Originally Posted by
Mary Edwards
Thanks for responding, [MENTION=15892]sailingfun[/MENTION], [MENTION=13871]RickA[/MENTION]ir777, [MENTION=4959]crewdawg[/MENTION] - very much appreciate your perspective. Very consistent responses.
When the thread was open 15 years ago, there was a lot of banter about ERAU quality vs other places. Seems like that perception is something ERAU still promotes heavily today. Trying to filter out all the smoke and mirrors from both AFA and ERAU and get to what's important. Is this similar to the old saying about why buy a Cadillac when a Chevy will do the job just fine (but if you can buy the Cadillac and want it there's nothing wrong with it)?
In this case the chevy and cadillac will both get you there on the civilian side.
But the military will pay you to drive their lambo.
Originally Posted by
Mary Edwards
Beyond that, as a HS varsity/elite athlete the competitiveness, pressure, and time management issues of prospective pilot training are not intimidating anywhere. But when you feel almost "owned" by sports in HS when there isn't even a scholarship involved, not anxious to get in that situation earlier than necessary. My job will own me long enough someday.
That's understandable. But try not get owned by debt either... mil will own you for a decade, but if you have to take student loans that will own you until you get off probation at a top tier airline. Knew several regional pilots who were crushed by debt, and a couple who quite the airlines after the recession because aviation stagnated and they needed a higher income than regional FO to pay off their training debt.