Considering Becoming a Pilot

Hello:

I have been on the flight training side, It is a tough ballgame but anything in life that is worth it is not easy. Like I stated in one of my other posts( I just joined the board but you can look them up). There are a lot of options in the aviation industry. Most people look at just the big air carriers as the dream job.

I think in the flight training side the FAA is going to start designating more and more people to do their work. You are at an age where you may be able to get into both at the same time. If you look at the navigation systems alone that is a huge market. With a pilot certificate you may be able to get into something working with Cirrus or someone designing and testing systems. you will probably have to have an ATP for many of these things but by the time you are 25 or so you may have people looking at you saying " how did he do that?"

I remember one of my students a long time ago was in a rush to get his certificate before he went into the service. He got it. Whithin a year he was a crew member on a tanker " I think it was a tanker" The ony reason he got it was because he had the private pilot certificate.

So even having the private pilot certificate in some cases may help you. That is with the computer programing under your belt.

The industry is much bigger than most people think. You just have to look at what is going on. They are going to be changing the space program also. At your age I would look at both, find out what you want to do and dream a little bit.

Also, NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. The more people you can meet the better off you are going to be in the long run

So if you are interested in aviation ( flying) and computers, I would look at everything that involves both. See who is designing the systems. Hang out on the airport every weekend. You will find someone who has a neet airplane and you will find they are a test pilot for boeing or something.

I would look at the entire picture not just one or the other

airfreddy

 

Becoming a programer in the USA would not be a wise option now. Many of the good paying programing jobs have been or are being outsourced to Indian's working over sea's. The reason being is they will work for cheap, 5.00 to 15.00 an hour. It does not matter what programing langue you pick, C, Fortran, Cobal, Abap, they are all being done over seas.

Being a coder has turned in to a dead in job.

 

it really depends on who you working for and how many hours you have to your name. but in general to start off with you make 25-30K a year. Todays top paying jobs for UPS or Fedex pay up too 225k a year. its all about how much flight time you have and how many years you have been with a company.

 

At the moment the pay scale says that it is but, who knows in 5-8 years once you have the time to fly for them what it will be like then.

 

Like I said before, you are only 16 now. I would look at the big picture. I do think that the pay would be better working for fedex or UPS. the thing about them is they usually only hire whithin so I would start working for one of them as soon as you can.

If you want to do one as a hobby and one as a job already, you may be supprized at the things you may find out there that involve both and then you can have two "hobbies" and make a lot of money. People who have a specialization such as this can end up making a lot more money in the long run.

I don't know exactly what is going on with the big carriers now. I do know that they are continuing to cut pay scales. I think the only stable carriers out there right now are southwest and Jetblue. You may want to check into them.

Like I said you have plenty of time I would put your feelers out and see what you find. There is a lot more out there than just one of the other. There is a lot more than just the airlines.

I know that some people will fly the alaska pipeline for 4 months out of the year and make a lot of money doing that. I think somewhere along the line I heard they make about $15,000 per month. I may be wrong you will have to look into it.

I personally dont like being away from home or working for other people. when you work for someone else they own you.

feel free to keep asking

airfreddy

 

I highly recommend it. While you are young go ahead and do something you have a great passion for.

If you are fortunate enough to have the experience, as I did, and then you get down to the business of building some security for the future when the time seems right. In the meantime - go for what you love.

Just remember - there are no old bold pilots - just old pilots loaded with BS about how bold they are/were (don't believe half of it).

Sorry - don't mean to keep talking about myself.

 

You're talking about me again, Roy. The bold part of my flying is spelled, F-O-O-L-I-S-H, as in foolish.

 

yes you guys are right. We have to remember no matter how long we have been flying you must make a point of trying to learn something every time you go flying.

You will never know it all, I will never know it all. Be extra carefull especially if you are in a tail dragger. I don't care how many landings you have. I can always bite you.

By the way I recommend that every pilot out there get a tailwheel sighn off

airfreddy

 

You're correct, everybody should learn on a taildragger first and then go to whatever else there is to fly.
I grew up on taildraggers and prefer them over nosedraggers. But at 80+ years of age, I don't have to worry about whether it's a taildraggeror not, mine is draggin now BUT I can still control it.