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You wouldn't do it?

Old 10-31-2006, 06:21 PM
  #11  
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What is wrong with FBOs?
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Old 10-31-2006, 06:47 PM
  #12  
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Default FBOs...

Can can get screwed fast by management and time building CFIs. Your best bet is to finish as quickly as possible and get working at a academy / established full-time flight school like ATP (www.allatps.com)...

The CFIs I've run across at FBOs were depressed / poorly paid / and so use to being abused it made me feel guilty as a consumer...I was glad to be done with my PPL and out of that place...

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Old 10-31-2006, 07:31 PM
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Originally Posted by LAfrequentflyer View Post
Can can get screwed fast by management and time building CFIs. Your best bet is to finish as quickly as possible and get working at a academy / established full-time flight school like ATP (www.allatps.com)...

The CFIs I've run across at FBOs were depressed / poorly paid / and so use to being abused it made me feel guilty as a consumer...I was glad to be done with my PPL and out of that place...

-LAFF
Not all FBO's are that shi!tty. I say go to an FBO you can get your ratings fast and somewhat cheaper. BTW as far as crappy CFI pay, i talked to a CFI at allatps who told me they make a set salary of 1 thousand a month. The salary thing can be good but I knew an instructor at an FBO pulling in 20k a year.
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Old 10-31-2006, 08:42 PM
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Default What to do?

I'm finding out I'm like everyone alse. I'm the guy in grade school that could look up and tell you what kind of airplane was flying over head. By the time I was in college I could tell you the operating specs and who designed the plane. I flew model airplanes when I was 15 and flew in small private planes with my Dad and Grandfather up until a few years ago.

When I graduated I didn't know what I wanted to do so I looked into joining the Navy and becoming a pilot. My dream was always to fly. I went through all the exams and physicals for the officer program and just before I was going to sign up I got a job offer from a steel company. I decided that the military life wasn't for me and started working. To make a long story short I was making $60,000 a year when i decided to leave last July. The job wasn't satisfing, and living in Riverside , Ca wasn't my dream location. The real story was that I had been thinking of leaving for about a year when I was promoted and bought a condo. I met a great girl in February. She was transfering to Berkeley in the fall. I thought this would be the perfect oportunity to make a change in my life because I knew I wasn't happy where I was. I don't look back at my decision as a mistake because I left the company right when things started to go down the toilet and I sold my condo right at the height of the real-estate boom. I came away with $40,000 in the bank.

When I got up to nothern California I started looking for jobs but just couldn't get excited about anything. I went down to the local airport and asked around about flight training. The more I thought about it the more I thought that being a pilot would be a dream job for me. In the past I never had the guts or the money. I had taken some glider lessons but never really jumped into flying. I signed up for ATP's 60 day PPL and their 90 day career pilot program. I thought I had finally found what I was ment to do in life.

I'm having second thoughts. I've been reading through posts and threads and most of what I see in negative. No one seems to think that being a pilot for the airlines is the way to go. No money, no family life etc. I've got my budget in place. I'm going to have to spend all of the money I made off the condo and borrow another $25,000 from my parents.

Can someone please tell me if I'm crazy or are my fears not a reality? Is being a pilot a dream job and economical or is it a fantisy. I've talked to one guy who just got hired by a regional and he made $16,000 his 1st year. HOW DO YOU SUPPORT YOUR SELF??????? THIS SEEMS CRAZY TO ME.
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Old 11-01-2006, 03:29 AM
  #15  
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From what i've learned, it's a big risk. I have no idea how stable the industry is going to be by the time i'm well into it. Plenty of pilots started out in a high paying industry and are now furloughed , lost their pensions, and suffered paycut after paycut. The thought of that happening to me near the end of a career is scary. Personally, I want to either do expat flying, or get on with a good fractional airline one day. In the end its all a risk and the future is uncertain.
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Old 11-01-2006, 04:36 AM
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Wouldn't the numbers all equal out? The FBOs may only have 1 student to every 10 then the flight school has, but then they would have the same number of CFIs as well!
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Old 11-01-2006, 04:37 AM
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So I would never make $100k a year without a degree?
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Old 11-01-2006, 05:06 AM
  #18  
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Default You shouldn't do it !!

Originally Posted by MileHighMama View Post
Go for it.

I'm a 29yo mom of 3 and if I can do it, you can too.
You are a mother of three?? What are you thinking? Rarely do I directly tell people they shouldn't do something but to be a mother of small children and pursuing a flying career is flat irresponsible and wrong!

We all make choices in life. With each one others are crossed off as opportunity costs. You left behind the right to be able to have a flying career years ago. Even fathers of young children should not consider starting a flying career. It is irresponsible at best and outright family abandonment at worst.

I don't know you or what your actual job is. Perhaps you are a dispatcher, however for your families sake I pray that you are not a pilot. Sometimes I think people take on aviation as a passive aggressive way to shed unwanted friends, spouses and family.

All of us need to be Mom's and Dad's first of all!

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Old 11-01-2006, 05:25 AM
  #19  
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Most of you will never see your money again.

I am not trying to be mean. Look around a little. In flight school we all like to fool ourselves into thinking that we are making a good "career" choice when in reality most of us are taking a little play vacation. A fantasy camp vacation that will have a nice payment each month to remind us of that 90 day mental breakdown.

The facts are out there. Pay is low, competition is fierce. Those of you who already have good jobs will be going back to them. The unlucky will learn how low their standards of living can go until they quit.

Flying is fun and training is the best but it is not in preparation for a REAL profession. It is expensive play disguised as serious job training. We can take the glossy brochures home to our parents and spouses and con them into thinking it is real job training. We can also con ourselves but it is a farce.

Every year the military produces 11,000 pilots, Each year something like 30,000 commercial pilot licences are issued. There are not even close to enough good jobs to go around.

We all love to fly but don't let that love delude you into blowing your life. Stop, think, and if you have any money left buy a Cessna 150 and fly on Saturdays.

Sorry to be so harsh but you guys have been strung along for too long now.



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Old 11-01-2006, 06:25 AM
  #20  
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Originally Posted by Northwind View Post

I'm having second thoughts. I've been reading through posts and threads and most of what I see in negative. No one seems to think that being a pilot for the airlines is the way to go. No money, no family life etc. I've got my budget in place. I'm going to have to spend all of the money I made off the condo and borrow another $25,000 from my parents.

Can someone please tell me if I'm crazy or are my fears not a reality? Is being a pilot a dream job and economical or is it a fantisy. I've talked to one guy who just got hired by a regional and he made $16,000 his 1st year. HOW DO YOU SUPPORT YOUR SELF??????? THIS SEEMS CRAZY TO ME.

Only you can answer this question. In five years will you be able to look up and see the beautiful contrails overhead and accept the fact that you chose something safe and secure? If, on the other hand you would have regrets that the person in the cockpit is not you, perhaps you should go for it. I personally think the anquish and regrets for an entire lifetime are far worse than making $16,000 your first year. Sure there is a price to pay and risk involved, but how do you accomplish anything truly worthwhile without either? If Benjamin Franklin, Orville and Wilbur, Thomas Jefferson and many others said "this seems crazy to me", we would all be living very different lives. Airlines will continue to hire pilots to fly their airplanes. The question is: Will you be the one flying them or the one on the ground wishing you were? Good Luck!
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