Do any pilots browse?

Do any pilots browse SighSee? I'm considering a career in aviation (mostly looking at helicopters or smaller planes as opposed to working for an airline), and part of the reason would be the ability to travel to exotic locales and do interesting things.

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    1. Yes, PPl, IFR, Commercial and Multi rating.
    2. Lol "exotic" sure, anon.
    3. I have a hobby, that I put money into because I like the people I meet, and I like the training I do.
    4. You will do nothing of the sort
    5. You need money, tons of it - if you don't, you can get close by being an aviation mechanic, many schools offer scholarships if you agree 3-5 years to work for a company. This includes flight lessons *AFTER* you graduate, and are part of said company.

    You can have dreams, anon, but you will never have freedom.

    You can do commercial aviaton in about 500 hours or less after multi/commercial if you're not an autistic sappie

    [...]

    Helicopter, oh lols. :3 Just get flight simulator anon, that's the closest you'd ever get to a wienerpit.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    if you don't care about money you can go to alaska, cut your teeth there for low pay and eventually you will get a breakthrough somewhere abroad. the pay will never be outstanding for you though. just not how it works in that line of work, you either get to do fun "real aviation" type things in crazy places and live frugally (or never retire) or you follow the careerpath of glorified bus driver in the sky with the eventual payoff after you put in the time.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >go to /n/ for that kind of question
    *ahem*
    JANNIES! CLEAN IT UP!

    1. Yes, PPl, IFR, Commercial and Multi rating.
    2. Lol "exotic" sure, anon.
    3. I have a hobby, that I put money into because I like the people I meet, and I like the training I do.
    4. You will do nothing of the sort
    5. You need money, tons of it - if you don't, you can get close by being an aviation mechanic, many schools offer scholarships if you agree 3-5 years to work for a company. This includes flight lessons *AFTER* you graduate, and are part of said company.

    You can have dreams, anon, but you will never have freedom.

    You can do commercial aviaton in about 500 hours or less after multi/commercial if you're not an autistic sappie [...]

    Helicopter, oh lols. :3 Just get flight simulator anon, that's the closest you'd ever get to a wienerpit.

    Nice, you're just the kind of anon I was looking for.
    >2. Lol "exotic" sure, anon.
    Yeah I know I have my moronic Indiana Jones fantasy but doing some sort of contract work in a tropical shithole is on my bucket list. I read this article and was intrigued. https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/article/careers/2014/12/matt-dearden-bush-pilot-indonesia/
    >3. I have a hobby, that I put money into because I like the people I meet, and I like the training I do.
    You mean flying itself, and that's not your main career?
    >4. You will do nothing of the sort
    Well to be fair I consider merely flying around in an interesting place interesting.
    >5. You need money, tons of it - if you don't, you can get close by being an aviation mechanic, many schools offer scholarships if you agree 3-5 years to work for a company. This includes flight lessons *AFTER* you graduate, and are part of said company.
    Interesting. Can you please tell me more about that arrangement?
    >You can have dreams, anon, but you will never have freedom.
    I know. This whole thread is an elaborate cope. I'll admit it.
    >Helicopter, oh lols. :3 Just get flight simulator anon, that's the closest you'd ever get to a wienerpit.
    Please explain anon. What's so lulzy about helicopters?

    [...]

    I haven't crunched the numbers for how long it takes but I am familiar with how obscenely expensive it is for a pilots' license, but I might be able to eat some of the costs. I'm a US milgay reservist, about to deploy and get a decent chunk of money+GI Bill which can be used to partially cover flight school. I can also apply for Warrant Officer flight school, but that's a question for another thread.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      1. Most of the time you won't be flying your own plane, you'll be flying some schools and relying on a network - that indonesia guy, heh. I've did discovery flights and went solo after a few check rides in JP, PH and Indo/Bali. PH was the easiest, showed up at subic and they allow me to borrow a plane basically whenever, but it's not that fun - the planes are shit and are probably crashed and exported USA planes, I won't be touching some ever again.

