My parents aren't wealthy!!!

[Clear-&aMillion]

Take almost anyone out there, and they can reach their desired career with a simple college degree, and yeah, maybe a little "due paying".

But it would appear that the prospective commercial pilot has far, far more to contend with. Not only must this person go into debt 40K for the degree, but they must also spend more than that on flight training. Seriously, you're looking at $100,000, before you can even hope to get an airline job.

How am I supposed to do it???? I don't have rich parents that will send me to ERAU. How am I supposed to come up with 100K????????

 

[MarineGrunt]

Sucks to be you

 

[Junkflyer]

Get a job, get your ratings, screw erau. Plenty of people work their way up from the bottom.

 

[RideTheWind]

This is not that hard, some states are proud of their military vets and will provide full 100% tuition for a 4 year degree, including aviation flight degrees, Illinois is the only state that does this that I know of, search the Illinois Veterans Grant.

How hard is 4 years in the Coast Guard, get out and move back to Illinois within 6 months and start your BS in Aeronautical Science at the Univ. of Illinois, all you'll have to pay for is books and you'll come out with a CFII if 4 years.

If you don't live in Illinois than get your ass over there and go to work at Mcdonalds for 6 months to establish residence and than go to boot camp, but you may want to stay at Mcdonalds, the job security and pay will be more than you'll make as a pilot.

 

[Alin10123]

Get a job, get your ratings, screw erau. Plenty of people work their way up from the bottom.

He was asking abou the degree too.

 

[ePilot22]

100 Grand

Not only must this person go into debt 40K for the degree

Ah...? Try a state college. Maybe $24,000 for a degree. The airlines don't care about the name of the university or college on the degree so why pay more at ERAU or UND for the same education at a state college?

but they must also spend more than that on flight training. Seriously, you're looking at $100,000, before you can even hope to get an airline job.

Ah...? $5,000 - $7,000 private, $3,000 - $5,000 instrument, $3,000 - $4,000 initial commercial single, $5,000 - $7,000 initial CFI = $16,000 - $23,000.

Even if my math is way off, I'd say less than $50,000 total. Not to bad considering people are willing to pay upwards of $20,000 for a new car.

Rich parents...no. Hard work and effort towards your goals...YES!


Good Luck.



eP.

 

[check six]

Go get a worthwhile degree first.

Plan A
Are your high school grades 3.2 or better? go get that Navy or Air Force ROTC scholarship (Or better yet, ANG, just ask GWB). Get a good degree like engineering. They just paid for your $40K college, and if you pass the physicals, they are going to pay for your flight training. Best training in the world.

Plan B
If you can't get ROTC, go to college and get a good degree you can make a decent salary coming out of school like engineering, accounting, etc. Start out of college at 40-50K a year. If you are single and 21 making 40-50K a year, you should be able to pay about 15k a year easy for flight training. And you don't go in to debt like alot of guys have done. So now after 3 years of working a full time job (probably 40 hours a week) and night and weekend flight training, you have Private, intstrument, commercial CFI, CFII, MEI. Now go teach nights and weekends. Buy some time too, before you know it you are at 1200-1500 hours TT. You go to the commuters and who knows from there. I did plan B.

Believe it or not, the money is not usually the problem. The problem is usually the guy is not hard working , smart enough, or lacks enough hand eye coordination to be a good stick.

Take it one step at a time. College, Flight training (Military or civ), and then get the job. Also, more flying job opportunites in rich warm places like Florida, Texas, Southern Cal, Phoenix. I started out in Minnesota, very few jobs for CFI's etc up there. Went to Denver, lot of rich guys who want to fly there which means more CFI jobs and jet jobs.

 

[Alin10123]

Ah...? Try a state college. Maybe $24,000 for a degree. The airlines don't care about the name of the university or college on the degree so why pay more at ERAU or UND for the same education at a state college?



Ah...? $5,000 - $7,000 private, $3,000 - $5,000 instrument, $3,000 - $4,000 initial commercial single, $5,000 - $7,000 initial CFI = $16,000 - $23,000.

Even if my math is way off, I'd say less than $50,000 total. Not to bad considering people are willing to pay upwards of $20,000 for a new car.

Rich parents...no. Hard work and effort towards your goals...YES!


Good Luck.



eP.

Did you forget commercial multi? cfii? cfi multi?

 

[aviator1978]

My advice.... Don't think about those others with the rich parents. As mentioned previously, get a degree at a state school and work hard. Yes aviation is expensive. Yes, spoiled brats have the upper hand at the beginning. But your hard work and preserverance will show. Ultimately, you'll be in the same place as those folks.....on these boards bitching about aviation.

Good Luck

 

[BRIGADEAVIATOR]

yup

yeah welcome to the club man. I'm in the same boat, but the only way I have been paying for flying is working at my flight school as the office bitch and lineservice wench! Good thing is you get to meet people to split time with and get an employee discount. Go to a JC then transfer (what i'm doing). As far as chicks forget it in your aviation classes. First you got cute then you have "aviation cute" lol

good luck!

 

[Dirty Sanchez]

Why do you think you have to spend $100K on ratings? You must be reading too many DCA ads. Go get your ratings at an FBO and then build your time instructing, towing banners, or whatever else you feel like doing. There will always be someone out there to take your money and you can make it as expensive or cheap as you want.

 

[ePilot22]

Did you forget commercial multi? cfii? cfi multi?

Nope. But I don't figure those three are going to cost an additional $50,000?

