Originally Posted by
widebodyjunkie
Thanks for the input. I have a plan in place, i'm going to wait about another year before I start seriously taking lessons. I plan to pace myself to get through the training in about 1 year - 1 1/2 years.
Hopefully moving slower will allow me to retain more of what I learn. At that point, I'd like to get into instructing, do that for a year or two and build up some time, then i'd like to go into the regionals.
After the Thread that I have opened up, it seems that the veil of mystery is beginning to unfold in regard to the airline world. I'm not soo certain that commercial flying is the best way to go. Currently I'm single and have no kids....so life is easy in that regard, but I can't honestly say I want to go into my 30's with an unstable job outlook, and Sh*ty pay.
I can tell you right now, and completely agree with steak when he said,
"If you're going to tollerate this job/lifestyle, you have to love to fly. Not just "I think thats what I want to do." But seriously LOVE IT."
If you don't go into aviation with a die hard passion for it and know without a shadow of a doubt that it's the only thing in the world that you can see yourself doing, it might be rough for you. This is quite possibly (i say that because there are some industries out there that I just don't know anything about) the most volatile industry in the world. Things can change overnight that you would never see coming; both bad and good.
That being said, even pilots who are 100% convinced that this is the career they want don't make it. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in feeling that airline initial training is grueling and usually very difficult. You're basically going to have to learn in about 2 months what would normally take about 6-8 months to fully learn ... hence the phrase "drinking from a fire hose".
I think you'd be very smart to get your training in, keep doing the research you have been (this is a great place to get information as you can tell), and instruct for a good while until you have at minimum 1000TT and 100M. That will get you some good experience out there in the world of flying, and put you in the drivers seat making the tough decisions you may not make as a student.
Whatever you choose to do, good luck, and always remember ... KEEP THE BLUE SIDE UP! Keep the questions coming, and keep us posted!