Help for a Helicopter Technician
 

Hello all.

I am a 24 year old A&P Helicopter Technician currently working in the Middle East (trying to pay off my student loans from A&P school). I have always wanted to be a pilot, either corporate jet or Airline pilot, and am starting to think that now is the time to get the ball rolling.

My current job is ending soon, and whether or not I will have continued employment here is a bit sketchy (we can say 66% chance I keep my job, 33% chance I lose it). I make far more money here (probably about 1.5x all things told) than I did in the states, but I've been here for 3 years and am getting sick of it. My question for you is, what do you think I should do? I can either:

1) Stick it out here to try and save up as much money as possible this year before going back to the states and starting my Pilot's Training
or
2) Leave in the next few months voluntarily with a decent chunk of money and start my Pilot training now

One of the schools I was looking at is Spartan College (where I got my A&P), but to get the full training takes 33 months and $90k USD. Not even option 1 would get me much more than 50% of the money saved up. I feel like there's no "right" decision to make here, so I'm asking you all since you'll have a different perspective on it than I do.

Should I prioritize staying here and saving up the money? Or should I try getting into the training as soon as possible to build up the hours? I know piloting school isn't cheap, and new pilots don't really earn a great living.. so I am really stuck.

Avoid debt if at all possible. But have a financial plan that drives how long you need to stray in the middle east...that way you have a goal and light at the end of the tunnel.

Also I would explore other options for flight training, it seems that 90K might be a little high unless you're getting a degree or a lot of ME time (but you don't even need much ME time for regionals today anyhow).

Also...do you have a 4-year degree? You'll need one for the airlines.

I'm looking to be coming back to the states Debt free and with about around 30k dollars - which is intended for school. If I stayed all the way to the end of the year it'd be around 50k. It's a bit hard to explain without going into detail, but I will lose a lot of money over here if I don't leave before June, which is what sets the amount I make back even if I stay the full year. I was thinking if 30k is enough to start school, and I work while going to school, then everything would probably be OK and it would get me started on racking up time earlier (the earlier the better, I've heard).

The 90k USD flight program does sound like a lot, but that is including a Bachelor's Degree and it's done in 33 months as opposed to 48 (4 year). This picture can probably explain it a bit better. Their proposed cost for the Bachelor's Program is assuming I go to another college for the flight training as well, which tacks on like an extra 50k USD. Whereas I could do an online Bachelor's course in another field from another college probably much cheaper.

ATP Flight is in Las Vegas (my home stateside) and is much cheaper, but I don't think it includes the Bachelor's degree at all, which is, as you said, a requirement for any major airline. The real question is do I pay a lot of money and go back into debt but knock it all out in one big go or do I do the flight training first for a lower initial cost, and then take an online bachelor's course while working as a CFI or something else?

Like I said, it feels like there's no "right" answer so I'm looking for advice from people who have a different perspective and are already experienced in this.