rickair7777

Very difficult comparison. Law schools have a somewhat standard program, while in aviation training is all over the map...from military training (which used to have a >50% attrit rate) to university programs, organized 141 puppy mills, small local schools, to freelance CFI's.

Also anyone who shows up for day one of law school has already made a serious commitment and been screened. The only screening in civil flight training is the credit check...don't have credit? No problem, daddy's credit will do just fine.

AtlCSIP

To the OP: I was in a similar situation, except I didn't retire and I was 10 years younger. I have enjoyed flying for a regional airline, and will continue to do it as long as I continue to enjoy it and the checks show up twice a month. Part of the reason it is enjoyable is because I have done very high stress jobs in the past and this one is much lower stress comparatively, I have other things that I do so my life is not completely tied to the airline, I can quit any time I want without sacrificing my standard of living, and I generally have a good day every day because, in my opinion, life could be SOOO much worse.

From what you have posted, I would say go for it. Why do you have to lose? I will say this, however; my best aviation job was flying a King Air!

Good luck!

USMCFLYR

I'll agree with you, but it isn't me that you should be addressing your comments too detailing how difficult a comparison it is to make. I was a asking a question from a previous post:
I was wondering where the statistics came from to back this claim that pilot's wash out rates were higher than lawyers.

USMCFLYR

andy171773

Well, professionally. Being pathetically poor at 26 years old, and having to use the graciousness of your friends and family can make you feel pretty lame.

I for one, can't take being a financial drain anymore.

40% of my monthly income as an FO goes to student loans, and i'm not even CLOSE to as bad off as some people...don't understand how they do it.

block30

So true!! Sad!

ramprodent

Well, once you have your 3rd mates unlimited tonnage license, you acquire seatime and move up ranks. Our license test that we take for 3rd mate also has our 2nd mate material. Once you acquire enough seatime to test for your chiefmate/master test yo/t learn that material and take the test. Then after you get the amount of seatime to be master you can work those jobs.

There are quite a few options out there. There are Oil/Chemical tankers, companies like Chevron, Polar Tankers(Connoco Phillips), Exxon, etc. I am shooting for oil tankers our of school, they generally have some of the best pay and these jobs are extremely competitive. I am on the west coast so I am more familiar with that trade but a lot of tankers here do the run up to Alaska and bring crude back down south to be refined.

There are containerships, companies like Matson (which does the hawaii trade), Horizon Lines and a few other American companies.

There are a lot of jobs in the Gulf of Mexico running supplies to oil rigs, these ships are called (OSV offshove supply vessels). These are generally smaller ships but our license allows us to work any of those smaller classes of ships.

Then there is working tugs, which could be anything from assisting the large ships coming into ports to pushing/towing barges.

It is possible to become a harbor/bar pilot. Those guys make some of the best money in the industry. I think their average is something like 450 grand a year in San Fransisco. Those jobs are extremely hard to get, each port has their own requirements to be a bar pilot, some places you need your masters unlimited license and years and years of experience around the harbor, other places you just need to have the years and years of experience working tugs in the harbor. From what I hear, it's a very selective group and you need to be related to a pilot or marry a pilots daughter to get a job haha. It's definitely a "who you know" sort of deal to get a pilot position.

Then there is MSC (Military Sealift Command). They hire a substantial amount of graduates from my school every year. These are the deck officers working navy unrep ships and prepositioned ships. The base pay is not great for these guys and if you work for them you will spend a substantial amount of time on your ship. I have heard stories of people being stuck on the ship for a year or more before they can get a relief. A fair amount of money can be made in overtime when you are stuck on the ship though. I personally am hoping that his isn't my only option because i'd like a home life but we'll see what the markets like when I graduate in a few years.

Hope that's kind of what you were looking for.

block30

Thanks! Do you know anything about Great Lakes ops? How much does your education cost in total, and what kind of courses do you take? Do you get credit if you are a deckhand or something like that previously? Thanks again...

ramprodent

I know very little about great lakes ops. I know they shutdown down during winter for a few months when the lakes freeze over. From what I understand it's a lot of bulk ore shipments and things like that.

At the current tuition prices, I am paying about 3.5 grand for instate tuition/fees per semester, my living costs balloon that amount to about 9 grand a semester. There are also two two-month school training cruises that I go on during the summers that are about 4 grand each. In total I am looking at just under 100 grand for the whole thing when I graduate.

It is a 4 year program but is sometimes doable in 3 years if you get a bunch of GE done at community college, I happened to have most of my GE done but I am not going to be able to get it done in three, i'm shooting for three and a half.

Having previous experience as a deckhand is helpful in some classes, but the school does not give you credit towards anything for it. Through our various hands on classes, working on the boat, 2 school summer training cruises and 1 internship cruise on an actual merchant vessel, we acquire the 360 days of seatime needed when we take our license exam in the middle of our senior year.

I am currently a freshman, I find the classes super interesting. So far i've had a class about linehandling, how to tie knots, and line splicing, a class about naval architecture, a class thats an overview of the industry, a naval history course, a hands on cargo operations class where we learn to use forklifts/cranes/rigging. A small craft operations class where we learn boat handling in small diesel boats,an industrial safety class, and that's just my first year so far.

I know there is a Great Lakes Maritime Academy that focuses on Great Lakes ops if you are really interested in that. From what I understand it's one of the more mellow academies.

At most of the seven state maritime academies we where uniforms whenever we have class and around campus until a certain time in the evening, it's really not a big deal though once you get used to it.

USMCFLYR

ramprodent -

Is there a fairly well recognized school in Mass?
A squadronmate of mine at one time graduated from a MMA and I thought it was in Mass.

That is exactly the type of information that I was looking for.
Unless I"m misunderstanding some of the details in your post, I see pretty clear similarities between your future career path and aviation.

When I lived in Virginia Beach, a really good friend of mine was one of the dispatchers for the pilots out of Norfolk.

USMCFLYR

FDX8891

Go for it and never look back, if that's what you really want to do with your life. You don't owe anyone an explanation for doing what you want. As long as you treat the job with respect and fulfill your duties with pride and dignity, you can tell all these people who say you're lowering the bar by going for what you think is a fun job to shove it.