Originally Posted by
alleyquit
It will be better if you ask a pilot.
Thanks
He did and got answers from pilots.
If the OP researches through PPruNE and other sites he will find hundreds of similar answers and opinions from pilots all over the world.
In common:
- Today's pilots need an alternative non-aviation dependent skill to see them through likely periods of unemployment as a pilot
- If still at school, it is best to obtain that skill prior to commencing flying
- Best path financially (and for quality training) to become a pilot is the military - if you can make the cut and live with the return of service
- If you can't, next best is a cadetship underwritten by an airline which offers employment at the end of training
- Pay-to-fly is a mug's game, but if you have a tidy inheritance or indulgent parents, go for it and hope that the returns from a flying career justify the investment
- At selection time chances of flying job are directly influenced by supply and demand
- Supply and demand (disadvantaging pilots) changes literally overnight - recovery to favor pilots can take years
- Even in good times pilots are not united enough to obtain better terms and conditions - in bad times it is dog eat dog
- So-called 'legacy' airlines no longer guarantee a job for life
- The golden days when we got to actually make our own calculations, work the throttles and physically fly the aeroplane are all but gone - automation rules and Big Brother (flight data monitoring) has killed any pleasure we once took from 'spirited flying' (as was encouraged by an old instructor handbook I still treasure, irrelevant as it now is)
- If you really must get married, find yourself a 'keeper' (and you are not getting mine!) who will stick with you wherever in the world your career takes you, and through periods of low or no income