SirMeatPants

I'm currently looking into leaving my job in favor of a flight career. Due to being a full time employee at 27yo my ability to attend a traditional flight college(ERAU, and comparable) are out of the question. I've found an online accredited college called Charter College that offers an aviation degree. All ground/flight classes and hours done through the local flight school. Online is just for the math, English, physiology, blah blah blah.

Do company's prefer or require a bachelors? Or will an associates degree do me just fine? This is an important question because the price and extra year for the bachelors is a notable amount of cash more than associates.

What sort of jobs are available that don't necessarily mean flying a 737 for a big company? Using the aircraft as more of a tool than a people mover would seem more interesting to me.

Both rotor wing and fixed wing programs are available. I've got some hours in a Cessna. Never touched a helicopter. I assume heli jobs are tough to get and harder to find? Obviously the military heli pilots probably get the advantage due to large number of logged hours.

galaxy flyer

An associates degree is half way to the one you need for legacies, but could work for regionals/majors

GF

Ibiscuit

Your degree, AS or BS, doesn't necessarily need to be in aviation.. if you don't need financial aid for training, you should get a degree in an unrelated field. airlines just care that you can show commitment.

many regionals don't require a degree anymore from what I've seen but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

rickair7777

No regionals require a degree to my knowledge.

You will need a 4-year (bachelor's) degree in order to compete for major airline jobs, and most of the best majors explicitly or effectively require it.

You can always find folks who got hired without a 4-year degree, but you they were probably very good, very connected, or very lucky. It's not the the norm right now.

caylejqx

I am currently working on my Bachelors with Ashford University right now and will have it done while I am not only working full time, but doing my flight training.
Best part about my online degree is that I do 1 class for 5 weeks, then move onto the next class, where as something like Charter as you mentioned above...does a credit minimum usually which consists of 4-5 classes per semester. I love only having to worry about 1 class at a time and with the way they have it set up its so relaxed and not overwhelming. Especially since I have a family to entertain as well. Good luck and if you have any questions please ask!

NMuir

I would get your flight training, get on with a regional. Then begin to work on an online degree while employed by a regional. Get a degree in finance or business or something, it will be the most useful outside of aviation in case you have a medical or incident or economic downturn or something.

rickair7777

Careful. In theory you can do that, and complete 121 time building and the degree concurrently. But I've seen a lot folks who got distracted by life (spouse, GF, lifestyle) and ended up as 2000 hour TPIC regional CA's with no degree and little chance of moving.

Be disciplined if you're doing it in that order. It will save you some time and get you crucial seniority faster, but may not be easy.

rickair7777

There are many jobs available, but few of them pay as well or offer the QOL and stability of major airlines. The good ones (referred to as "Unicorns" in the industry) can be as good as or better than an airline gig, but they usually go to well-connected industry insiders. So you have to work your way up for many years.

Yes. There are relatively few civilian helo jobs, and the training is very expensive. The USCG has helos, the navy has a lot of helos, the USMC has a whole lot of helos, and the army has a vast number of helos. All of those ex-military helo pilots are better qualified than you could ever hope to be for many years. Stick with FW.

kingsnake2

Even well-qualified, ex-military rotor wing pilots are struggling to find jobs right now. Many are doing rotor to fixed wing conversions. Definitely stay fixed wing.

The program we've been espousing is a two year degree so you have access to financing, 1-2 years of instructing, then off to the airlines. This way you can become an FO in 3 years instead of 5-6 years. You can then do your bachelors online or at any local university.

PerfInit

While I would still highly recommend a BS or BA degree as a fallback, there is another option:

Get hired by a Regional that has flow to a Major.