Hey LAX,
I want to be as unbiased and honest with you as possible regarding your genuine question, and I will be. But I must preface my answer with a statement: Aviation is wonderful fun and can be rewarding, but this is a 5hitty business to be in.
My answer to how long depends first on hard work and money (or proud service to your Country) to get your start in aviation, but most honestly, the rest depends on luck and timing. The aviation industry can be paralleled by the starlets who head to Hollywood to fulfill their quest for silver screen fame dream, only to end up in the adult film industry
. Think Hollywood, Nashville, or anywhere else that people would actually pay to do a job. Maybe we love flying too much. And their luck can turn on a dime.
So your time after civilian flight school or military training and commitment can vary.. If it's military training, then deployment, then I would say as little as 5 to 7 years. If, however, you are cutting grass at an FBO, washing and fueling planes, the CFI, then 135, the regionals.. It could take 7, 10, 20 years, or I'm sorry to say, never. There are no guarantees in this business; Just ask the pilots of Braniff, Eastern, Pan Am, TWA, etc. Even the pilots at United, Delta, and American have suffered tremendous, decades-back loss to their pay, pension, and working conditions.
This business is a crap shoot... 15 years ago, nobody would have thought that UPS, FDX, SWA, and Netjets would be the top flying jobs in pay, stability, and working conditions. Heck, Netjets was pay-for- training back then and just look at them now. And look at SWA! What do they all have in common? None of them, except SWA now, is considered a "major"... I know many pilots that have done everything "right". They followed Kit Darby's book to the letter.. They went to ERAU, Purdue, UND, Parks, etc. (name your expensive 4-year aviation college here) and then went to the Military with their ratings. They served their country and continue to serve in the Guard or Reserves. Then they got out to the same bleak reality that we all face here in this industry: Pensions cut (while management takes $40 or $172 million), furloughs, terminations, and general bad news. And that was
before the economic collapse of recent months. Some of them never made it to the "major" even though they did eveything right. So they find themselves furloughed, or never made it to, their "dream" company. Now they find themselves in the right seat of an RJ, or even on the street with a mortgage and family. No guarantees
.
LAX, follow your dream and don' t let anyone tell you can't. But listen to the wounded survivors that are returning from the front and follow your dream with your eyes open. Always have a plan B and learn an enjoyable trade or skill that has nothing to do with flying planes. If you persist, you will have a good career wherever you go because you love it. I know pilots who have been through 2 furloughs and 2 training cycles in 6 months, who have been furloughed twice before, that say that they have had a good career and "love it" (despite what it has done to them). Think Hollywood, Nashville, or any street corner where you see a starving artist with a guitar still trying to make it (They wait tables during the day to make ends meet). But they don't quit and they are there because, like us, they love "the music". So follow your dream, but know that there are no guarantees anywhere in this flying business.
Good luck chasing your dream, LAX. Keep fighting and don't give up!
In Unity,
B727DRVR
