How did you finance yours?

[airtaxiwannabe]

Good evening all,

As you are in the midst of your commercial training and without being too intrusive, would anybody care to advise on how they are financing their flight training?

I already have a PPL, IMC, and Night rating, with a mere 136 hours under my belt and like many individuals I wish to take it forward to CPL/IR with AFI.

My aspiration is to instruct and fly air taxi (hence the user name), but I am a bit stuck on the ways of financing it. Before I trawl the internet, I thought I would ask my fellow students on the ways of producing the necessary finance to fund my training. If it helps and due to my family circumstances, I will have to complete the modular route of training as I have a family and need to work full time to pay the bills etc.

Any information would be much appreciated as there may be ways that you know about that I have never thought of.

Many thanks!

Airtaxiwannbe

[MIKECR]

No disrespect but if you have a family and bills to pay(as you say) then I would take a long hard look at spending thousands of pounds to realise a dream of flying air taxi. Single pilot IFR air taxi is probably thee most demanding flying job out there, yet ironically pays absolute peanuts. You'd honestly get twice as much driving a bus or doing taxi work in town on a Saturday night.

On the same note, your going to need lots of P1 hours, especially multi engine piston time. Air taxi work is well out of reach of the average froen ATPL type pilot. Have a read of Lasors for an idea of whats expected, and bare in mind those are 'minimum' requirements.

[airtaxiwannabe]

Hi MikeCR,

Many thanks for the reply, but I really want to do it, I have done for a long time and I won't be happy until I am flying commercially. For me it's not for the money, it's for the love of flying and if I can do it day in, day out then I have achieved my goal. If I had an interest in classic cars or yacht sailing, then I could easily spend as much money without gaining anything back, so to me it's all relative.

[MIKECR]

Yeah fair comment.....but im only trying to point out how much money is involved here. Your looking at the best part of a 1000 hours, plus several hundred MEP hours before any operator is realisticaly going to let you fly air taxi for them. You'd honestly have far more chance of getting in with a regional turboprop airline and working your way up. 1500 to 3000 hours on a TP at a regional airline is perfectly achievable in 2 to 3 years, along with a command and a reasonable salary of 40 to 50k a year.....why on earth would you want to fly air taxi in a beat up old twin with no autopilot for 15k a year?? At least with an airline you will have some stability...a roster....company pension etc etc....its a no brainer really.

[flyvirgin]

I was lucky enough to be living at home with my parents, i worked like a dog scaffolding 7 days a week and managed to save for my training.

[airtaxiwannabe]

To be honest I wish I had done it whilst I lived at home, but you can't dwell on what I should have done.

I see where you are coming from MikeCR, but which ever route I take I still need to get the coveted CPL/IR, so I will concentrate on that. Once achieved, I am sure I will have a better idea on the path to follow, thanks for your opinion though it really is appreciated.

[MIKECR]

Yeah you'll get there if your committed enough. I changed to a flying career in my early/mid 30's. Have towed gliders, dropped parachutists, did my FI rating.....finally got my lucky break airline job ironicaly in the middle of the recession. Now flying for a great regional airline...bonded TR etc...wouldnt swap it for any other job.

Dont let age stand in the way......it can be a major plus point for many operators. Just be realistic about what your trying(and likely!) to achieve.

[airtaxiwannabe]

Thanks MikeCR will do, my commitment isn't the problem, it's just deciding on a way to finance it. Once that's secure it's all boilers lit and off we go.

[zondaracer]

I had a job that paid me 5k/month after taxes and I pretty much spent every last penny getting my licenses and ratings. My wife and I sold a bunch of our old stuff that we never were going to use again and moved in with my mother in law. For the moment, I donīt work, which is really nice because i get to spend all my time with my wife and daughter, i just have to put up with living with my mother in law.

[Whirlygig]

How people finance their training is a very individual and personal matter. How I financed my CPL(H) is irrelevant to you so no point in telling you. It's also not just the financing but your personal circumstances which will affect any decisions you make - what suits one person will not suit another.

You have the following options

1. Get a loan
2. Save up
3. Get given the money
4. Steal the money

I'm hoping the last option is not viable for you and the third, although possible through lottery wins etc, is unlikely so .... get a loan or save up.

Cheers

Whirls

[tr0jan]

come to dubai , get a job. take a big loan and see you later

everyone's doing it ... but it's still stealing i would not do it

[Wireless]

I used to fly air taxi. Something I wanted to do and then later got to do. Good fun. I still miss flying a twin. It wasn't a career job though. Money is as expected. I'd be suprised though if there were a lot of air taxi operators still flying the light twins: old seneca's, twin coms etc.

A way round the hours requirement for public transport Single Pilot stuff is to start out with aerial work flying on twins such as surveying and the like.

[UAV689]

have worked 2 jobs (working 7 days a week) for nearly 3 years now, whilst studing for ATPLs. (passed atpls mid 90% averages, whilst working 2 jobs, 7 days a week)

Nearly there funding wise, should be out of this debt free, if i need a loan for a TR then so be it, I have not got in debt training.