19 year old son wants to fly
 

Son, 19 and in excellent health and at leading regional university, is considering a flying career. Training through multi-engine/instrument will be expensive, as we all know. Military flight training is a feast or famine crap shoot.

Given turbulence in the airline industry, fuel prices, economic sine wave, age 65 retirement age, projected shortage of pilots, relative shortfall of military training, and other variables, what is the collective wisdom that you all can offer?

What are the short, medium, and longterm prospects for someone of this age?

How best to proceed? Not to proceed?

If he wants a "lying" career, tell him to go into politics. How far someone is able to go into politics is directly proportional to how good of a liar he/she is.

It depends on just how serious he is about his consideration of an aviation career. This is a avocation, not a job...it requires a certain 'fire in the belly'.

Assuming he has this, my choice would be to pursue a military flying slot. It's the best training available...and it's free. Of course, there's the commitment...but everything has a price, and the commitment is the military's pound of flesh.

The best of both worlds is to join an Air National Guard unit and have them send you to AF pilot training. Then return to the ANG unit to both a civilian job and a military flying opportunity.

The military experience will add a perspective on life that the civilian sector just can't provide.

HAHA wow wannabepilot that made me lol.:D

And vice versa... the civilian experience will add a perspective on life that the military just can't provide.

;)

If I had to do it all over again I am not sure I would do it. Maybe. But when I see folks at parties who are earning lots of money and are home every night I am pretty envious. They all say they wish they had become pilots. I have given up telling people who little we really earn because it hit home with very few.

I didn't get into this for money, and I love the flying and the continuous challenges of the job. But a proper payday would be nice.

Example - I was reading Money magazine and their was a profile of a couple earning $300K and how they could make their life more financially secure. $300K? And they're acting like that's barely enough?

Tell your son to pursue it if he likes, but also to have a degree in business or finance. Flying is great. So is being able to live better than paycheck to paycheck.

A lying career? Ohhhh... a lawyer. Yeah, law school is expensive.

I would have to agree with the forementioned..you HAVE to have a "fire in your belly" to fly..most of us have wanted this since childhood. My kids are very young, and i ponder there future..i get asked by co-workers all the time,"are ya gonna push your kids into flying?"...the down side for me is the time away from home..my wife is basically a single mom 4 days a week. HOWEVER....my job is SICK!!(well, it was, im starting at a major on tues. so no more seniority or left seat for a while) I feel like I have the best job in the world. There are many reasons to fly or not fly for an occupation..but the key is the desire. If you pursue this career for $$, good luck! you have to like what you do. oh yeah, the chicks dig the uniform!! j/k

My Granddad flew P-38's in WWII, my Great Uncle flew CH-46's in Vietnam, my Dad flew O-1 Bird dogs in Vietnam, I flew choppers (Desert Storm) and fixed wing in the Army, my wife flew fixed wing in the Army. I currently fly for Delta (the only one in my family to fly commercially). When people ask if I want one of my children to follow in the family footsteps I tell them H@ll no!

When I was 19, I asked many people the same questions....and I was told by everyone that the majors would be hiring for ever, I would be a captain in a few years, and life would be great.....this was before 9/11. If anyone had the ability to even come close to predicting the quality of an airline career they would be extremely rich. The point is, this is a business you have to get into because of one reason.....a love for flying. I personally love my job, and would have gone into aviation no matter what those people told me years ago.

The best advise I can offer your son is to be extremely selfish right now, and make the decision about his future based only on what will make him happy to get up and go to work everyday. This business is EXTREMELY difficult at times, and it can be a very hard road to get to the dream job.

Good luck to your son!
CS