US Flight training - PPL to paying job

[Mannie]

The basic story is that after 8 years of doing a "normal" job and travelling the world I want to try and get a job in my original passion of flying.

I have a UK PPL with about 250 hours, most of which was built doing military training (Bulldogs with UAS).

I am a British citizen with US Green card and live in San Francisco.

As I see it my 2 possible routes are;
1. Get instuctor rating and teach PPL's etc
2. Go all the way to ATPL (F) and try and get a commercial job (perhaps after doing step 1 to build time)

So my questions are (and I realise they're vague but this is early days);

1. Any ideas of the certification route I would follow?
2. When could I realistically earn a living?
3. Costs?
4. Anyone know any good schools in the SF Bay Area, i have a baby so relocating to train isnt an option?
5. Are their any scholarship schemes available?
6. Are their any loan schemes available?

Thanks for any and all help.

[weasil]

There is loads of flight training in the bay area.
The following information comes from personal experiences after flying in that area for years.

Sierra Academy of Aeronautics (I used to work for them)
at Oakland Int. Airport is one of biggest schools in the country. You can expect to receive an extremely high quality of training there. The downside is that they are a really large school, it is often hard to get on the schedule every day and never more than once a day. This can really serve to stretch out your training leaving large gaps of waiting around to train. It is also good place to work as a flight instructor to build time and has a great reputation in the industry.

American Flyers in Hayward (I work for them now) is also one of the big names in flight training in the USA. They specialise in getting the job done. You can train 8 hours a day up to 7 days a week if you desire which makes it easy to get finished quickly and be working before you know it. There is a very high standard of training and well structured courses.

And here's the big comparison, at Sierra I've seen it take guys up to 6 months to finish their flight instructor rating but at AF it takes 30-40 days for both ratings!

There are also flight schools in the south bay airports and they are definitely worth a visit but nothing like the first two.

One of my best friends has an almost exact story as yours, he is a UK citizen/ dual US citizen, made a career change, went to Sierra, & now flies all over the country doing aerial surveys for a living. I'm sure he would love to talk with you ifyou are interested. Send me an email sometime.. [email protected]

[dorosenco]

Mannie,

After all the nice things that Weasil said, be careful, do not quit your job if you could get a leave of absence or go part-time. It might take you longer to complete your ratings but right now the chances to make a living with a flying job are very low. 1000's of instructors are waiting out there for a flying job with 1000's of flying hours in their logbooks.
Take advantage of your EU citizenship and look into flying jobs in the EU, it's not great but it cannot be worse than the US. Pilots from majors are aplying to local flight schools for jobs these days.
Follow your dreams by any means, but open your eyes, that's all ...;)

I did my CFI/CFII with American Flyers in 35 days for $5000. You cannot do better than that. Other flight schools take 3 months for CFI only for $8,000. So, yeah, AF is good for CFI but watch out for Private/Comm/IR, their prices are outrageous ($160 / hr for a piece of **** C172 !).

:ok: