Financing flight training
 

Hi, I'm new to these forums, so bare with me...

I'm 23 years old, I have my ppl. I've been flying for 4 years. I want to pursue a career as a professional pilot, either the airlines, corporate, or cargo (not exactly sure). But I've been having a very hard time financing my flight training. It took me 3 years to just get my PPL, because I'm unable to get student loans. I don't have enough credit, my parents both have horriable credit, and I have no one else to co-sign for me, so all of my training so far has been all out of pocket. I am almost done with my bachelors degree (I get student loans from the government to cover that). I feel like I am waaaay behind in my flight training. And I was told by an airline buddy to post on here to see if anyone has any ideas that I can try to help me get financing.

I've tried:
student loans (government)-they are small cover my college tuition
student loans (personal)- denied
scholarships-I'm in the process of applying for
grants- through FAFSA I don't qualify for any

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks, Brit

Dont ya love not getting money from gov. when you pay taxes and everyone else seems to? Makes me feel warm inside.

What places have you applied for for loans? Get some more posts, and I'll IM you and explain what I did, it may help you out a bit.

Paying out of pocket is good, if you can. How many hours do you have? X-C? The commercial is the most expensive due to the high amount of hours it takes, and that would take you the longest if paying out of pocket. Stick in there, you're still young.

Maybe join CAP?

good news is you have 1 more year (24) until you are officially independent and would qualify for grants/more stafford loan money.

I feel your pain... I worked through my ratings... and a key would be finding the right priced school.... no sense in paying $200/hr for a nice plane when another one 10 miles away costs $100/hr and works just as good (most of the time)
If you have your private.... I would suggest sharing time (i.e. safety pilot/under the hood..etc) with others.... many people will tell you sharing time is worthless blah blah but check with an examiner and if the time is good to him (since it will qualify as total time) just get your commercial and then cfi... it will save you a bunch of money.

try:
Pilot Share The Ride

Airplane Partnerships and Flying Clubs to keep the costs of flying affordable.

Good luck

Progress one step at a time. The next to work toward is you're instrument ticket so you need to build the required hours. Being in college there should be plenty of adventerous people that would be up for a ride. You are allowed to share the expenses with them so the cost of a plane divided between four people (assuming you are checked out in something like that) is relatively inexpensive. After you do that with a few people they'll tell two friends and so on and you will also stay current. Before you know it you will probably have people asking for you to take them flying so tell them upfront to share the expenses. Worked that way for me way back when.

I just thought of something else. Finish college and apply for military flight school and bingo....the best training in the world paid for by uncle same. You can still share the expenses until then to keep current.

Along the same lines as the military flight training, if you join the Air Force there a several bases that have "Aero Clubs" These are flight clubs that offer discounted flight lessons to military personnel. I started flying at one of these and (granted this was before the gas hike) it was around $60 an hour for both the plane and the instructor.