Working Full Time and Flight Training

[shon7]

Any motivational stories/ advise on working full time and getting your ratings at the same time. I am trying this but it is killing me. Lately, I have had to make a number of cancellations for flying since after a day's work I am just too tired/ washed out.

So for those of you who pulled it off -

how did you do it?
any advise how to cope up?

 

[FutureRJPilot]

I am doing the same thing man, I work 8-5, then fly 7-9 everyday and I just crash at the end of the day. It is so tough but it's well worth it, I'd be miserable if I couldn't fly.......

 

[bobbysamd]

Working while learning how to fly

My story is a little bit different, but fits in with your question.

I was 31 when I learned how to fly. I orginally learned how to fly because I had always wanted to learn and did it for fun. I was working full-time and paid for all my ratings myself except for part of my Private. I paid as I trained, so I had no debt. During most of the time I was working on ratings I was working an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. My instructor worked full-time during the day and could not see me until 5 p.m. I was usually too dead and fatigued on the weekends to want to fly. For a time, I wasn't flying much. So, it took me years to finish my ratings. That wasn't a problem at the time because I was not looking at flying as a career. That came later, after I had earned most of my ratings. It probably cost me more money in the long run, not to mention the momentum consistent training brings.

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, but I would never recommend my training experience to anyone. You have to do what you have to do, but it might cost you more in the long run if you cannot devote most of your availability to training. Part of the learning experience is the law of readiness, meaning you must be ready to learn, meaning further that you must minimize distractions. I am sure that while I was excited and enthusiastic about flying my screwed-up work schedule made me not as ready to learn as I could have been.

Good luck with your training.

 

[Dignan]

Howdy,

That's the way I did it. I didn't want to borrow a ton of cash and I'm not independently (or even dependently) wealthy, so I worked fulltime "real jobs" from when I started training until I had @ 1000 hrs. I got my ratings and then instructed at night and on the weekends. This all took @ 4 years and it was tough at times, but when I made the jump and started flying Pt. 135 fulltime, life seemed pretty easy. I had a lot more free time than I was used to, and not owing on big student loans made 3 yrs of 135 pay and my first year at a regional a lot easier financially.
That is just the way I ended up doing it, through trial and error. There are a hundred different paths to make it in this business, and you just have to take the one that works for you (depending on family, cash, debt, goals, et al) and not worry about how others do it. It's natural to get discouraged and wonder if it's all worth it or if you can do it. I don't know your situation, but my advice is to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and press on, even if it seems futile at times. It can be done, and in my opinion, it is worth it. I'm starting to sound like Tony Robbins here, so I better sign off. Good luck and hang in there.

D

 

[English]

I began my flight lessons while employed full-time as a teacher. I'd get up at 5 am, commute 60 miles in LA traffic, start my school day at 7 am, finish at 3:30 pm, drive back 60 miles to my home airport, and go flying. I'd get home, read the assignments my instructor gave me, usually fall asleep on the couch reading, then start all over the next day. Repeat four times until Friday came around. The weekends were a little easier. I'd commit a few hours each day but left some time for other activities as well.

It became more difficult after I earned my CFI. I keep working fulltime as a teacher but then also starting flight instructing part-time. I'd teach instrument ground school two nights per week, and the other three nights fly with my students. Weekends were completely packed with students. I kept this schedule up for seven months then finally gave up the teaching job (and the good salary).

It was hard work but it paid off for me. My first flight was in Spring of 1997. By December of 1998 I had my CFI. CFII and MEI by March 1999. Starting aggressively building multi time and experience and accumulated 400 hours of multi time over the next six months. By January 2000 I was in new hire class with American Eagle.

I didn't incur any debt at all for flight training because I worked as I flew. Lots of guys on this board write about spending $50,000 or more on programs like FlightSafety, Comair Academy, ATA and the like. My progress was a little slower than their's was, but I had time to digest the material, live at home and pay as I went.

