Paying for Flight School/Training
 

Hello everyone, I hope you and all of your families are healthy and safe. I’ll keep it straight to the point. What options do I have as a minority to pay for flight school?

The Breakdown:
I’m 25yrs old living in Charlotte, NC. I graduated recently with my BA in a liberal arts degree (I was originally accepted into embry riddle in 2013 out of high school but it was far too expensive). Fast forward to now, I’m lost as to how or what options I have to pay for flight school. It seems almost impossible to get money for it unless you a) have a co-signer for a loan (which I unfortunately do not), b) in high school or college and eligible for scholarships or c) just plain rich. I’ve spoken to a local flight school which quoted me $60,000 from 0 to ATP as I have 1.3hr from a discovery flight with them. The cheaper alternative was $12,000 for just my PPL which I felt was decent. Any pilots out there who faced the same situation early in their career? And lastly, are there ANY options to get trained for free or low cost by an airline or school and your repayment being your aviation services moving forward?

Thank you to anyone who responds to this!

Have you looked into the military? That may be a good option right now since the country is in a recession and you're young. They'll pay for your training, which by far is probably the best training in the world, in return for your commitment to them (ie time).

There aren't any airlines that have programs where they pay for all your training (maybe cadet and lift programs?), but my guess is that they may all be getting rid of those in the very near future due to the current state of the industry.

The fact that you have a college degree may get you into flight school within the military faster.

If you don't want to go the military route, then your only other option really is to 'pay as you go' (ie save up money from your day job to help fund your flight training).

Whichever route you decide, it takes a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and persistence to get to the airlines. It certainly is not a cake walk.

Good Luck

Why did you feel it was necessary to mention you’re a minority?
You could choose to go this path that many of us followed, piecemeal your training.
Work and save and work and save.
Save enough to get your Private out of the way then turn it down to maybe one flight a week or every 10 days ( lets say $750-$1000/month) to keep your skills up while you save for your instrument rating.
You’ll need to find a way to save $1000/month initially then $2000/month.
This means your parents basement and no car loan and no expensive new smart phone and no expensive anything.
Buy clothes at thrift stores, you’ll pay $5 for a $40 quick dry sports shirt.
Buy shoes at PayLess.
Seriously this is how a large part of us have done it.

Do you have any student debt from your undergraduate? Have you tried applying for a loan for schools like ATP? If you have good credit, you may be able to qualify for financing on your own. I know i qualified for the financing for LIFT (didnt go there). Do you have family members that are able to co-sign and are not willing? It may take a sincere conversation with them to convince them. Personally, it took me sitting down with my family member for 2 hours and hammering home that this was my passion, didnt want to do anything else and they were the only way i would get there. You could also find a cheaper school and pay as you go ... In my area, theres a mom and pop school that will get you PPL-CFI for around 43K. While it may be slower, you will still get there in the end. Not like theres any reason to rush into the industry at the moment.

If you don’t want to go the military flight route for any particular reason, you could also consider doing four years in a military field that could serve as a career backup resume builder. Then get the GI bill and do civilian training when you get out. This would delay you a little, but it might take a while to scrounge together $60k anyway. If you find a way to qualify for a personal loan you’ll be paying that off for way longer.

Get a good job and pay as you go, it's really that simple. For instance Trex is hiring where I live, starting 19$ an hour, that's 39K a year. Budget 1000K a month, in a couple years you will have a private, commercial, instrument and a couple hundred hours. Many of us did it this way, hard work yes, but it's better then being 100K in debt, especially nowadays.

Get your private then apply for scholarships.

i also second this this right here.

That's not realistic for most people in most places in the US. Plus, it is seniority based, so the idea is that you want to get to your destination as fast as possible.

A private pilot program in the Southeast area should cost you about $8000 at the most.

I would recommend not getting a BA in liberal arts (but it sounds like that is a little too late). Get a degree that allows you to earn a good living so you can pay for flight training. I really doubt a BA in liberal arts would do that.

There are a hundred thousand pilots out there that have been in the same place that you are right now. They worked hard, sacrificed, and did everything that it took to be successful. You should try to do the same.