First off, congratulations on cleaning up your life, that takes guts to do, as well as asking the questions you are asking.

I'm not familiar with the Maintenance side of the business, but I can tell you that those charges will haunt you on the flying side.

When you go to get your medical, you will have to disclose the DUI, and I believe any felony items on the form. You will take a Urine Test, but I honestly don't know what they check for with that. The main thing here is DON'T LIE on the form. It's called falsification of records, and if you get caught doing that, you literally have no chance, plus Federal charges can/will be brought against you. You have to be 100% accurate and honest on those forms. It will probably bring on additional forms etc... but that is better than the alternative.

As far as your chances with a career flying, I would say are 50/50. It's going to take a lot of work to jump the hurdles you've placed in the way, but honestly the way I feel is if someone can overcome what you have already, I personally would give you a chance, but I don't speak on behalf of anyone.

Now the Private Pilot License, you can fly into Canada and Mexico, but I've heard of guys having issues with Canada with prior offenses, they will detain that person etc.., so you might research that before doing anything there. But you will need more than a private to get into any airline gig. You will need to add a Commercial and Instrument ratings, and 99.999% chance you will need a Multi-Engine rating, and while you're at it a CFI(Certified Flight Instructor rating) so you can build time to get your first job. There are many many threads on these topics and I encourage you to go back through the history of many of these forums to educate yourself on that.

Also, are you located in the Detroit Metro area still? I used to work out of a small airport called New Hudson, but know of folks at that airport and also Canton-Mettetall.

Good luck to you.