Quote:
Originally Posted by natebracing  I'm currently a 27 year old mechanical design engineer and I'm STRONGLY considering a switch to become a professional pilot. I've always loved aviation, I've flown many times with my friend who flies for a regional airline and I love it. I have no ties, no kids, no wife, no steady girlfriend (yeah, I'm kind of a loser, lol) so I think now would be the perfect time to follow my heart.
I guess I'm just curious if the current pilot shortage will last. I know that in the next few years the Vietnam pilots will be retiring, so I'm curious if pilots in the industry feel that the current traits will continue. I just don't want to invest $40k and 7 months into flight training and another 6-8 months of flying dog poop around the country in a cargo plane, just to have the hiring craze fall on it's face in a year.
Any thoughts???
Thanks!
-Nate
P.S. You may see this same question posted at other sites, and I don't mean to be repetitive, but this is a HUGE change for me, so I'm looking for all the input I can get, lol. |
I think if you lost that hat in your avatar you might get yourself a lady!!!
Anyway, this is a career is one that you need to get into not looking at the next month or two, hell not even next year. There are TOO many variables to determine what hiring will be in the future. As you will see, some airlines couldn't staff the flight decks with anyone but now hiring has effectively stopped. This has happened in the matter of DAYS...not months or years. With that being said, I think it is ill-advised to take out a loan for flight training. The APR is horrible, the payment is virtually impossible on FO pay and well...it's just hard. Ask Airdale, he will tell you all about it. If you have 2 or 3 days a week you can head out to the FBO, you'd be surprised how fast you can get your ratings and before you know it you could instruct part-time until you figure out exactly what you want to do.
One last thought...there are many folks out there (and several on this board) that thought they had made the pinnacle of their dream to only have it ripped away...so if you don't think you'd be happy anywhere OTHER than a pretty, shiny, RJ, then you may want to reconsider what you want to do.
Now...time to wait and see a part 135 cargo guy chime in about the "dog poop comment"