Best zero time to regional route

[acpilot]

I value having my own airplane. Some people have boats, some people have shore houses ect. I have my plane and the friends/lifestyle that comes with it. It's my shore house not an spreadsheet.

Got that right. You have to trade a lot to have a plane, but it's worth every cent.

 

[SplitBar]

Got that right. You have to trade a lot to have a plane, but it's worth every cent.

Worth 22K to buy and $144/hr to operate a 152 that you only fly a few hours a month? No thanks. I'd rent but to each their own. I don't fly GA anymore, been there done that. I love my job but the last place I want to be on my days off is at the airport flying a 152 for $144 an hour that cost me $22K. And I thought boats were money pits.

 

[pilotyip]

Worth 22K to buy and $144/hr to operate a 152 that you only fly a few hours a month? No thanks. I'd rent but to each their own. I don't fly GA anymore, been there done that. I love my job but the last place I want to be on my days off is at the airport flying a 152 for $144 an hour that cost me $22K. And I thought boats were money pits.

To each his own, love living near an airport, spend most of my free time there, flying my airplane, flying war birds, and DA-20s for JUS. Living the dream. By instructing in my airplane I fly my C-172 for free after covering fixed cost myself.

 

[rumpletumbler]

Teach. Make at least one command decision before you get in the right seat with a guy in the left that didn't make one until he was a captain.

 

[acpilot]

I don't fly GA anymore, been there done that. I love my job but the last place I want to be on my days off is at the airport flying a 152 for $144 an hour that cost me $22K. And I thought boats were money pits.

I'm sorry to hear that. "Been there, done that" is what I say about commercial aviation. To each his own indeed!

 

[Indy319FA]

To an even greater degree than before, starting a flying career is like getting married.

Aviation is a cruel mistress, but with the new 1500 hour requirement and the other issues in the industry, she is now a 90 year old mistress who is grouchy and incontinent.

The old career track most of us took will be tougher than ever, because it is not "just" the 1500 hours. With a diminishing base of GA pilots, there are fewer and fewer non-career students to teach. Buying a crappy airplane might be the only route to 1500 hours for some.

In fact, if you have a really good paying job, it might be cheaper to fly off the hours in a tri-pacer than it would be to sit around all day at the airport waiting for a chance to teach for a couple hours and make $20.

Exactly. Most of these FBOs that were buzzing with students 10 years ago are ghost towns now. CFIs at FBOs are lucky to be flying 30 or 40 hours a month. Since the check flying dried up not a lot of 91 time building out there either. Only place to rack up a bunch of CFI time fast are the places with Asian contracts or college programs. Most of these programs are creating pipelines with college programs and regional airlines. So if you don't want to go crazy in debt at a college program, it will be difficult to build time fast, unless you want to go to China and instruct there.

 

[jetlag7]

The best known method:

1. Go get a professional graduate level degree in an industry that isn't consumed by unions. Think engineering, medicine, or law. A solid business education, including graduate school, will also work.

...Under no circumstances should a professional flying career enter the into equation.

The AMA is one of the largest trade unions in the world....

Great post btw!

 

[acpilot]

A guild, maybe. I don't think it's a union though.

 

[jetlag7]

A guild, maybe. I don't think it's a union though.

Neither is ALPA -- it's an "Association"......

 

[acpilot]

true, but they strike, so...