mswmsw

I would agree heartily with this advice. Stay away from the "pilot mills" and save some money, take flying lessons at your own pace at a local FBO...... and add your college degree however you can. If your law enforcement agency has a 20 year retirement, I would strongly suggest that you stay there at least that much longer, and pick up your ratings, flight experience and college degree over the course of the next five years in your off-duty time. This will be advantageous in two ways: I am guessing that you will walk away with some reasonable LE retirement income after 20 years on the job; and maybe pilot hiring will look better in five years..... cuz it don't look good now or for any time in the near future! Now is not the time to chuck a steady LE job for a pilot job (since there are so few out there anyway).

BTW, I went the other way: I left a good 135 job flying decent equipment back in 1976, at age 22, and became a cop. I am now looking at retirement from my LEO job after almost 33 years with my Dept, and am very thankful I made the switch all those years ago. I have steady employment, good pay (I am with a very big County Sheriff's Dept), slept at home virtually every night, and will have an excellent retirement when I "go" in a few months. I even was lucky enough to make it to my Dept's Aviation Unit where I have been flying F/W and helos for the last 12 years. But I would have still been happy in any of the variety of LE jobs I have held with my Dept, even if I had not made it to my Dept's aviation unit....... cuz I always kept my hand in aviation "on the side", part time CFI'ing, bought a little Cherokee to fly the family around in, etc. Just think long and hard before you actually say goodbye to a 15 year LE career, especially with that retirement income right around the corner.