Something that came to mind the other day through another thread was how much I had to sacrifice to get my CPL, and It got me wondering what the rest of you went through to get yours.
I came into aviation pretty late in life, and in fact it was a career change, so the first thing was to stop doing what I had always done, and this was no easy task with my friends (and my head) telling me I was crazy-too old-not finished where I was-insane to let go of the career Id built etc etc etc.In the end I said bugger it Im gonna do it anyway.Just making the decision to go for it was probably the hardest bit.
I didn't want it to take five years so:
For a start I had to sell my car to pay for some of the training and replace it with a car that most people including the police mistook for an abandoned wreck, move out of my house and back in with Parents(at 30 years of age-fortunately their pretty cool), Take loans, max credit cards, work two jobs, one at night while trying to self study full time and quite a lot more that is too boring to write about.
Strangely, it didnt and doesnt feel like I gave away too much??!!.Id probably do it all the same way again (except this time with rich parents and a fat stock portfolio). I will say that I recently sat down and roughly added up how much it all cost... I... will.... never.... do.... that.... again..
