Hello all,

I am a 30 year old project manager in the construction industry. I make good money and find construction interesting, however I do not have a passion for what I am doing. I have always wanted to be a pilot. Was about to join the military out of high school to do rotary. Decided not to and ended up getting a degree in business management. I have done a couple discovery flights in both fixed and rotary.

I have been seeing a career counselor which I feel is helpful to some degree but ultimately there is only so much guidance they can give you. I have done a lot of reading on this forum (and elsewhere) and have talked myself into flying professionally and out of it (depending on whose post you read).

My fiance and I had a sponsor couple for our marriage preparation (Catholic) and the husband is a captain at a Major flying narrow body. He was a Navy fighter pilot doing carrier missions. (Incredible stories....) So I had a good conversation with him about getting into this industry. (The whole scheduling thing every month still confuses me....)

My game plan now is obtain a class 1 medical certificate to make sure no red flags come up with that (there shouldn't be). Then I will start training for my PPL after I get married at the end of March. I live In Sugar Land, TX which has a small airport (with a surprisingly huge 8,000' runway). There is a flight school housed out of that airport, Anson Aviation. I did a discovery flight there. They have a very nice facility. There are not many reviews on this place online.

Realistically, this would be my best option for training as it is only a 5 minute drive from my house (Next closest flight school would be probably 45 minutes).

I will get my PPL and after that I should have a much better idea if this really is for me. (Currently between my discovery flights I have 2 hours fixed and 1 hour rotary). All of my training will be performed while working full-time at my current job.


My question is: does anyone have any experience training at this facility? Has anyone been a CFI there as well?

Just a word of advice from a fellow Career Change guy.

A discovery flight isn't a love of flying. The most it will tell you is if you should spend the money to get your PPL. Don't commit to more than that. Get it while you're still working and making a decent income.

If you've gotten that far and you think career is the way to go, do the same thing to get your Instrument Rating while still being employed.

Zero to Hero doesn't work out for a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Don't let it cost you a massive financial mistake, a well paying career and/or your marriage.

God Bless,
-Jay

I understand and agree. I will only be committing to getting my PPL first. Then if it still seems the right path, I will obtain my Instrument Rating. I would hope by that point I would have a strong grasp on whether I still want to do this before dropping $$$ on my commercial rating.

It seems the safest most logical thing for me to do is stay in the construction industry as a project manager but a different type of construction.

Supposedly construction is hurting for good assistant project managers and project managers (I know it is hard for us to find good PM's...). They say for every 1 person that enters construction 3 people are leaving. A good 5-10 yr PM can get around 100-120k and a senior PM around 120-150k (depending on who you work for and what type of construction)