Seriously consider the miltary. I'm 30, make 100K/year and have job security (never mind fighting in two wars, seeing 17 different countries, and making some of the greatest friends ever). Most of my college friends thought I was crazy for taking an 8+ year commitment (for $2 million in flight training)... most have been furghload multiple times (several more than 3 times), only one has made it to a major (after three regionals, spending most of his 20's making less than $30K/year, and his wife leaving him). By the time they were all 27 they were clawing and screaming to get into the military.

If you're still dilusional about being able to shop for your major, and think you'll be at one before you're 30 years old, then you're just untrainable, in which case you're a perfect candidate to shell out $150K at Embry Riddle, to make $20k/year when you graduate. Enjoy the kool-aide.

Go to med school, someday you'll make 300K/year, and you can buy whatever you want to fly whenever you want.

 

The Doctor business is hurting just as bad as the Piloting business right now. The take-home pay for those $300K doctors is approaching Airline pilot pay, and will look even worse if they all end up working for the government-run medical system someday as a GS-13. The cost-benefit on Med School is getting as bad as getting your ratings with double the time investment, student loans till you're 48 years old, and the familiar $30,000 entry-level wages.

But if you want to be a Doctor or Pilot, Military is the way to go. We even have some who are both (Flight Surgeon and rated pilot)...student loan debt = 0, starting pay $60K-100K.

 

Winner....this is your answer, now stated a second time, if you cannot accept this, you are not cut out to be an airline pilot. People here don't want to hear your fantasies when the reality is, this industry is anything but a fantasy. To succeed you need realistic expectations, a well executed career plan, the ability to be flexible on certain aspects of that plan as the industry makes unexpected changes, and the sense to be skeptical any kind of cheerleading for any particular airline.

 

It's impossible to answer your question because it deals with the future. And in aviation, even a month into the future is hard to predict. We can go on and on about benefits but it wouldn't do you much good as in 10 years or more when you're ready, things will have changed a lot. You also do not mention the very big step between CFI and Major airline flying which is where most of us will be stuck in. It's called the regionals and it SUCKS. Airline is easier flying even though you're still gone as much as other types of flying. Cargo is harder flying but it has it's advantages as well where you don't have to deal with passengers and get to go to interesting places as a lot of cargo is International flying. Another option would be the fractional aviation, you get the schedule of the airlines but different destinations as well. Flying is still cool but there is more to a job than the actual job itself. Family, economy etc play a very big role. Pay, compensation, quality of life and right now those things have gone way down. Focus on what you can control like school and seriously think about other career fields.

 

Best advice here by far.

Join the military. There is, in my mind, nothing you can do better to have a happy stable life while getting top notch training and paid like a professional. When you are done after how ever many years you do you are now on top of the pile for fedex or ups not to mention that all of your mil buddies who left before you to go to fedex or ups would be more than happy to write you letters of recommendation.

The only "issue" is deployment. If you are married at the time you will need an extremely independent and supportive wife who can handle the op tempo, I was lucky, I have that box checked. If you dont want to deploy forever you can fight for a spot in the coast guard and spend much less time on the road although fixed wing is hard to come by from what I hear. Just deploy..its fun and puts hair on your chest.

 

Plus the combat and tax free pay eases the pain. I'll actually take a $1K/month pay cut when I leave this horrid part of the world.

 

I already have enough of that...

 

Thanks guys very much for the answers. You see I have about 10 favorite aircraft, my favorite being the 767. I've learned to fly all of them on FSX. I even have real-world manuals for 8 of them. I really only have 3 goals.

1. Become an airline pilot.
2. Fly my favorite plane, the 767
3. Be based at ORD, or at least fly there quite often.

My current plan is to fly for American Eagle or ASA to get my hours, then try and get a job with American or Delta. It would be a really hard decision though, because I want to be based out of O'hare, yet Delta flies much better routes with their 767's.

For college, if I go for a degree in aviation, I would probably choose Lewis University. If I go for a non-aviation degree, I would probably get a degree in Culinary Arts from the Culinary Institute of America.

Best Regards,
Robert

 

ummm..suspicious!

 

Don't worry they're all outdated. I think my newest one is from 1999, and that is an ATR-42/72 for Continental Express. It's amazing what you can buy on Ebay.