CombineCaptain

Thread Revival!

Hi again to everyone here at APC,

So it's been over a year since my original post here, and I thought I'd give the forum an update from a year ago. Since, I've actually left the university A&P school and went back to work for the repair station/MRO I was employed with earlier. They actually called me during my spring semester (in 2012) and offered more money than when I was there before (and twice as much as the university) and I accepted a supervisor job there. I've been working there since and am working on my instrument when I have the time. It's actually coming back really well.

In the last year I've done some soul searching (as many of you suggested) and have come to the conclusion that flying will be a hobby (or maybe side job at the most), not a career. With my past checkride history and my age (I just turned 30), I won't be able to attain a high paying flying job in a reasonable amount of time before I will most likely start to have medical issues. Also, I currently earn 70K/yr. It would take a lot of time to make that again if I started from the bottom as a pilot.

I feel like I've "given up", especially since many of my friends are pilots and are progressing in their flying careers (for example, G-4 co-captain at 30). For the people that did get out of flying; how did you “let go” of the dream/career? I think that’s probably the hardest thing to do.

My main goal now is to eventually take over (and expand) the family farm. I've set a goal to hopefully exit aviation completely (as a career). My goal now is to make the maximum amount of money so I can buy more farm ground so when my father retires in about 5-10 years, I'll be financially prepared to take over the operation.

I guess my question now is: I have 5-10 years before being able to farm full-time, what career outside of aviation would you suggest for an individual with my background before I farm full time?

Here’s my background:

PPL 650 hrs
A&P
4 yr Aviation Tech/Avionics Degree
3 years as an Aircraft Maintenance Supervisor
3 years in Quality, and a year as Chief Inspector
7 years aircraft maintenance
1 year as an Instructor at a 4 yr university

Thanks everyone for your time and any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Magnus3203

are there other farms near your family farm? how about crop dusting or aviation related aviation?

Magnus3203

agricultural aviation that is...

rickair7777

I'd probably go slowly down the IR, CPL, CFI road and eventually try to break into business aviation.

Assuming your farm is near a metro area I'm sure you could eventually find a part-time gig that would be compatible with the farming. If there happens to be an airline with a junior base nearby maybe you could try that someday too. I know several farmer/rancher airline pilots, both in the mountain west and the mid-atlantic seaboard.

Arial application is obviously a fit too, just depends on what they grow in your area and whether you prefer one-man flight ops or the social aspects a crew. Me personally, I'd get bored flying by myself all the time.

Cubdriver

Get your Commercial and fly skydivers on weekends. Social life, yanking and banking, only on weekends, beer buddies, hard to beat.

CombineCaptain

Well, actually I was wondering if anyone had any ideas career-wise outside of aviation completely, for someone with my background? I'm looking for ideas/suggestions on using my experience gained as a mechanic/supervisor/instructor in a career path out of aviation. As far as location I'm in Eastern MO.

CombineCaptain

Yes there are other farms that may be gong up for sale, that's the main reason why I'm trying to make as much money as I can in the next 5-10 years. I actualy have decent amount of money in the bank for a down payment, but unfortunately I need more. Fortunately, I have not debt.

As far as crop dusting, it's very hard to break into, much like business aviation. Much like farming, you almost have to be "born" into it. Its virtually impossible to get insurance the first few years you fly ag, you must start in small piston equipment and move up to turbine equipment eventually (to make the good money). Unfortunately, there are no ag operators close to us because the land around us isn't flat (our farm uses a ground rig). The closest is 60 miles away, and unfortunately he has all turbine equipment (no way to start and move up insurance wise)

CombineCaptain

Unfortunately, that's when I'm usually working on the farm, especially during harvest/planting season (spring/fall) which also has the best weather for skydiving. How much does flying skydivers pay? I think it doesnt pay that much anyway...

Cubdriver

CC, you are going to do as many like myself and start working through the many obstacles there are to being an active pilot and having flight be a major part of your life. The challenges seem to stretch to infinity and for some, flying is all but impossible. You may be one of those people, remains to be seen. I have long since lost track of the many obstacles I had work around over the last 13 years to get where I am, things ranging from shelling out piles of money for flight training to finding aviation gigs to adding certs and ratings to finding the airplanes to fly themselves. It has been a long road. I still think it is worth it, I was pretty exhausted prior to my aviation phase. It gave me a purpose to carry through good and bad times. The standard path in piloting is pretty simple, Rick mentioned some of the key things you will want to do. Flying is kind of a religion in that it really is its own reason for being, and doing it is hard to justify for money, it is at best a break even deal for most. On the other hand aviation can really provide something decent to live for, and it is hard to put a price on that. We have endless debates here about whether aviation is a job or an adventure, it can be both perhaps, but only you can find out what it means to you.

Cruz5350

I really hate to see you change career's/give up on flying professionally. I was in the same boat as you with 4 busts but they were during my CFI's little different but a bust is a bust. Now I'm at a 121 and while it's not the most prestigious company it's still 121 flying. I'll tell you I had some major stress while I was going through initial because of my past, but I recognized why I failed before and changed the way I studied. Now I'm on my 2nd 121 aircraft and it's not so bad. Like others said soul search as to why you failed and go from there. I maybe a minority, but I think you still have a shot if this is what you want! I came from making the same money you did and while some days it's hard not having the extra cash I don't regret my decision at all. Best of luck to you.