u/RaiseTheDed

"How do I pay for flight training?" This question is asked quite often on r/flying, and I thought I'd write this to help newcomers navigate funding flight training. Now, flight training alone will cost around 80,000-120,000 dollars of the United States variety.  That's no chunk change for many of us. Now, if you can get to an airline, even a regional airline, that will pay for itself in the long run. But coming up with 100 grand to begin with is the hard part. So let's examine the methods you can pay for flying:  Out of pocket Meaning save and pay as you go. This isn't feasable for many, but it is the most recommended method. Why? No debt! Debt is killer. You might say "oh, but I don't want to be in my 30s before I get to fly airliners!" Many people don't start flying at airlines until they're in their 30s or 40s. There's no age limit. If you need to pay for training with a decent job and budgeting, there's nothing wrong with tha...

Everyone on this subreddit will say "don't go to college for flight training, it's useless and more expensive." Now, with everything, that's a broad answer to a nuanced question. Timelime College training does take longer. It's a 4 year degree, so expect to stay 4 years. It's definitely no accelerated program. I see many people saying get everything done ASAP, but you're going to pretty much need a 4 year degree eventually. There's a few options on navigating college: 1. Attend a 4 year college aviation program. You get a degree and flight training done. This is the appeal of these programs. You'll be paying for flight training on top of tuition, but you can use federal financial aid to pay for both. 2. Attend college for some other degree and do flight training on the side. Now this is generally the recommended method I see on r/flying, but it's not really expanded beyond this. A lot of factors can prevent this route, the biggest being fin...

So it has always been your dream to be an airline pilot? Awesome! And now you’re ready to take on the training to achieve that dream? Absolutely fantastic! But you’ve just realized that achieving that dream and doing the required trining comes with a big price tag. So now you’re considering using a loan (debt) to fund that training. However, you need make certain you’re thinking beyond the dream and considering some reality. This post is not really aimed to make you not take of a big loan, but more to make you really think  about what you're doing when you sign the dotted line. In aviation, we have Threat and Error Management to mitigate risks. This post is to give you all the Facts, Options, and Risks so that you can make a Decision based on them. (FOR-DEC model, anyone?) With that being said, I really don't want you to get yourself into debt either way, but I want to try to be as objective as possible here. Many folks on r/flying will say the same thing: avoid flight training...