      2. No, flying is not my main career. I have money, my friends dads owned planes, so I was lucky as a kid to go up as +1 on some trips around Seattle and Florida. I then just got my license and went from there, it's a "plan C or D" for me if I really want to do it in my late 30's or 40's. I have a few thousnad hours in single prop and 300'ish on a multi, mostly cause the later burns fuel like no tomorrow and I haven't been able to bum rides/be PIC.

      Aviation mechanic school is like learning to fix cars, except for planes they never really left the 80's. You can make a very honest living if you can rebuild and overhaul engines at 1000 hour marks and such. It essentially is a 1960's car, huge carb, two distirbuitors (magnetos) and no transmission.

      If you ever pulled an engine from a car, an plane engine is essentially a backwards (or backwards and upside down) car engine that is held in much easier.

      There are schools in Seattle Area / Florida central area that will give you a scholarship for 40-60k/yr that are sponsered by Cessna, Piper and Cirrus that are solely for their craft, then you pretty much choose where you want to go. Cessna in Kansas hires anyone, pays 70k starting after paying your school - and since it's mostly farm land after you do the school you have tons of time to build hours - probably much more than I.

      Alternatively if you have money, you go on facebook and look for old people that own a plane and are an CFI and enjoy it - they don't mind burning fuel/flight time to keep.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Helicoper world is a different game, most of the people I know that do that are ex-military, though same principal of CFI for cheap flight time and if you can find a good school. Rates are immediately doubled. I never was interested so didn't get into it.
        If you want to get started on ground school do the sportys classes and if you like the first one, continue on - you can get PPL/VFR for about $140/hr flight time minimum and need 40-50 hours. That is with an old fogey on facebook that owns his plane and luckily it's a cherokee or a spin rated cessna so you can practice more scary stuff.

        I did my PPL for about 8k, my IFR for about 5k in a SR22, multi for about 14-18k mostly for the fuel burn and only had a huuge plane avail and commercial for another 5k.

        In florida, during summer I get free hours because I'm in a few networks that call me when hurricanes threaten the state, owners reach out to people to move/fly their planes and cover everything cause it's cheaper than the risk of a hurricane, even if you have a t-hangar.

        tl;dr have money or know someone that owns a plane.

        Thanks for the tips anon. I might actually look into the whole "maintenance school" route if I decide to go through with this. I'm mechanically inclined and even if becoming a pilot falls though that seems like a good backup career/skill. Do you know what it's like being an aviation mechanic?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          It's a great career, if you enjoy working on cars and don't mind having your own business and get a good small airport, you'll be busy day in and day out - you should easily be able to bill 250k/annually, but before that, you'd need 5 years working for a company whcih would be 70-120k annually but atleast you'll have PTO, and the chance to network, make friends w/ CFI's and bored pilots and more.

          You also come to the table with knowledge, lots of pilots have $$$ but no time to work on planes, nor the tools nor space. Many a mechanic I know work out deals with pilots to fly their planes, build hours, etc. You also can get a junk/beater plane, used to be like 10k for a shit VFR only Cessna 150, not so much anymore - but beater plane, make it barely pass annual and just build hours.

          Plus it's a cool hobby, you can also install a car lift in your hangar and have an excuse to buy quality tools and such.

          I honestly debate about doing it time to time, I used to enjoy working on cars, but lately I work on tech, do make 250k/yr+ base and it's just easier to have partial ownership of a plane and throw money at it.

          I may do it one day, the school is cheap even w/ no scholarship, talking about 50-60k, and the tools they give you day one, you usually get to keep if you graduate. You won't be working on fancy planes, you'll be doing annuals, and basic jiffy lube shit in the beginning, but within a year you should be able to do major engine overhaul and actually know how to find a great deal on a plane, especially on non-fixed gear craft. Yeah that there is $$$ if the gear retracts.

          IT's also a great barometer on the economy, the more you see fancy planes sell on controller or such, the more you know the richy rich are worried about the economy. Hell some of the owner operators of nicer craft, sr22 and similar are interesting as frick people - you can hop on controller.com and just chat about the plane, ask what they do and they're always directors, ceo's

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >There are schools in Seattle Area / Florida central area that will give you a scholarship for 40-60k/yr that are sponsered by Cessna, Piper and Cirrus that are solely for their craft, then you pretty much choose where you want to go. Cessna in Kansas hires anyone, pays 70k starting after paying your school - and since it's mostly farm land after you do the school you have tons of time to build hours - probably much more than I.

