arch19

Hello! I hope this is an appropriate place to post this. I am thirty years old and have been involved in aviation on and off for about 18 years, including radio control, a hint of homebuilding, nine years attending Airventure (and three volunteering as a marshal), a lot of aerial and air-to-air photography (including about 20 hrs in warbirds...so much fun...), and a couple thousand hours teaching at aviation and rocketry summer camps. I am not, however, a licensed pilot, though only due to money.

At Western Michigan University ten years ago, I dipped my toes into the aviation program. But I ultimately opted to study business because so many of my peers were not able to find flying jobs, and those who were able to find flying jobs were paid so little. I am also an entrepreneur at heart, and mentors of mine who were successful in aviation suggested I study business.

Fast forward to 2019. After sitting at computers for nearly 13 years (I work and have always worked in tech and multimedia), I decided I needed a change. Between having recently relocated to being only miles from a major US airline hub, spending hours a week plane spotting, and flying commercially perhaps a dozen times in the prior two years (vs only three times in total previously), I again started to dig into what an aviation career might look like, and, this time, the airlines in particular.

2019 was crazy due to wedding planning and house shopping, but with that out of the way, I can better focus on a career change. First, am I crazy? And second, if not, where do I begin? Can I just rattle off a bunch of questions on this forum? I don't want to spend a hundred grand or take a pay cut (I am about average right now anyway). I can technically do both, though I should not do the first, and I would prefer to avoid the latter for more than a brief period of time. My wife is supportive of any of it, though. Where I am at now is not sure if I want to be gone 1/3 of the time or potentially have to relocate to wherever I would be based. It's the last part that really kills it. But aviation is one of my three passions, the others being visual and performing arts. Aviation is my happy place, and to be able to make a living flying or at least being around airplanes -- I've done okay so far in this department as far as volunteering is concerned -- would be fantastic. I need to talk to others who are on this road already so I can better understand the process...and the airline life. And I would like to see what other options are out there. For example, I love to teach. I tend to think I would enjoy instructing. But I also cannot take a pay cut long term.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide.