Hi there,
I'm hoping I can get some good advice as others have gotten on here, I'm in a rather unique situation and curious how you guys/gals would field this one. I'm 26 and working as a construction engineer for a large corporation, been here since I graduated from Colorado State. My father is a pilot for a large airline and is the first person I always hear cautioning me on a move like this. Being 26 I may be a bit older than most starting but I've saved well and will start with 80 to 90 k in savings for this journey.
I don't romanticize the job, I understand I will never probably have the career my dad did but at the same time you are flying and I prefer the flying schedule and lifestyle to the 9 to five.

So this being my situation and believe me I'm not looking for sympathy what would be the best way to get in, get my time and start making my way to the heavies? Local FBO or Fast track ATP style?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

Where are you located Steve? I'm in a similar situation, but about 6 years younger and don't have my engineering degree (yet).

Steve,

At 26 you have plenty of time to make this a long career. You can fly in the cockpit now until age 65. I don't see any reason why you can't make it to a Major airline by 35.

Here's what I would do:
1. Don't quit my day job.
2. Shop around for the best price for each certificate and rating.
3. Fly as much as you can stand. If you averaged 25 hours a month that would give you 300 hrs in one year. You would have your CFI by this time.
4. Instruct till you get enough time to get on with a 135 operation or Regional Airline.
5. Build time by flying jumpers, banner towing, meeting people at the aiport and networking.

ATLCFI,

Thanks for the advice, I definitely like the idea of keeping my day job through the CFI portion, maybe beyond like you were saying. Work makes it tough, working 60-70 hours a week and taking 12 hours of EMT courses a week to get certified in that as well, something I've always wanted to get done just to have.
By this summer I'll have my EMT out of the way and then can fully focus on the flying aspect, probably start working on my private ground school prior. Regardless that much work makes it tough to really focus on flying and it may require some redundency in training to really get it but that might be ok. I'm certain there are people who have worked through much more than that to make their flying careers come to fruition.

Still would like to hear if someone has taken the other approach, and just took a bitzkrieg approach to their training and how that worked out for them.

Thanks again,

Steve

Steve,

I was in a similar situation, I got all my ratings while going to college full time. (I also got my EMT) I had to balance all the work from college with the work from flying, but it was definitely doable. I guess you could say I took the blitzkrieg approach and trained at least 5 days a week. The more frequent you train, the smoother it will go for you. As for where to train, I've heard horror stories from ATP and seen a bunch of people leave them frustrated and come to the flight school I was training at to finish up. Good luck!