Crossroads in my life

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romanuncle
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Crossroads in my life

Post by romanuncle »

I wrote an entire story detailing everything but I don't know it never got posted so I'm going to be brief this time.

Life story - 27 yo Indian national, will be PR in 2021 and all my work(5 yrs) and education (bachelors and post grad) have been around Tech.

Now realized, I hate tech and don't want to do it for the rest of my days, so trying to follow my dream of being a commercial pilot. I have narrowed down Confederation college's flight program.

Now comes the part where I need your help -

- Is it worth spending the $$$ at 28 year and becoming a pilot in terms of fulfilling complete career potential in pilot's career life cycle?
- What is the total cost of becoming a pilot from zero to getting a job? Confederate tuition is around 20-25k which I find bizarrely cheap to become a CPL.
- Post CPL, do I need to spend more $$$ to gain hours on double engine aircraft?
- How easy is it to get a job after a CPL in Canada? Are pilots in demand?

Please be as blunt as you can and would love to hear from you folks!
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snowcrest
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Re: Crossroads in my life

Post by snowcrest »

There's a guy in my first year Seneca program who's 26.. he'll be pushing 30 when he graduates. Never too late my friend.

Confed is subsidized by the government hence the low cost, thought keep in mind you don't get your group 1 multi-IFR with that program. You almost certainly want to get your multi privately once you graduate.
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northernpilot2
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Re: Crossroads in my life

Post by northernpilot2 »

Theres no need to go to confed or seneca or other silly programs. You already have a degree so you dont need to waste any more time. Go to a local flight school and get er done asap. If you dont mind instructing, then go for instructor rating after CPL. Once you get some time instructing, get your multi IFR. Do some multi and IFR instructing. While you are at it, drive uber on the side to help you with money. I think you will be job ready after 2 years as long as you dont mess up along the way.. Good luck.

The seneca and all the college programs are useless in my opinion. Waste of time and barely any flying.
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snowcrest
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Re: Crossroads in my life

Post by snowcrest »

northernpilot2 wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 6:40 pm Theres no need to go to confed or seneca or other silly programs. You already have a degree so you dont need to waste any more time. Go to a local flight school and get er done asap. If you dont mind instructing, then go for instructor rating after CPL. Once you get some time instructing, get your multi IFR. Do some multi and IFR instructing. While you are at it, drive uber on the side to help you with money. I think you will be job ready after 2 years as long as you dont mess up along the way.. Good luck.

The seneca and all the college programs are useless in my opinion. Waste of time and barely any flying.
Agreed, it's not for everyone. However, if you're coming straight out of high school, I can't see it as being a terrible decision.
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Rubby
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Re: Crossroads in my life

Post by Rubby »

Bro confede student here! Been there more than 6 months with 15 hours and no solo yet. Hard to keep up with the skills when you don’t get to fly often, and lots students finish their licenses in third year and hangout in dispatch for 6 months even program finished. On top o that lots and lots of cancellations, instructors change and what not, you would get to fly 1 out of 4-5 flights scheduled
I would highly recommend keep up with your good paying job and get your flights training done ASAP on side. Will take you on guaranteed pathway and your own schedule own choices
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flysky
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Re: Crossroads in my life

Post by flysky »

Are you going to land in Canada in 2021? You mentioned you will be PR in Canada in 2021 so I am wondering. Either case, welcome to Canada!

I am sure this isn't uncommon in India, but here in Canada, soon you will realize that age is just a number, and 27, 28 or whatever age you are, you are just fine changing careers. You already have a degree (great for backup), so DO NOT bother going to any college to go through a "program". Go to a decent FTU (flight training unit - fancy/formal way of saying a flight school/academy or a club here in Canada) and get your ground and flight portion done. With a FTU you will be flying often and thats what you need at this point. Like northernpilot2 has mentioned, you can be a flight instructor (you will need flight instructor training) after your CPL to build the hours. Or, there are many other places in Canada where you can get a "commercial" flying job which isn't an airline operation; its a great place to build experience/hours by flying a high performance or even a multi-engine aircraft.

How much it costs is very relative to how good you are and how often you will be flying. If you suck at this, then obviously you will be spending a lot of $$$ to finish a lesson and it piles up very fast. And next how often you fly matters a LOT and this is where being with a decent FTU matters a lot. Let me explain. Say you are with one of those college programs, where they have more students than they can schedule, or a FTU where there are less instructors and more students, then you will be scheduled less frequently to fly. Means from one flight lesson to another there will be a gap and this can be very detrimental to your overall training. You will find that you are forgetting things, or just not practicing enough, and the poor instructor will have to explain the same things to you over and over again. Means you will progress slowly and will be spending more $$$. Also, don't forget that Canada has some weather challenges so be prepared to miss flying time here due to that as well. So besides a "rough number" no one here can tell you how much exactly it will cost you.

Currently there is a decent demand of pilots in Canada. A large part of instructor shortage is because of this; Airlines keep hiring them with lesser hours than it has previously been.

I hope this helps.
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