/ratings ASAP and then just fly for hours and hours each day I'm off to help build time to 1500.

Thank you again all for taking the time out to reply and help. I sincerely appreciate it, ladies and gents.