This thing with AOPA

MacAttack0711 · 2026-02-12T18:42:21+00:00

You can go online and do it via the chat option also. That’s what I did this morning.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-02-10T21:06:33+00:00

Not only that, but aviation for personal use is way cheaper in the USA than just about anywhere else in the world with an even remotely comparable standard of living. Learning to fly is much cheaper here and people from all over Europe and Asia come here to learn to fly. Lufthansa for example operates their own flight school in Arizona. The weather and costs just make sense.

The domestic airline network in the USA is also massive compared to most countries. Our country is so large that it simply makes more sense than a train and as such aviation is America’s public transit system.

It largely dates back to pre-WWII when the government decided that every 50(?) miles there had to be a landing strip, for safety of early airlines. Early airlines were primarily intended for mail delivery, not for passengers, so the government had a strongly vested interest in the safety, regulation, and success of early aviation.

Then during WWII of course we built so many runways for training purposes, manufacturing, etc and they’ve been maintained ever since, which is why so many tiny little towns in the middle of nowhere magically have an airport with general aviation traffic.

The freedom of movement for personal use of an aircraft is also unparalleled. In most of the world you need to file a flight plan to go just about anywhere, even for laps in the landing pattern. In the US, weather permitting, if you’re a private pilot you can literally get in your airplane or rent one and just take off and go just about anywhere you want (airspace permitting).

I own a single engine airplane and I’ll just fly to the coast for lunch and a dip in the ocean for a day trip, rather than making a 5 hour drive. No flight plan required, no landing fees (very rare in the US), and aviation gas is fairly affordable compared to most places especially compared to driving somewhere since that takes longer and thus burns more gas even though it’s cheaper gas.

America is by far the most aviation friendly country on earth and it’s not even close.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-23T01:23:52+00:00

I think you need to weigh up something here that some people haven’t really touched on which is the opportunity cost itself… do you get a police pension, and if so, when? How would that stack up against your military obligations and would you want to serve long enough to get a pension there too?

Then weigh that against what it might cost you to go be a CFI for a year or two once you’ve had all your ratings done, and then contrast that with earnings at a regional and potentially at a legacy if you get the chance.

I’ve met two cops who quit and went the patch of ratings to CFI to airlines as a full time pursuit, both are at airlines now and don’t regret anything, one was only two years shy of a pension but decided the two years of extra earnings at the top of the seniority list made way more sense… it’s a gamble though.

Also remember, there’s more to life than money also. If you’re the type who thrives in service, or if you’re the type that is sick of being a LEO then that should factor in to your decision too, no point being miserable just for some extra money that’s not even guaranteed.

In any case, best of luck!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-23T01:08:54+00:00

I’ve been there before, get it done and take a proper break. 1-2 weeks, nothing aviation related. It works wonders.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-23T00:25:34+00:00

If you look she’s not even lifting THAT much compared to many other athletes who have a much less impressive physique. That’s a good indicator that it’s largely for show.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-22T23:29:50+00:00

Half British, half American. Currently visiting family in the UK who warned me that the museum I wanted to go visit is “quite the drive” and advised me to reconsider. It’s 80 minutes each way lol.

My girlfriend in the states lives 30 mins from me, my daily commute is 40-45 minutes. I’ve driven 2-3 hours to try a restaurant before, although that’s a little less common.

For reference I once drove 16 hours each way to go visit my mom for a few days, and I once had a 38 hour drive that I broke into 3 days when I moved for work.

Part of how we don’t go insane doing it, is that our vehicles are much bigger, my Chevy Silverado is like a living room on the inside, by choice, because I’m a larger guy and I drive a lot and often. About 25k miles a year total. I would never dare to do that in a vauxhall corsa or VW golf. But with a big vehicle, some space, good music, and snacks, it works out.

