Discussion: Pros and Cons of Pilot Life

Real World Aviation
1

So I’ve been thinking: are the benefits of being a pilot worth what one has to sacrifice in order to be a pilot?

PROS

  • Good Career, if you enjoy aviation
  • Diverse community
  • Always meeting new people
  • Can venture the world freely
  • Travel benefits
  • etc.

CONS

  • High training cost
  • Away from family and friends
  • Training to Profit ratio is really tight
  • Stressful job, lives of people on your hands
  • Life-long commitment
  • Radiation exposure
  • etc.

So what do you guys think? This has been bothering me a bit, unsure whether to continue to become an airline pilot.

Is it worth being a pilot?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

As the title shows, this is to encourage conversation and disscusion, so feel free to share your views on things, as long as isn’t offensive.

Please do not turn this into a debate

5 Likes
2

Now this is a good topic!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the past few days, it’s a shame training is so expensive in Australia. For me, all the pros outweigh all the other cons! Except for away from family and friends :/

3 Likes
3

Oh, and all real-life pilots, PPL or ATPL, or any other licenses you have, please do share your own opinion and what being a pilot has affected you.

4

Now this is a thread I need…I BADLY want to be a pilot, but like…idk…
And I’ve heard from many people that training for and becoming a pilot in India is much easier and cheaper compared to US, along with a solid starting salary (I’m born and bright up in the US, but my parents are Indian, and we recently moved to India, so I’m getting hopeful). Can anyone from India or US (or anyone else who knows) confirm this? Thx 😁

5

Yeah main reason I started this thread is that I wanted to be a pilot but not so sure if it’s worth the risks

2 Likes
6

Yeah, unless your rich good luck trying to pay that off

7

Once you become a pilot you can pay it off relatively quickly

8

Unless your flying for Ryanair ;)

9

No the point still stands, even they can pay off their debts.

10

But there’s also cadet programs some airlines offer, but most times they still require money instead of repaying with service.

11

Yes there is, but Qantas is not offering it at the moment (not sure when and if they will) and Jetstar did one recently. Virgin Australia hasn’t seemed to do one for ages. I haven’t looked into other airlines yet except for Rex - where you also have to pay big time.

12

Cathay did one before…

13

If you are a pilot you get to travel to new places and experience different cultures and meet new people

14

For example, I fly myself and sometimes my customers. Even though I don’t fly a commercial aircraft, I enjoy pilot life. I got a 5 year loan for my flight school, so that was pretty good. Meeting other pilots, getting front row seats to planespotting, learning about new aircrafts before others, that’s what I do.

15

Wait, are you a charter pilot? Thought about doing that before…

16

Can you elaborate on the training to “profit” ratio? Not sure what you mean by that.

17

One thing that puts me off all the time is being away from family

1 Like
18

It costs a lot to train, but only makes a small margin of profit.

19

Yeah, and friends…

20

Do you mean salary? Yes, at first the salary will be low, but over the years your salary will increase. Flight school isn’t as expensive as most four year colleges.

2 Likes