SkyHigh

I do not think that being an ExPat is being a traitor to your country. It is does mean leaving your culture, family and friends. Some might like it. Most I would venture would not.

Skyhigh

SkyHigh

I spent much of my time as a first officer making a study of my captains. They came from a wide range of backgrounds and career progressions. Over time I began to recognize common threads and outcomes. Many were approaching retirement age and were not happy with how their lives turned out. They told tales of broken marriages and of children who called another man daddy and only knew them through monthly child support payments.

Often it seems that to keep your career progression on track a pilot must make increasingly larger sacrifices. As your expenses grow a setback often means moving to a foreign country to be able to pay the bills. At first whenever the career switches to a new city or country the family goes along. Eventually there is talk of leaving the growing family put and commuting. In time the pilot makes it home maybe one day a week, possibly once every other month. Over time damage is done.

The alternative is that the pilot never marries and in a panic at 52 decides to try and grab whatever school teacher or flight attendant they can. Often with disastrous results. My point is that the complications of the career are not in congress with many of the things that people hold dear in life. I have a lot of relatives who choose to place their careers over family and friends. They had gallant careers in the Navy or in business. Their homes were filled with pictures of ships they had served on and trinkets they had collected over a life spent traveling. Often they never married or married late in life. No children or old friends to speak of. Most of the time they had a small pension to live on but no land.

In old age they were not happy. Their photo albums did not offer much comfort. Their Asian art not much peace. What are your trips around the sun worth to you? What is going to be of lasting value in the decades ahead? There is a huge price to be paid for this profession. It is a good idea to take stock of what you are doing and the results that will come from the choices you make today. Life is an investment.

Skyhigh

USMCFLYR

Sky -

Serving in the military provides a lifetime of friends, many of which will know you in a way that a family member will never know you because of the shared challenges that many can't understand.
I know many military members (I'll venture more than you) who have everything that you espouse as the ideal. If a person comes without friends then there is probably an underlying reason more so than there successful service to country.
If you want to keep talking I'll of broken famies and such then you should stick to that wide variety of peers you keep of from college.

Over the last week I have had the pleasure of speaking with a variety of pilots from a variety of backgrounds and not one had the dire circumstances that you describe that I could gather from my conversations.

USMCFLYR

SkyHigh

USMCFLYR,

I would venture that life abroad would not suit most. It is one thing to do it among your military peers and yet another to move alone to a strange country to work for a foreign owned company.

Honey don't forget your burka !

I do not know if I mentioned this before but I come from a long established military family. My grandfather, his three brothers and his brother in law all went to the Annapolis Naval Academy. They went on to have long and gallant careers in the navy. Most of the time they lived and worked overseas. My father was USAF, but not for long. My relatives have served all the way back through the civil war.

My brother and I have a pile of military graduation swords between the two of us. In fact we have piles of stuff from several generations of navy men because only our grandfather found the time to have offspring. All the rest married too late. I don't know if this qualifies me in your eyes to comment on military life or not.

Skyhigh

Dan64456

50K a year isn't too bad if you don't have a mortgage and a car payment or kids... Much better money than you will likely see as an airline pilot. And in your 30's, do you really want to go down to 16K a year for at least 3 years? (2 as a flight instructor, and 1 as a F/O if you even get hired.) Of course this 16K a year comes after you spend 60+ on training. Then you have to worry about 1 bad day (checkride fail, DUI, 20+ mph in some money scamming states is 'reckless' driving) or 1 minor health problem ending your career on top of all of this.

Wings and Water

I am really thinking about begining this journey and I would like to start the flight training sooner rather than later, if I do it. I also need to finish off my degree. That being said, would you all finish the degree first and then start flying or get the ratings and finish the degree while instructing (the route I am thinking about)?

As for the degree, I am up in the air. Either Natural Resources Management with the goal being to fly for a Game and Fish agency, or self-employment as a consultant for farmers and hunters (perhaps as a wildlife law enforcement officer also). The other option I am considering is web-design with the goal being self-employment.

What is your opinion?

rdneckpilot

If you are considering law enforcement I would recommend getting the school done first. Many state LEO agencies that operate air wings pay for their officers flight training. They also require time in service before you can fly. Many consider time on the ground doing the job essential to providing effective air support to their mission. So if you want to fly for a fish and game enforcement division I believe you will find it very important to get hired with said agency ASAP to start clocking the time in service for air wing consideration. You should talk to recruiters for the agencies you are interested in to get specific information.