journeytolegacy

Hello everyone!

I am going to college right now (as my backup plan), and in 3 years I will finish it and then start flight training. Despite having FOMO with the massive hiring wave right now at the airlines, I will continue the path of getting my degree first to play it safe in case of a layoff or being furloughed in the future. In terms of things I was thinking of doing to prepare for flight school, I'm planning on:

1. Saving as much money as I can for all of the training
2. Getting a 1st class medical early to have that aspect sorted

What other things can I do early to prepare for flight school?

Along with being prepared, what can I start doing now to be a competitive airline pilot applicant? (I was thinking of doing resume-builder activities, such as volunteering at airshows.)
Please let me know if you have any advice on more things I can do for each!

Thank you in advance!

rickair7777

Your FOMO concern is actually legit right now. It's hard for outsiders to understand exactly how much opportunity and seniority growth is available right now. You can make several decades worth of progress in just a few years. Money, schedule, vacation... seniority plays a huge role in all of it.

Get a 1C medical. That's a no brainer if you're young and healthy and have no history of mental health, neurological, or metabolic issues (old football injuries and the like won't matter for the FAA).

I would start flight training at a local school for a private pilot cert asap... you need to get that or at the very least solo in order to assess whether you really like aviation or not.

If you decide to do it, if at all humanly possible try to work on ratings while attending college so as to maximize progress towards a seniority number.

Almost hate to say this but I'm going to... I would normally never suggest skipping college, but at this precise point in time it might actually make sense to get on with flight training and get a regional job first, and then chip away at the degree via distance learning. You'll have time to make good progress once at a regional. If you're motivated and disciplined you could likely get hired at a major several years sooner than if you finish the degree and then do flight training. Might even get hired before you finish the degree, but I wouldn't plan on that.

GoJuice

As someone who is 7 years post graduation for my “backup” plan and still trying to find the time/money to finish my flight training… ditch the backup plan. Seriously. If I could do it all over I would have transferred to a university that had an aviation program and completed my training that way. If I had, I could very well be at a legacy right now. Instead I’m working 40 hour weeks in sales wishing I had.

journeytolegacy

Thanks for the response, I was wondering if I were to drop out of college, how would you recommend I finance the training? Should I get a loan, or should I work, and then train as I get the money?

rickair7777

Normally I'd say avoid loans if possible. But again, like the degree issue, there's so much potential seniority on the table right now that if your risk tolerance is high enough it could make very good long-term financial sense to get a loan. As opposed to doing a slower pay-as-you-go approach.

I had saved up before I quit my office job, and was mostly self-funded. I did a small loan for CFI after 9/11 when my original time-building scheme didn't pan out.

I'm too far removed from the loan situation right now to know the best route. Back in the day young people could get signature loans, based on the assumed lucrative pilot career but after 9/11, recession, age 65, etc I think they stopped doing those loans. Last I heard you need either a sufficient income source, collateral, or a co-signer. Hopefully someone else has more current info on that.

JohnBurke

By all means complete your training as expeditiously as able, but those who speak of no need for a "backup plan" are too new to the industry to understand reality. We are in a period of hiring activity. Some are calling it a "pilot shortage" (it is not), a term bantied about for decades now, and a condition which does not now exist, and has not previously existed. We do not have a pilot shortage. We have a period of hiring, or a "pilot's market." This will not last.

It's been rightly said and quoted that those who do not recall history may be headed there again, and given aviation's cyclical nature, if you're in the business very long, you'll see evolutions of hiring frenzy, and evolutions of furlough, bankruptcy, economic downturn, merger, layoff, etc. If one hasn't been in that position, one is either exceptionally lucky, or too new to understand. It will happen, and very likely, will happen to you.

The trend at the moment is more toward warm bodies and less toward qualifiers and checked boxes and discriminators such as a degree, but a degree is more than just a checked box; some actually end up using it. It's still preferred.

