.

I think we need a sticky about funding.

I don't know about ON gov't funding, but I thought they paid for most of it?

Any who, RBC has a good line of credit program if you need it. I got 35k from them.

Cheers,

Wolfie

Sault, Confed, and I think Seneca are fully subsidized by the Ontario gov't. It does not matter what part of the country you are from. Half my class at Confed was out of province.

AUGER9 wrote:Sault, Confed, and I think Seneca are fully subsidized by the Ontario gov't. It does not matter what part of the country you are from. Half my class at Confed was out of province.

Really I contacted a few and they said that because I have lived outside canada for some lengths of time that I don't qualify. I will still apply and see how it goes.

Outside Canada I'm not sure, but outside Ontario was not an issue. And definitely, try every bank you can get to.

AUGER9 wrote:Outside Canada I'm not sure, but outside Ontario was not an issue.

Unfortunately, it is now. Out of province you have to pay the full price, however much that is.

I know people who have had school paid for, and others who have had ratings paid for through EI...

Why not find the best-paying job that you can for the skills that you have, move into Mom and Dad's basement, and save, save, save. Revisit the college idea after a year or so... Even more marks for getting on at a company that will hire you after you get your licence...

The problem with the line of credit is that, you need a cosigner and he/she also needs to be approved by the bank through a credit check. I was in the exact same situation as you macbainz1 and I can understand how frustrating it is for you. For me, the bank approved my application but my parents(cosigner) were not approved. However, it could be different for you. As long as your parents don't have a serious debt you have a very good chance of getting the loan.

Getting a line of credit or taking a year off to save money are unfortunately, the only two options there are. I was planning to take another year off but then a local credit union saved my butt and offered me a loan.

Hope everything works out for you,

Good Luck

I did not require a cosigner, I was 21 however.

SkyWolfe wrote:I did not require a cosigner, I was 21 however.

That's something new I was 23 and all 3 financial institutions asked me for a cosigner, that's strange. Anyhow, that's a great new information for macbainz!

Get a job. I worked full time at McDonalds just to fly an hour a week to get my PPL. I then worked at Starbucks for 4 years to do everything else.

gwones wrote:

SkyWolfe wrote:I did not require a cosigner, I was 21 however.

That's something new I was 23 and all 3 financial institutions asked me for a cosigner, that's strange.

Why is that strange? Financial institutions will require a co-signer if the person applying for the loan / line of credit doesn't have the credit rating to qualify for it themselves.

It is solely based on credit rating, and has nothing to do with age. A 20 year old with established credit and a god rating may qualify on their own, and a 40 year old with crap credit may require a co-signer (or be denied altogether).

neilblythin wrote:

gwones wrote:

SkyWolfe wrote:I did not require a cosigner, I was 21 however.

That's something new I was 23 and all 3 financial institutions asked me for a cosigner, that's strange.

Why is that strange? Financial institutions will require a co-signer if the person applying for the loan / line of credit doesn't have the credit rating to qualify for it themselves.

It is solely based on credit rating, and has nothing to do with age. A 20 year old with established credit and a god rating may qualify on their own, and a 40 year old with crap credit may require a co-signer (or be denied altogether).

Yes, that's what I was thinking. I thought it was the student line of credit.

SkyWolfe wrote:Any who, RBC has a good line of credit program if you need it. I got 35k from them.

SkyWolfe wrote:I did not require a cosigner, I was 21 however.

RBC is the place to go

CIBC laughed at me because the Victoria Flying Club was on "their" list but RBC didn't even ask me for proof of enrollment because VFC was on the government list. I only took 10k and I paid it all off in a year... yay for having a higher paying desk job than most pilots?

I basically got laughed at by CIBC. Becoming a pilot was not on their list of approved programs of study. Myself and my parents pulled all of our investments and accounts from them and switched to Bank of Montreal.

Most of the time with student loans, you require the co-signer because they assume you are a full time student to be asking for what we ask for (excess of 30k for pilot training). The question is, how can a full time student work? Regardless of credit rating (mine was quite good at 22) the banks will often ask for a co-signer.

All that being said, is there anyone besides your parents you feel comfortable asking to so sign? A grandparent or close aunt/uncle?

Look through all your provincial resources. I do not believe Manitoba(where I live) helps fund any pilot training but we have the tuition rebate here. Basically every year that you stay in Manitoba after graduation you get a 10% tax break on your provincial taxes, for 6 years, totaling 60% of your tuition. So I will essentially not pay taxes on $30 000 over the next 6 years.