How to cope? Know you won't have as much debt as the next guy when you are finished if you work and fly concurrently. Having no debt now will allow you to make a jump for an opportunity down the road. I could afford to work at American Eagle because I had saved some money working and didn't incur any loans for my flight training. If I had not had my teaching job, I would not have felt good about going to Eagle. Going to Eagle (and leaving Eagle) opened up a ton of opportunities for me.

How else to cope? Just remember that, if you are anything like me, you probably still look up in the sky when an airplane flies overhead. Do you look down at your place of employment when you are flying overhead and wish you were there working instead of flying?

 

[bobbysamd]

Working while learning how to fly, continued . . .

I was working full-time and paid for all my ratings myself except for part of my Private. I paid as I trained, so I had no debt . . . . it took me years to finish my ratings . . . . [and] cost me more money in the long run, not to mention the momentum consistent training brings . . .

I only needed my multi and MEI to be qualified for professional aviation. Just the same, in looking back, I should have had the guts to get a loan, quit working, and go back to school to finish those two ratings and earn a second degree in Aero Science. I realized upon entry to the business that I had gaps in my aeronautical knowlege that I should not have had. I'm convinced that good training and education would have made a difference in my experience.

Once more, good luck with your training.

 

[Don]

It seems the part time route is pretty common. I started flying in 1997 at age 22. All my instruction was part 61 FBO flying while I worked full time. I obtained my CFI in 2001 and have been teaching part time since. I added my multi-commercial, CFII and MEI after I got my CFI. Now I'm married, 28 and I have about 800 hours. I'll be flying full time by August. I also managed to finish my BA and I'll finish a master’s degree in December. While it has been a very taxing few years as mentioned above; I currently have two jobs and I go to school full time. I think one full time flying job (and no more college classes) will seem like a cake walk.

Good things about the part time route...

Except for a student loan for the master’s degree which will be about 10K I'll have no debt.

I got exposed to a lot of different instructors over the course of a few years and I believe that while my training was not as structured, in the end I have a good bit more experience (both good and bad) than the factory flight school grad that got a job as a CFI at the same factory after graduating. I don't think you can compress experience and education and retain the same quality. I'm not knocking the big flight schools, there are good and bad pilots everywhere; I'm saying that drawing out the training over a longer period and gaining exposure to different people, planes and ways of operating is invaluable. You just can’t get all that in a few months.

If you have time and no money (except for the rich kids… people have time OR money) you are probably young and I highly recommend my route. If you have money and no time (you are older) then I'd hit the factory flight school and knock out those ratings.

As for how my route will turn out, I suppose I will find out in the next year or two. Hopefully all the airlines won’t be out of business by then!

 

[JD2003]

Drink lots of coffee...

 

[Alaskaairlines]

Well I did my Private with an easy home job which paid for my training fairly well.

I am now about half way through my instrument and work full time, get up at 4:35AM off from work at 3 PM, and I fly 3-4 days a week, not saying that I have college to 10PM on the nights I don't fly. It hard, but very rewarding when you are able to finish!

 

[LearLove]

"By January 2000 I was in new hire class with American Eagle. "

English,

Did you get your SF340 type from Eagle? I'm under the impression that the most junior guys at eagle as SF340 capts have a DOH of late 98 - early 99.

 

[English]

Nope. Colgan. Captain off the street.

 

[skirt]

My approach was somewhat opposite of many. I knew that if I crammed as many lessons together as possible, I wouldn't have to relearn between lessons. I saved all my vacation up for a year, then took three weeks off and flew every day, sometimes 3 times a day. My instructor had to tag team with another guy, as I wore them both out. Then I took one week off and flew all day on weekends for two weekends to get my cross countries done. From zero hours to checkride was 6 weeks for the private.

Same approach for the rest of my ratings (3 weeks for instrument, etc.). I borrowed money to blast through everything, as I knew a year wasted getting ratings was a year longer before I would get hired. One year of seniority can mean a lot more than $30K of flight loans. I didn't get all my loans paid off until several years with the airlines, but it was worth it. Of course, the times were different, as this was in the 80's.

If you do the one lesson a week approach, it will take you forever to climb the ladder, especially with the back up that is going right now.

Hang in there.

Skirt