Financing pilot training.
 

Does anyone know which lending instituition has the lowest intrest rate?

Thanks,

Stefan

That cannot be answered here. It depends on too many things.


As to the title... as little as possible

Sallie Mae was what my flight school used and I never heard anyone complain about the rates.

Ill go ahead and complain about the rates......sallie mae is killing me!!

Flight school is sooo expensive, unless you're wealthy, I don't know any other way of financing way other than getting a loan

I was listening to the Dave Ramsey show on talk radio the other day. He is a financial advisor. This lady called in and said her husbad wanted to go to flight school and they had just figured out how to finance it. He said "Don't do it. Spending 60-100K to make 20K is a bad investment."

Whatever your interest rate, remember you still have to pay it back. It's not the rate that kills you. It's the 60-100K.

I was actually thinking about abandoning my dream of flying because school is so incredibly expensive and pilots earn sh*t.

Well if you spend $60-100k yeah it's quite the bad deal. Especially if considered on top of college debt, assuming you have it.

But if you use your head and work smart it is possible to only owe $35k for everything including CFI with 50 hours of multi-engine time. That is an amount that can be justified if the return on investment is potentially high, which it is in some cases for pilots. You would have to enjoy the lifestyle and sacrifices inherent in airline flying and be willing to stick it out and make it to a major airline. But it can be done and is done all the time. If what you really want out of your professional life is easy money and an easy life, that's fine but airline work is probably not for you. It's a demanding job for those with a little extra drive than in a lot of occupations.

There is a short summary on the piloting career found in Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Cubdriver, putting in the years of hard work is not the problem. Even the low pay wouldn't be so bad, as long as I'm able to fly. The cost for school is the major problem.

Cost for a flight school? Work odd jobs to pay for it... that's what I did. It is a slow way to get it done compared to attending a pilot mill, but if you are young the time savings is not enough reason to pay twice what the ratings are worth. The difference in time is not that significant anyway. You can get all your ratings through FBO or university-based flying clubs in maybe 3 years realistically speaking, and I have seen people do it only two. It works well in parallel with college coursework.

When I was in college a couple of years ago I convinced one of my pals that he needed to become a professional pilot. He took me quite seriously, joined the Army as a warrant officer and has since achieved all of his ratings in a Bell JetRanger at Uncle Sam's expense. He is a smart kid, and I am impressed what he made happen.