All,
This is my first post, but I’ve been reading you guys for some time. I’ve recently enrolled in the PanAm Academy and start in January. After getting an Engineering degree and a Master’s in Business, I let my soul slowly deteriorate in a successful corporate job. After I couldn’t take it anymore, I decided to take the step of fulfilling my dream of becoming a pilot. I did a LOT of research before making my choice, and I have to trust it. But, this is still a scary but exciting time for me and my family. I feel like I’m still young at 29, but this kind of change at this time in my life is challenging to say the least.

I’d appreciate any advice that any of you have for the future. Does anyone have any opinions on the PanAm Academy? Is the better choice to go the Instructor route to build time, or just pay to get my flight time and get on with a Regional as soon as I can?

P.S. I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that I won’t work for free.

 

here is what worked for me. i took my first flight in aug 2000( age 28) with zero time. finally completed my cfi in spring of 02 and started work as a cfi that summer. hired at my current airline at the end of 03. alot of people always ask me if this was a career change and i tell em no. you must HAVE a career to begin with, i didn't. if i could make it this far you'll have no problem.

i loved instructing. i hated instructing. but i had a hell of a time doing it. met alot of great people(also got me my current gig). i still run into former students of mine at my airline(thank god im senior to them

29.....you've got time to learn, teach and learn some more. i probaly would instruct again...make a little money and then go get your job. it will be the most fun flying you'll ever do.....while your at it get your seaplane and tailwheel....f'ing awesome and totally fun. i miss the champ, cub, C180 and the ol BE 95. good luck.

 

I'm finishing up my CFI. I should have it in the next couple weeks. I was sitting at the flight school a couple days ago talking to a few of the instructors about their experiences. There was a pretty mixed group. A couple guys have been doing it for years, a couple had a year or two, and one guy just started 6 weeks ago. The one thing they all agreed on is that they felt they were much better pilots than when they started. Their decision making was better, their stick and rudder was better, and their awareness was better.

I'd go do the CFI thing for a year or two. You're not going to make much money, but you'll make great job contacts and might even have a little fun in the process. You're teaching somebody how to do something you love doing. How cool is that?

I've been flying for 5 years. Now that I've been doing it for a while I know quite a few people at various airlines and it seems that nearly everybody "has a buddy" that walked their resume in. It really does seem to be more about who you know rather than what you know. That is, of course, assuming you don't totally suck (read the faking hours thread).

 

FG,

Now that you have chosen aviation as a career I am sure that you will have lots of opportunities to change careers again in the future. I would avoid instructing if I were you. You are not missing anything and would take an airline job as fast as I could. Flight instructing is a lot of things one of them is dangerous. I thought that my skills dulled during my CFI days since I was dealing with new students and not being exposed to people of higher experience. In addition a CFI rarely gets to fly himself and therefore your skills can fade.

SkyHigh

 

I have to disagree. It may sound ridiculous, but when you instruct, you are the "Captain" of that C-172. Your situational awareness and decision making skills will improve in leaps and bounds over what they would towing banners in slow flight up and down the beach at 50 KIAS, flying in circles looking for forest fires, or watching the afternoon traffic from 1,000 feet. As an instructor, you are in your first command position as a pilot. You will be much better prepared to fly with that low-time, new hire pilot at a regional airline when you upgrade than someone who has never instructed. Besides, how else will you get from the 200-300 hours you will have when you finish getting your ratings to the hundreds of hours you will need to get your first airline gig? If you get your CFI and work as an instructor, you will recoop the cost of the rating, make a little extra money, make contacts, and gain invaluable experience on your way to that first "real" flying job.

And, since nobody has said it yet...avoid the pay-for-training shortcut academies at all costs!

 

SkyHigh,

Were you ever a CFI? If so, perhaps you had the wrong attitude or capabilites to be an effictive teacher. No offense intended, but I can guarantee that if you compare an average CFI against any civilian pilots, the CFI will fly more precisely, smoothly and proficiently 99% of the time.

Teaching is THE BEST way to learn and master a skill. It requires a higher level of proficiency than just doing. If your "skills dulled" while you were teaching, then I wonder how effective you actually were. While there might be a small amount of increased risk while teaching, that's one of the things that allows a CFI to gain valuable experience- seeing people make mistakes- and learn from them to apply that knowledge to other situations.

In addition, if you're good at it, teaching can be a very rewarding experience. One of the things that I miss most about teaching (I'd still do it if my schedule permitted) was having the ability to share my passion for flight with somebody else that had the same passion. And trust me... this day and age, it's a very valuable thing to have that passion, because the airlines aren't everything they used to be.

 

you couldn't have done too much research----or you never would have taken on this career path......

 

So...who was in command on all of your solo flights?

 

I would attend ALLATPS - they can get you done and on the line teaching with much better time in your log book.

Check them out. By the way - I too have an engineering background (Computer Engineer) and am looking into grad school for a MBA. I'm looking at an on-line degree. Since I'll be up in DC - there are a few good school around for that...

Like you I'm going to get into flying. However, I'm going to have completed a career in the military first. The industry is just too much of a crap shoot for me to risk my familys QOL / future to scratch my own selfish urges.

I understand your situation is different - I wish you the best of luck.

-LAFF

 

One more thing...I read on another thread that on average most CFIs (now RJ pilots / major airline pilots) said they only flew 3%-5% of the time they logged as CFIs.

To me that indicated they were good CFIs. Their students are the ones that should be flying - how else would they learn???

-LAFF