I am not planning on taking out to much in loans for my tickets...I have about 10k saved up for FBO work and will have another 10k for flight instruction use when I need it in about eight months (I live so cheaply and don't even have a car - ride my bike to the the FBO!)...between the fact that I have a 30k/yr job and my private website design pays me about 2k a month after taxes, I should be able to just swing the FBO route and have my tickets by the time I am twenty-nine without taking on any loans. However, I may need to take about 5k in loans for my instructor certs - not sure yet how well I will be doing that far ahead as I try and transition out of 9-5.

For those that take out the whopper loans for the academies and so forth, what are the average monthly payments? How are you able to do it? Can you defer it into perpetuity and keep letting that interest capitalize? I was considering the Academy route but its just not worth it to me to save 8-10 months of training but rack up all that debt. Plus, the interest on those loans is enough of a discourager - I mean at least through FAFSA you get 5%...these things are ridiculous at seven points over prime.

I am not trying to get anyone upset, I am just curious about your experience with these types of loans...does the income ever return on those loans, and if so are you able to make the minimums? That said, I do believe you only get one go around on the mother****** so do what you can to do what you want, but still I just can't imagine having that debt load.