        Would you be able to provide some more information on these schools, like a list of names? I tried googling a little but couldn't find anything about sponsorships.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          https://epicflightacademy.com/media-aircraft-mechanic-scholarship/

          A&P Aircraft Mechanic is what your looking for.

          A&P Aircraft Mechanic + location + school

          read scholarship, corp sponsership page.

          No one ever applies for the scholarship, but in Florida I know of 5 people that applied, and paid less than 10K out of pocket, if you're poor poor and qualify for FAFSA, it's basically free - maybe 2-3k.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Thanks, I appreciate the help.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Helicoper world is a different game, most of the people I know that do that are ex-military, though same principal of CFI for cheap flight time and if you can find a good school. Rates are immediately doubled. I never was interested so didn't get into it.
      If you want to get started on ground school do the sportys classes and if you like the first one, continue on - you can get PPL/VFR for about $140/hr flight time minimum and need 40-50 hours. That is with an old fogey on facebook that owns his plane and luckily it's a cherokee or a spin rated cessna so you can practice more scary stuff.

      I did my PPL for about 8k, my IFR for about 5k in a SR22, multi for about 14-18k mostly for the fuel burn and only had a huuge plane avail and commercial for another 5k.

      In florida, during summer I get free hours because I'm in a few networks that call me when hurricanes threaten the state, owners reach out to people to move/fly their planes and cover everything cause it's cheaper than the risk of a hurricane, even if you have a t-hangar.

      tl;dr have money or know someone that owns a plane.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Pilot chad what do you think about doing everything through this school https://www.slingpilotacademy.com/
        Expensive, but that isn’t a problem for me.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >https://www.slingpilotacademy.com/
          1. It's in Cali, overpriced as frick.
          2. Lotsa young people and vlogs, probably shit.

          Honestly anon, you need to go on the fb groups and check out your local airpark and get the old people. Lots of young CFI's that have 250-300 hours trying to pay their way through, you want someone that's experienced and has their own plane.

          Florida has a fun history of aviation and tons of retired pilots.
          Washington State/Seattle area has tons of aviation shit, but is expensive and all the Chinese airline pilots are there, luckily you are doing single prop so not much of an issue for clss, just $$$.
          Midwest, Ohio, Kansas, etc - flat as hell, but cheapest and in winter you can learn to fly and the planes perform better, e.g. no competition during nov-march.

          Plus the site says "80* hours, that's unusually hgh, pilots should solo around mid 20 hours, and should pass mid 40's, by 50 hours if you aren't confident you shouldn't be a pilot.

          *the* biggest issue, from what site is that it does not talk about medical.

          If you're schizo (you're here, so high chance) take adderal/stimulants/adhd or heart issues, you will not pass medical, you can do experimental but that is shit . No I'm not saying lie about it, that' illegal, but if you do take adderal and or stimulants or have mental issues you shouldn't fly and that's step one, pass your medical. Don't wait to 5-10 hours in, because if you fail that's 10 hours of hope you'll never get back.

          I think the school you linked though is overpriced trash

          https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/aam/ame/guide/pharm/dni_dnf/

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            I get ads on Facebook and Youtube for this constantly. "Be an airline pilot in 18 months" or something. I figured there's got to be a catch.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              1. Youc an do it in 18 months, if you have the $$$.
              You can become a PPl and probably pass IFR in a month if you went out flying everyday. 40 hours and 20-30 hours for IFR and you can do that easily. Hell an CFI would love you for that job security.

              Another 20hours or so per month, puts you on a good path. That's just weekend flying, if you can do 8-12 hours midweek, you're doing 4 hours a day, so 48 hours a month. Single prop plane wet would be $150'ish, no CFI.

              After 100-150 hours, you want to start doing multi rating, that'd double or tripple your wet cost, easily $300/hr for another engine, and 200 hours of that.

