Ewfflyer

It's california, get a motorcycle!!!(and wear your gear if you do, it's worth it's weight in gold/skin)

Airhoss

These things have a way of working themselves out. Stay focused you'll find a way to the airport.

TheEggman

Oh man, I wish. My parents would never go for that though. It was extremely difficult just convincing them to let me fly. My Dad lost his best friend on a bike.

Airhoss

How far is the dorm from the airport?

Ewfflyer

Lame excuse. It's like saying "I know someone who died at a hospital, so I'm not going to one." I'm sorry for your dad's friends' family, but it stops there. I lost a motorcycle friend while I was in college. He was a local kid, 20yrs old, super sad story etc.. My point is it didn't stop any of his friends(myself included) from riding, and his family was super supportive because it's something they knew he was absolutely in love with!(The dealer he worked for even supplied an exact copy of his bike for the funeral)

Completely side-tracked, but I want to make a point. Everything in life is a risk, you just have to take every advantage and manage those risks as best as you can, but sometimes you can protect against everything. This is especially true when you have an interest or passion.

It's your life to live, I understand if your parents are helping financially, but as long as you can make responsible decisions, you can go a long way. Best of luck to you in your ventures, you are on the right track as far as flying goes!

USMCFLYR

I'll echo Ewfflyer's sentiments on this. I grew up in a household where my mother worked for an insurance company for part of my erly years and she was adament about me not owning a motorcycle while I was living under her roof.

I can't imagine applying the sme thought process as your father's though since it would have severly hampered my flying career if I started worrying about the many friends I have lost to aviation What it DOES for me is to remind me that great pilots have made mistakes that cost them their lives and that I can not afford to become complacent.

Btw Ewfflyer - I also lost my best friend when he was 16 to a car accident. Those sad times tend to stay with a person - at least in my experience.
captfurlough - You speak some sound advice all the way around in my opinion.

USMCFLYR

TheEggman

Thanks for the advice. I agree with both of you, but the only way I'm going to come out of this debt free is if my parents help me financially, and the only way that's going to happen is if I stay motorcycle free in college. I really did want a bike for awhile, but my sister got a leg injury and spent three months in a wheelchair, and I saw how utterly horrifying it would be to spend the rest of my life like that. Knowing that these types of injuries are common on bikes, it scared me away, at least for now. Maybe later in life I'll pursue my love of riding, but for now I don't think I can rely on that as a viable form of transportation.

About 14 miles according to google maps.

wizepilot

Not trying to put a damper on things here...EVERYONE I have known that owns and rides a bike has either been severely injured or killed on said bike. Another thing to consider, your life insurance policy if you have one or when you get one. One of the questions they may ask you is if you own or ride a motorcycle. Same holds true for flying. I pay a slight premium on mine because of aviation. After I got my Comm. and then my ATP, it went down some.

hypoxia

Have you considered going to one of those 6 month private pilot to CFI programs like ALL ATPS? Then get accepted to a college as a CFI with a job, and potentially get credits for your ratings and a tuition discount as an employee of the college? Just a thought!

Airhoss

I am not advocating that the OP get a motorcycle. BUT I have to say that I've been riding since I was 15 years old and my brother has been riding since he was 12 and my best buddy has been riding since he was 6. I have multiple friends who all ride. NONE of us has ever been killed or even severely injured on a bike.

The worst I've ever had was some sprains and bruises. I've been hurt a lot worse on a bicycle than on a motorcycle. Go figure.

If you want to take yourself out of the serious injury or death pool on a bike do these simple things, DON'T EVER drink and ride 88% of motorcycle fatalities have a drug or alcohol component attached. DO take a motorcycle safety course. DON'T ride like an idiot, you know like those guys you see wearing shorts a tank top and flip flops doing about 90, weaving in and out of traffic on a crotch rocket that they have no business on in the first place. DO always wear full protective gear even if you are just going around the corner for a carton of milk.

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I think Hypoxia has great idea go do American Flyers or some such, knock those ratings out then go to school if you can pull it off time wise and financially. It is a huge amount of money though I understand that so I don't know if it's realistic for you or not.

That's basically what I did. I went to college for a year at which point I had my PPL VFR only. That summer and fall I went to American Flyers and got everything up to my CFII, I talked my parents into letting me use the remainder of my college funds for that. I then worked as a CFI while living at home for about a year saving up money and then went back to college (with a flying job or two) and finished up with a non flying BS degree. I chose ERAU because they allowed me like 50 credit hours towards my degree with my flying experience. I am not sure that they do that anymore but it was GREAT program back then. I finished up my Bachelors in 5 semesters. SO I got out of school at roughly the same time I would have if I'd have just gone straight through and it was real cheap to do it that way.

It was called a professional aeronautics degree back then. Very few people knew about it, the majority of the Pro Aero guys were either Army Warrant officers or Navy guys who had come into the navy and flown under a program that let them get their wings without a degree and I can't remember what it was called right now. In any case they were all guys like me who had advanced flying ratings and experience but no degree.