I would say stay away from ATP. They have a spaghetti against the wall approach top check rides. The instructors really could care less.

As a guy going through it now I would say find a 141 school with an approved program that gets you through fast and a dpe on staff. See what their pass rate is as a school, this is all public info. Make sure you're comfortable with your instructor and hopefully you get someone with some seasoning at that school.

If you go 61 once again look up their pass rates etc.

I'd look for a mom and pop shop. Usually a few here and there with retired military or airline pilots. Guys with 30 plus years of experience.

If this trade war picks up steam it'll put a wrinkle in aviation demand but from what I gather the international demand for pilots is at an all time high with not enough people in the pipeline, military of civilian, globally.

Also after doing starting this career change personally, don't do it for the money, do it because you live to fly or you will eventually fail. Money is better is management consulting long run if you're any good. If you're mid tier then economics long run roughly the same with a pilot working to 65 vs management consulting to 50.

I will chime in with my situation/experience since it is somewhat similar to yours.

I work for in the construction management field. We are an owner's rep. I have always had a desire to become a pilot but never really considered it to be plausible. Now I make enough money to pay for training and pay for entry level pilots has improved. I am 30 years old and recently married. Wife is on board with me pursuing a career in flying. I work typically 8-5, sometimes 8-7. I am trying to adjust my schedule as best I can to fly at least 3-4 days per week. Typically booking flights for the evenings (5 p.m. - 7 p.m.) with a few morning flights (7 a.m. -9 a.m.)

I am training at a part 141 school (Only 5 minutes from my house) They use King Schools for their ground school. (Online program. I like better than books, because they have a lot of good videos and I am a visual learner). My plan is to work full time while doing all of my training (do not have the funds to not) and once I have completed my CFI, try to get hired at my flight school.

Like others have said here, you should really try to get your PPL first before leaving your job. That way you have a better and more realistic idea on how much you actually like flying, natural aptitude, etc.


Good luck!

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Really appreciate everyone’s responses! I stopped getting email notifications, so I though the responses died off. So much good info here. Lots to think about in the mean time, but am glad to have the wife on board and will be visiting a few local flight schools this weekend.

My thought is that there will always be unknowns.

Outside of doing the form online and scheduling the first appointment, what do I need for the first class? So I need to bring copies of my charts from the past XX years? I don’t have any disqualifying conditions, but have been to the Dr for checkups and the flu over the past couple years. Do they need documentation of that, or just to disclose it?

I’m lucky to have the cash banked to pay for it in one fell swoop, and if I choose to go this route, part of me wants to knock it out over the course of 9 months and get in line whether it’s through atp, part 61/141, mom and pop, cadet academy, etc.

I can’t stand the thought of being in this job another 2 years while I work around it and stretch out training. If I end up not pursuing aviation, I’ll still be looking for something else to do.

As someone who is currently where you are, I would say to do what everyone here is saying. Get going on the PPL first. You have to see if you really like this flying thing. You're going to have VERY hard days, then you'll have some good ones, then another set of hard days. I currently work full time, and I'm going to pull the trigger on leaving after I complete my Comm. Multi Add-On. I'm going to go the CFI route then.

You will have dissenting opinions on whether you should go part 61 mom & pop/ATP or similar, or part 141-flight academy/university track. It's solely based on your learning style. I've been in a very structured environment my entire adult life as a cop, so the 61 didn't work for me. I needed clearly set goals and expectations/track. So I switched schools to a part 141. There's plenty of people who do just fine in part 61 training. They have good instructors and schools. That wasn't my experience. So, I recognized it early on, and made the change. I'm glad I did. Explore the two and decide from there. my 2 cents. Good luck.

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