Hi all, I’m 22 years old and graduated with a degree in Political Science in May 2024. I’ve always had an interest, some might say passion, in aviation and always considered it as a career path, but have never really been sure, which is why it wasn’t my major in college and my school didn’t even offer an aviation program.
In the months since graduating and figuring out what I want my career to look like, I’ve come back to the same question: should I figure out what I can do with my degree or should I follow this passion I’ve had? To me, it seems easier just to take the steps to start training and make a career out of it then wrestle with the different directions my degree could take me. I’m not saying training and the steps to become an airline pilot wouldn’t be difficult, but I feel like the thought of a promising career would help me move forward.
I have not flown on small, training aircraft before, and the thought of that makes me a little nervous. I also have some student loan debt I need to pay and that comes up as a barrier in terms of how and where I could train.
That said, what steps should I take to determine if this career path is right for me? If it is, where should I start after that? Thank you in advance!
The very first thing you need to do is schedule an introductory flight. It is one thing to ride in a big jetliner and think that you like it, and quite another to fly a small airplane. You can schedule a flight with ATP here: Take Your First Flight / ATP Flight School
or, you can take an introductory flight as just about any local flight school. After your introductory flight, you will have a much better idea of what flight training is like. I also encourage you to spend some serious time on this and ATP’s main website as there is a wealth of information on both.
The next major step for most people once they decide to commit to flight training is obtaining their FAA First Class Medical Certificate and then securing financing for flight school.
Please let us know what other questions you may have.
Welcome to the forum and congrats on getting the degree last year! It’s so weird to say, “LAST YEAR,” time has flown bye. As Chris mentioned, your first item or agenda should be is taking an introductory flight (also known as discovery/admission flight). ATP offers introductory flights through their admissions flight process, which is a requirement to enter the school as a student (Chris also shared the link).
Furthermore, after taking that initial step, you should follow the enrollment process, guided by ATP:
There are sometimes two roadblocks in one’s journey, medical and finances. If you have a clean bill of health, finances may be your roadblock, or vice versa. Get that admissions flight scheduled and let us know how things go, and what you decide. You truly won’t know until you get in a small aircraft and fly it around a little.
You’re more than welcome, please let us know how the introductory flight goes. Your journey starts at your fingertips here, well feet, since we steer small trainer aircraft with our feet - but you get the jist. Have fun, be open-minded, enjoy the flight!