Originally Posted by
JUNEBUG82
4020driver,
I would spend some time doing some soul searching and making sure I understood what’s really driving the desire to pursue this. If you have a true passion for flying and that’s your primary motivation, go for it and don’t look back. On the other hand, if you’re considering this for financial reasons, I think you’re best suited to stay in the business world. Having spent 20 years splitting my time between business and my flying passion, I realize I would have never had the fortitude to have long term success as a pilot if I was motivated by money. I also realize that if money was the goal, I would have been much better served spending the last 20 years focusing solely on business or pursuits other than flying. It’s impossible to predict the details of how this would play out, but if this is truly your passion, you keep a clean record for the rest of your training/flying, and you are a good person who “gets it”, there is no doubt you will have success as a pilot—whether at a midlevel carrier or major.
I know this doesn’t answer your question directly. But hopefully it adds a little perspective that is helpful...
Junebug,
I appreciate any perspective offered! Thank you.
To clarify, though, as far as my full time day job is concerned, I’m just a mechanic now and no longer in the “business world” in aviation, like I was before my current position.
As far as the family business is concerned, it’s a smaller (in the grand scheme of the Ag industry) row crop farm in which dad is the primary operator and I’m the “SIC”. I enjoy it quite a bit, actually. Fortunately, dad is in great health and doesn’t feel the need or want to fully retire yet.
But, I also have no desire to continue or pursue further a career in aviation maintenance. The primary motivation for a flying career is following the career path that I wanted to do in the first place, fly, and I know now is the time to do it. I'm not going to lie, a secondary motivation is the money, a person will never make as much money turning wrenches as flying, especially when you consider the flexibility of a flying career. The flexibility of a flying career presents the possibility of eventually being able to both farm and fly (in some capacity) with some of the advantages of both. I don’t know if that’s possible, but, at the very least I could have a aviation career that I enjoy fr a few years.