HS student seeking advice!
 

Hello, everybody! My name is Anton and I'm a high school student(junior).
For all of my life, I've wanted to become a commercial aviation pilot... until I visited this site:(. But, still, I do not want to throw aviation away from my mind and think that career of aviation engineer would be great for me. So, my question is: what perspectives exist in this area? I mean:
1) Is it easy to get the job?
2) And where is it possible?
3) What salaries do aviation engineers earn in the beginning of their career?
I would be very glad to receive any answer.

need your advice
 

Don't let what you read on this site discourage you from pursuing your dream of flying. This forum represents a very small, but very vocal, group of pilots. Many of the folks on this forum would be miserable no matter what they did for a living. Engineering is a wonderful career, but so is flying. Please run away from this forum as fast as you can. Go to your local airport and speak with the pilots there.

Engineering isn't for everyone either. Lots of calculus, physics, and dynamics courses; but you may love it. Don't let people talk you out of anything. Educate yourself on the facts and make your own educated decisions. I do disagree on the fact that this forum is not a good place to get information about the industry. On the contrary, I think it's a great place to get information on the (usually) not so great sides of this industry.

On to the questions:
1) Depends, aeronautical engineering is not in as great a demand as mechanical, chemical or petroleum. If you maintain a high GPA, get some internships and network, you shouldn't have a problem finding a job.
2) Anywhere where they manufacture, design, repair, or maintain aircraft
3) Some make 80k, some make 40k, again, it depends. Usually engineers make in the 50-60k range to start on average.

My last piece of advice would be not to get too hung up on what you want to do with your life now. Go to college and try out your major for the first couple semesters. Don't like it? No problem....change majors. No aviation degree though.

Realize that engineering isn't just sitting behind a computer every single day doing the same thing, world class companies like boeing realize that to keep employees happy, they have to rotate them around, have them do different projects, and so on. My uncle was an engineer for MD and got to travel all around the world. When something is used by another company, has to be designed around, and so on, you often have to meet with them and go over the design, or respond to accidents and investigations all over the world. There's lots of stuff that you can get to do, so it's not just pilots that get to go all over the world, in fact for most pilots their job doesn't take them all over the world, because relatively very few US pilots fly international. Then of course there's test flight and everything that goes with it (requires engineering degree, etc)...

An engineering degree is a great pursuit and my engineer friends are very happy. Most of them started around 2-3x more than regional airline pilots in terms of pay, and of course they have real increases and promotions they can get, rather than being held down for the chance of "making it" at a major airline.

There's lots that aerospace engineering can prepare you for, especially outside of just aerospace engineering.

The other aspect, and this happens almost weekly on this site, is that you said you have aspired to be a "commercial aviation pilot". When you say this, do you mean "airline pilot", or do you mean "commercial aviation pilot"? An airline pilot is a type of commercial aviation pilot, but the opportunities within commercial aviation are extremely wide ranging, from law enforcement, to insurance, to corporate pilot, to test pilot and all sorts of stuff in-between...

I totally agree with MaxRate. This does not happen in this forum only but all aviation forums.

Get a Engineering degree and go fly in the military first. The government will pay for all of your ratings.

Thank you all! I'm really grateful to receive these answers!

JamesNoBrakes, I'm sorry for your confusion! I aspired to be an airline(or cargo) pilot in a major air company like AA or Delta. And thank you for description of your uncle's job!
NTT5418, thank you for your answer!
Pogey Bait, I've thought about it. But I found out that there is no warranty that I will be a pilot, not only an officer who, as one said, will fly a desk instead of planes...

MaxRate and nader saeed: I'm thankful for your answers but want to ask you something:
"Don't let what you read on this site discourage you from pursuing your dream of flying. This forum represents a very small, but very vocal, group of pilots."
May be, this is true but isn't it also true that pilots earn 10-20k $ in the beginning of their career:(? And that this "beginning" usually lasts for 10 years:(? And that they have very unstable job:(? And education usually costs big money? Unfortunately, I can't accept these problems. But if I am not right with them or you have more positive information, I would be very glad to receive an answer from you!

If I were in high school I would seriously consider learning a trade craft. Plumbing, electrician, HVAC, etc. Why?

1.) college grads are a dime a dozen, and it's gotten outrageously expensive. Unless you get a degree in rocketsurgery from MIT the investment will leave you broke/bankrupt well into your 30's and that's assuming you get a well paying job out of college. Votech or other trade schools will cost you peanuts and require very little of your time to get into an apprenticeship.

