afraj

I am looking for a bank or an institution to help me obtain a personal loan for flight training.

Rotor2prop

Sallie Mae and Wells Fargo are about the only banks left giving out flight training loans. I suggest to you to not finance your flight training or at least part of it. Try saving for a while then paying for your Private and Instrument Rating then maybe financing the the rest. Or even a better idea that I would have done if I knew then what I know now. Keep your current job and buy a Cessna 150 or Piper 140. You could do almost all your training in your airplane minus some complex time. Then sell the plane and recoup a lot of your investment. Good Luck!

Fly Boy Knight

I am not 100% sure about how banks do personal loans, but if you simply take out a personal loan for $xxxx.xx, you can spend it how you want but again, I am not the person to ask about that.

On the note of financing flight training, I agree with Rotor2prop, financing flight training is not a good idea. Although investing in a career is a much better thing to be in debt for (as opposed to a credit card or auto loan), a debt from flight training will NOT be cheap and it will take you years to pay back the debt. If you get into debt, you will have to pay it back once flight training is over and IF you are ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES, you can land a job at a regional making $24,000 per year (that is a GOOD paying regional). This is a recipe for financial disaster! Ask anyone who went that route!

If I could do it all over again, I would go to some cheap college for a degree in something useful, get a job in said useful field all the while saving and paying for my flight training while in high school/college/at said useful job until I had my licenses and time to get a flying job. Although it will take you MUCH longer to reach your aviation goals this way as opposed to taking out a loan, IMO the amount of financial anguish you will NOT have to suffer and the extra amount of enjoyment you will get out of the job knowing that you CAN actually live off of the salary at most first time pilot jobs will be well worth the extra wait.

JamesNoBrakes

That is a red flag. Pursue a career path that allows you to afford pilot training. Prioritize this if you really want to pursue it (make sacrifices, don't buy a new car, etc). Do not go in debt to finance it, unless you want to be making loan payments until you are 50 years old. Not to mention that if you borrow 50,000, you end up paying many times more than that due to interest. Huge waste of money. The question isn't how to finance it, it's how you are going to pay for bills (loans if you have them) making 20,000/yr as a regional pilot, if that's the path you are choosing. Answer that question to yourself first realistically, then worry about financing. Remember as well that you may or may not have "what it takes" to be a pilot, a commercial pilot, an instrument pilot, or an ATP pilot. You don't want to commit yourself to a mountain of debt just to learn the lifestyle or requirements aren't "for you". Unfortunately due to the high cost of entry, this profession kind of requires "all or nothing", unless you're going it on the side on your own terms as I suggested first.

rgoeasy

Excellent advise.

l1011

I agree, with the idea of buying some old 150, cherokee, or other low cost trainer. You will come out cheaper in the long run and if you decide flying is not for you you will have a way to recoup some of the money. Do not get a flight training loan!

NoyGonnaDoIt

Practical question: are you a good credit risk?

Unlike some others here, I'm not automatically against the idea of borrowing for career training. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, etc all do it. That's not to minimize the dangers - managing it poorly, guessing/betting that you'll get the job that will enable you to pay it back (I'm sure a lot of folks here can give advice on that score!), being able to keep the loan current so you don't harm your credit (which can cause all sorts of problems).

So it's not something to do without a lot of thought and perhaps even some advice on how to handle credit properly.

One practical problem, though, is availability. Especially with the current economic crisis, banks are not as free with their money as they once were. And secondary lenders can be cost-prohibitive. Another option is sites like lendingclub.com.

Good luck. But think it through very carefully and consider non-borrowing options.

mexipilot84

Pilot finance, they approved me and I was able to finish my commercial. Make sure your school is signed up or they can be added to their school. Pretty simple financing process.

Ray Blaszak

There is nothing wrong with financing your flight training if you have a solid financial plan. I know for me personally I chose to use the guard to help subsidize the cost of my monthly loan payment so I am really only spending about 200 out my actual salary per month. Pilot finance is the way to go if you are doing part time training. Very affordable payments and highly easy to work with. I am using Sallie Mae to cover my ATP tuition however I was very careful as to who I chose as my co-signer. If your co-signer isn't comfortable signing their life away it may not be a good idea. One thing about Sallie Mae though; if you and YOUR co-signer don't have extremely good credit your interest rate may be ridiculous.