kevbo

Most successful pilots have granny's that gift them enough for a bachelors degree, pilot training through CFI, and all expenses until they get to a major.

Day4mx

Just do it...itll all be worth it when you make it to the airlines and you get that first 11h30m overnite at the holiday inn-highway in kmdt.

galaxy flyer

Head in the clouds.....feet on a barstool.

GF

tomgoodman

Not a granny, but an Uncle. The only catch is a service obligation of several years.

SilentLurker

Why the 3 yr minimum?

P.s. I heard lots of no’s. Could not get a co-signed. The ones who wanted to co-sign had bad Credit. So I paid as I went.

If it’s truly a dream and not just words, you will not give up no matter your age or time frame. Be realistic, give yourself time, Save, Have a Budget, Stick to it. You can’t have fun and eat out and go for ur dreams, takes a little sacrifice (unless your norms rich, or will family house to take out a loan on).

Some commuter/regionals have employee programs where they pay for your ratings. Piedmont, Envoy Air has one.

Keep doing ur research, keep studying, be determined and stay focus and on a budget/spending track, keep dreaming, and keep taking care of your family.You will achieve your goals. If ur able, also try Uber and Lift part time to save money for flying. Save a good amount to nearly finish before you get started. Study and take practice written exams & get your Medical done before you get started.

Mustache

You have a few options, and Dera is right about those numbers. Often times schools that aren't all-inclusive like ATP, a quick but expensive choice, don't truly tell you what each aspect costs and they final bill ends up MUCH higher than you expected(check rides, written exams, the meter running while sitting on the ground, etc). As a regional FA I assume you are still on reserve, be it SCR, LCR, HRV, or if your lucky a R1. Your biggest obstacles are going to be Money and Time.

That being said, this is absolutely possible for you to pursue your dream of flying. There are so many ways to get to your end game in this industry. You should start by taking all this advice, mine included, with a grain of salt. We've all had drastically different experiences.

So, for the Money aspect.
I flew in Daytona. That airport is very busy due to many flight schools in the area, including ERAU and ATP. Adding on the airline traffic, private jets, and other general aviation, you may be spending hundreds of dollars to just sit on the ground. When I say sit on the ground, if you are unsure of what I mean, flight school planes usually have a Meter (timer) for the aircraft that usually starts ticking by tenths of an hour (0.1 hrs = 6 minutes) as soon as the engine is on. It may take you 0.2 hrs to get from the ramp into the air on a calm sunday, or it may take 0.6 hrs (36 minutes) on a busy tuesday afternoon when there are a lot of departures and other students flying from multiple flight schools. You may take 0.1 or 0.2 hrs to get back to the ramp after landing.
These numbers are just estimates (with 0.6 being an unusually high, but possible wait time)but they are realistic in busy airports including KDAB, so anyone can save their comments for after we try to give this nice lady some honest advice.
Therefore, if you expected to fly for 1.0 hrs, you may truly only get 0.6 hrs of flight time. Or end up paying for 1.5 hrs of flight time to feel like your actually got to practice the stuff you intended to, because of the start up, taxi, take off at the beginning, and the landing and taxi back to ramp at the end. Most people wished they understood this part of training before they went into it.

I would, again, agree with Dera where it may cost closer to $7,000-$10,000 with a lot of variables in there (other people may have seen cheaper and that is great, I just don't have experience with that). One of the largest is how often you are able to study and to fly.

Which brings me to Time. FA's are usually very busy. I do not know your schedule or if you hold a R1 or you sit SCR in DCA 5 days a week. The biggest factor I've seen with my students (of all ages and backgrounds) is the lack of studying and not flying often enough. Sometimes they think they understand the subject better than they truly do. Sometimes they have to go home for a week to be with their family for a childs birthday party, holidays, etc. The point is, we all have personal lives and before we started flying, we all had more or less normal jobs. It is difficult to balance them. But, if your sitting SCR for 5 days in DCA, you can sit in the crew room and read some Private Pilot stuff for an hour. Its kind of like working out. Most of us hate doing it and make excuses, but realistically theres always time for a 30 minute session regardless of how tired we are. And thats not to say you wouldn't study, its just a common problem I both had when I was in training and I see with my students.

The more important factor will be how often do you fly. If you can fly 2x a week, that would be great. Everything is fresh or at most a few days old. If you only fly 2x a month, your maneuvers and landings will take longer to learn and thus cost more money to fly more until you get them down. Its common sense that certain skills are perishable, but often times people believe their skills are retained longer than they really are until they are tested on them. Only then do they realize they may need to work more on something they thought they mastered.

