My flight career is over before it even started

[Dr4uh60l]

Just a suggestion

A Passenger,

IF you want quick money for college, join the Army. If you score well on the ASVAB test you will qualify for the Army College Fund. This is MORE than the GI Bill and you can serve as little as 2 years. You already have your PPL so the VA will pay 90% at a Part 141 school for the rest of your training. Also, if you are married (or close to it), the military is a great way to get started. They provide 100% medical coverage for the entire family. To get a job in Army Aviation you are probably looking at a 5-6 year enlistment, however you can go infantry/artillary etc. for a shorter enlistment period. There's too much to cover here--get in touch with your local recruiter. I was in the Army for 12 years--crewchief/maint. instructor on Blackhawk helicopters. You get out of something what you put into it.

Good Luck! PM me if you have any questions.

 

[C-150ETOPS]

A Passenger,

Before I offer some free career advice, please answer a few questions;

1. Single? No kids?
2. Your Age
3. College? (I guess "no" from your post)
4. Staying in CVG?
5. What flying do you want to do?

My "resume" is that I grew up in CVG, paid for every dime of my flight training myself ,(no inheritances/scams/ect), by working at nearly every menial general aviation job possible in temps from +100F to -15F, and have seen 50+ plus other guys do the same and end up jobs like CA's at every major airline, large corporations and even knocking down Migs in the middle east in an F15.
You may have to live in a POS place on Eastern Ave for awhile, but in can be done.

Good luck

 

[Draginass]

I recommend that you go to a university and get a degree that will prepare you for a real professional career, not a vocation like aviation. A career where you talents are portable from company to company or something that you can strike out on your own once you get some experience. Becoming a pilot will only lead to putting yourself in deeply in debt for training and disillusionment later on. For a reward for your hard work you will be exploited for your dedication, paid well below your peers who got real careers after college, no retirement nor be able to save enough for one, periods of long employment and insecure employment, and low prestigue.

 

[s0ldier93]

You already have your PPL so the VA will pay 90% at a Part 141 school for the rest of your training.

Dr4uh60l-

I think this should be 60%. Please correct me and point me to the correct link if I'm wrong. . . . . . . and if I'm wrong my next posts will be from me favorite flight school.

 

[huncowboy]

What a letdown. I was hoping for a cool DUI or DWI thread with appropriate comments. No one seems to drink anymore.



Talking about money. Right now I can't figure out how I will come up with another $300 that I am short to finish my CFII... a week ago I was trying to figure out how to come up with $600 that I did not receive in pay from my crappy_ company I have to work for at the moment... in the last three years I was trying to figure out how to come up with... (insert: X thousand $) to finish… (insert: PPL, Instrument, CPL, and now CFII). I did have money for the CFI and the multi though BTW by writing "money" I always talk about "available balance" because daddy is not a sponsor anymore (though I got my degree paid by my parents) and I could not take a nice low % loan (but lots of credit card loans instead).



I am 100% sure my story is nothing unusual or extreme. Some guys/gals do all this while they raise kids, complete degrees and work 3 jobs at the same time, and may fight a war for the rest of us on occasion.



Welcome to the club!

 

[weekendwarrior]

Correct, it is 60%. I used it for some of my ratings. Second the military thing, as long as you don't mind commitment, and putting up through BS going to officer school, flight school, and potentially being deployed. The Army is the easiest flight program to get in to, but you'll end up with a rotor rating. Nevertheless, you'll have the commercial certificate, then all you have to do is get an airplane add on, with what time you have now, it wouldn't be a problem. Join the guard, go to a blackhawk unit (The course is shorter, and there are more UH-60 courses to go around). You might get deployed for 12 months, but you'll get a sh!tload of flight time there, and a nice paycheck when you are done. You'll come back as a weekender like me, and then you can get your fixed wing add on, and CFI for not much cash at all.

But, you have to be willing to serve. Please, don't just do it for the flight time and ratings. You'd be dissapointed if you did. You'd be better off borrowing the money from key bank or sallie mae if you don't have a desire to be in the military.

Dr4uh60l-

I think this should be 60%. Please correct me and point me to the correct link if I'm wrong. . . . . . . and if I'm wrong my next posts will be from me favorite flight school.

 

[Dr4uh60l]

60%--I stand corrected. The other info I gave was based on going the enlisted route for a quick "in and out" and get the money for your education. Going the officer route (flight training) will require a 5 or 6 year commitment upon COMPLETION of a year-long flight school.

Like anything else, check out ALL your options and select the one that's best for YOU.

Good Luck!

 

[FN FAL]

Correct, it is 60%. I used it for some of my ratings. Second the military thing, as long as you don't mind commitment, and putting up through BS going to officer school, flight school, and potentially being deployed. The Army is the easiest flight program to get in to, but you'll end up with a rotor rating. Nevertheless, you'll have the commercial certificate, then all you have to do is get an airplane add on, with what time you have now, it wouldn't be a problem. Join the guard, go to a blackhawk unit (The course is shorter, and there are more UH-60 courses to go around). You might get deployed for 12 months, but you'll get a sh!tload of flight time there, and a nice paycheck when you are done. You'll come back as a weekender like me, and then you can get your fixed wing add on, and CFI for not much cash at all.

