Opinions Needed

[135pilot]

How do I convince a neighbour not to give up on his dream to fly for the airlines. He passed all his checkrides (PVT-CFII) on the second attempt and feels that because of this he will be unable to secure a job with the airlines due to so many failures. His reason for his failures were based on being nervous during the flight portion (the oral was always flawless) secondly allowed his instructors to talk him into taking his checkride when he knew he was not 100% ready.

 

[The_Russian]

How do I convince a neighbour not to give up on his dream to fly for the airlines. He passed all his checkrides (PVT-CFII) on the second attempt and feels that because of this he will be unable to secure a job with the airlines due to so many failures. His reason for his failures were based on being nervous during the flight portion (the oral was always flawless) secondly allowed his instructors to talk him into taking his checkride when he knew he was not 100% ready.

My first question is:

Have you flown with this person?

Second question:

Have you given him instruction or seen him receiving instruction while flying?

Third question:

Age and family situation?

 

[135pilot]

For "The Russian" to answer your questions, I have flown with this guy a couple of times and he is an okay/average pilot especially with the amount of hours he has (205hrs), very safety concious, has the zeal to learn, theoretically knowledgeable and always wants to be critiqued on his performance, he is 39 years old, married with two kids.

 

[The_Russian]

If he has a pink for every ride, it most likely isn't a good idea to shoot for a professional aviation career. have you ever seen this guy under pressure? Were the flights just leisure flights? I have flown with a lot of guys that were great for a ride, but I would never want them to fly professionally. no matter how much I liked them. He may be dicouraged more because of his family situation. he will not make enough to feed a family of four for the first 3 years of so.

 

[Tonala2k]

I won't be the judge as to whether he should or should not pursue his dream. I will say this. If flying is his dream, there is still a tremendous amount he can do at his local airport while maintaining a well paying career.

There are many older students who feel most comfortable with a CFI who is older than their children, and not trying to ditch them to get to the airlines as soon as possible. CAP, BSA, EAA, AOPA, are a few local organization that could use a real warmhearted and sharp individual. Ground instruction is another great venue. There is plenty need for someone who's going to hang a round for more than a year. Maybe over the next several years he could do some contract flying. I know quit ea few people like that out here.

In short, the airlines don't have it all.

 

[epic!]

wait, he has his CFII but no commercial?

 

[timeoff]

For "The Russian" to answer your questions, I have flown with this guy a couple of times and he is an okay/average pilot especially with the amount of hours he has (205hrs)

205 hours? If he pinked his checkrides, then he obviously trained under part 61 and not 141 right? How do you have all your ratings with only 205 hours???

 

[Tonala2k]

Why is it hard to believe that someone would be working on their CFI on their way to Commercial? Sounds like a good use of time. I wish I had thought of that sooner

 

[woutlaw]

How do I convince a neighbour not to give up on his dream to fly for the airlines. ...

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It's his dream. Life is short.

Tell him to get his wife on board, go for it, that it'll be a rough road at best and he might not even make it.

Better that than to lie awake as an old man at night wondering, or even worse regretting, what might have been.

This coming from a 39-year-old who walked away from well-paid corporate life to become a flight instructor, which took a lot of thought but hasn't resulted in a second of regret.

Only the small don't try.


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[timeoff]

Why is it hard to believe that someone would be working on their CFI on their way to Commercial?

Because the whole point of his post was that his friend busted all his checkrides up through CFII. Can't have a CFII without a commercial...and you can't get a commercial without 250 hours (pt 61).

Not picking on him...it just doesn't make sense.