Biggimote

I was wondering if anyone can tell me how they went to flight school full time and were also able to pay bills (i.e., mortage, car payments, etc)?

Thnx

ryane946

I saved up a lot of money from summer jobs, made some good investments, and when I was ready to start flying, I had $40,000 saved up. Spend the majority of that on licenses and ratings, and what I have left is saved for the first year I am a pilot at a regional.

My advice. Do not go into debt. Try everything you can to avoid this. Save up as much as you can as soon as you can. Cut any unnecessary spending NOW, as you will not have anything to cut once you start paying for flight training.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE, and try to avoid debt.

I also recommend doing your training as cheaply as possible.
1. Get the AOPA rebate credit card. You can save 5% on all flight training related purchases. This card has saved me over $500.
2. Ask for block rates on aircraft and instruction. If you promise 10hrs at $85 an hour, i.e pay $850, you get a 5% discount. Many flight schools do this. Similarly, promise an instructor who charges $40 an hour to do 10 hours with him, pay in advance, and you get a free hour.

Start at full price, 100% - 5% AOPA cc - 5% block rate = 90% of normal aircraft cost
For instruction, 100% - 10% instructor = 90% of normal instructor cost.
You can pay 90% of what most other people pay. Take .1 X $30,000, and well you save $3,000 dollars. You just have to be smart.
Hope this advice helps.

Pilotpip

Working two jobs, and keeping as cheap as possible with everything else. I do my own car mx(and drive an old car that's paid for), cook rather than eating out, keep the windows open rather than turning on the A/C, etc.

NE_Pilot

Work out deals with the owners. The planes will be down mostly during the week. Ask to see if you can get a % off for flying them when they would usually be sitting, while they sit the FBO is only losing money. They need those planes in the air to make money. Most FBOs will agree to this since they are making money when they would usually not be making any.

I also worked weekends at the FBO as the line guy, all that money I got paid went right into my account (no taxes). That helped to cover the cost of the airplane for atleast 1 hour every week, doesn't sound like much, but it adds up.

Like ryane said buy blocked time, most FBOs give discounts for paying for the time upfront, but make sure it is a fairly established FBO that won't fold over night.

rickair7777

Saved money from real job (for training expenses), military reserves and wife helped cover COL while in training.

CFI paid $30-50K so that was OK.

Military and wife were again helpful at the regional entry level.