              That puts you way over commercial rating, and you'd be near hitting 500 hours.

              Would say 300 hours of single prop at $150/hr wet, and then $300/hr for 200 hours, would get you a job at an "airline."

              If you're at the right air park/municipal airport, you can do it for less than 80k all together, probably 50-60k in midwest in 3 months.

              If there's a recession, the CFI/Flying lessons are less in demand and that's the time you bargain - I know people that did PPL/IFR for less than 15k total during covid.

              The thing is, you want to wash out early - because it makes no sense to get yoru ratings if you're not going to get $$ for it. You are either a small plane bush pilot, or you fly the big ones for some coin.

              And we're not even talking jet, talking dual prop at most. TBF I'm not quite sure about jet rating, it could be different alltogether, but for something like a Q400, flying a cessna 172 and a Q400 is very very much similar in terms of instrument layout, feeling and experience. It's like driving a Honda Civic to a BMW M6. Same idea, but way better, bigger and you need to check your clearances.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Sorry, not Cessna 172, SR22, all glass wienerpit models and newer C172's probably but not really. ***

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                As far as location I live in California, and live near an airport, have a job that's WFH and I own a house which I rent out rooms in to other autists so time and money (at least living expenses the tuition itself I'd have to borrow for that probably) isn't a huge problem but I hate the industry I'm in and want to do something I don't hate myself for. Is 30s too old for becoming a pilot? I think my body's too old for fixing planes. I'm good at driving and mechanical things.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Also what do you think about flying for a cargo airline. I'd be perfectly fine flying Amazon packages that don't talk to you and a schedule that has a 9 pm departure and 2 am landing if the pay is ok and I'm home more.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                30's is average, but you need to decide is it a hobby or a future career. Even if you take 2 years to do it, you have what 10-15 years left - you need to network hard and really go against the 20yr olds that have daddy's money and more.

                Is it impossible, no.
                Will you do it in Cali, eh.
                I don't know much about Cali, but just look up municpal airports and see if they have flight schools and do ground school training and see how you do the first 20 hours and if you pass medical.

                >Midwest, Ohio, Kansas, etc - flat as hell, but cheapest
                How expensive is it to get everything done in a place like Ohio? Not OP, but I'm curious, and live in Ohio.

                PPL, 10k.
                IFR, 7-10k.
                Multi - 15k'ish.
                Commercial - 15k'ish.
                CFI rating (why not) - 5k'ish.

                Also what do you think about flying for a cargo airline. I'd be perfectly fine flying Amazon packages that don't talk to you and a schedule that has a 9 pm departure and 2 am landing if the pay is ok and I'm home more.

                Cargo is more better than people, it's harder to get in, subjectively - it's easier to be legacy carrier for jets, for prop it's inverse, easier to do small flights of people then do cargo since it's largely unprofitable for single prop/dual prop cargo.
                >but that bush pilot missionary guy on the youtubes!
                Yeah, I don't know what he really does - that's an unique niche there - you won't be doing that.

                You want cargo and Jet? That's $$$$ and tons of time, easier to get in 500 hours for smaller airline, e.g. horizon air and other similar ones like breeze.

                You want people and Prop that's $$ and easy peasy. In Seattle, I do that sometimes from Renton to Whistler in the Winter and a bit north.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >10-15 years left
                Gotta be more than that right? I thought mandatory retirement was at 65. And there's a pilot "shortage" because all the boomers are retiring.
                >see if they have flight schools
                There are tons. Cali = rich people = airplanes. Plus a ton of ex military.
                As far as medical, no health or eyesight problems. My grandfather was a military pilot/ATP/CFI. But he passed away before I got to take advantage of that.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Do you want to be a fancy bus driver? There's a reason there's a shortage, and that pilots have a strong union. No one wants to do it for a long time.

                It's fun for a while, but what kind of life are you going to have in your 40's/50's if you're flying about? No wife, no kids.

                Sure this is SighSee and we coom all day and night in the FA's and such, but it gets old anon. Comes a point where you don't even brag about flying because you get tired of it.