But, you have to be willing to serve. Please, don't just do it for the flight time and ratings. You'd be dissapointed if you did. You'd be better off borrowing the money from key bank or sallie mae if you don't have a desire to be in the military.

This guy doesn't have the determination to get past the first ob-stak-le in his attempt at getting into commercial aviation...how's he going to get through military training?

 

[Big Duke Six]

FN, you may be right. I've also noticed he/she has not responded to any of our advice.


Maybe it was bait.

 

[FN FAL]

FN, you may be right. I've also noticed he/she has not responded to any of our advice.


Maybe it was bait.

Hopefully anyone else that is having a hard time getting or keeping started, found something they could use in the thread that may help keep them motivated.

 

[avbug]

If you think you're beaten. You are.

No need to expend any more energy proving it.

That career parachute never opened. No need to waste any valueable energy pulling the reserve ripcord. After all, the best you might hope to accomplish is that you might survive the plunge and realize how wrong you really were.

Can't be having that now, can we??

 

[Super80]

Geeze, I wish I had a $1 for every time I thought I was licked. Now quit yer whinin' and get back on the horse!

'80

 

[A Passenger]

Sorry I haven't been able to respond. I have been busy with situations IRL.


Thanks for the great advice. I will not give up on this thing, the last place where I want to end up is sitting in some cubicle, doing mindless corporate work for the rest of my life.

The Options:

1) Join the military. This sounds instersting, but I have no desire to get killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, so I don't think I will be enlisting.

2) I will be applying for the Spring semester at some colleges w/aviation programs. I want to stay in the Midwest, but I am willing to move anywhere in the country except Florida, Texas, California, Hawaii, or anywhere in the desert southwest.

3) I could move back home and work in the family business, and train at a local FBO. This would be a short-term move, until I could either get into a college or get my Commercial and CFI ratings and get a flying job.

 

[bobbysamd]

No, your flight career isn't over at all

2) I will be applying for the Spring semester at some colleges w/aviation programs. I want to stay in the Midwest, but I am willing to move anywhere in the country except Florida, Texas, California, Hawaii, or anywhere in the desert southwest.

3) I could move back home and work in the family business, and train at a local FBO. This would be a short-term move, until I could either get into a college or get my Commercial and CFI ratings and get a flying job.

Now, you're thinking smart, with one qualifier. Some excellent, affordable colleges with good flight programs, such as Cochise College in Arizona, are located in the southwest. Don't foreclose on good training opportunities just because they are where you don't want to be.

Otherwise, good luck with your plans.

 

[ak_pilot]

Dont give up. I originally thought I wanted to go to WMU, but instead decided to stay up here in Alaska (University of Alaska Anchorage). The cost is cheaper and a scholarship to cover tuition helps (not flying costs just the cost of classes). Im pretty sure that if Alaska has a program, almost every state has to have one at their universities. Good luck with your flying.


Josh

 

[FN FAL]

Sorry I haven't been able to respond. I have been busy with situations IRL.


Thanks for the great advice. I will not give up on this thing, the last place where I want to end up is sitting in some cubicle, doing mindless corporate work for the rest of my life.

The Options:

1) Join the military. This sounds instersting, but I have no desire to get killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, so I don't think I will be enlisting.

2) I will be applying for the Spring semester at some colleges w/aviation programs. I want to stay in the Midwest, but I am willing to move anywhere in the country except Florida, Texas, California, Hawaii, or anywhere in the desert southwest.

3) I could move back home and work in the family business, and train at a local FBO. This would be a short-term move, until I could either get into a college or get my Commercial and CFI ratings and get a flying job.

Yea, don't give up. When I was 17 years old going to boot camp at Great Lakes in the Navy...I told the detailers I wanted to be a Quartermaster...which in the navy has nothing to do with being a supply clerk...but in the Army it did.

Which is kind of funny, considering the Navy said they wouldn't let me be a Quatermaster, because I had too much on the ball. But the Army wouldn't take in me without the high school diploma. So it was kind of perplexing when I wound up working in the supply division at my first unit assignment in the Navy.

None the less, It all came together when I figured out our unit credo was, "there are more divers looking for pilots, than pilots looking for divers".

 

[Metro752]

Lewis University has a good program with connections at a few airlines and internships, etc.

2.0 GPA & like a 21 on the ACT.....oh and the massive amount of money it costs to go there.

 

[flyifrvfr]

Like someone said earlier, go to a community college and then apply to WMU. Believe me, they accepted my stupid A$$ if I suggest you go into their Aviation "couph" Management program

I just want to point out that couph is spelt encorrektly. It shudd be spelt cough.