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I need some advice, I'm looking to become a pilot.
To preface, I'm 24 years old with no post secondary education. I've been a working actor for 5 years, getting walk-on roles here and there and padding my income with background work. It's a living, but if I have to spend another 10 years doing this and hoping for my big break I'm going to shoot myself.
So I figure I take my money and stop buying anime figures, magic cards, antique watches, and whatever other garbage I spend money on, and put it into an education in aviation. Most places rent their aircraft for $200 an hour, instructors are another $75 an hour, and if you want a commercial license you need 200 hours minimum, more like 500 hours to actually work. Helicopters, which I am more interested in, are more like 300 an hour without the instructor.
Flight schools bundle all this plus your exam fees and whatnot for something like 60 grand. My hope is to skip this process, do "ground school" by studying on my own, take out a loan and buy a plane.
To my peers, this sounds insane. I would be taking out something like 30k to buy a small plane, and theoretically get my 200 hours in 5 weeks. Insurance and hangar cost would be minimal assuming I only keep it for a month or two, I just have to worry about operation costs, should be doable since I can keep my regular job going during this time. At the end of the process, I sell the plane and have basically cut 40-50k off what most people are paying for their license.
At 200 hours, you have to beg for what is essentially intern work until you get 500 hours total. From there you get shitty backwoods jobs until you get 1500 hours like 5 years from now and can start working for a reasonable wage. I figure if I do keep the plane, I could try to use it to fly people around while gaining hours, but.. the loan wouldn't be paid off fast enough, and I wouldn't make enough to pay off maintenance and operation costs. If the plan works, it feels like a steal. Am I delusional?