                And my friends that work with companies, some enjoy it, some have good routes and some just do it waiting for a better role on another carrier.

                Young people can't afford it, old people have other things to do.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                I understand the family stuff, but really I cannot think of a job with a better bullshit:benefit ratio. Tradies destroy their body in 15-20 years, Medical stuff requires all that schooling and grades and internship garbage, coding is brain numbing and saturated with Indians, engineering is dying/dead, etc etc. How bad could being a fancy bus driver really be compared to that? I guess becoming a finance golem but I don’t have the connections for that or the desire to grind 80 hr weeks with the types of people that take those jobs

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Be in Tech, work for a FAANG, 250-300k base, 450-600k total comp average, digital nomad when you want, stay at home and buy a comfy house in a hcol place.

                No risk of death, or error.
                No idiots trying to break into the wienerpit.
                No airline company bullshit about senority.

                Etc, there are many ways to wealth anon - but it should be short term role - pilots do die, many times from other peoples incompetence, and if not the company stress gets to you.

                >But planes don't crash that much!
                No, they don't - but when they frick up, they frick up big. Being a pilot, more statistical liklihood of being involved, etc.

                Try it anon, if you like it, go for it - even if you go into debt, if you're young enough it *could* pay off.

                If you're in ten hours and don't feel lit, stop there - you have your answer.

                If you feel good at ten hours in, try again at 15, 20, 25 and see if you wash out.

                If you wash out of flying, ti's fine - there's always mcjobs. But seriously - there are other professions that pay $$$$ without the risk, e.g. autistic schizo coding/copy pasting from stack overflow like I do.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Yea if the pilot thing doesn’t work out I’ve determined my choices to be
                a. frauding my way to a wfh mcjob
                b. biting the learn to code meme bullet

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                How did you get to where you're at in tech, anon?

                I got to about 40 hours of flight time, and worked for an airline and FBO as a ground ops guy until I realized the whole industry wasn't for me, for many of the reasons you said. I got accepted into a pilot academy recently where the airline helps pay for your training but I think I'm going to turn it down. Being a pilot just isn't worth it.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                IT/coding is a hobby, fixing things is a hobby, flying is a hobby.

                I fixed things, am personable, get good jobs, and make friends along the way. That's it. I enjoy tech, I enjoy the challenge and I am probably autistic, high functioning, etc. I never got tested so wew. 🙂

                But really, yeah tech is tech, it's all bs and abstraction.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >PPL, 10k.
                >IFR, 7-10k.
                >Multi - 15k'ish.
                >Commercial - 15k'ish.
                >CFI rating (why not) - 5k'ish.
                Interesting. I would have thought it would be more expensive, like 100k+

                >Air force academy
                You don't need to go to the academy. It's a meme. Just get BA in degree in gender studies and walk into your nearest Air Guard recruiter and tell them you want to be a pilot. Every single unit is hiring pilots at the moment, and Guard is fricking cake and don't have to deal with the bullshit active duty does.

                >Guard is fricking cake and don't have to deal with the bullshit active duty does.
                I heard this was hard(er) to get into than active duty, but that you got to choose the platform you apply to. I've also heard that Air Guard is generally a good deal.

                Anyways, is it worth the gamble of joining the Air Force if I don't see myself enjoying any job outside of fighter pilot or heli pilot? Is there any downside (other than wasted time) to taking the AFOQT and seeing how that pans out? I'm about to graduate college and I don't have any specific plans in mind. My father keeps suggesting I become a pilot, so I take it that he's willing to pay for training.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                >I heard this was hard(er) to get into than active duty, but that you got to choose the platform you apply to. I've also heard that Air Guard is generally a good deal.

                Might be harder to be get an officer slot because there is little to no turnover on the officer side, but on the pilot officer side it's a walk in the park. You're right, you know exactly what airframe you're going into, and exactly what base you'll be stationed at. Most pilots usually land AGR jobs fulltime (full active duty benefits and pay, less bullshit too). The ones who stay as traditional guardsmen still get a lot of extra days since flight time is required to stay current. A few of our guys fly fire suppression planes during forest fire season and make huge stacks of cash.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Midwest, Ohio, Kansas, etc - flat as hell, but cheapest
            How expensive is it to get everything done in a place like Ohio? Not OP, but I'm curious, and live in Ohio.

