Truth behind "Flight Academies"???

"nooneimportant" no.spam@me wrote in message news:u9N%b.30385$AL.549705@attbi_s03...

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I know that airlines will be hiring
soon, Airtran is bringing on 100 new jets, saw projections for Delta and
United hiring close to 1200 pilots over the next couple years, figure
American will do similar, and tho its not rapid growth, figure that with
lots of retiring pilots, and those on furlough who will choose not to return
(thereby keeping a retirement) and there are more openings. I want to be in
on that action! not what could be happening 3 years down the road.

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I'm not a pilot (yet!) but many times I've contemplated a career in
aviation. I do work in aerospace, and I've also been studying the
industry for awhile and talked to quite a few people involved in it.
So realize I'm not an expert. Anyway...

I was talking to some corporate pilots at one of the local a/p's here
in south FL the other day, and they were basically trying to convince
me into a flying career! One of the guys I was talking to was
formerly in the computer industry (probably IT) and decided to get his
PPL in 2000. He was instantly hooked, and went through all they way
to get his ATP at Emery Riddle.

They basically said that side of aviation is doing pretty good, and
that it wasn't all that hard to get a job if you've got the flying
skills (and connections, just like everything else). Of course, you'd
have to decide if you like the corporate pilot vs. airline pilot
lifestyle. One of my relatives is a 777 captain for one of the
majors, and he told me that as a corp pilot you'll have to do a lot of
non-flying tasks such as setting up hotel and dining accomodations,
handling the luggage, hanging out at some godforsaken a/p all day,
etc. Probably not the life for a family person (not saying that's
what you are, but it's important to some people). You're also not
going to be a rich man working as a corporate pilot, nor will you have
the nice perks such as free world travel. But you can eventually have
a comfortable middle class income. I think they typically end up
around $80k a year or something. You can also technically work beyond
age 60 I think, though many flight departments still have that cutoff.

As far as the airlines go, there's been a lot of talk about how the
baby boomers will have to retire in the next few years (provided the
FAA does not raise the mandatory retirement age, as some have
speculated), so a lot of slots will open up. Maybe there's some truth
to that, but there's still a lot of younger furloughed pilots out
there. I seriously doubt a majority of those laid off were a couple
years from retirement. There seniority numbers are too high. Most of
them were just kicked down to smaller a/c like MD-80s, 737s, etc.
Unfortunately a lot of the majors are still in serious financial
trouble, even places like Delta who have somehow avoided (publicly)
situations like United and American. I personally would be focused on
companies like Southwest and Frontier, as they seem to have a better
grasp on what the "new" economy and internet commerce mean for the
future of the airlines. And I would also try like hell to make a
connection with somebody in the airlines, as that seems to be how a
majority of the hires are done.

Another thing to look into is freight (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.), though
I know absolutely nothing about that industry (except that they have
crazy hours!). Maybe somebody here and share their knowledge about
it.

You definitely should do what your most passionate about. If that
means attempting a career in aviation, why not go for it? Seems like
people that have an un-ending drive eventually get in, unless they're
a color blind diabetic or something (there's probably even exceptions
to that). It would definitely be very nice to have something to fall
back on, just in case. That's why I'm planning on developing my
engineering career to a point that I can make a decision about what I
want to do, rather than what I have to do. It would be much better to
fall back on part-time consulting work vs. helping dimwits find
digital cameras at Best Buy when you're 40.

I hope that was helpful! Good luck with whatever you decide to do.