Hey all - very thankful for the all of the posts and helpful advice that can be found on this forum. Very helpful as I navigate my way through a potential career change to become a pilot, like many others.
I am 33 years old and luckily have the financial support to dive into this change head first. I also have some big life events ahead of me: a wedding in late July of 2024, and potential kids with my partner sometime down the line (but likely sooner rather than later). Obviously, both of these are weighing heavily into our decision, and while everyone’s situation is different, I was hoping to get some feedback on my thought process of what makes the most sense from a timing perspective. At a high level, my thought is to pursue flight school immediately after getting married, and hold off on even thinking about kids until after I’ve racked up the 1,500 hours needed to apply for a regional job. Does that timing pass at least a preliminary gut check, or am I way off base?
That being said, I’m also curious about what regional carriers are offering these days as far as paternity leaves are concerned. If I follow that progression, I’d likely be looking at children relatively early on after signing on at a regional (within one or two years). Are there vesting periods / experience requirements for obtaining that kind of leave? Overall, what does that process look like?
If it were me Id be holding off on kids till after you’re out of the Regionals (unless you’re planning on staying there a while and building seniority).
As a newhire you may not get the base you want and have to commute and you definitely won’t be getting the schedule you want for a while. As for paternity leave, while many of the carriers have gotten more progressive, here’s a newsflash, airlines hire pilots because they NEED pilots. Not so you can get a position and then go play daddy, so it won’t be anywhere near what you’re thinking.
Now if you’re thinking of leaving your partner as a single parent for the first few years before the child realizes you’re gone that may be an option, but if you’re goal is a career at the airlines AND do some baby bonding, one will need to wait.
On paper, sure that plan could work. It will take at least 2 years to get from zero time to 1500 hours. From there, at least 6 months to a year before you have some seniority behind you to get a decent schedule. You may want to avoid any regionals with mandatory captain upgrades at 1000 hours 121 time because that will put you back in to training and the most junior captain in base yet again.
If it were me, I’d get started right away. You could nearly finish the program before your wedding if you could secure a December or January class date. From then, I’d instruct with ATP if given the opportunity and apply to one of the pathway programs to Frontier or Spirit. Those are places you could stay a bit longer and be quite happy. Spirit is known for having awesome schedule flexibility for their pilots. You could stay there forever, or until qualified for a legacy but at least it cuts out one of the employment hops and starting over seniority wise.