Hey everyone. First post here on these forums and I have read some great information here.

A little background: I'm 34 yrs old, married, 3 great kids and a life I'm pretty content with, but I miss flying. My grandfather was a pilot, flew the Cleveland Indians back in the 60's, also had a personal Cessna 310 he used as the family plane. I got my private when I was 18 and still in high school. Started college at Ohio State and did some flying there. 2 relatives and some real close friends were just getting into Regionals and they told me to get my ratings....NOW! This was 2000 so I applied to FlightSafety in Vero Beach and my fiance at the time agreed to support me so we packed up and moved to Vero. I blew through the courses finished my Commercial SEL/MEL w IR in April 2002. After that life got in the way. My now wife was offered a great job back in our hometown of Ashland, Ohio. We also just found out she was 3 months pregnant, but we had no health insurance. The 9/11 attacks put my future into a spin and I was very uncertain about it. Fast forward to today and I'm itching to get back in a plane but I haven't flown since I left FlightSafety. I guess I'm looking for somewhat of a career but I'm not sure how to go about it. My wife makes very good money so I'm not pressed to get on a career path right away. We also live in a somewhat quiet town. We are smack between Cleveland and Columbus and the instructors I've talked to don't have many students. I'm not keen on the instructor route because I don't really think it would pay for me to have it with very little students around. I'm also not packing my family up and moving especially with the job my wife has.

So...my plan is to get current again, not sure where yet and we are still in Ashland, OH, but where do I go from there? I have 250TT 55ME. I'm not sure aerial surveys, traffic, etc. would take time that low. I know some regs regarding minimums have changed since 02 so I'm probably a bit rusty at this point. I'm not in a huge hurry and whatever it takes to get me current again will be out of pocket, I do not plan on financing anything. Any other options you all can think of? I would love to fly corporate someday, 121 does not really interest me too much anymore. Thank you for any insight you can provide.

 

If your wife is any kind of descent gal, she should just buy you an airplane; at the very least, a high end simulator for the house. This would also help to insure you will be able to spend plenty of time with her and the kids. It's pretty much a no brainer...

 

With 250TT, id say get your CFI certs. I love instructing, and do it as much as I can along with my regualr job. Even consider going back dojng it full time again. But I actually enjoy teaching, some people just use it as a time builder. But you got to love teaching, even if that means spending half your daw on the ground to get your students to where they need to be. Its also very rewarding, get to see all sorts of mistakes you never though possible.
1250 hours could take you as little as a year to get if you are lucky and somehow get fulltime students from day one. But likely would take a couple years. Depending on where you instruct at. If you join NAFI, you cam find plenty of CFI opening on the members only job posting page. A lot of them are for new cfi's and pay pretty decent.

 

at 250TT your options are quite limited. All airlines require a minimum of 1500TT and most 135 operators requirements are more or less the same.

Going the CFI route might be a good way for you to knock off the rust and help you work towards the 500TT threshold, which I think is what most aerial survey companies require. Otherwise you can look into flying at a local jump zone on the weekends dropping meat bombs.

 

If 121 is your goal, and If I was you, I would buy a C152 for $15K-20K and build the needed 1500 hours as fast as I can. You can probably sell the C152 for good $10K that your worn the engine out. I say this because you say $ isn't the issue and you can probably build the needed hours well below 12 months.

Or speak to few flight school owner or private owners and purchase 1200 block hours and get a deal.*** do not pay all upfront!

Or you can get CFI and instruct...this will take you 2-5 years realistically pending student load. Time is money and seniority...and you're 34.

 

No owner in their right mind would agree to rent out at a heavily reduced block rate without receiving all the payment upfront. What would protect us from a renter who decides to just stop after 10 hours or so?

 

No pilot in their right mind would pay upfront for 1200 hours either.

The compromise would be to pay in advance for a reasonable block...say ten hours at a time.

 

I agree with Aviator89. Get your CFI, and do a "combo" of what others are saying here. Go buy a 150 fly it and 'maybe' try to recoop a little on the side by instructing in it.

I had the same issue in that I didnt want to instruct, but let me tell you, it is some of the best experience you can get, and you get paid for it too.

 

Agreed. I always advise future clients to come out, fly the airplane at least once at the regular rate so they know what they are paying for and to get a feel for my operation prior to committing larger sums.

 

If you want a career you need good foundations- especially since you've been away from flying for a decade Buying a 152 and flying it for 1250 hours is the cheapest option. BUT, you will learn nothing. You need to diversify your flying (night, instrument, multi, etc) and make mistakes in order to learn during this important time (250 hrs-2000 hours). You'd be doing yourself a disservice as a professional