TiredSoul

Get all your ratings step by step and keep your day job.
As others have stated do not go into debt over this.
If you dedicate yourself to this you can have all your ratings in 12 months then consider part time instruction or other ways of time building.
You can be debt free at a regional in 4-5 years with a 30 year career ahead of you.

Aquilotti1

i appreciate everyone's point of view. I think i probably didn't explain my self the way I wanted to do, its just a lot information and feelings to express. I did get my discovery flight in, actually I took 3 in my life time. I know I could master the skill of flying. I know this is stupid but I grew up playing Microsoft Flight Sim so during my discovery flights I always used the knowledge i learned from the game and really helped me out. Becoming a pilot was always my lifetime dream when I was a kid but unfortunately my family and I weren't in a stable financial situation back than and I was unable to enroll into a flight school. fast forward 14 years and things are way different now. I kinda just wanted to know if what this schools are telling me and this is not just from ATP but also from a local part 141 school that finding a job for a regional carrier without a degree at the end of my hour building wouldn't be a problem at all and that I would only spend 4 to 5 years max in the regionals thru the flow program before upgrading to Majors. Or this will change in the next 3 years since thats probably when I'll be able to apply to this carriers. Also I was reading some people had issues getting hired by Envoy for example even with a Bachelors degree which I don't have so imagine how much harder it would be for me. Pretty much is what I'm trying to ask is what this schools are selling me regarding my transtion from regional to majors true or not?

Excargodog

1. Regionals routinely take people without four year degrees. Most legacy airlines either do not or take them only under incredibly rare circumstances, like you are just coming back from eloping with the CEOs underage daughter, he flipped a coin between heads - hiring some thugs to take you out, and tails - welcoming you into the family - and it came up tails.

2. Flow programs exist for the purpose of staffing THE REGIONAL - not the major. You MAY get in a pipeline which will get you to a major eventually, or the flow program MAY go away while you are still in the pipeline with little or no recourse. It has happened to others.

Those two things you can count on. The rest is iffy.

Lagoon

I would do it one rating at a time. Since you have time off from your full time job, use that time to earn your private, then instrument and within a year or so, you'd have earned your ratings and still have your job, just in case.

If you start and don't like it, it can be a hobby.

Aquilotti1

so pretty much I should stay where I'm at and not go for this

Aquilotti1

my idea was to take a month or 2 of unpaid leave from my job and take the private course full time at my local part 141 flight school.. and after that I would definetly know if I would want to this for the rest of my life or not. If I did decide to go forward I would leave my job and take the rest of the ratings full time either at atp or ny local 141 school. That's the plan I have in mind as of now. But the response from others dont look to promising regarding the flow programs and my chances of making it far once I'm in the airlines

pitchattitude

Do you currently live in one of the AA hubs, or do you commute? Makes life easier to fly while you are employed.

PLAN to take 50% longer to do everything you are being told. Earn ratings, get hired and flow. AA wholly owneds have the only true flow throughs. None of the others will get you to the majors without still jumping through the same hoops. Big thing is not having a degree and that limits most people getting to a major.

I have heard but cannot confirm that Envoy has tightened up hiring. Not sure about PSA and Piedmont. Coming from AA you MIGHT have a better chance.

The other thing is if you are female, you have a much better shot of being hired. It is reality that women get hired with less qualifications than men, but you still have to meet the minimums and most majors require the four year so that puts you back to needing the flow.

Envoy is selling a five to six year flow. But the math doesn’t support it. Probably closer to seven or eight. Remember I said add 50% to any planned times?

Talk to some of your pilots that have recently flowed from one of the WOs.

TiredSoul

Again, you don’t need to take time off for this.
National average is 70-80 hrs of training so let’s say 75.
If you fly 3 hrs a day on average you need 25 flying days. Add 5 days that you have to cancel because the weather conditions are not favorable for what you need to practice and you have 30 flying days.
Add 15 day’s that you need to spend studying about 6 hrs a day and you need 45 days.
Thats 2 months while YOU KEEP YOUR JOB.
Yes you’ll be busy and you may need to put your social life on hold for a little bit hey that’s all part of the game.

pitchattitude

As an FA, you will be able to study on your overnights and you can use your pilots to help explain things and study. Most of us are more than happy to talk aviation. Most you don’t even have to ask. We’ll talk whether or not you want to hear it. 🤣 Toughest part is keeping it it relevant to what you’re learning.

gwt9678

Bid your schedule for max days off, go part 61 and you can be at CFI in 12 months. I got my PPL april of last year, and will have my CFI ride in about 3 weeks. While working a full time job. The nice part is that I have no flying debt, which will be a huge help while I'm scraping by for the next year or two.