          • 2 years ago
            OP

            >Honestly anon, you need to go on the fb groups and check out your local airpark and get the old people. Lots of young CFI's that have 250-300 hours trying to pay their way through, you want someone that's experienced and has their own plane.
            Don't you need to go through a formal school in order to get your license?
            I'm located in upstate New York but I'm going to move in a few months. I'd like to stay somewhat nearby (PA, New England) because family etc. I don't take meds or anything so I should be fine for the physical, but if I go through with this the physical will be step 1. I do wear glasses though.

            It's a great career, if you enjoy working on cars and don't mind having your own business and get a good small airport, you'll be busy day in and day out - you should easily be able to bill 250k/annually, but before that, you'd need 5 years working for a company whcih would be 70-120k annually but atleast you'll have PTO, and the chance to network, make friends w/ CFI's and bored pilots and more.

            You also come to the table with knowledge, lots of pilots have $$$ but no time to work on planes, nor the tools nor space. Many a mechanic I know work out deals with pilots to fly their planes, build hours, etc. You also can get a junk/beater plane, used to be like 10k for a shit VFR only Cessna 150, not so much anymore - but beater plane, make it barely pass annual and just build hours.

            Plus it's a cool hobby, you can also install a car lift in your hangar and have an excuse to buy quality tools and such.

            I honestly debate about doing it time to time, I used to enjoy working on cars, but lately I work on tech, do make 250k/yr+ base and it's just easier to have partial ownership of a plane and throw money at it.

            I may do it one day, the school is cheap even w/ no scholarship, talking about 50-60k, and the tools they give you day one, you usually get to keep if you graduate. You won't be working on fancy planes, you'll be doing annuals, and basic jiffy lube shit in the beginning, but within a year you should be able to do major engine overhaul and actually know how to find a great deal on a plane, especially on non-fixed gear craft. Yeah that there is $$$ if the gear retracts.

            IT's also a great barometer on the economy, the more you see fancy planes sell on controller or such, the more you know the richy rich are worried about the economy. Hell some of the owner operators of nicer craft, sr22 and similar are interesting as frick people - you can hop on controller.com and just chat about the plane, ask what they do and they're always directors, ceo's

            I do enjoy working on cars/guns/etc and I am pretty mechanically inclined - my last job was doing QC at a machine shop. Thanks for the tip anon.

            1. Youc an do it in 18 months, if you have the $$$.
            You can become a PPl and probably pass IFR in a month if you went out flying everyday. 40 hours and 20-30 hours for IFR and you can do that easily. Hell an CFI would love you for that job security.

            Another 20hours or so per month, puts you on a good path. That's just weekend flying, if you can do 8-12 hours midweek, you're doing 4 hours a day, so 48 hours a month. Single prop plane wet would be $150'ish, no CFI.

            After 100-150 hours, you want to start doing multi rating, that'd double or tripple your wet cost, easily $300/hr for another engine, and 200 hours of that.

            That puts you way over commercial rating, and you'd be near hitting 500 hours.

            Would say 300 hours of single prop at $150/hr wet, and then $300/hr for 200 hours, would get you a job at an "airline."

            If you're at the right air park/municipal airport, you can do it for less than 80k all together, probably 50-60k in midwest in 3 months.

            If there's a recession, the CFI/Flying lessons are less in demand and that's the time you bargain - I know people that did PPL/IFR for less than 15k total during covid.

            The thing is, you want to wash out early - because it makes no sense to get yoru ratings if you're not going to get $$ for it. You are either a small plane bush pilot, or you fly the big ones for some coin.

            And we're not even talking jet, talking dual prop at most. TBF I'm not quite sure about jet rating, it could be different alltogether, but for something like a Q400, flying a cessna 172 and a Q400 is very very much similar in terms of instrument layout, feeling and experience. It's like driving a Honda Civic to a BMW M6. Same idea, but way better, bigger and you need to check your clearances.

