Hi.
As this forum seems to be crowded with helpful people; everything from very experienced pilots with thousands of hours to newly graduated ones, I figured this must be the place if one has questions.
Recently I attained a NPPL, which I of course know is not compare-able to e.g. an ATPL, and itīs here my question(s) come in.
I canīt stop thinking about flying, all I want to do as soon as I land is to get up there again. Iīm therefore thinking about trying to go all the way and sign up for all the courses (PPL, CPL etc etc) all the way to eventually attain an ATPL. I donīt aspire to fly big airliners, but would be happy flying smaller propeller planes as air-taxi, guided tours or similar, I just want to fly and maybe (hopefully) be able to pay rent doing so.
This is where I need your expertise, from those who know, to maybe (if needed) give me a brutal wake up call / reality check or whatever.
What would I get myself into by signing up for all these courses, and what can be expected if I somehow manage to finish them all?
Will I simply be one of many (hundreds/thousands?) pilots out there who have spent a massive amount of money, struggling to get a job to do some flying? And will I fall into a spiral where I would have to keep trying to build hours (on my own expense?) and aiming to get more and more different ratings to even be able to land a job at all?
Again, Iīm not aspiring to fly airliners, but is dreaming about doing any kind of flying for a living (not getting rich doing so) just a pipe dream which I should scrap before I even get started?
I donīt want to be or sound cynical, after all this is what I dream about.
But at some stage in any dream, one will need a reality check of some kind, and that is what I was hoping to get from You guys who know what I might get myself into.
Does anybody, experienced or newly graduated, care to share your views and experiences about how it is out there?
Many thanks.