FJB627

First and foremost...... You aviators are awesome.


Background on me


I'm an airline brat. I've been riding planes since I was a baby thanks to my mother working with a Major Airlines. I'm still in an airline family because my wife works for that same airline. I am unusually comfortable in airports/airplanes and with nonrev travel and really know the ins and outs of it. I had a kid early and joined the USMC Reserves as an aviation electrician (don't really know the job). At 21, I joined a big city police department. I'm 32 now and I'm a Sergeant making approximately 100K a year, wife and two kids. 350K house. Super easy and boring job.


Thing is, I'm bored, not challenged, and I somewhat despise the culture of my industry. Cops are some of the most cynical, dark-minded, mistrusting, type 'a' personalities that you'll meet. Rather emotional and have the power to affect lives in major ways. It's an US vs Them mentality and if you don't participate in group think, you feel alienated. Externally, I'm sick of seeing negative things all the time and the mistrust of the community eats away at me. I truly wonder how it will affect my mental health when I'm an old man.


Question

Anyway, being a pilot has always been a dream of mine. I'm considering going to a part 61 school 3 days a week and working my way up to CFII. I'm hoping I can get a CFI job part time and grind my way to 1500TT while keeping my lucrative job. I wonder how long it would be. If I could get to a regional carrier, I'd quit my job and take the paycut hoping that I can get to 75k as a captain in 4 years or less. I'm vested in a pension that will pay me at least 35k a year once I turn 46 if I leave when a regional is willing to hire me (as oppose to 70k a year if I stayed the full 25 years and retired at 46).


What do you guys think? Should I go for it? Is it really a pilot shortage. Videos make it seem like it's guarantee hire for regional carriers and captain upgrades within 2 years once you have ATP time requirements. Flows make it seem like it's possible to become an FO at the majors within 10 years. Would my background as military and cop help me get on with the majors. If I prove to be a decent aviator, will my minority status help as well. I don't mean to offend anyone but this is a huge decision and I'm 70% sure I'm going for it. Just want to know before I spend our nest egg on flight training. If the pilot shortage is real, I'd like to ride the wave instead of waiting 15 more years until retirement. This has to do with the feeling of fulfillment more than anything. I'd make less money and quite honestly, we travel alot already nonrev thanks to my wife working for the airline. But the thought of getting paid to be a pilot amazes me.

TiredSoul

Get your Private Part time and enjoy doing it.
Then sit down with yourself and make an honest assessment if this is what you want.
Then do your Instrument rating.
Take your time and do it right
Any Law Enforcement flying options near you?
Bum a ride and find out how difficult it would be to join them.
Get involved with Civil Air Patrol and fly for reduced rates.
Take it from there.

LRJenkins

I truly wonder how it will affect my mental health when I'm an old man

I wouldn’t mention this in your interview

FJB627

I'm in Dallas. I'm sure there's something.

I think I've done good avoiding it all and keeping a positive mind. I've purposely avoided going to child abuse investigative units, homicides and traffic for that very reason. But, I'll take your advice and not mention it.

TiredSoul

I think it’s perfectly acceptable if you say you wanted a change and more positivity in your life.
Being a cop you just deal with other people’s misery for 99.9% of the time.

On a side note, I used to fly 135 ( Private Jet charter) with a guy who’d been a cop for 18 years ( Vice and Homicide ) moved to their aviation unit, retired out of there and had a successful career in aviation.

Gordie H

I see what you’re saying here and I for one don’t know how you guys do it every day. And for that I’m very appreciative. Thank You!

To your question - pretty much what TiredSoul said in terms of taking it one step at a time…be honest with yourself on how you like it. If you don’t like flying Cessna’s you’re probably not going to like flying airliners. Most of the people I work with generally enjoy their jobs and are appreciative. But there are a few that should be doing something else for their own well-being (and for those who have to work with them). And the profession isn’t all roses (working holidays, circadian flips, hotels, monotony, etc.) But, bottom line, I do enjoy what I do and can’t see myself in another profession.

This is a good time to be in the airlines and there does seem to be shortage (at least in the regionals for sure as they’re paying much much more now than 5, 10 years ago). It seems this will continue for the foreseeable future but who knows...I think having some sort of pension on your part will be great.

Get a Class I medical before you start, feel free to PM. Best of luck!

PotatoChip

First of all, thank you for your service.
I have a little insight into the matter, though not a ton.
I work closely with local police officers regularly in my town, and with those of neighboring towns. I am a volunteer fire police officer, and we are often helping out the police department. Just last night I spent 2.5 hours in freezing temps directing traffic around a crime scene where an individual was killed. I can absolutely say that I would not want their job day in and day out every day. It would wear me out, no question. Even as a fire cop, the level of disrespect I see from people directed at me (in uniform with a badge on, while directing traffic around major incidents no less is astounding!) I have been cursed out for closing a road to HELP people more times than I can count. And that's just dealing with traffic etc. Most of the sergeants I work with in my town are very nice, and helpful, to us... but I have seen the other side and how they often feel about the general public. And it's hard to blame them. It's a vicious cycle.
To echo above, I have actually flown at the regional level with a couple different retired officers. One was from the Virginia Beach PD, and after about a decade of normal police work he worked his way into their helicopter unit and retired after flying that for 15 years. He LOVED it. I flew with him on a few occasions and he couldn't say enough about that job. He became an airline pilot at 55 to fulfill a dream after retirement, and he didn't make it a year. He failed out of one airline, and then didn't last a year when I worked with him. Flying at a regional is tough. Pay can be awful, the schedules are awful, some of the FAs are awful, the maintenance can leave wondering, and you're trying to learn all the time. It's A LOT. He ended up very unhappy with the job and tried finding a small corporate job near his home.
I've also worked with several retired police officers who are now flight attendants. Especially at JetBlue for some reason. Most of them do it for the travel benefits, and actually seem pretty happy. Obviously you have to like people.
Like the others have mentioned, take it one step at a time. DO NOT place yourself into debt trying to get in. Fact is, you have a good JOB right now. And a family. You have responsibilities. However, if done wisely, you can take care of them while fulfilling your wish. Save up enough cash (~$10,000) and try and knock out your private pilot license as fast as you can. Even if you don't go farther than that, you'll have that license for life. You'll always be able to say you're a pilot. From there, decide how much you want to continue.

