General Aviation Careers

[Seanaldinho]

As a student at a large school I know that the two highest paid instructors here made about 36k and 40k before taxes, but to do so they were at the school from 8 am to midnight.

Ouch. haha

[cpxxx]

. Im also not looking for a big six figure annual salary more along the lines of a solid 80 to 90k a year once Ive established myself

80 to 90K Regional airlines only pay between 20 and 27k. If there's a GA job that pays 80 to 90k you can be sure the queue for it will be very long indeed. I can see where you're coming from. Airline flying is boring. GA seem like fun and it often is. Just don't expect to make an adequate living from it. That's the way it is.

While I'm not living in the US, it's pretty much the same here. Year before last I barely got 25k flying skydivers. Same job in the states pays less and you work seven days a week. Not family friendly. Let me tell you the fun soon goes out of flying when you find yourself logging eight hours or more per day for the 5th day in a row.

That's why people go into the airlines.

Seriously your best bet is to do as the others suggest and get into something else that does earn a six figure sum and instruct, drop skydivers, fly banners etc on your days off. Much more fun.

[MachFly]

No bubble to burst lol. I understand that aviation is no longer as well paying as it used to be but I love doing it which pays dividends in my book. Im also not looking for a big six figure annual salary more along the lines of a solid 80 to 90k a year once Ive established myself, in my 30's, and built up seniority. Just enough to raise my 2.6  children with my small cottage house and white picket fence.

Thank you though for the offer and I may take you up on it at some point.

If you want 80 to 90K as as civilian pilot I recommend you go for the airlines and in about 20-30 you might get it.

[MachFly]

As a student at a large school I know that the two highest paid instructors here made about 36k and 40k before taxes, but to do so they were at the school from 8 am to midnight.

Ouch. haha

Yeah that's pretty much the way it's going to be for you if you want to make a career out of GA, if you get lucky.

[Seanaldinho]

Hmm it seems ill be going for my engineering degree now. 

[colmbo]

One way you can a significant amount of money is if you open your own school. But then you'll be business man first and CFI second.

Bwahahahahahaha.  OMG.  Bwahahahahaha.  LOL. LMAO.  Bwahahahahahahaha


That's some funny stuff right there.

Woo boy.

Know how to make a small fortune in aviation?  Start with a large fortune.

 

[MachFly]

Bwahahahahahaha.  OMG.  Bwahahahahaha.  LOL. LMAO.  Bwahahahahahahaha


That's some funny stuff right there.

Woo boy.

Know how to make a small fortune in aviation?  Start with a large fortune.

 

   Okay...

Can you think of a way to make more money while sticking to small GA planes?

[MachFly]

Hmm it seems ill be going for my engineering degree now. 

Were not trying to talk you out of it, it's just that if all you want is money than you should probably choose a non-flying career. BTW a starting salary for an engineer is not 90K either, more like 45-50K.

[Rash]

One of my old gf's and still a good friend, went to a aviation school near Waco at an old airfield?  AF1 landed there during Bush's time  (she graduated from Crawford high).  She received a two year degree in aircraft design during the 90's?  10 years ago she made $45/hour plus about $2000 living expenses.  She does the same thing for the Navel research lab around D.C. now.  She also did custom work, like designing speaker boxes on private jet, but she did work on c-130 gunships, and she loves the p3.  she did stuff like designing where to put the microphone boxes.  Looks like a cool job.  While we dated, I even got to met a master chief from the Association of old Buzzards.  They get to try out a lot of the new cool stuff.  She was very tight lipped about what she did.  She gets to travel all over the world in some pretty cool place, and got to steer an aircraft carrier for a little while.

[saggs]

In general it seems to me that people place waaaaay to much emphasis on $$$$ when it comes to choosing a career path.  

There are lots of people out there who make 6 figure incomes and are miserable because they hate their job.  There are also a lot of people out there who make < $40K  and are always happy because they love their job.  I met a guy just yesterday who turned down a $120K job to keep his $50K job, because he said it didn't sound like much fun, and he loves his current job.  The trick is just to live within your means, and not spend like your making $100K when your making $40K.  In most parts of the country you can provide for a typical family of 4 quite easily (and set aside a decent retirement fund) on $40K a year.

