Ready to make the first step
 

I am 22 years old, no debt, good health, etc. I've known I wanted to be a pilot since I was old enough to comprehend what an airplane was, and now I think I am ready to get started with what I know will be a very long and expensive process. I live in Atlanta, 30 miles north to be more precise, and there are several flight schools in the area. The ones I am considering currently are:

Falcon Aviation
Falcon Aviation - Dekalb Peachtree Location

and

Aviation Atlanta
Aviation Atlanta Flight Training

I am trying to approach this from a realistic perspective. I am 22 with no flight experience to speak of. I know it will be years and years before I am in a decent paying job flying a plane. Alll I am expecting from these schools is something that will get my foot in the door with an unheard of airline, regardless of what I am flying or the salary I am making. I am willing to work my way up from the bottom. My questions are directed to those of you that are already successful pilots. I want your input on what you think of those schools, or possibly some you know of in my area that you think would be better.

Another thing I am concerned about is the money. The listed price at Aviation Atlanta for the full commercial training course is 75,000 dollars, but I am sure there are hidden fees that I won't know about until I sign up. Where have some of you gotten your student loans from? I will need the type where you only have to start paying it back once you graduate, because between work to pay the bills and this course I will be TAPPED.

Any input is appreciated.
-Dustin L

$75K is way overpriced! Search this board. You could do it for at least 20-30K less.

I agree...do it for less....you'll thank youself later.

I am somewhat familar with both of those schools. Both have good reputations but are expensive, and as Slice said you can do much better than that. You ought to consider the fact you will earn about $20k per year the first year or two in your regional airline career and no more than $40k for planning purposes the next two years. AeroAtlanta in Kenessaw may be able to beat it, and Flight School at Gwinnett. There is no hurry to get there at least as far as flight training goes, in fact it is better to try and minimize debt. There is also a small school at KFTY you might try- Fulton Aviation... they only have a couple of airplanes and should have some pretty low rates.

I agree with the above replies.

However, I'm not sure though if you mean the "bottom" as being a low paying regional airline pilot or by being a 1200 hr CFI teaching basic flight skills until it makes you sick. The latter may be much more feasible in tomorrow's aviation world. Be ready to CFI, pipeline, skydivers, survey, freight before you ever see a jet.

Overall, my opinion is you've thought this through, done your homework, and you are making a great choice to start on a career that you really want to pursue. I only replied here to make sure you remember to enjoy the ride. I know too many friends that are ready to just drop the whole field because they didn't get a regional gig out of school with 500 hours. They all love flying intensely, but they forgot to find bright spots in their current flying jobs (CFI) no matter how bad it gets.

Good luck and keep your eyes skyward!

Thank you all for the feedback. 20,000 is a much sweeter sounding figure than 75,000. I remember reading in another thread that anyone interested in pursuing a career as an airline pilot should be prepared to be six figures in debt by the time it's all said and done. Where does the extra eighty or so thousand come into play?

I also should probably mention that I have no college credits. I typically do very well on tests, but aside from high school the only formal training I have that I can put on paper is being MECP certified (which is completely unrelated to avionics) I have been told that airline companies only care about having experience, and lots of it, but something about that doesn't add up to me. Would not having a degree be a major obstacle in me trying to become a successful pilot?

As for making 20,000 teaching CFI that is fine with me. I expect to be scraping pennies for years. As long as I am working around aircraft and all the ambience that comes with them, my initial pay is not a concern as long as I have opportunities to advance and eventually make a decent living. Again, thanks for all the feedback you have given


*edit* let me rephrase. I will work for any company, doing any type of flying for them. I don't have to be working for an airline, although I would love to do that. My ONLY goal is to be flying a plane as my career, with a stable company, and stable pay. Money is not an issue as long as I can at some point be making enough to support a family, but I understand you have to work towards that.

With the price of fuel, you can probably get all of your ratings for about $40K (including CFI/CFII/MEI), but this can vary by location.

People often talk abot spending "$100K" to get into the airlines because some folks pay that or more at the large schools...and they usually reget it.

You might have to buy some ME time at some point, and at the entry level you may not make enough money to live on, so you might consider that an additional expense also if you have to borrow or spend savings.

Most regionals prefer a 4-year degree, but will not enforce that when they need pilots badly enough. But you can assume that you WILL NOT get a major airline job without a 4-year degree.

Be careful about being to willing to work for little or nothing just to break into aviation. Employers have mastered the art of luring young pilots for peanuts...but too often the stability and acceptable wages that you dream about never materialize. Your attitude actually is considered a disease in professional aviation....it's called Shiny Jet Syndrome (SJS). The problem is that when you work for nothing there is a probably a middle-aged professional pilot who is going to lose his job to you because you're cheaper. Of course what goes around comes around...YOU might get replaced by a low-time 22 year-old after you are established, making good money, and have a wife, kids, and mortgage.

I'm just being informative here, but if you made that post on other forums you would receive profanity in response.

I am getting mixed signals from everything I read here. Some say that there is no way of ever making a career in aviation, all hope is lost, give up now, woe is me. I assumed that these posts were from the pilots that have not yet found the success they want, so I took it with a grain of salt. Now you are saying if I enter the field with an attitude of working hard and not expecting much right away, I will be stuck in the cycle for the rest of my life, while being a homewrecker of older, higher paid pilots.

Bottom line, I am in this for all the right reasons. I want to be a pilot. I am determined to get what I want. If me being willing to work for lower wages gets someone laid off I think that is truly a ****ty thing, but it is the harsh reality of big business as all of you know. I know young kids like me are probably detested by the more experienced pilots in the field, having SJS as you call it.

I don't expect to work for a major airline without a college degree. I may decide to get a bachelors in a flight related field and I might not. All I want out of this is to be doing what I love and eventually make a reasonable living. When I say reasonable, I mean enough to have a roof over my head and food in my stomach.

A lot of people consider your definition of success inadequate and substandard. They get angry when you suggest you would work for less than what they consider a fair wage for the level of investment in training required to get a decent flying job. The income standard for an aviation professional is and should be higher than to aspire merely to a rental dwelling and some food.

Okay I may have exaggerated a bit. Having a roof over your head and food in your stomach is not success. That would hopefully only be in my earlier years, until I move up in the business. My definition of success would be having a regular lifestyle doing what I love. I don't want a vacation home in Malibu, a personal chef, S series Mercedes etc. Those things don't interest me.

If I had to put a number to it, I guess I would say 60,000 would be the figure I would like to achieve. Like I said, I am not in this for the money. I won't stop trying to climb the ladder once I reach 60k, but if I could look back on my life knowing I made a decent living doing what I love, what more could I ask for?