And you know what? My Uncle who flew for United since the late 60's until the late 90's would've have been ta good guy to talk to about it but unfortunately him and my mother do not talk.

My CFI doesn't plan to go into the airlines so I can't really ask him much.[/quote]

Call your Uncle anyway. You will be surprised about how much he will enjoy talking to you about "the good old days". He will definitely be happy to hear that you are looking into becoming a pilot.

Yea when a gallon of gas was a dollar and the RJ was still coming out. I can only speak from the regional airline perspective which you will be stuck for a good portion of your early adult life(time when family should be a concern) and it sucks, it really really sucks. If you want to turn this into a hobby that's fine but the rest of us a trying to earn a living. There is no way I'd let a nice view a t 37000 get in the way of my QOL on earth.

Call your Uncle anyway. You will be surprised about how much he will enjoy talking to you about "the good old days". He will definitely be happy to hear that you are looking into becoming a pilot.[/quote]

I cannot. It's a long story, but I can't.

Anyways, I just need some advice on making a game plan for my career....

You are just another of the mass of people who dream of flying for a career. The dream is STARKLY different from reality. However, like most that have come before you, you'll need to experience it for yourself to really judge.

My greatest advice is to build credentials outside of aviation and fly for fun. When you get to a point where all your ratings are in the bag, then figure out whether its time to jump in or not.

As for me, I spent many years acquiring all my ratings while building credentials toward becoming a CPA. I built up some money as such, then decided to try aviation professionally. I did that for just about 2 years before being thrown on the street. The door will stay shut for 2-3 more years as age 65 goes through, pilots are recalled, etc. After that, I just might go back. However, I'll use my CPA credential to hedge against the cycle - so that I don't really NEED the job. I've also decided to have a child during the next 2-3 years when aviation jobs are at a low. If after having a child and being home every night to experience that, and after knowing what I know after 2 years of 121 flying, and after having worked as a CPA for another 2-3 years, if I still long for a jet cockpit, I'll give it another shot.

I don't consider my path a model of perfection. However, if you put all your eggs into aviation, you'll be sorry you did. Prepare yourself to do something else in parallel with aviation, then jump back and forth as needed.

I also know many pilots who would complain about a free lunch at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse too. :D

Should you? I don't think you are going to get a one-time definitive response from anyone here that will answer this question. The best I can offer is to take everyone's experience and comments into consideration.

While your attitude is admirable, may I humbly submit that it also may change in the future? Money shouldn't be the ultimate goal, but neither should a willingness not to pursue wealth should you have the opportunity to do so. Many begin this career out of nothing more than a desire to fly and end up discouraged by low wages and/or career earnings.

YOU will have to define what is considered a decent living, because you will get as many different opinions as the number of people whom you ask. Do you want a house? How many cars will you need/want? Do you want to retire sooner or later, and with how much? Where do you want to live? This is just a sampling of questions that you will need to answer first before you can have a quantitative definition of decent as it pertains to your wages.

Who knows?

In an historical sense it has always been in the proverbial crapper. From it's inception, the airline industry has never been a profitable venture. While there has been some good years over that time, it has certainly not been the prevalent norm. Every generation of pilots have had to contend with the possibility of a furlough, an airline bankruptcy, mergers, and downturns in the economy. Nothing new under the sun.

If you have the expectation of having an employer see you through the productive life of 30 years of employment, and then enough time to fulfill any retirement promises, then don't pursue airline pilot work. Ask Maslow how fun it is to do "something you love" when you starve doing it and worry every day you won't be able to do it tomorrow.....I'd love to do something I hate if it paid me decent and didn't go away tomorrow. just some nuggets of peanut gallery obvious.

If that's your criteria, then don't bother with anything as you'll be very disappointed.

Aim Low
 

Aim low as a professional pilot and you will not be disappointed !

Perhaps a better way of explaining long term shortcomings as a pilot is to say that other professions have more portable professional value and can build career momentum over a 30 year period. Pilots have to start over every time they get a new job.

Skyhigh

Yeah that's my criteria, private employers are pretty much out, that's for sure...:rolleyes: Call me french but I work to live, not the other way around. If people choose to live in a country where their employers expect them to pack up and ship out every 7 years, move x-country like it's moving down the street, screaming kids in tow, reset their professional seniority at every hiccup of the economy, get "globalized" at work-year-29 and expected to "re-train" at the age of 52 to become the neo-nurse of the 22nd century, all the while taking a paycut to fund their own retirement, and call it NORMAL, that's on them. I don't want to get rich, but when I'm out of a job I want the rest of my street to be out of one too. I'm not falling on my own sword so that the non-productive sector of society can get a quarter of a point raise in their shares.

I proclaim the aforementioned in 1950 and it was par for the course, but because I'm under 35 I voice that and it's blasphemy all of a sudden?!? Forget that, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. The race to the bottom has to stop somewhere.

Whatever you decide, don't depend on the income you generate from flying. (learned the hard way, even though I had lots of savings). An education from a reputable university never hurts, particularly the cache of graduate networking. Find something that you can do to make money, but something you can do on your own without working for someone else. When ATA started going south the first time in '04-'05 I gave serious consideration to welding. The schooling would have conflicted with the flying at the time, so I didn't do it. But, it's something you can do out of your house/truck, and they make pretty good money.