Quote: (09-20-2015 02:53 PM)Seadog Wrote:
Quote: (09-20-2015 05:50 AM)Turkish Republican Wrote:
I would love to fly for an airline in SEA and Middle East. It would be such a DHV lifestyle, you'll constantly be surrounded by hot flight attendants.
You and everyone else.
I was in the reserves, and got my PPL through the cadet program here in in Canada, so had a lot of military/flying friends who wanted to be a pilot. A few got sweet gigs after many years, and a few got burnt out trying to make it happen and left the industry.
The guys who made it literally had to do anything and everything to get hours. Instructing was a big one, but pay is crap, and even then you might not get many hours if there aren't many students. Flying bush planes in the middle of nowhere for years, one guy then progressed to flying cargo Dash 8's down in Brazil for not a lot of money. My friend who did the best of it is around 30 now, and flying business jets back and forth to Europe, still with the long term goal of getting into a major airline, but its been 13 years of grinding it out since he first got his license.
Hands down the best way to do it in Canada is via the military. Get your training and hours paid for, have a stable job with decent pay the whole time, then leave with a bunch of hours. When I last checked it was 2-3 years training, and then a commitment for 7 years after. Now some people don't want to give up their freedom for 10 years, but well nothing is free...
Worst case scenario I could probably get a gig in Turkish Airlines after accumulating the necessary flight hours because there is a shortage of Turkish pilots in Turkey and my family is well connected. Until then I'm willing to fly for 2nd rate airlines, I'd be happy to fly a dash in Brazil for example.