2.) Tradesmen are in short supply, every college student that thought they were above a blue collar job are the ones bussing tables while guys doing pipe fitting, welding, etc are making in some cases well north of $100K or own their own business outright. My brother-in-law recently needed to have an electrical junction outside his house moved. Cost him $6K to do it because the only electrictian in the area was swamped, and could charge him that much. I have a buddy that recently left the Navy as a pilot. Went to vocational school in his last 6 months on active duty, learned heating and cooling systems, moved to Texas and opened his own shop. Last I talked to him he was building his second house and had just bought a Beech Bonanza.

If you want to fly, the best way to do it is for yourself. Get a good job, live within your means, buy or build your own airplane. That's the best flying there is.

HS student seeking advice!
 

It is true that the first year pay is around $20,000 a year, but that pay rate increases dramatically the second year and continues to increase from there. You will not be earning that low wage for your first 10 years by any stretch of the imagination. Please do your research outside of these forums. You need to understand that the industry will look much different over the next ten years than it has over the last ten. I strongly encourage you to do research outside of these forums before you make your final decision. While there is much valuable information here, this vocal group of pilots does not necessarily represent the industry as a whole. Looking for advice on becoming a pilot here is much like asking which democratic candidate to choose on a republican website.

Dramatically? I certainly would not characterize the second year raise at any Regional, dramatic. Anton, my worthless Reserve Note advice, get your ratings and fly for pleasure. I believe that you will enjoy watching the spectacle from the bleacher seats while making a whole lot more money doing something else. However, that being said, if your heart is set on it, give it a try. Good luck.

HS student seeking advice!
 

The average annual pay raise for US workers for 2012 was 3%. The second year raise for regional pilots is, on average, in excess of 50%. I would call that dramatic. While the second year pay rate may not be, the raise is.

Hey Anton, I don't have the knowledge or experience under my belt to tell you what you should do but I will say that I was in your shoes not long ago and I was very discouraged with the info I was getting from this website too. I decided to go to college where I could study and decide if a career in aviation was right for me or not. I'm currently a senior at the U.S. Naval Academy studying Aerospace Engineering. In my honest opinion, Aerospace engineering is one of the hardest engineering degrees you can get. Yes, you will take A LOT of calculus and physics. But don't let that scare you. It is very rewarding and you may be good at that kind of stuff. The Naval Academy is a military school, so upon graduation I will hopefully be an officer with orders to flight school (I find out in december). If selected as an aviator, that means all your training is paid for by your commitment to serve roughly 10 yrs. in the military. (Nothing is free!!) If serving your country is something you are open to, I would suggest you look into the military. Message me if you have any questions and good luck

Getting off probationary pay is not a valid comparison to the annual average payraise.

I also don't see why not automatically saying "Go for it! Be an airline pilot!" is negative. Someone is about to make a very big decision involving a very big amount of money and requiring lots of time away from home. Adding some caveats and perspectives that a flight school probably won't is a good thing. When flight schools try selling a pilot career to everybody who comes in the door-now that is a problem.

Original poster...this is a big decision. You aren't merely choosing a job, nor just a career, but the way you could live the rest of your life.

Your answers always inspire, MaxRate! But, still, let me ask you a couple questions?
Why does almost everybody here advice not to join pilots, go away from this industry? And have you had another experience?

Yeah yeah yeah.... the second year your salary will increase dramatically. Oh, but you might end up at that first year pay multiple times. I've been at the first year pay of smaller airlines twice already and am now in my 30s and will most likely be starting a new job at $25,000/yr for the third time. This is not uncommon.

My savings? Non-existent. My school debt? Very existent.

Be a pilot they said. It'll be great they said. Live your dream they said.

2nd year pay at a lot of places is significantly more than 1st year, this isn't specific to just airlines. On the other hand, many of those places pay a lot more to start with.

Anton, one of the few good things about getting older is having the benefit of hindsight and experience.

First off, never, ever let anyone discourage you from following a dream.

With that being said, when you shoot for the sky, sometimes luck isn't on your side. For that reason, you have to be very careful that if this happens, it's not catastrophic for you.

Don't go into major debt (or your parents) chasing ratings and short cuts.

Don't shortcut your way through college with a degree that is useless i the real world.

Don't let the idea of flying a 747 around the world blind you to the things in life that will be more important as you get older.

Stability, being paid what you are worth, all these things start coming into focus. You can never have too much info, even when it seems discouraging. For the majority of people, nothing worth having in life is easy. It's up to you to accept the challenge.

Keep your nose clean, make smart decisions, and anything is possible.

You should get your degree first then do your flight training, its much better if you do it that way.

But I recommend doing Aviation Science because it will help you a lot in the future.

This is funny to those of us who know better, but do NOT follow this advice!

What?! How?

OPCHECK your sarcasm detector, it seems to be in the O-F-F position.

Duly noted. Engaged. :cool: