It all comes down to your goals. If you want to be at a 121 airline ASAP you need to be a flight instructor. There's just no other fast way to build time.

In reality, I don't see a lot of people towing banners or dumping skydivers. There just aren't a lot of those jobs. You could more likely be able to get on some sort of 135 operation, but folks that go that route are always very disappointed with the amount of flying they're getting. Hitting 500 hours per year is a big feat for most 135 operations. I have a friend that flies aerial survey right now...a "good month" for him is flying 20 hours.

So, if it takes you 2 years at TCC to get your ratings, you rent a 150 10 hours a month...then at the end of your training you're going to be at around 490 hours. Call it 500 if you get your CFI/CFII ratings.

The question becomes how quickly can you get the remaining 750 hours to get to the airline?

- 135 operation - ~1-3 years
- CFI - ~6-9 months

Another motivational way I used to think about this: every month that I'm *not* an airline pilot is one less month of captain pay at the end of my career. So if I'm making ~$30k a month when I am 64 years and 11 months old....that's what one month costs me today.