Ok, hopefully this won't sound like a stupid question and I'm really not trying to start another argument about academies and "earning it". I'd like to hear from any regional guys that did go to a flight academy or at least handed over a good chunk of change to learn to fly.
It seems to me that if you take out a sizeable loan to go to school it would be near impossible to pay back the loan and eat at the same time. Considering a paycheck of approx. $20/hr and a 1000 hrs/year or $20k a year for simplicity, you could be paying 1/3 to 1/2 of your monthly check to the loan. Now, there aren't too many people I know that can live off of $10k or $12k a year. So I know there are at least a few pilots out there that went to an academy and haven't starved yet, so I must be missing the key. Maybe someone could let me in on the secret and tell me if I'm missing something important or at least how they are still flying and eating while paying back their loan. Thanks for any help.