The hardest part of learning to fly is paying for it. This has always been the case, even in the day when I paid fifteen dollars an hour for an airplane (wet). Times change, but the basics don't, and that includes the economics of learning to fly; it's expensive. Entry level jobs such as regional airlines pay 500-800% better than they did a few years ago, and have sign-on and other bonuses, assistance for rotor pilots who lack fixed wing qualifications or experience, and other incentives. This is a vast improvement over the past, by orders of magnitude, but the lifestyle and income at today's cost of living is still intolerant of excess debt. Get your training done in the manner that you're able, be it while doing college, GI bill, etc.

When I learned to fly, it was made quite clear to me that flying is nice, but one must make a living; in my arena, every pilot was required to be a mechanic, and so I grew up, from my early teen years, an aircraft mechanic, as well as learning to fly. It's far from necessary to be a mechanic to fly airplanes; just certain types of jobs where it's a very big advantage if not an operational necessity. The point is that having additional skills, qualifications, and ability to earn a living may turn out to be very important when it comes to weathering the inevitable times when your flying job will be in jeopardy from any number of events which will happen as the industry cycles through hiring and furloughing, frenzy and stagnation, high and low, prosperity and shrinkage. It might be aviation maintenance, computers, or whatever else you can do and can earn a living doing, but most of us who have been around for very long understand that aviation is a dangerous basket in which to place all of ones eggs.

During a particular downturn, some years ago, I was furloughed. I found work almost immediately, turning wrenches in a small 135 operation's in-house shop. Over the coming days and weeks, as the furloughs rapidly spread, airline pilot after airline pilot stopped by the hangar to ask for work. When they found it was available, but would involve getting dirty and turning wrenches in the shop, they balked, turned up their noses and drifted away. It wasn't long before they came back, this time hat in hand, willing to take anything, but by then, the work was gone, and there was nothing to offer. The shop work led to doing some company charter and instruction, then work as a check airman, and building a training program. It paid the bills for my family, kept me current and kept me going. Many of my fellow furloughees went on unemployment, initially, which is something, but scarcely enough to feed a house cat. Aviation can be a great career with some high earning potential in the right arena, but it can also leave you high and dry; don't let the music stop without you having brought your own chair to the party.

tnkrdrvr

If you are going to graduate at the age of 21-22 years old, finish college and do your best to get flight training while doing so. Once graduated, attack your flight training full time with the goal of hitting 1500 hours by the time you turn 23. There isn’t a lot of point in dropping college for flight training when you can’t get an ATP until 23. This also avoids putting all your eggs in one basket, which as others have said is foolish. This plan is relatively low risk and at every step will leave you in a position to have career options instead of leaving you vulnerable to the vicissitudes of a volatile industry.

If you are already within 18 months of turning 23, I would consider Rickair’s throw caution to the wind and bet it all on the airlines’ pilot hiring binge. Don’t do this if you have family obligations. It’s not fair to them and would be a significant obstacle to making the sacrifices this route would entail. This option could leave you sitting pretty in a great career job or jobless with a mountain of debt. You are betting you can get your flight training, 1500 flight hours, and regional seasoning done before some calamity or natural economic cycles ends this hiring cycle.

Good luck regardless of your choice. This can be a rewarding career.

OscarRomeo

You can get a restricted ATP at 21. Plenty of guys at regionals that are under 23.

tnkrdrvr

Yes, but that’s a part 141 school and an aviation degree. You are going all in on the airlines at a very young age, gambling a mountain of debt that you can’t discharge in bankruptcy. If it doesn’t work out you have a crap degree and poor alternatives that won’t pay enough to service your debt and support you, let alone a family. Lots of young people think they have a high risk tolerance until plans fall apart. You need to be able to live with the consequences of both a successful start to an airline career and the airlines not working out.

rickair7777

No, common misconception. Anyone can get an R-ATP at age 21. That's separate from the reduced mins from mil and aviation college programs.

You can do part 61, get 1500 hours, and get an R-ATP at age 21.

Or do 141 university BS degree and get an R-ATP at 1000 hours at age 21.