BigBallzMagee

How'd u pull that off? The GI bill covered part of my training ect but not paying off my loan. Fill me in...

flynavyj

I was the lucky only spawn of parents who setup a college fund. If i'd had some siblings, i'm sure this story would be different. But as a result, i only had to pay back a small amount of money that i used for some of my CFI and CFII work. The amount was small enough that i paid it off during my first year as a regional FO.

A good friend of mine is struggling to pay his college debts down, and has recently discovered he needs appx. 54k / yr salary to do it. Not a problem at his current job, but he's wanting to get back to the regional's as well...which throws a small wrench in his plans; Take out loans to fly airplanes, work not flying airplanes to pay back loans, all the while desiring to fly airplanes.

upup89

I didn't think you could bankrupt student loans?

thepotato232

None of the above. I've been pathologically debt-averse since before it was fashionable.

I had a job and was putting money away for the set purpose of paying for my education and flight training since well before I set foot in an aircraft. I was able to go to school on scholarship, as I went to an in-state university for virtually nothing vs. a reduced-but-significant bill at a whoop-de-doo private university with partial scholarship/loan assist. Worked between one and three jobs going through college, so between that and flight training, I got a little behind my contemporaries. Ended up taking an extra semester to finish up school, and took almost four years start to finish to go from Private to Comm/Multi/IR. As a consequence, I ended up on the tail-end of the hiring boom and found myself furloughed. My financial freedom has allowed me to take jobs as they've come since I got the F, and not having any baggage (personal or monetary) has allowed me to explore flight opportunities overseas that wouldn't be available otherwise.

I think my story's a good example of the pros and cons of doing things the long way. As it stands, I'd rather be out of a flying job for a while with no debt than stuck in the right seat of an RJ with no upgrade and no way to keep my head above water on an FO's salary. Sadly, this is clearly the situation so many of my colleagues find themselves in these days.

ExperimentalAB

$1450 big ones a month...God bless America

upup89

Sure can't help but feel that one

chignutsak

So it's America's fault you owe $1450 a month? Did Uncle Sam hold a gun to your head when you signed all those promissory notes?

Pazaz

I took two loans out from two different banks to get all my ratings at a flight school in FL. When I finished, I immediately went to work flight instructing with the banks calling me everyday looking for a payment. My salary as a flight instructor barely covered the rent, bills, ramen noodles, and an occasional six pack. I differed payments as long as I could building as many hours as possible to get to a regional. When finally hired, I thought that everything was going to be alright, and I would be able to start paying off my loans... right... right...??? Wrong. After all my bills, I still couldnt pay a dime on my student loans on the salary that the regional I was working for paid me. I stayed broke the entire time I was an airline pilot. After being furloughed, and throwing hundreds of resumes out online with no one responding, I was broke, sticky, and confused. Through a friend of a friend, I got lucky and got a job in construction. With no previous experience, no outstanding training costs, and no special certification or school required, I made more than double my first year salary as a regional FO, at my new job in construction.

Now whats wrong with this picture?

All the furloughed regional airline pilots with experience that are on the street right now from numerous airlines are finding better jobs with WAY better pay. They will probably never come back to the regionals because they cant afford to. So then what happends? A new group of unexperienced kids come right in behind them, not yet realizing the joke of regional airline pay, and fly a few months or a few years just enough to finally get some experience flying the line, only to get furloughed with a massive student loan debt and yet, the cycle continues.

If the regionals do not start giving their pilots better salaries, in which we can afford to pay at least some of our training debts and actually have a happy lifestyle, I think this cycle is just going to continue, and safety at the regionals will always be in question, just as it is right now.

Does anyone agree/disagree?

be76flyer

Was the loan for that 250 hours of 1900 time?

slough

Safety will be a huge issue and I think it will become an even greater issue with domestic flight training grinding to a halt. Anyone can see the career doesn't pay enough to cover costs of training. I don't see a way for low tier carriers to continue to fill their ranks of pilots after attrition resumes. With 65 kicking in and the economy flirting with making a sudden strong turnaround, the regional ranks may be drained much quicker than they are anticipating. Where are the competent and experienced pilots going to come from to work for poverty wages and the constant threat of furlough/company bancrupcty hanging over their heads. The last couple of years have been so brutal for the profession, I think it may have lasting effects on peoples willingness to continue with the career. Anyone looking to get into it has to overlook the realities of the last two years and somehow finance their training.