Elias
Do you want some honest advice, from not only a pilot but from a "mature" woman who is also a mother and has a little life experience?
If so read on - and I promise it will not be snarky (well... I'll try my hardest!
) Life advice first - flying stuff second. That is the order of importance.
[was going to do this as a PM all... but there may be other young guys who fall into this trap so let me put it out for all to see...]
Firstly. The people on here get annoyed with new - and young - people who ask advice and smart-ass back if they don't like the answer.
Whilst you may feel that you were "sticking up for yourself", you need to learn to play the game. This is something that will come with age - hopefully - or sadly,
maxdrypower will be 100% correct and you won't go
anywhere. Especially with the Air Force.
It may be a bit different over there, but here in New Zealand, Aviation is a very, VERY small place - so to speak. Any incidents - like the public arguement you've got yourself into below - do not fall on deaf ears. They fall into the laps of the people that will, one day, be hiring you. Or Firing you.
There would be hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, of boys (young men) your age who start out with the same dream as you. They get weeded out pretty fast.
Life Lecture over - onto the
FLYING!
As I see it, there are three real areas you can head into:
1) Military
2) Airlines
3) GA - General Aviation - which covers things like Flight Instruction, Photography Flying, Small Charter flying etc etc - anything really that does not fall into 1) or 2) !!
1) Military - seems to be a bit of a different process over here, but the end result is the same. I've done the testing and passed - but without sounding arrogant, I am an intelligent woman with very very strong numeracy, logic and spatial skills. Of the 14 of us that turned up, only two of us passed the initial tests. After all, in my opinion, the Air Force pick the creme-de-le-creme because they CAN!
[Disclaimer: to all other Pilots!! I am not stating here for a minute that all other pilots are a class below - just saying that they have a higher starting "benchmark" than GA!!]
So I guess my point here is if you are not overly strong in these areas, maybe look at the other two alternatives.
2) Airline flying - can't really advice you here as this holds no interest for me, but I understand from reading on here that there are all sorts of "sponsorship" or "apprentice" type opportunities to get straight into jets with F
All hours. We have a training school over here called CTC and is full of Poms! So search on here for "CTC" or similar. Look up a member called "
Polorutz", he has posted some threads that will be very helpful to you.
3) GA flying - this is what I do and it is FUN!!!
Once qualified with a commercial pilot's licence, you can start earning money for it. A lot of people start out with Flight Instructing - I did until a student tried to kill me.
(actually, EVERY student tries to kill you - you just have to be on top of it...
I did it to mine, and you'll do it to yours)
Other options, which may be more abundant over here or in Australia, are parachute flying, aerial survey work, mustering work, ag flying
[Ag flying is a very specialised area - look up "tinpis" on here and ask him for advice - if he doesn't know it, it's probably not worth knowing IMHO]
and Photography flying! I fly low level, with the door off, navigating my way round hills, power lines, trees, rivers etc. It sounds like lots and lots of fun but there is no room for error. I am very inexperienced in the whole scheme of things, I have less than 1,000 hours but I am a very cautious pilot and I know my limits. I would not recommend this type of work for someone with less than 500 hrs, but others may disagree.
I don't own a plane.
I don't pay for the plane, or the camera, or the photographer - I am paid to fly. I don't think there's too many jobs like mine around
these parts, and a lot of it comes down to personality as well as skill. (I met my boss in an Aeroclub bar whilst telling dirty jokes...
I was hired the next day)
There is another member on here called "spernkey" - look him up too and ask him for advice on photography flying.
So there you go my boy, tried to give you "Aviation Careers 101 in a Nutshell".
You have some homework to do and some people to contact. Go do it.
Feel free to ask any other questions - just make sure they haven't been answered first!!