Hello!
My name is Chul-Han, but everyone calls me Charles. I am 31 years old. I have always been interested in becoming a pilot for a few years now, but it’s always been in the back burner due to monetary complications. I’m in a steady job now where I can save some money. Although it’s a common question asked many times, with my lack of college education (literally zero), what would be advised for me to do in order to pursue this career? I was thinking about going for a degree primarily, maybe bachelor’s in aviation, but at the same time that’ll be more loans on top of like a loan for ATPFS for instance.
I’ve been thinking about different options in approaching this career, that could be mitigate any loans accumulating, but looking at my options for getting accepted to part 141 schools such as ATP (which I looked into mostly). I might need to attain a college degree in order for a higher acceptance rate.
Also, if I were to go to ATP, would you suggest that I save a decent amount of money for living expenses? I would attend early, but given the fact I want to save money. I was thinking of attending in like 3-4 years unfortunately. Since I would have to go full-time for a considerable amount of time.
I apologize for the long post and being all over the place. Please forgive me. I am all-out kind-of guy, and I was just asking all these questions with caution.
Ok I have a few suggestions for you to give some thought.
While we always recommend college first, that’s really for people who just graduated HS. At 31, while you’re not old, you want to get moving. With that in mind I would suggest you do your flight training asap. After you’re done, build your time and are hired by a Regional you can then get an aviation degree with credits for your licenses and ratings online relatively inexpensively and in short order. ATP will consider work experience in lieu of a degree so that shouldn’t be an issue.
As for waiting, obviously you need to do what’s best for you but you should consider the impact that waiting 3-4 yrs will have on your career. Pilots have a finite amount of years they can work. Mandatory retirement is 65 (sometimes earlier if you lose your medical). Senior airline Capts earn over $400k a year. That’s over a million dollars in lost potential earnings you’ll never see. Factor the loss of seniority and benefits and the numbers are staggering. You’d be much better served biting the bullet, taking a loan for the training and living expenses and dive in now. And while I understand the desire to not incur debt, the Regionals are currently offering over $100k in hiring bonuses and Tuition Reimbursement which means you can pay that debt off almost immediately.
With all that in mind you don’t mention any flight experience? While you may have thought about being a pilot until you’ve actually flown in a small training airplane you simply won’t know for sure. Before you do anything, I strongly recommend you take an intro flight or lesson and see if it’s really something you want up do or just something you think you want to do.
Thank you for your response. I did forget to mention my flight experience, or lack thereof. I am planning on going for a discovery flight in the near future, and I definitely appreciate the ‘sooner the better’ advice. I will take everything into consideration. Again, thank you!
At your age, getting your training done and getting to a regional is the top priority. We recommend you get started right away. Of course take that discovery flight first before you commit to anything. If that goes well, then full speed ahead.
Once you’re at a regional you can start working on credits toward your degree. That way, you can have your applications out and if you get picked up before the degree, great! If not, each credit you knock out will put you one step closer to that degree and potentially getting your app pulled.
Let us know if there is anything else we can help with.
Thank you for the response. Now that I have a clearer view of the picture, I think I understand what must be done. I appreciate the clarifications very much so. I’ll work hard and do my best to achieve my dreams. After the discovery flight, of course.
I’m 50 yrs of age, retired military of 27 yrs out of special operations and I’m wanting to be a pilot. I know for some its sorta late as for me it’s never to late all you have to do is start, so here I am! I’m ready to get on board to see if this will be a good fit for me at this point in my life.
It’s not too late as long as you’re realistic about you expectations. Chances are you’ll never be a Delta A350 pilot flying to NRT but you can have a very nice career.
At 50 you could realistically get to a regional or LCC by 52 if you get started soon. That leaves only 13 years until the FAA mandatory retirement age of 65. If you have cash laying around to pay for flight training by all means! You could have a wonderful 13 years of flying. However, if you have to take out a loan I’d do some serious calculations with a financial planner to see if you could pay it off in that time and if it makes sense to take on.