... Im hoping some of you guys could give me a couple of tips on getting into the Airline Industry.

To start off, I'm currently 16 years old, I live in south Florida, and I am about to enter into my Junior year of High School. My school has an aviation program which I have been actively in since 9th grade, and for two years I have maintained an A+ in that class continously.

I want to join the Air Force, so I figured a good way to prepare for that would be to join the Civil Air Patrol and I am currently a C/2lt. I am planning on taking flight lessons at my local airport when I am about 16 1/2.

Through CAP, I have done a lot of stuff that gives me a closer taste of what Air Force life is like, I have been to many events and soon I am leaving to Missouri for an Air Education and Training command familirization course.

I wish to become a fighter pilot, and through my time of meeting some civilian pilots and Air Force personnel all of basically said its training is very rigourous and not many make it etc. well I hope to be one the ones that do make it.

I have considered a lot of options to achieving this dream. At first I was all gung ho about going to the Air Force Academy, but I have realized there is the chance that I don't get in, so I have been thinking of other options such as going to Embry-Riddle. During my time at CAP's officer school, I had the fortune of meeting a 2lt in the airforce who graduated from Embry-Riddle and he was telling me how you "could always tell an academy graduate from a college graduate" and he said some other stuff too but typing it all would make this post really long, but whet he said got me thinking maybe the AFA isn't for me, but I'm still keeping it in my options.

Embry-Riddle is seriously expensive, and sadly Im no rich kid, so I try hard to do well school and so far I have been top 10% in my class for 2 years and take some AP (Advanced placement) courses as well, hoping I could get some scholorships.

I have also been considering that maybe one day I might transition from the AirForce to a commerical airline (you guys make some big bucks), But Im not too sure if a commercial airliner would hire a guy who flys around small fast jets to pilot the larger commerical or cargo aircraft .

So, does anyone here have tips, hints, pointers for a young kid like me.

Thank you.

Hi and welcome to the forums, the best advice is to go to the Flight Training forum on this board and read the first post titled:

"Considering a career as an airline pilot? Read this"

Your questions have been asked and answered many many times on this board, please do a search, there is a gold mine of info available.

Sorry, I should of searched first, silly me.

Anyway, thank you very much

Can you flight train through the CAP?

I have been an airline pilot for 10 years and still have not any "big bucks". Don't do it for money. Do it because you love to fly.

Look into colleges with ROTC. Forget Riddle.

Like Otto said--aint many airplane jobs with big bucks involved.

Yes, there is about 3 ways they can give you training.

There is about a 3 weeks course they offer in the summer called the "Powered flight academy" which basically gives you flight lessons for about 3 weeks so you can do your solo.

Then they have a glider training academy which is basically the same thing as above except its gliders. The third way is with your squadron, which can offer a total of 5 hours of training, not really much just sorta like orientation flights.

Maybe I came off the wrong way , There is nothing I love more than flying, its just one of my neighbors works as a cargo pilot for UPS and he has a nice house and a Porsche, so I kinda got the impression that "wow i get paid like that for doing something I like? maybe I should look into it etc."

Anyway, thanks for the advice, Im going to start looking into other colleges with an AFROTC.

If you plan on going to the Chair Force, don't go to Riddle and pay all of that money for ratings that you will get while in the military. And on top of that, you will be getting paid while you get those ratings. The only reason I would go to Riddle is if you decide not to do the military thing and you want to get your degree with your ratings. I would recommend however getting your private license and build up flight time like that. One thing about academies. You don't have a guaranteed flight spot until after you accept your commission. I would recommend OCS, well in Air Force terms, OTS.

You should also check out your local comunity colleges and see if they have a flight program. It could save you some serious $ and usually they have a bridging probgram with an acredited college for your 4 year degree.

At your age you have a lot of time to figure out what you want to do. My best advice is to not rush into something my might regret. Make sure having fun is a part of your future job(it's easy to get burned out in this industry).

GL,

From reading this forum it doesnt seem many people like Riddle but i go there and if your considering riddle you can get a lot of scholarships with your grades. Pluss the ROTC program will pretty much pay your way if you qualify. Also Riddle will let you get almost all your general ed classes done at community colleges if you want and they will also count All your AP credits. Another thing is you dont even need to fly at riddle there are multiple schools on the field that are very good. Personally i would recomend you get an engineering degree, that will give you a much better shot at a flight slot for the AF. All the best.... Tyler