$2,500 for the Comm ME add-on. CFII and MEI are optional, preferred, but optional.

My numbers are rough, and will not apply to every situation, but I just think a 100k for a degree and certificates is too expensive.



eP.

 

[NuGuy]

Take almost anyone out there, and they can reach their desired career with a simple college degree, and yeah, maybe a little "due paying".

But it would appear that the prospective commercial pilot has far, far more to contend with. Not only must this person go into debt 40K for the degree, but they must also spend more than that on flight training. Seriously, you're looking at $100,000, before you can even hope to get an airline job.

How am I supposed to do it???? I don't have rich parents that will send me to ERAU. How am I supposed to come up with 100K????????

Don't forget...the chance of you seeing any kind of major cash on the other end of this are very slim. Chances are that you will wind up working for some regional or non-sked at significantly less than 100k, with a quality of life that can only be described as sucky.

Even if you do get a leg up, those WITH rich parents will gladly take your job and do it for half of what you were making because it's "fun".

I'd take the money you save and do something constructive with your life.

Nu

 

[C-DALE DRVR]

I was in the same boat as you about 10 years ago. I joined the Army and got my ass kicked for 3 years. It was probally the most meaningful years of my life. I grew up fast and learned a lot about myself and the world. I always told myself that I would never let money stop me from an education or a career flying. I'm not saying that you should take this route but don't give up and follow your dreams. Sometimes life will kick you in the teeth but you have to remember to get up and fight back. Remeber one of the best rules of life: Always strive for your goals but don't forget to enjoy the journey.

 

[av8rbama]

I like the engineering degree... something worthwhile to fall back on if another 9/11 happens or your health for some reason won't let you fly commercially. That's what I did. Worked my butt off in high school to get a couple of modest scholarships, co-oped for extra money (what I got my private on), worked in the engineering department to pay for the part of school my scholarships didn't cover and had various outside jobs for spending money. Did I mention practically getting a free masters by sticking around the department and doing some research/teaching work?

I got my private at a local FBO for about $4000, then joined the Civil Air Patrol to get my instrument/commercial/cfi along with all the XC time building. Some of those CAP guys are waaayyy gung-ho about being weekend warriors and really get on my nerves, but you can't complain when 172/182 are $30/$35 respectively, dry hobbs time. Not to mention the instructors are FREE, they can't charge a dime for their services. There's a few hoops to jump through (look like a dork in their uniform, the plane sticks out like a sore thumb, can't fly out-of-state without prior permission, etc.) but it's worth it for those cheap prices.

Oh, did I mention that every dime spent flying with the CAP, even for your own training is TAX DEDUCTIBLE? Even your drive from home/work to the airport can be written off on your taxes as it's a non-for-profit organization. Find an active CAP unit and start building time as soon as you get your private (they don't allow guys over 18 to get their private in the CAP). Show them you're committed and you can get it all for peanuts... not to mention a modest amount of FREE flying every now-and-again.

Get a job to build time up to 135 mins. I work for an aerial surveyor and have more than enough XC time and TT, the only thing I lack is 30 hrs of night... figure a year or so of part-time CFIing and I can get that too.

My rough-estimate costs:
private-$4000
instrument-$3750 (~75 hrs at $50/hr with CAP)
SE commercial-$5000 (~100 hrs at $50/hr with CAP)
ME commercial-$1700 course through ATP
CFI-$500 (thanks to CAP and my boss who let me use his 210)
checkrides-$1500
pilot supplies-$1000

GRAND TOTAL-$17350

Granted, fuel costs a good bit more now than then, and the ATP course is probably $500~$600 more and each checkride except CFI was taken right as I fulfilled the minimum requiremnts (42hrs for private, 251 for commercial) but still very manageable... and this doesn't take into account the money saved on taxes by doing this through the CAP.

And my parents AIN'T RICH!

my 2¢

 

[Gorilla]

Join the military, work hard. Uncle Sam pays for it all. My parents spent all my college money, and they were welcome to it, it was their money, not mine.

Good luck. Keep your eyes open to the realities. Remember, you can fly for fun even if a career doesn't pan out.

 

[ePilot22]

Join the military, work hard. Uncle Sam pays for it all.

Oh yeah! The government tit, milk it!!!




eP.

 

[urflyingme?!]

Student Loans!

(duh)

 

[Amish RakeFight]

inheritence $$$

 

[scoreboard]

Take almost anyone out there, and they can reach their desired career with a simple college degree, and yeah, maybe a little "due paying".

But it would appear that the prospective commercial pilot has far, far more to contend with. Not only must this person go into debt 40K for the degree, but they must also spend more than that on flight training. Seriously, you're looking at $100,000, before you can even hope to get an airline job.

How am I supposed to do it???? I don't have rich parents that will send me to ERAU. How am I supposed to come up with 100K????????

Welcome to the american dream!! If Vietnamese imigrants can get off the boat and 20 years later own a chain of air conditioning repair shops, put three of 5 kids (last two still to young) through law/medical school, you can too.

Think step by step. Get the education, get a part time job, get the student loans. After that, two paths, maybe three. A: pure civilian, it doesn't cost 100K. B: Pure military, and unlike epilot22 who thinks it is sucking off a teet, 10-20 years later you come out fully qualified and desirable by any and all majors. C: Mixture of both, go reserve/ANG and keep pluggin along the civilian path. There is no one solution.

So sonny, please don't blame your parents for not being rich. Note my signature, your welcome, best of luck.