TOGALOCK

Not to sound cold, but welcome to life. Life, and this career especially, is a giant gamble. As others have already eluded to, getting into this career is a willing acceptance of risk and the fact that your career might fail or, at best, not go as you expected.

That said, you asked for the advice of those who have been there, so here it is... seniority is EVERYTHING. Don’t delay starting training longer than you have to. The time to start flight training is during the slow times, not once hiring has already gone gangbusters. You will have given up years and years of seniority by then which will greatly impact your career in a negative way, and possibly put you in a bad spot during the next downturn.

I do understand that you have a lot on your plate right now, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start flight training at your own pace. Do NOT get sold into the belief that you have to attend a full time “flight academy”. It’s a marketing scheme used by those schools to sell you their product. The partnerships that regional airlines have with these schools is a recruiting tool to staff their airline; not because they are recruiting the best and the brightest. During the last hiring boom, regional airlines couldn’t find people fast enough and turned to flight school partnerships to help the problem. Your best bet right now is to go search for smaller flight schools at your local airports, find a flight instructor who is a career flight instructor (not a young buck looking to build time) or a current (or retired) airline/corporate/charter pilot instructing part time. Take a lesson or two a week and at least knock out your private pilot certificate. Then assess and move forward from there.

Believe me, if you truly love this career it’s the greatest job in the word. It’s your love and passion for it that will help carry you through the bad times. So, go get your private certificate, decide if this is TRULY a passion, or if you just think it is. The one thing I can promise you is that this career will not go as you plan and many curveballs will come your way. The only defense against it is responsible finances, seniority (there’s that word again) within your company and a love for what you do. Me personally? I grew up in a time where my timing entering the industry was going to be stellar. Much, in part, due to projected retirements. This was something that could be seen decades in advance. I remember old gray haired airline captains telling starry eyed little me how perfect my timing was going to be and what an amazing career I would have one day. I started flight training the moment I turned 16. From that point I got to experience 9/11, the housing bubble burst, the Great Recession, the mandatory retirement age increase from 60 to 65, and now the covid pandemic. I was able hit the timing well enough that I was able to be sitting in class at my first airline about a month after graduating from college with around 2000 hours in the logbook, but it still took me nearly 20 years to go from my first flight lesson to the right seat of an Airbus. Being a pilot is all I ever wanted though and I lived and breathed airplanes for as far back as I can remember. Heck, I still do... It has made it easier.

Good luck and enjoy the journey!