[Tiger815]

You've really done a lot of thinking on this, but I wanted to share my insights having been in a somewhat similar situation and totally understanding your disgust with corporate America.

I came to the flying vs. doing something to else with higher earnings at two earlier points in my life when I could have made it. Both times I chose the non flying path. Part of that was due to my own desire to "stand on my own" as quickly as I could, and part was because I grew up in a family that didn't really support "following your dreams", and had a more practical "Go to college" kind of focus.

Also, my fathers company was failing at the time I completed HS, so I worked for a couple of years saving for college and didn't feel I could ask them to help with following a dream to fly. After a couple of years of saving, plus what my folks could pay, plus some financial help from my older brothers and sisters, plus student loans, plus ROTC and Army Reserve pay, I was able to complete my undergraduate degree and start working, as my parents expected. The path I chose allowed me to become a private pilot and eventually become a partner in a plane. I later completed my MBA, became a sole owner of an airplane and climbed the corporate ladder to management in the telco industry, only to have my employer go bankrupt and RIF me 3 years ago at the age of 42. Lesson: There are no guarantees in life. Taking the "more conservative" road can still land you in "employment hell".

So, even though a chance of a career as an airline pilot was a huge longshot in my case, I decided to use part of my severence and go to an accelerated CFI program. I got the CFI/CFII in about 30 days on top of the 400+ hours I'd accumulated as a PP. When I got home from CFI school, I was hired (usurped?)by the local flight school before I had time to begin to search for a job in my previous field. I instructed full time for for about 11 months earning next to nothing, and even though I loved flying every day, I increasingly felt self applied pressure. Lesson: It's very hard to take the kind of pay cut you're looking at.

We were able to pretty much maintain our lifestyle but only because my wife had very good sales years in her job, earning huge bonuses that mostly made up for my lack of earnings. Even with her high income though, things had to give. Maintenence on our house and vehicles got deferred or I did it myself. When I wasn't flying, I was working on stuff that I would have hired someone to do before. I worked 6 or 7 days a week and with no money to spare we weren't able to take any vacation and my wife wasn't able to do some of the things she was invited to do with her girlfriends. I can't count the number of time I saw her decide to give up something she wanted, so that we'd have money for more basic items like the electric bill. This is different than the kind of sacrifices we made for each other starting out in our life together. My wife had already paid her dues. If you care for your wife as I do mine, that will start to sting you, even though you know they support your decsion. If you follow in my footsteps, I warn you these things will wear on you in ways you may not expect. As others have said, at some point flying becomes a job and when you look at what you've given up, you may start to feel you are failing personally, and failing your loved ones.

So while my house was falling apart, the cars needed tires and I was watching my wife do without things she deserved, I was contemplating how I was going to take the next step. I needed a multi rating and some multi time to get myself minimally qualified for a job with a regional. Of course there was the problem of what I'd do if I got a job with a regional since there was no way we could afford for my wife to quit and go where the regional sent us. Anyway, I couldn't see where the money for the multi rating was going to come from so I was in a "Catch 22" situation anyway. We were getting by, but that was it. I desperately wanted to do the Ari-Ben or Skymates multi time building thing, but it was like I was a kid again wanting a stereo with no money to go buy it. It sucked.

As this stuff was piling up, I lost my father and a family pet within a few months of each other and really found myself at a personal low point. I was finding my dream of flying for a living was incompatable with many other of my lifes goals (like eventually being able to retire). It all piled up until, I had to admit defeat and start a job search for a higher paying position.

Knowing that the telco industry was where my best chance of a decent salary was, that's where I started looking again. However, as fate would have it, one of my flying aquaintences recommended me for a postion as a consultant at FAA HQ. They really liked that my background included mangement experience, an MBA and recent operational experince as a CFI and I got the job at a salary very close to what I was making before being RIF'd. Had I not taken the opportunity to work as a CFI, I probably would not have been as competitive for this job. So while it's not flying, it's "about flying" and I find myself pretty excited about what I'm doing. I still occasionally get pangs from not flying every day, but then I think about not having one student at 7AM and the next one at 6PM with no pay in between and it helps me "get over it".

At your age, I'd say there is a fair chance you could land in a 121 job or some type of flying job if you are willing and able to give up what you alreay have to get there. Just remember that flying for a living demands you (and your loved ones) pay your dues and prepare yourself mentally for it to be a lot harder than you expect to go from an upper middle class lifestyle to, just maybe, just barely making it.

Godspeed and Good Luck.