Originally Posted by ksdc

Thanks to all for your responses!

It definitely helped me exchanging ideas with people who have been where I am. I guess sometimes we choose "not to see and not to hear" opinions that do not enforce the conclusion we would like to reach.

I wonder if it is possible to exchange off-line messages with individuals in the list. For example I would like to contact ERAU1978grad but I could not find ayny other link. Any help?

am a 1978 Air Science graduate from ERAU. I spent $32,000 back then and have no idea what the cost is now with fuel prices included. Reading the pots that say $37k per year just floors me. I feel for the fool who takes that bait.

When I graduated from the DAB campus I had a CFI, 350 hours and was literally THROWN TO THE WOLVES. I spent 5 years as a CFI and night freight pilot accumulating 2000 hours. I added an ATP in a Citation, and CFI-single land and sea, multi land and sea, glider. I had to pay for the Citation training out of pocket at $3500.

I applied to all of the airlines and they wouldn't even look at me. An Air Science degree from Riddle meant nothing then and it still means nothing. Unfortunately, all the propaganda on the web says otherwise.

Thw NUMBER ONE thing that you have to realize about aviation is that there are thousands of pilots out there who will do anything to fly, but there are only so many cockpit slots that can be filled. Your competition will fly for a lot less than you can survive on.

When I graduated from high school I made the decision to become an airline pilot. How naive I was! The truth is that you don't 'become' an airline pilot, instead you 'suffer incredibly for many years to maybe end up as one'. It was the worst decision I have ever made and was a financial catastrophe for me and my family. There is no guarantee you will ever make it and if you don't you will spend the rest of your life trying to pay of $thousands$ in school loans by flying airplanes in charter and corporate HELL for the rest of your life. You will not have a family life, you will live in a small house in a crappy neighborhood and you will own one little crappy car.

I did an informal survey a few years ago. I pulled out my old Riddle yearbook from 1978 and wrote down the names of the guys who graduated with me in Air Science. I then went to the FAA Airman Database and searched to see how many still had an active pilot's license. Of that entire class with high hopes for their future, only 25% were still flying. In other words 75% OF THE CLASS FOUND OUT LIKE ME THAT FLYING AIRPLANES IS A LOUSY WAY TO MAKE A LIVING. Out of the guys I graduated with, only 8% had advanced type ratings which indicated they were flying for the airlines. That means 92% of the class did not get anywhere near an airline cockpit. I have no idea what they are doing now, but they all left school with huge loans to pay off and no way to do it.

Proof that Riddle knows there is a problem here: it started the 'Zero-to-250 hours to an ASA co-pilot job program'. That program has now been discontinued. You are still thrown to the wolves.

I was VERY lucky do be able to take a 'do over' as kids say. I started in a new career. I eventually went back to school in 1984 and got a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Tennessee, a regular university with an established reputation and a huge percentage of female students. Trust me, engineering pays a HECK of a lot more than piloting airplanes and it is truly a white collar job. You get and office with a desk and a constant salary with a guaranteed annual increase and a retirement account. You work indoors with smart people who own nice homes and have a family life.

The truth is that airline pilots are blue collar workers who are paid hourly wages and stand on picket lines when things get bad, just like a coal miner or factory worker for General Motors, or someone working in a sweatshop in Mexico. The majority of them do not have retirement accounts to look forward to supporting them when they retire. The sad fact is that they still will do anything to fly airplanes. What morons!!!

I STRONGLY suggest that you take your $50,000 and go to law school. Anyone with half a brain can get a law dergree and even if you screw your post-graduation career up andmake stupid choices, you still have a much better chance at being home with your family, eating a nice meal every night, living in a nice house in a normal neighborhood and owning two new cars.