Should I become a pilot?

[Muz1234]

I sometimes like airplanes, what do you guys think of pilots?

 

[mdchachi]

I sometimes like airplanes, what do you guys think of pilots?

Pilots are generally well respected.

 

[salyavin]

Not only respected but reasonably well paid at least in the US.

 

[mdchachi]

Not only respected but reasonably well paid at least in the US.

The big airlines it's true but it's not as much as you might think for other pilots. Like small regional airlines.

 

[Lothor]

The big airlines it's true but it's not as much as you might think for other pilots. Like small regional airlines.

Michael Moore talked about the shockingly low pay of some pilots in the US in Stupid White Men. I was working as a teacher in the UK when I read the book and my pay was better.

 

[thomas]

And here I thought flying was a passion and not primarily a way to make money...

Anyhow, I figured Muz in one of these:

The RMAF consists of an interesting hodgepodge of US, European and Russian aircraft (a Su-30 shown above), that should cover every taste and preference. Not sure about the pay though.

 

[Buntaro]

reasonably well paid at least in the US.

Training in Amrica to become an airline pilot will run around $100,000. Not cheap. But there is a huge shortage of flight instructors in America, so even if a person has that kind of money, they might not find a flight instructor anyway.

 

[salyavin]

big commercial airlines do often pay six figures. A copilot down the street from me with southwest makes just barely over 100k which is OK. Didn't know regional were so bad. I had also heard the 100k training cost no idea how many pay that back.

 

[Buntaro]

Watch all of the YouTube videos by an airline pilot named Swayne Martin. He has videos of himself all the way from student pilot to airline pilot. In some of the videos he talks about how to deal with the high cost of inflight training. (Get your flight instructor certificate as soon as possible. Working as a flight instructor is the fastest way to build flight hours and make money at the same time,)

https://www.youtube.com/c/SwayneMartinPilot/videos

Here is a video Swayne made as a student pilot eight years ago. (He is now an airline pilot,)

 

[mdchachi]

That's really cool that he documented his whole journey.
I always assumed the most common way to make it jet airliner pilot was to start in the air force, just to get the number of flight hours you need.