Flight school

[Adrian Ţepeş]

Something maybe you didn't know about me, I love flying and the idea of actually being in control of the aircraft for industry or fun.

There's a glaring problem, however.

It's fucking expensive. I actually got some info and talked to a representative/CFI from ATP some time ago because I was interested (and still am) in flying commercial for either an airline (fixed-wing) or weather channel (rotary-wing).

It can cost almost as much as a private liberal arts college for four years. One method I've heard from pilots is to get a degree or job in something that will yield a good return so you can pay as you learn and possibly get your licenses in less than 4 years or so.

Anyone have any thoughts or opinions on the matter?

(Also: Military is out of the question. It's very difficult to get into any of the aviation programs in the first place, and there's no guarantee you'll even get something close to what you want, so you might end up being a flight officer instead of an actual pilot.)

[D3matt]

How about the Civil Air Patrol? I'm not aware of the intimate details but I've heard you can get a pilot license a lot cheaper that way.

[Adrian Ţepeş]

I thought that was for middle through high school aged people?

[Raptor_101]

Light Sports/ Sports plane licences are cheap as well and require less time to get the license.

Oh and are less expensive to maintain.

[Adrian Ţepeş]

That's a start, but that still leaves the issue of the commercial license.

[Toph]

What Raprot said. Commercial is horribly expensive. Private licence, not so much. Between 6 and 13 grand according to Google (around 10 seems to be the mode). You'd be limited in what/who you could fly, but at least you'd be in the air.

As for commercial, I dunno. You could get a "normal" job for five or six years and save every penny. Keep working while you learn, and pay for it with the savings and the extra money you have from eating nothing but potatoes. If it's really important to you, I think you can make it work.

I'd go to an aviation forum or two and ask/search threads. I'm sure you'll get loads of advice.

[Adrian Ţepeş]

I have. I mostly just wanted to see what you all had to chime in on the issue. It kinda sucks that it's a fairly risky investment for something like it though if you don't get a slot with the Air Force or Navy. I remember reading about academy graduates who got beyond pissed off when slots got taken.

[Lindale]

I know it is vastly expensive, but you need to look at the rewards. The thrill of being in Piper Cub with the windows removed as you buzz through the Swiss Alps, the nostalgia of flying a DC-3 above the Alps, the historical significance as you pilot a Lancaster through recreations of bomb runs, this is what makes life worth living!

[Uchuujin]

I think this thread was designed to lure Lindale in it...

Just to stay on topic, planes are expensive in general. It's true that money doesn't bring happiness but it's the only thing that can get you to it. I wish you luck in getting a license though...

Also, private liberal arts college, if I had the money I would wanna study in one

[Nemmerle]

Commercial licenses, for anything, are almost always expensive because people expect to use them to make money. You know how much Pitmans charges for Sage training? (a piece of accounting/payment software) £900. For something that you can learn on youtube in a couple of hours or could have worked out by reading the help file.

But youtube doesn't come with a certificate...