[Ian J]

Originally Posted by A300Capt

I try to stay away from giving advice to career changers with families as every situation is a little different and aviation is an ever changing endeavor.

26 is still very young and you have plenty of time to achieve your goals. You do have the added responsibly of taking care of a family while obtaining your goals which tends to muddy the waters a bit. I say this because no matter how well you prepare yourself there are always pitfalls along the way which could make achieving these gaols very difficult. While I may be where you might want to be someday and as hard as I worked to achieve my goals in aviation, a lot of my success was simply due to pure dumb luck and timing. I think many folks don't understand this important factor when making time lines and setting goals in aviation. You don't always have complete control of your future no matter how many plans you've made.

Now, obtaining all you ratings is expensive, no two ways about it! You better have a very understanding wife. Between some of these rating you have to have a minimum number of hours just to obtain the next rating and the times shown to obtain ratings are the MINIMUMS not the norm. Boring holes in the sky hour after hour can quickly drain a family bank account without ANY guarantees of success.

Now, after spending a wealth of money, time and effort in achieving ratings there's always the possibility of of being permanently grounded by a medical problem, failed checkrides or FAA violations and guess what...bye-bye career. Another terrorist attack and aviation will be right back down the crapper. Could you withstand several years while the airlines hiring plans, and the domino effect created, come to a screeching halt?

Flying for a living may seem like the ideal career with a glamorous lifestyle and the be all to end all..BUT, it does become just a JOB like all others after awhile and you're just trading one set of problems for another. I know you don't believe that and may think I'm just another burned out and over paid jet jockey with an attitude. The truth is that NOBODY wanted to fly airplanes more than me when I was growing up. I lived, breathed and ate aviation every waking moment and nothing was going to deter me from achieving my goals. I've been very fortunate along the way and achieved my goals earlier than I had ever dreamed possible and most of it was simply being in the right place at the right time and pure luck. Why was I hired over the next guy? I don't know. Why did that door open at the exact time I needed it to? Who knows. Was I more qualified than the next person? Probably not. Did I interview better? I don't think so. I got lucky and a lot of help from the BIG checkairman upstairs!

My advice: Think long and hard about getting into aviation as a career when you already have a family. It's not something to dive into lightly. It is a huge commitment both personally and financially. Unless you have a wife with a good full time job with bennies there will be very lean years ahead...and we are talking "years", not days, weeks or months. While plans are good and are a starting point, I've learned that in the dynamic and fluid environment of aviation they're usually not worth the paper they're written on.

Also, while I'm not a big fan of these fast track training institutions it may be a benefit to you. The FBO route, while probably cheaper, will take longer. The FBO route will allow you to remain gainfully employed in the insurance biz while training and paying for your new career. The fast track method generally forces someone to move to that location and devote full time into their program. Make sure your wife fully understands this!

End of rant...good luck!

Holy crap! That was a great post! Bolded parts are things I especially think are worthwhile.