I am a 17 year old private pilot who has been dreaming of a career in aviation for years. I always thought that no other job could be better, the best office in the world! (Not to mention the great pay and job security, right?)
After lurking in this forum for the past several months I have uncovered some ugly truths about the industry. Enough to almost make me turn my back on the whole dream of becoming an airline pilot. I thought for awhile that I had the perfect plan: Instrument rating my senior year of high school, commercial and CFI my freshman year of college, followed by working the rest of the years as a part time CFI and hopefully have enough hours to be picked up by a regional.
With all that I have read about furloughs, time away from home, low pay, and no job security, should I even ATTEMPT to get into this type of career? I have absolutely no interest in going to an "Aviation oriented college". I have heard enough about the dangers of a school like that.
I just don't want to make a mistake and end up in some situation like I see guys on here are. Thanks for your advice.

 

You saw this link, right? Balanced story by an airline pilot, not aviation college recruiters and flight school salesmen.

Truth about the Profession

 

Yes, I did read that. It was what first opened my eyes to the reality of aviation.

 

If you can afford to without sacrificing all college fun go ahead and work on your ratings as long as you are having fun. Get a CFI and you know have a flexible part job where you get paid to fly. After college get a real job and see how you like that.

If you still want a flying career and the industry is not in total meltdown, make the decision then.

The hurdle to this plan is that you will have to pay for another 200-ish hours before you can get paid to fly. That's about the cost of a nice motorcycle or jetski.

 

This is important. There are SO MANY things you can do in aviation besides flying an airliner. Look at aviation business, aerospace manufacturing, aerospace engineering (if you want any hope of being a test pilot, you need this anyway), aviation safety, industrial and occupational safety in aviation, air traffic control and support, operations analysis, the list goes on and on.

In these jobs or fields, you'd be experiencing aviation day to day, and most likely would be able to afford some flying or a plane on the side. If you know how to do it right, you can do that part of it for minimal cost (homebuilt aircraft that are fuel efficient or much faster than production, etc).

Then, outside of this, there quite a few pilot opportunities outside of airline flying. These are the ones that require some experience and sometimes money, but if you want a viable path and want to be in aviation and fly ALL the time, this may be a good route as well. Get your seaplane and tailplane rating/endorsements. Become a CFI and teach other people these things. Then go be a bush pilot or fly for the forest service/agriculture dept. There is corporate flying of course, and quite a few things in between (contract flying, etc).

Bottom line is, do not focus too much on the above paragraph, focus on the first sentence that I quoted. There are so many things you can do. Even if you never get anything more than a private pilot certificate, there are a lot of jobs and aviation areas where that will benefit you in terms of knowledge and experience, and then you can fly for fun on your own terms.

 

I was about to say that you left out the FAA (white or black hat), but I see you hit many of the different career fields available

USMCFLYR

 

I'll be contrarian to a lot of posts on APC, even some of my own. I think aviation can be a great career, opportunities are going to increase greatly as the boomers retire by the end of the decade; new technologies are coming and financial stability is finally achieved.

BUT,

A couple of cautions:

If you want to fly, don't get sucked into the airline captain myth. There are great careers flying all kinds of planes and missions. The airlines are where enthusiasm for flyng goes to die.

Next, you have to really love flying, not be in love with the idea of the lifestyle. You have to want to learn something everyday; take some joy in nature; enjoy interacting with the many wonderful people. If you think having time off and making big money is flyng, you will be sadly disappointed.

Lastly, learn skills and education that will allow you to earn a living "with your hands or mind". Too many pilots learn too late that their life is completely tied to a business enterprise that must give them an expensive asset to fly. No asset, no work.

GF