I’ve got a little bit of this in my bio but this is where my pilot journey begins.
I’m researching various websites and I’m curious what my best option will be.
Background: I’m currently at 20 years time in service in the Air Force, so I’m retirement eligible but with a caveat - I went enlisted to officer at 16 years of service. In order to get my officer retirement with the Air Force, that will put me at 26 years total. My time remaining is 6 years, but 5 1/2 years until I can commit to an airline school like ATP. The Air Force has a skill-bridge program that allows members who are retiring or separating to skill-bridge. It’s a program offered by the Air Force where we remain on active-duty but go work or train in an area of interest for employment after we leave the service.
My main question is based on the time I have remaining, do I go ahead and obtain my 1st Class Medical Cert and PPL and build hours until I can attend ATP in 5 1/2 years?
I’m ready to jump in mentally and financially, with my wife’s support but want to make sure I’m not starting too early. A mentor who is a KC-135 pilot is saying that I need to get my foot in the door now and I am am ready to start now, but there is a lot about qualification and maintaining proficiency that I’m sure is involved and considering my timing I’m trying to do the math.
Additionally, retiring early and losing my officer retirement with the Air Force just isn’t an option. I worked too hard to get here and I can’t just “quit.” Commitment means everything to me and this is something I know will transfer over into my airline pilot career.
I appreciate any recommendations or knowledge anyone can provide - thanks!
With all due respect to your mentor, as an airline pilot I’m curious how doing any flight training or even earning your PPL will in any way “get your foot in the door” 5.5-6yrs from now? They may now l know alot about military flying but clearly not the airlines.
So much can change in this industry within that amount of time that frankly I wouldn’t do anything until I was a whole lot closer to a possible start. While getting your PPL might save you a few months you’ll need to spend a ton of money trying to keep yourself current. If you simply want to fly and wish to do so recreationally then by all means but of you’re only doing it to get a leg up some how Id save my money and time until I’m ready to dive in with both feet.
Adam, I appreciate your advice. I could’ve expanded on my mentor’s recommendation to “get my foot in the door,” as there was much more around that conversation. There was more discussion around retiring earlier and getting started toward the airline career. But that’s just not something I’m ready to do and thus, will likely force me to wait. Life choices, right? lol
Your recommendation for me to wait is much on par with what I’m thinking and pursuing much closer to the end of my time in service. Realistically, probably starting the last full year that I have in for my PPL then apply to ATP. And I see your point in having to spend money to stay current if I get my PPL earlier. No need if I don’t plan to do much recreational flying at first. Flying for the airlines is the goal.
I am with Adam on this one, trading this far out really is way too early. I would wait until much closer to retirement to even consider doing so. Even then, I would not recommend getting the private outside of ATP. I did this and can tell you that it cost way more and took much longer than expected. This is a common theme when dealing with smaller, local flight schools.
For now just keep researching! Read through the forum, check out our schedules and get in the best financial state you can to prepare for the loss of wages during training and flight school loan. Once you’re within about 9 months of retiring you can start to get a few things moving like applying for the loan (if needed), getting your first class medical, ATP application and intro flight completed. At that point you can reserve a class date.
Thanks so much, Hannah. Based on what I’m hearing this would be my best option for now. I’ll do my research, read up a lot on the training information while staying up to date on changes, and learn from the experience of others to best prepare myself.
I’m a little late to the party, but I concur with all my colleagues here on continuing your research and waiting out to attend ATP until you can fully commit 100% of your time into the aviation field. I too, like Chris, received my PPL outside of ATP and it took me nearly 13 months. Those 13 months could’ve been compressed to nearly 2 months… looking back at everything, I wish I would’ve went straight to ATP and if my timeline was perfectly the same, I would be nearing possibly year 2.5-3 in the airline industry… at the time, I was unsure, it was a hobby/passion of mine and then I decided to turn the dream into reality.
James,
I’m active duty as well, nearing retirement, starting ATP in July while on Terminal - I’d strongly recommend hopping on Facebook and finding the RTAG Nation. They were originally for rotary helicopter pilots transitioning to airlines but have now really become open to any active/separated/retired trying to get to the airlines - they have a TON of great information on anything you’d need to know as you approach retirement. There are a ton of resources on using your GI Bill, veteran owned/operated flight schools, how to use VR&E (VA Rehab & Education to pay for training), and SkillBridge. Unfortunately, ATP does NOT do SkillBridge but there are many flight schools that do. I’d recommend looking into BreakTurn as you get closer to retirement, or even call them now and get further details. I found out about them a little too late, but basically, they work with a number of flight schools across the US to get you training with them while on SkillBridge. You technically SkillBridge for BreakTurn but train and fly with whatever flight school you want (that participates). You can also use AF Cool for your FAA tests to save a little bit of extra money but those tests are only good for 2 years so I wouldn’t do them until you’re about a year out from starting with your flight school.
Feel free to find me on the global - I’m sure I have some answers to some questions you may have!
Best of luck!