My advice is to choose a career path you will enjoy, then live within your means at whatever income it provides.  Personally I'd rather make $35K a year and be happy, then make $350K and be miserable.  In spite of what society would have you believe money is a poor anti-depressant, true being dirt broke and in debt is very depressing, but once you reach the point of being able to comfortably provide the necessities, any money above and beyond that won't automatically make you happier.

So if aviation is what your passionate about, and really want to do, then DO IT!  Be happy and don't worry about the $$$$.  Remember that nothing is written in stone either, if you want to fly a fun GA job when your young single and don't need that much money, then later settle down, have 8 kids and need to make more money to feed them, great, there is no rule that says you can't switch careers.

[Seanaldinho]

Were not trying to talk you out of it, it's just that if all you want is money than you should probably choose a non-flying career. BTW a starting salary for an engineer is not 90K either, more like 45-50K.

Well I said 80k as hopefully what ill make after 15 or so years starting salary I understand to be much lower.

[Golfer]

If you want 80 to 90K as as civilian pilot I recommend you go for the airlines and in about 20-30 you might get it.

Machfly,

Please educate yourself a little further before you give advice that's so wrong even you would wonder what you're thinking. What brochures are you reading out of anyway?

Sean you're eyeing what are typically viewed as entry level positions as your future career. You will work hard as a CFI putting a lot of hours in both on the ground and in the air if you want to make any semblance of a living.  There are those who do and their experience demands a premium however they represent an extreme minority of what you'd call professional instructors in the sense you're imagining. You can make a good living working for some of the major schoolhouses such as FlightSafety International and Simuflite as a ground and simulator instructor but those jobs don't keep you flying as part of your regular duties.

I think you might have an idea that having a career in aviation might be a dream and if you pursue it good for you. It isn't all sunshine and daisies, you will work hard and you won't be home all the time if you truly make a career of it. Heck, you probably don't even know where home will be if you choose that path. I sure don't know where I'll en up an being mobile has helped in my career progression more than any tidbit of knowledge I've ever possessed. Being able to move to where the work happens to be is half the battle if you don't want to follow the airline route save for some very special circumstances.

If you really want to have a career in aviation then get started as a hobby. Fly, decide if it's right for you and you won't have any question about it when you have that epiphany. I didn't have any doubt and made the decision during my second year of college and had an instrument rating. After that I changed schools, lived on a student loan and flew anything I could get my hands on while I learned everything I could. I lived in 6 different cities and after 10 years am finally considering buying a house as a symbol of what I view as finally achieving some stability. I've been very fortunate as there are those who have been flying for 25 years that don't have things as good as I do and I think it's important to keep that perspective. I probably told everyone I encountered considering aviation as a career I just can't recommend it because of the risk you're taking. If they really had it in them and they did it anyway then they might just have a shot. Running into former instructors has been neat but finally running into former students who are making their way into professional jobs is one of the most satisfying things I've ever done.

[MachFly]

Machfly,

Please educate yourself a little further before you give advice that's so wrong even you would wonder what you're thinking. What brochures are you reading out of anyway?

Every time I post something you come in and say that I'm wrong and should educate myself. How about you say what's wrong. You claim to know everyone yet your first priority is to prove me wrong and then to help out the guy that's asking for help.
Have you ever agreed with me, on anything? You don't really post much but every time I make a thread or one post that has anything to do with flying you find it, come in and start saying what ever it takes to prove me wrong. What is your problem?


Now regarding where I get my number. Here is a jetblue (random major airline) pay chart from airlinepilotcentral.com. Now you guys don't work as much as normal people do so the standard equation hourly pay rate x 8 x 5 x 52 does not work, in addition to hours you get paid you so still need to do the preflight along with a whole bunch of other things. Also, a major airline ain't going to hire you with 100 hours, so it will be a while before you start getting paid anywhere near six digits.

[Golfer]

Fair enough.

Aside from the idea that it's a good financial decision to start a flight school I think the most recent thing was you using an incident as an example only to find out you didn't actually know anything about that incident even very basic research would have provided.

I watched a guy squander a seven figure windfall from a construction accident on starting a flight school. Aside from having totally unrealistic leases on his airplanes he couldn't run a business any more than Japanese speak Navajo.

I guess my main beef would be passing off unrealistic advice as good advice and asking things even the most basic google search would answer. Is that fair? Maybe not and while I realize not everyone works the same way it still irks me and I don't generally sit on my irks.

Maybe I should be less like this guy:

[Tupac]