Hello everyone. I apologize that this is another "Hey I'm really young and want to know how to become an airline pilot," however I think my situation is a little different then the typical thread on here. Here goes..
Well, to start off, I am now 18 years old, and will be graduating high school in May. Over the past two years, I have come up with about a million different schemes and plans about what is the fastest, most practical, and most importantly, cheapest way of going about attaining my rating's. I have looked at multiple aviation programs at many different four year universities, however there are two large problems with going about it this way.
1) I want to get my licenses as fast as humanly possible, eliminating the need to "redo" lessons because I havent flown in weeks. This will also drastically reduce the cost over the period of a degree program. Plus, I do NOT want to wait four years to achieve something that with some hard work I could do in under six months!
2) I do NOT want a "Professional Pilot" degree! I have talked to many people, and know that employers dont really care about what your degree is in, and that having an aviation degree does not make me any more employable then the guy with an Art degree. I want to get a degree in something that I can fall back on, like Computer Science, that will make me competitive if for whatever reason I can not fly.
The Plan:
To attend ATP in Chicago this summer, right after I graduate high school, and enroll in the 150 day "Fast-Track" program. Once I have completed that, I will instruct for roughly the next 4-6 months using the guaranteed CFI job thing, so that I can build enough time to join a regional (ASSUMING, that the 1500 hour rule will not be in place
...)
All the while, I will be enrolled in an online degree program at Whatever State University, while I am flying. This will allow my ATP loan to be deferred until I graduate. Keep in mind, I will be paying for everything by myself, so this is very important and beneficial to me. So hypothetically, roughly this time in a year, I will be sitting in a right seat at Whatever Regional Connnection. I am more than aware of how much first year regional FO's make, but I think it will be enough to survive while I am going to school.
Then, after hopefully not to long, I will upgrade to the left seat, then if the whole "Pilot Shortage" (I know many of you guys on here of skeptical of this...) hopefully there be some hiring going at the Major's. So then once I complete my online degree, I will be able to move up to a major.
The whole idea behind this, is to mainly get a huge jump on my career and to build time as fast as humanly possible. And while all my friends are just graduating college, I will HOPEFULLY be a CA at a regional, ready to move up to the Major's.
So, if you dont mind, I have a few questions.
1) Are any obvious problems with this plan that I may be missing?
2) I know the ATP people are going to try and sell me on their program, but do you think it will actually be possible to get hired at a regional after CFI'ing for them for 6 months give or take?
3) Is it reasonable to be doing a degree program while flying at the same time?
4) Please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge the regionals do not REQUIRE a degree, so is it realistic to assume I actually can get a regional job while I am still working on my degree?
5) Overall thoughts and opinions?
Look guys, I have been trying to figure out the best way to go about entering this field for what seems like forever, and this finally seems to be the best way of going about it. So any and all advice is more than welcome, and I really appreciate your guys' help.