FJB627

Thank you for your words of encouragement and I'll definitely be honest with myself since the decision affects more than just me. Discovery flight is in less than a week and if I don't absolutely love it (eat, sleep, breathe flying) then I won't switch careers. I know flying is much different than riding in the back but I grew up on a plane. To this day, I get a feeling of serenity after take off. Looking up in the sky and seeing an American Airlines plane while going through Marine Corps bootcamp in San Diego restored my strength to keep pushing. As a kid I was always told by my mom, whenever you see AA, you're always close to home. That stuck with me. And any old pilots closing in on retirement, thank you for being so kind to allow kids into the cockpit midflight and give those plastic wings. Bring your kid to work day and visiting pilots in cockpits is a fond memory I have to this day. I was the 10yr old kid playing flight simulator with dining room chairs lined up behind me in orderly fashion as if I'm flying people somewhere.

Great advice. At minimum I'll do the general aviation thing. I have the money saved to pay through CFII right now. You are right, it's tough but the pay is good. The public is nice majority of time but there's disrespect here and there. I don't blame people for not liking us because sometimes it's warranted. We have a lot of people that police with emotions and if they feel disrespected, look out. They may try to "teach someone a lesson" which only makes public opinion of us worst. It's the arrogant "I'm saving the world from itself" types that ruin any progress we try to make. We have too many warriors and not enough humble civil servants at times. Where I work, most cops are distrusting and cynical. It's "I don't believe you until I do" type of mentality. Officers do it to citizens. Some supervisors do it to officers. Some officers do it to supervisors and administration does it to street level officers and supervisors. Administration and city officials have no problem scapegoating a person to save face. Police Unions will defend a cop no matter what (even if he shouldn't be defended). Everywhere has it's problems I'm sure but for anyone thinking of going to big city policing, think about everything in its entirety. It's not a bad gig but it's def not for everyone. Doing something for the money isn't everything. We had several officers die this past decade in the Dallas Metro. What a tragedy it would be if they were only in it for the pay and secretly longed to do something they love. Thinking "maybe one day," but the day never comes. Or thinking I'll do this to see my family but once you're gone, that it. A pilot may be gone a few days from there family but at least you can talk to family and see them eventually.

I'll take it one step at a time with my decision. You guys are great. Since I already nonrev for free and make decent money, maybe just being GA and sticking to policing is the way to go. Maybe the hobby of flying can be the Ying to my Yang and push me to get through the next 14 years.

Thanks everyone

Chipjumper

Go zero debt first (mortgage & vehicles) and make sure your 401k/457/403b/TSP/whatever is piling up. Join a local flying club as they typically operate at cost. They usually have plenty of CFI’s that can train in the club aircraft. Get your PPL, IFR, COM and then CFI. Build up those hours and once you hit the minimums then re-evaluate your situation. This could easily be within 3 years. The airline industry and stock market could be facing trouble and you might be better off staying in your cushy bureaucrat job. I know I work the same one. How does your pension work; do you lose something significant if you quit in three years? Some pensions have vicious penalties.
I’m getting older, fatter, and lazier, and I question if I have it in me to master the intricate systems within a regional airliner. I enjoy problem solving and working on delicate electronics; it’s in my background. Consider aviation maintenance too. They are starting off at $48k and top out over six figures. Envoy recently offered a $27,000 signing bonus for AMT’s. I’m really thinking about quitting my cushy LEO job and going to AMT school this summer. But read my first sentence again: can you afford to be unemployed or making peanuts for a while?

BMEP100

I haven’t read all the posts here, so pardon if I’m repeating something already offered.

If you have the flexibility to move across the country, you may find it a bit easier as a pilot with some law enforcement agency, either state or federal. I have a couple friends who have just retired from federal LEO flying jobs and are a hot commodity in the charter and corporate flying world.

A lot of LEO pilot jobs are offered first to current LEO’s who have pilot licenses. Most of those jobs are considered law enforcement jobs primarily, although once in, you’ll find the mentality completely different than regular cops.

Most all fed pilot jobs force retirement at 57, but by then you’ve got fed retirement and are still very employable.

So go get your PPL. Pick up time where ever you can in anything with wings. Then apply everywhere a flying LEO job comes up. The turn over in those jobs should stay high for a while yet, as the younger ones move on early for greener pastures.

All the best to you.