Now after all of that, your age is not a factor at all. Your family may make it difficult sometimes to fly because of obligations. Your job may make it difficult to fly. However, you are right in the center of aviation. Walk up to a young CA or FO and ask them what they know about it. Where did they train, were they CFI's, do they know any good schools or individual instructors around the area? Ask the old ones too but the young ones have the most recent experience.

YES you can definitely do this well within 3 years. You will probably have to rethink your budget as previously stated, but it is possible as long as you commit to it and do not make excuses. It'll be difficult at times but its very rewarding. The aviation community is the tightest knit community I've ever seen. Ive personally had people I've never even met call me based on a reference from a friend or family member and be willing to talk to me and help me out. You will definitely find that around DCA if you express genuine interest. And don't get put off by rude or negative people, those people exist too and just focus on what you want to do. Its very possible. I know this post was excruciatingly long but you can PM me if you have more questions or like some more advice. Hope it helped and doesn't spark too many offshoot arguments/debates over anything I mentioned.

Air Stang 7

Why limit yourself to one option all the way in DAB? Perhaps you should look at closer and less busy airports such as ISM, ORL or maybe even SFB.

CAPILOTAIN

Here is a more realistic breakdown of the costs involved.

Average Training Costs

Private Pilot 60 hours ——– $12,450
Instrument Rating 50 hours ——– $11,450
Time Building 125 hours ——– $5,312.50
Commercial Pilot 20 hours ——– $6,900
Multi Engine Rating 15 hours ——– $6,625
Total Time 265 hours Total Cost $42,737.50


Private Pilot Course
Cessna 152 60 hours $85 / hour $5,100
Cessna 172 60 hours $115 / hour $6,900
Flight Instruction 50 hours $80 / hour $4,000
Ground Instruction 30 hours $80 / hour $2,400
Material and Exam Fees $950
TOTAL $12,450 (152) $14,250 (172)


Instrument Rating Course
Cessna 152 50 hours $85 / hour $4,250
Cessna 172 50 hours $115 / hour $5,570
Flight Instruction 50 hours $80 / hour $4,000
Ground Instruction 30 hours $80 / hour $2,400
Material and Exam Fees $800
TOTAL $11,450 (152) $12,870 (172)


Time Building
Cessna 152 125 hours $42.50 / hour $5,312.50
TOTAL $5,312.50
*Time building costs are shared with other pilots*


Commercial Pilot Course
C-172RG 20 hours $145 / hour $2,900
Flight Instruction 20 hours $80 / hour $1,600
Ground Instruction 20 hours $80 / hour $1,600
Material and Exam Fees $800
TOTAL $6,900


Multi Engine Course
Piper Seminole 15 hours $255.00 per hour $3,825
Flight Instruction 15 hours $80 / hour $1,200
Ground Instruction 10 hours $80 / hour $800
Material and Exam Fees $800
TOTAL $6,625

dera

With any self motivation, those aren't that realistic either. Who needs 90 hours of ground school for CP-AMEL/ASEL, at $80/hr for GROUND?

I wouldn't call those realistic either, but they are unrealistically high, not low.

FlightLevel350

I agree, if you’re dedicated and self motivated why would you need so much ground school? I myself work best by sitting in a room hitting the books hard followed by some hands on teaching on the actual aircraft. This is where the value of a great instructor truly shines.

In life I’ve found that self reliance is one of the best traits found in any person. Read the books and if a section of the book confuses you, then seek out the answer. In a world of google and a ton of YouTube videos, you’re bound to find the answer and when you do, it’ll be yours forever since it wasn’t so easily handed out.

Yet I do suspect that there are some people that work best with many hours of ground training. To each their own.

I don’t mind paying $80 or $100 an hour for a great flight instructor, but when I see that many hours of ground instruction, I’m always a litttle skeptical. Especially when I don’t see it as an optional thing, I have been looking through some flight schools in my area and do notice that many of them do this. To each their own, I’m sure it works for some. Just know that all that ground instruction as shown above amounts to about 7k. Which is money that can be put towards your CFI ratings.

Furthermore, that is why places like ATP are such a joke. They charge nearly double the price quote shown above yet provide zero ground school. Which like I said is fine, but for nearly 90k...it’s not that fine.

Lastly, my comments here are guided towards a self starter who like most of us wants to finish their training at the most afordable price possible. Like I said, there are people who could greatly benefit from plenty of one on one ground instruction and there are those to whom ATP works great for. Different strokes for different folks.