Originally Posted by
planejoe
It is a lot of information. Programs, incentives, offers are changing so fast a lot of it could very well no longer be in place or accurate by the time you're ready (for better or for worse). Set short term goals or else it can all become overwhelming.
Set your mind to focus on the next rating and work on that for now, when that is done work on the next rating, next 100 hours etc. Stay out of debt as much as possible. If you can, keep working your job to provide for your family and fly on the side. It may take a little longer but you have a family that is your #1 priority and needs to be provided for.
Sometimes you have set backs or feel like it's too much, just keep plugging away and remember to take breaks so you don't end up hating flying by trying to condense everything into a short period of time. Good luck and have fun. Feel free to PM me as I was a career changer with a young family and worked evening shifts and flew/took online classes in the mornings.
Originally Posted by
Noisecanceller
I don’t disagree but unfortunately bc hiring is so fast and furious right now time is not on his side. Ideally he could quit his job and fly full time. The only good hedge would be continue to work as a LEO and if he’s on a 4on 4off schedule he needs to literally fly 10hrs a day on all his days off.
Taking the leisurely route could have major seniority QOL/money consequences down line when things ultimately slow down perhaps when he’s in his 50s barring other black swan events.
Sell the vette yesterday and start flying now! Get the commercial ASAP and then start time building every single off day. You may be able to find a kid to split time with you. One of you acting as safety pilot and one on instruments so you both log it at half price. Normally I’d say become a CFI and build time by getting paid but since you have a career and trying to fill your off days with students could be incredibly fatiguing as well as inconsistent, I say put up the money with the vette and just fly as much as possible.
As soon as you are close in time where options like regionals or 135 flying are available start doing research on what is possible and what works for you to get you to a legacy carrier as fast as possible. Right now it should be commercial and build time as quickly as you can. Start now!
So wife and I spoke and we looked at many ways to get this done. There are so many key points to hit, I felt like a war strategist.
We work a 2-3-2 schedule, so I pretty much work 14 days out of the year. week one I work Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat Sun. Week two I work Wedn Thu. that's plenty of flying time I think. I will def need a day off here and there.
I found a company in miami area that offers 152 time building. about 50 dollars an hour and you share with someone. I will sell my corvette, which will net me about 45K to finish CSEL/CMEL and log as many hours as I can. During this time, I will continue to work. I am meeting up with an instructor Tuesday to start working on getting back up in the air and start working on commercial. This is also the day I will try to sell the love of my life to pay for my flights.
Once I reach 750, I was thinking try planesense or something similar and quit my PD job and yolo at this point. I'll drop from making 110K to 40K so this will be hard. I can get to ATP hours and get the ATP-CTP and start trying with regionals. but at
this point, I'm not sure what the airline industry will be doing. It's har to plan that far ahead.
I am obviously going to buy another corvette when I make captain eventually. that's for sure. LOL
I really really really regret not finishing my CSEL/CMEL back in 09. I was doing a 141, and was about 3 lessons away from a check ride along with the long solo. I have like 17 hours of ME already and nothing to show for. shoot me
If I could find a part time flying job (besides CFI) I could probably get some more hours on days off as a 135 pilot or something. I looked at some "taxis" that could fly out of PBI of FLL to the bahamas, but I can't find them. I believe this was a thing back in 09 when guys were looking for hours.