Wanting to be a pilot...
 

Hey guys, I know that this topic has been asked several times over and again, but I figured I might as well ask some real pilots instead of just my girlfriend and brother about what they think, and wanting to get some opinions on my career plans regarding piloting..

I'm 19 years old right now living in waaaaaaaay too far South Texas (the closest you can literally get to mexico, without being in mexico), and I'm in the third year of school at the local university (University of Texas - Pan American) majoring in accounting. I started out trying to go for electrical engineering mainly because I had heard that it paid well and I wanted something where I could work and work on my certifications and ratings part time. After two years of that (it was mainly basics, so they transfer over to my accounting degree plan,) I switched to accounting and realized I like it way better than I ever did with engineering. I have a decently high GPA and low EFC so that I get money for school and a lot more left over to do what I need with it.

I started thinking though. My goal right now is to get my PPL and instrument rating before I finish college so that I can work full time and get my certifications part time (my local FBO offers the commercial license, but not CFI certifications which I will have to get at another flight school in the area - McCreery Aviation Co., Inc) Once I get my CFI ratings my plan is to instruct either part time or full time to build up my hours and snag any regional, or piloting job in general that comes my way once the hours have increased.

My ultimate goal is to become an Airline Pilot, but really as long as I can fly day in and day out, I will be more than ecstatic. I do not mind getting into debt, but do not feel like getting into needless debt at some schools like Embry Riddle when I can just get the training nearby at a lower cost. I'm already going to take out $5,500 dollar subsidized loans from my school to pay for the PPL and instrument ratings (which I hear have extremely low interest and they give you plenty of time to pay them off) if I do not get a couple of scholarships that I am expecting to get.

Does this seem like a good plan? What opinions do you guys think? Again, I'm sorry that this is a tired subject, but honestly, the only thing that I would be happy with spending my life doing, is flying.

Simply said, probably one of the better plans I've seen, it's the fact you have thought this through. Nothing wrong with completing your degree, starting a job in that field, and getting your ratings while you work. Honestly it will probably push you harder to do better.

Also, you can build up some savings for when you can finally jump into aviation full time, that is worth a lot. I never really had any savings until I got my 2nd job flying freight. Even then I wasn't making a lot, but it wasn't peanuts either.

There's a million ways to do it, and everyone's path is different, so good luck!

your spot on, go for it!

Good Plan......

Remember in flying one of the most important thing:
MAKE A PLAN & then STICK TO THE PLAN...... Don't change it in the middle.......

That I completely disagree with. If you stick to a plan, and the market changes, you might have just back-tracked.

Most are

Get ratings
Get a CFI Gig
Pay for some multi time
Get Regional Job
go from there.

That was my plan originally, but instead of paying for multi time, I got a 135 freight job, flew 2000hrs, then got a gig working for a Socata and Piper dealer. One of the best jobs ever in that I fly random anything from 2-seat singles to (rarely) twin turboprops. Most time is in TBM's and Meridians/Mirage/Matrix's.

I quit this january to farm full-time with my dad, but I still fly part-time for them, and a few contract jobs and CFI work

To say the least, never saw that 11yrs ago when I headed off to college, 7yrs ago at my first job, or even while I was at the latest. You just never know what is out there for you, but keep your eyes open and grab that opportunity if you have a good gut feeling about it. I have zero regrets on my choices on jobs.

Awesome, thanks for the support guys, I really needed it since I didn't know if it was a good plan or not. The only thing that's killing me now is just to be patient, but I know it's gonna be a long career path!

Also, do you guys know of any books or reading material that I should study and learn before I start my PPL training? I'm really trying to keep costs at a minimum which means I'm going to try to shoot for the lowest amount of hours that I can to pass the checkrides, so I need to be prepared even before I start. I've been reading over the flight simulator x tutorials and making sure I get all the concepts of VOR and IFR navigation, and stuff like that, but I'm not exactly sure what's going to actually transfer over to real flying.

Be careful with Flight Simulator.

The Airplane Flying Handbook is a great resource and has a ton of great information.