Originally Posted by
AirMillennium
So I am in the computing field presently and am also from Europe. I've been going through different forums and many people advise on visiting United States, especially Florida and California, for getting their pilot licenses. This is because, at least as per what I have read online, it is much cheaper than most of the world, including most of Europe. Of course there are minuses involved in terms of experience to fly within bad weather, mountain flying, etc., still the congested air space there predisposes to relatively good level of training compared to the same parameter by most of the flying schools in Europe.
Training in the US is a lot more cost effective than in most other places.
Originally Posted by
AirMillennium
Thank you for the useful information. Unfortunately my options will be also relatively limited to my experience and job I am to have there. My aim is to presumably go back to Europe and land a co-pilot or a similar job, but this is a view from where I stand now. I definitely want to travel so if I have the option of having a pilot job in the USA or even North America or anywhere else, I would for sure consider it. My main target would be the PPL, night flying and IR as a beginning. I am also considering getting a helicopter license which according to many forums costs around EUR 22 - 24,000. However, let's put helicopters aside as I primarily want to be piloting airplanes.
I would suggest forgetting about helicopters, but if you want to do that you should focus on it from the beginning. The training is very expensive compared to fixed wing, it is very hard to get enough hours to be insurable (1000), and there are a lot of ex-military pilots who are already trained.
Also you should try to decide where you want to work, US or Europe. Most countries have different pilot certificates, US uses FAA certificates and EU uses JAA.
The JAA are more difficult and expensive to acquire but you can get them in the US (cheaper than in europe). A number of US schools have JAA programs and instructors on staff. If you do JAA, you can also get your FAA certificates with only a little extra effort...that's probably the best plan to keep your options open.
If you have a green card, you can get an airline job in the US.
Originally Posted by
AirMillennium
Is there an option, if allowed and advisable at all, to get the initial licenses on an airplane/s and proceed on the path to CPL on simulators mostly? This shall save me a lot of costs for real-time hours of flying. For the moment I can't really answer how I will be compensating the extra hours. CFI is a good idea, but it needs to be harmonised with my general source of incomes throughout the process.
Some simulator time is allowed for FAA training, but not much.
Some countries use a "multi-crew pilot license" which is done mostly in simulators, but that is generally sponsored by the airlines I believe. Training on large jet simulators is VERY expensive, more expensive than actually flying a small airplane.
Originally Posted by
AirMillennium
Well, at this age I doubt if I will be ever able to fly a jet apart from being a co-pilot, still it will be a dream come true. My present concerns are mostly related to the balance of risk in terms of funds invested and practical gains after getting the relevant licences. This means that I am planning to entirely change my life and invest all that I have into my training. It will also be supplemented by my working incomes in the US and what I am really trying to figure out is if when looking back at 35 - 36 or more, it would have been worth doing. It's not only about costs, it is mostly about ability to land a job.
You could probably end up as a Captain at a major airline, just not very senior. This means you could probably be somewhat senior on a smaller airplane like a 737 or maybe junior on larger widebody.
The ideal "end-state" for an airline career is to be a captain on a larger (higher-paid) airplane with enough seniority to have your choice of schedule.
Sounds like you are thinking this through carefully, that's good you have a lot of research to do.
If you can keep your job and live at home while you train that will go a long way towards off-setting the costs, although you might have to move to find a JAA school.