            >You want cargo and Jet? That's $$$$ and tons of time, easier to get in 500 hours for smaller airline, e.g. horizon air and other similar ones like breeze.
            >You want people and Prop that's $$ and easy peasy. In Seattle, I do that sometimes from Renton to Whistler in the Winter and a bit north.
            Please define "$$" vs "$$$$". What about scheduling? I still need to do more research but I assume that flying smaller planes means less time away from home etc, unless you're doing bush pilot stuff.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >Don't you need to go through a formal school in order to get your license?
              No, CFI to endorse your hours, and you can do it via FAR Part 61 or 141. Part 61 is cheaper, and CFI will be endorsed by an air school but it's not a big deal.

              >Anyways, is it worth the gamble of joining the Air Force if I don't see myself enjoying any job outside of fighter pilot or heli pilot?

              Intelligence

              >Please define "$$" vs "$$$$". What about scheduling? I still need to do more research but I assume that flying smaller planes means less time away from home etc, unless you're doing bush pilot stuff.

              Cargo is routine, servicable flights, airlines schedule always changes based on demand, union agreements and collective bargaining. Yes there is union for cargo, but cargo is more in demand, more flights and need for business.

              Even shuffling people half the time is mostly for the cargo.

              Cargo or Legacy, you're making 125k minimum if you can go in with 500-1000 hours. Lower end, you will get 75-85k, which is okay for a year or two before you leave and if you can get long haul flights then you can be 14 on and 14 off or so - which should be 175k+ but that is really senority based. Covid made tons of old pilots retire, so many people moved up but yes.

              These are the absolute minimums average, depending on your union and which region of the world you're in, it can be less or more, but NE / PNW pay $$$$ because of COL, and if that's where you're *based*.

              >Interesting. I would have thought it would be more expensive, like 100k+

              Yes, if part 141.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                So you could realistically go from discovery flight to a legacy/cargo in 2ish years with $80-100k and training 4-5 days a week?

  4. 2 years ago
    Callsign: Coomer

    No, but I just watched Top Gun.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    go to the air force academy and become a transport pilot, put in your 10 years or whatever it is and rack up thousands of hours of flying and training FOR FREE(!!!!!)
    then finish your 20 and move into airlines, or get out and try your hand on your own
    the most important part of becoming a pilot is finding somebody else to pay you to train and fly, doing it on your own is financially difficult to say the least

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Sorry I don’t want to become a zog golem full of god knows what experimental injections and psyops

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >zog golem full of god knows what experimental injections and psyops
        if you are a pilot you will comply with ZOG no matter what, since ZOG has its fingers in every aspect of civil or professional aviation

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Air force academy
      You don't need to go to the academy. It's a meme. Just get BA in degree in gender studies and walk into your nearest Air Guard recruiter and tell them you want to be a pilot. Every single unit is hiring pilots at the moment, and Guard is fricking cake and don't have to deal with the bullshit active duty does.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    This is nowhere near useful advice, as I am not a pilot, but just chiming in to say that I have a friend who runs an air taxi service in Puerto Rico who seems to really enjoy his life. He lives on the tiny, beautiful but slightly scruffy, absurdly relaxed island of Vieques and spends his days ferrying people (and sometimes very small loads of cargo) on nine-minute flights between there and the airfield in Fajardo on the east coast of mainland PR, or on slightly longer hops between Fajardo and Culebra, the USVI, or a few other nearby Caribbean spots in a lovingly maintained, very classy-looking 1969 four-seater prop plane. He flies home from work in the evenings. He looks like a roadie for Motörhead. His lovely daughter is the conpany’s sole ground crew employee, and he flies her home to her place San Juan in the evenings. He’s also friends with a guy who does tourist helicopter tours and charters, but I believe that guy learned to fly choppers in the USAF, not through commercial training.

    I guess it’s not an exciting or interesting life, as it’s aggressively low-key. But the islands look pretty from the air and he’s really content. And I know there are similar little tourist and passenger puddle jumpers on islands all over the world.

  7. 2 years ago
    OP

    OP here, I've been away I'll reply to everyone tomorrow thanks guys

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