Q. I am a 24-year-old private pilot. I have about 80 hours total time. I have a complex endorsement and a multiengine rating and am currently working on an instrument rating. I didn’t start flying until after college. I got a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and have about $130,000 in school debt. Every day that I sit behind a desk, the more I dream about being a professional pilot. Is my dream impossible? —Andrew
A. Candidly, I am stymied. With only a private pilot certificate, including multiengine and instrument ratings, it is difficult to imagine how in the world you can service your existing $130,000 debt and then take on an additional $25,000 to $40,000 to earn at least a total of 250 hours so you can reach the commercial pilot certificate, a CFI, the CFII, and the MEI.
It is that crushing debt load that has been blamed, at least partially, for unsafe skies. You will, of course, recall the Colgan crash where the young first officer was compelled to live at home, commute almost the entire length of the country, and then try to catch catnaps in the airline’s flight operations office. Why? At $19,000 to $24,000 annually, plus long-term loan payments, living otherwise is just not financially possible.
There is another factor that will have a dramatic impact on the ability of the airline industry to attract new talent, and that is the proposed requirement that all FAR Part 121 airline pilots have a minimum of 1,500 hours total time. The industry and FAA are looking at ways to compromise on that number and bring it down to, say, 800 hours, but those thresholds are daunting. Requiring young people to do more and more flight instruction for an additional two to three years with the local school at poverty wages to reach that high mark, or to buy those additional hours at $150 to $200 per hour, will have many saying, “No way!”
Those of us who have been around the block in this industry do recall the days when no airline would even look at a pilot unless he had 2,000 hours total time and some 200 hours of multiengine. It took years of flight instructing, flying checks at night, and running charters in Piper Senecas until we reached those lofty time goals. Of course, a route to circumvent all of that money pain is a military flying career. If you are an excellent example of the human species, well chiseled with keen vision, you just might want to talk to an Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard recruiter.
So, Andrew, I am stumped. I would like to open it up to our readers. If anyone out there has faced similar financial challenges and surmounted them, drop us a line. It may sound like heresy to discourage the pursuit of an airline career. But, sometimes reality must be reckoned with.