I basically got laughed at by CIBC

Don't feel bad. Last year, all the banks in Canada (except
CIBC) made their usual $2B PROFIT. CIBC lost $2B, which
means that they made a $4B mistake last year

Don't take it too seriously when someone who just
made a $4B mistake doesn't think you're financially
smart

All the banks I called for a student line of credit require a co signer before I even told them anything about funds or program name. Basically they said student line of credits require a cosigner because you are not considered to have steady incoming income as a student. Also bank loans require you to pay an interest every month which depending on the size of the loan could mean $50+ a month. So make sure to factor that in as well. The only schools I would look at is Sault and Confed. Tuition is only like 6 grand for the whole time your there and you can easily make that over the summer without being in debt. Having a $30,000 loan from a bank will be pretty tough to pay back throwing bags on a plane before you actually get your turn up front.

Well if flying is your dream and what you want to do on limited funds. I would suggest forgoing the College route and getting a job chucking bags or pumping gas at an airport, you will make just as many contacts doing that as you would have made in college. In addition to having some funds coming in and if you can live in your parents basement and save on food and rent Bonus!!!!

Take the above suggestions for funding and fly as much as possible don't take long gaps between flying you will waste hours reviewing what you may have forgotten since you flew last.

Not having a degree has not hindered my career in anyway, however I am taking correspondence to complete my degree for the simple reason It's embarrassing that such a peon like myself repeatedly schools people with masters degree's in trivial pursuit and jeopardy.

Trust me you will have plenty of time to pursue college later.

It's interesting the ratio of peoples comments on here - take-a-loan vs get-a-job. You'll be way WAY better off in the long run if you avoid getting into debt. Trust me.

If I was just out of high school with no real qualification for a decent paying job and wanted to be a pilot, here is what I would do:

I would train to become a railway conductor.

The training takes 4 months, costs $7000 - which you can get a Government loan for - I know that goes against my rule of avoiding debt above but the risk/reward ratio is sufficiently high in my opinion to warrant it. Job prospects on graduation are high - starting salary is $50k.

So six months later, you're earning $50k a year with $7k debt. By living cheaply in your mom's basement and taking extra shifts, you're now well placed to start flight training. Railway work would be flexible schedule - allowing you to plan your flyng around the weather.

So you do your training over a couple of years, by having a decent-paying job you're able to deduct the cost of your flight training from your tax returns, bringing the costs down by about 23%.

A couple of years later when you've got your license, you're ready to start work as a pilot, it'll likely be seasonal as a new starter or as an instructor where you're sitting around waiting for the weather to clear but you'll have a great backup job on the railways.

In terms of initial training cost, time to train, potential earnings, employment stability, flexible work hours, and geographical independance I cannot think of a better way to fund your pilot training that as a railway conductor. In 3 years time you'll be streets ahead of the rayban and Breitling watch brigade, and that dedication and perserverance WILL GET NOTICED by future employers.

- and don't go to a school that charges GST - some do some don't. 5% of $50k is a lot of money. From July 1st next year, with the HST, that price differential will be 12%.

vg6, I have 2 friends who have been laid off from CP as conductors for almost a year and can't find work anywhere in the country. These guys have a couple years experience too.

Not the most sound advice, in my opinion.

ok - things have obviously changed since when I did my research.

Point taken - my advice should be taken with a huge recession-laden pinch of salt.

I was in a college program before (Conestoga) and it seemed to me it's just a cash grab for the flying club to force you to spend your money as fast as you can('t). It's great getting done fast if you can afford it, but few can, self included so I dropped out when they started demanding timelines.

Your best bet is to do what I'm doing now, get a job and work full time, then only fly as you can afford it. Save up enough for the PPL then do that, save up again for IFR or CPL, do that and so on, doing a bit of flying between to keep the skills up. Don't borrow money, you don't want to start off a flying career with any debt. It will take longer but at least you'll come out of it debt free which will give you more flexibility in your first jobs.

Get a job, go to ma n pa's flight training centre and pay 100 bucks per lesson in a 152.

v6g, Just to let you know how the railway industry works(not to correct you or anything,just for information). I worked as a conductor for a railway company(Not cp but Cn) until they started laying off then went back to my old job.But anyways I would not suggest investing in that railroad course they have When you can be a direct hire from the streets, If you graduate from the railway program you still have to take the course offered by the company. They told my group of new hires that the railway pogram is a huge waste of money.

As for schedualing your flying days around the railroading job, GOOD LUCK, not possible. To the original poster, I would NOT take the become a conductor route while flight training. Not a good idea at all. I would suggest that if you get into railroading, do it for the long haul because it will eat up all your time, especially if times are booming(as in a few years ago). But v6g is absolutely right, the pay is really really good.

Get into a construction outfit and hold a slow/stop sign to pay for your training that would be my suggestion.




P.S to pay for my training I went to a subsidized college and got a OSAP loan. Kinda regret it now though.