LeoSV

I'm exactly halfway through getting my Bachelors degree for business management, and I'm almost done with my INST training, and have already done some work for my COMM. I have a wife and one child, but we just found out that she is pregnant with twins. I am finishing this semester and putting college on hold for now, and she is being totally supportive in wanting me to continue with flight training, which I respect. I will not have the time or energy to go to college and flight training at the same time with all that is going on, and my flight school has already said they will hire me when I get my CFI, and they are really busy, but don't have any ME A/C. I have always wanted to fly, and I'm working towards that now, but I'm totally stressing that the twins are a deal killer. Should i kiss my dream goodbye, or should I keep on and hope for the best? thanks for any input guys and gals..

Ewfflyer

Wow, you ain't kiddin. I guess the biggest concern is are you going to be able to support all your kids and wife with income and insurance. Not of course without some sacrifice, because aviation is just that in most cases. Either way congrats on the twins!!!! I don't think either way you should get rid of a dream, if you don't now you can one day. Good luck

maximaman

Depends on how old you are and is your wife going to work at all in the future. It will be hard to support a family on regional wages.

de727ups

Can you make more outside of flying then inside?

If it were me, I'd do the CFI thing and see if you can't work your way up without a degree. 1200 total and you could get a 135 freight job and work your way into a livable wage (each person is different) pretty fast.

If you could make 50K tomorrow outside of aviation, I'd say walk away.

LeoSV

I just turned 30. she is a teacher and works full time also. she will keep working part time when the twins come so we can keep our benefits. we have a fairly cheap mortgage of $1000/mo. My truck is paid off, but i'm about to sell it to get a minivan. and she will sell her car and get a cheaper car. other than that we just have $11k in school loans and whatever me and my father come up with as a payment plan back to him because he is helping me with flight school so I don't have to give my left nut in interest to sallie mae. if she works part time and I work as an instructor for a while, we would still be able to pay our bills. My only concern right now is not being able to finish college. But I'm hoping that with the pilot shortage, I could still get picked up by a regional after I get my 1000TT instructing. And my flight school is 5 minutes from my house, and that is really cool.

LeoSV

no, I can't make that much right now outside of aviation, but I can probably make about $40k working for my buddy that runs a warehouse. But it's 45 minutes away from my house, and the hours will suck, and it's not flying. I'm not going to do anything that will hurt my family just so I can fly, but I would rather fly and eventually down the line have some good seniority at a 121 job and be work only half the month and spend as much time as possible with my children while making about $50-70k (assuming I'm a lifer at a regional) I don't want to get rich, I just want to earn a decent living and have a job that I enjoy.

frozenboxhauler

Firstly, Congratulations! Give it time and see how it pans out.
fbh

mjmuel0

Night school for the degree and fast track a program for the ratings. Hope for the best!

LeoSV

you know, that is actually quite comforting to hear. I know I'm the man of the house and I should be firm and confident in my decisions, but I'm still in freakout mode here and hearing from other pilots to not give up just yet is nice to hear. thanks for the encouragement.

LAfrequentflyer

Congrats...

Look at the military as a commissioned officer. Thats what I would do. Thats what I did.

You can have a nice life as a military officer these days. I've made one hell of a life for myself and my family in the military. My first 10 years I was enlisted and still managed to do extremely well for myself.

The sky is the limit in the military for hard-working person.

My friends can't believe what the QOL is like for a military officer these days.

In my 18+ years I've had plenty of TDYs but the pay, benefits , friendships, prestige are priceless.

-LAFF