If you want to be a pilot then get started now. There’s going to be a large push starting here in the next 5 years and you don’t want to be on the back side as it will lead to being on the bottom of a pilot list and furloughed many times. If you start your flight training now you should be hired by a regional operator within the next 3-4 years. After that it shouldn’t take you more than 2-3 years to upgrade and another 2+ years to gain the valuable 121 Turbine Pilot-in-Command time needed to move on to the majors. Some say that the age 65 push won’t be that big but the fact remains and the numbers don’t lie, over 20,000 airline pilots will need to be replaced by 2021 (starting in 2011) and over 50,000 by 2031 (that's 60+% of the industry). Even if mainline reductions their operations by 10% they'll still have to replace over 15,000 pilots by 2021. You can easily see a shortage of pilots in the future when you take into account that there are only around 18,000 pilots in all of the regionals; 10+% of those regional pilots will retire and 30-40% will stay with their regional. Add to that the fact that less and less military pilots are choosing the civilian route (Uncle Sam’s paying huge retention bonuses), civil pilot training has been declining over the past 15 years and for those looking to become a future pilot financing will be harder to obtain due to the condition of our banking system.

On a side note, this industry isn’t what it once was and it will never get back. My father started flying back in the 50’s and ever since deregulation this industry has gone down the crapper. Back in the 70’s he was making the equivalent of $400K+/yr. Today, if you make it to the majors you’ll top out around $150-$250K (after 5+ years at the regionals and 12-20+ years at the majors). Not bad but remember that it’s going to cost you $60K+ just to get your licenses and then you still need a college degree to work for Mainline so add to it another $20-$40K. Regionals don’t care about a degree so you can work on one on the side after you get hired, that is if you want to move on, if you choose to stay at the regional level you’ll top out in pay around $125ish after 18+ years. Your first few years will be spent making wages between $20-$35K until you upgrade. Then you’ll be making around $60K as a new regional captain.

All in all it’s still a good career but not great. If you live in domicile, like I HIGHLY recommend, you’ll have a lot of spare time for your art. Plus being an average airline pilot pays a lot better than being an average artist.

Something else you need to keep in mind: an airline career is one big guessing game. You can get hired by an airline that goes out of business after 5 years and since your experience isn’t transferable when it comes to wages and seniority, you’ll have to start over on the bottom of someone else’s pilot list. Or you could be hired by an airline that has a great management team and expands into the next Southwest. As a pilot you have ABSOLUTELY NO control over your airlines future seeing that you’re nothing more than skilled labor. Only your Mgmnt team has control of your company’s direction.

Ever heard of Braniff International Airways (BI)? They were one of our nation’s largest airlines until 1982. Then one day my dad woke up in Chile with no job. He and his fellow pilots thought their airline was healthy only to find out otherwise. He was a Captain making BIG money and after he got home, if he wanted to continue to fly, he’d have to start all over on someone else’s list making 20% of what he was pulling at BI. In comparison, an office manager at Enron with decades of experience was able to use that experience to find another job making close to or more than he or she was before Enron’s collapse. You will not find that in this industry so be very weary and do your research before you sign on with an airline. Otherwise you may end up with a Lorenzo, Ferris, Hulas or Orenstein at the controls of your future. Being an airline pilot is like playing career roulette; one year you have a great CEO and then next the devil can take over and 5 years later your jobless. If you don’t know who Lorenzo (70's TXI, 80's NY Air & CAL, 90's EAL and then banned), Ferris (70's-80's UAL), Hulas (present day TSA : GoJet) or Orenstein (present day Mesa) are then try using the search function

Best of luck and take care.