I am 31 and wanting to follow my dream of becoming a pilot. Just a little background info. I am married and have 2 kids. My wife will be starting her nursing career upon graduation in December. I will be investing my 401k I have accumulated over the last 12 years at my current employer to pay for my schooling. My question is what kind of school would be best? 4 year degree, associates degree or flight school like ATP? Any and all input welcomed.

Do you have a 4 year degree? If yes, then 61 or 141 school.

No I do not. I have about 30 college credit hours from 2003-2005. Not sure they can even be transferd by now.

Not your retirement funds, please no! This career isn't worth that risk, especially with a family.

GF

The hit you will take on early withdrawal of your retirement will be worse than the one you would take for a student loan. Granted 30ish years of airline pay seems like it would make that irrelevant, consider the unforeseen possibilities that could cause this not to pan out.

I vote student loan (interest and payments are very low while you are actively enrolled), supplement with any scholarships/grants that you can get. Also look for schools that reduce your R-ATP minimum total time to 1000 hrs.

Some community colleges even offer a 2 yr associates with flight time, that rolls right into a state schools program for the last 2 years, for the budget minded.

The problem we have had with getting scholarships for my wife's schooling is that I was fortunate enough to have a job that payed very well and we didn't qualify for anything so we did loans. We have a plan in place to pay her loans off asap just thought using my 401k money and not having to do more loans sounded better. Even with losing pretty much half because of early withdraw and taxes. Will have to check into some state college programs.

US Aviation offers a two year associate's degree program with Tarrant County College. TCC then has a "2+2" arrangement with UNT to get a bachelors.

TCC Program:
Professional Pilot - Tarrant County College

With no prior flying experience, you're looking to spend around $70K to get your CFI, CFII and optionally your MEI ratings (that's the most practical way to build time and receive a little income for it). There are other options, but instructing is generally at the top of the list. All this is true until your 1500 hrs, after which is the big walk through the regionals.

Bottomline - you're settled with family, have a job - it's a little too late to pursue a career in flying I would say.

On the other side - you can still achieve your dream of flying. Just get the PPL. Fly with your family from time-to-time. The best gift/memory they'll ever have.

I was in a similar position to you and made it work out and actually paid for a family plane in the process. I was 30 when I started flying, knowing I wanted a new second career after leaving the enlisted army world. Although I went to ATP because I wanted a set schedule and open access to training aircraft (the local FBO only had one trainer), I would do it a little different if repeated. I bought a C206 right after getting my CSEL (a C182 would be much cheaper and still work) so I could hire myself to do part 91 parachute work. If I were to do it over, would buy the airplane from the start after finishing my PSEL so my insurance rates would be lower and I would be building time in my own airplane. If you have the cash to buy a plane, it is really cheaper to own for time building as opposed to lease. A Cessna will resale for the same you bought it for with only a slight drop value do to engine reserve. If you go on dropzone.com or similar websites, almost every region is looking for weekend jump planes and pilots. I leased myself out with the plane to do DZ parachute work on the weekends, and got my cross country time ferrying the aircraft to different DZs. I will admit, it was a lot of seven days a week work, I worked my regular job then flew for hire on the weekends, but I was able to get ATP mins in under two years and paid for the plane and my flight training. It is easy to get 10 hours a day tach time flying at a DZ, and DZ's pay for the ferry time as well. 25 hours over a weekend at $200/hr/dry (maintenance reserve is $45/hr on a C182/C206) gave me $155 to put towards paying for flight training and the plane. Insurance and overhead cost me about $80/hr. I actually grew to the point where I bought a second plane and hired another pilot to fly it. At the end of my project, I sold the C182, kept the C206 (which was almost paid for) and had my student loans repaid. I didn't want to fly piston jump planes my entire aviation career, but it got me into the aviation community and I didn't pay for any time building. I had no issues getting good paying jobs in the DOD contract market, if you're into that kind of work, and I was able to move into the DHC-6 and B90 with sub-750 hours because I had a relationship with a DZ owner. That relationship that was made while flying for him in my own plane. Six years later and I'm making captain's pay in an overseas job and loving it, with no aviation degree and no loans. My advice- buy an airplane that someone will pay you to fly. Get a CFI rating and a 18K C152, teach on the weekends and do photo flying. Get the higher performance plane and do jump work. There are plenty of great ways to pay for training and time that don't require regionals, or any 121 work ever. No union, no seniority to worry about, and you get to fly all you want. Oh, and you get to learn how much easier it is to fly for someone else than try to have your own company!

I sent you a PM. I too am somewhat in the same boat as you.