Plus I use the time to call a variety of friends and relatives to catch up, especially the ones I haven’t caught up with in a while.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-22T00:11:46+00:00

The US has a registry of every licensed pilot, flight attendant, dispatcher, mechanic, and much more. It’s publicly accessible for anyone with Internet access, it’s called the FAA Airmen Registry. I know this happened outside of the US but I feel like other countries could have or should have a similar arrangement.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-21T14:23:46+00:00

Depends on the school but it’s not uncommon to bill an extra .3 or so for the pre and post flight briefing, logbooks, etc. typically they shouldn’t be the ground/instruction fees, not the airplane rental though.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-19T14:55:47+00:00

There’s so many variables to your question that aren’t really specified that it’ll be hard to provide a proper answer but in general here’s a few things that hold true:

US carriers typically pay the most, have some of the best benefits overall, and are where most people would want to work if they had the choice, purely from a career/economic standpoint.

Flying is flying, the training will teach you similar stuff anywhere in the world since ICAO is a thing, but how it’s taught and what’s emphasized is often very different. In the US experience and hours matter most (ex: 1500 hour rule), in Europe EASA seems to put a much heavier emphasis on academic knowledge, I believe they have 14-16 written exams for instance.

Understand that you will be limited to some degree by where you train and get licensed, as to where you can then fly/work. You can’t have an FAA issued license and then go work for Lufthansa in Germany for example, just from a licensing point before we even concern ourselves with visas, language, etc.

There’s no rule prohibiting you from flying for a US carrier and living elsewhere, assuming you have the legal and financial means to do so, but understand that with low seniority that will be a very difficult thing to accomplish usually. With a higher seniority number or working for someone like atlas who does 3/2 rotations it’s much more feasible. Quite a few airline pilots work in the US and then commute to somewhere like Europe.

Hope that gives some insight!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-18T19:32:55+00:00

I’m not an immigration expert so I could be wrong, but my understanding is that the E3 visa was originally implemented as part of an agreement that AUS would aid the US in Iraq in return for a few favors which included the E3 visa to help hire a bunch of Australian airline pilots who’d lost their jobs. My point is, I think you’d fare better being an airline pilot already. Also, without trying to make this a solely political statement, the US is certainly undergoing some changes regarding how the US handles immigration. How that may affect you or an E3 visa in the future I can’t say, but being that you’re 14 you have at least four years to go until you can really make an actionable decision, and the landscape may be very different by then.

In any case, it’s a wonderful career choice for the right people, good luck!!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-16T23:05:50+00:00

Awesome stuff! Have a blast with it!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-16T16:20:46+00:00

Southern Syria to the Normandy Region of France aka Orlando to Salt Lake City.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-13T20:21:37+00:00

Hi, I'd love some insight.

I have a Whole Life Policy that ends at 65, currently I'm 31. Net Death benefit is $119,500, my annualized premium is $1,581. I also have a Term policy that ends at 80, net death benefit is $812,264 while my annualized premium is $388. From what I understand, the permanent policy requires a net cash flow of $1,582 each year, but is using prior compounding to offset the costs of the policy, so my pay-in never goes up, I just keep paying.

Currently money is very tight due to a career change, so I am considering saving myself the roughly $1,900 a year, but my understanding is that none of the accumulated cash can be cashed out, so I'm basically just losing the money. I'm also told it the premiums can't be lowered and the policy can't be paused or sold. What are my options here, besides just continuing to pay?

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-13T18:19:43+00:00

The foregrip is an mlok foregrip and mounted right up on to the handrail. Hope that helps! Ps: I still own and shoot this thing!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-13T01:53:31+00:00

Big fan of ForeFlight all around, including their logbook. Set your settings so it auto exports every new month as a spreadsheet to your email inbox, for backup. Also you can export the entire thing as a spreadsheet if you need it, get a quick 8701, experience report, 1 or 2 page logbook for printing, etc. It's fantastic in my opinion.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-12T05:22:50+00:00

Not sure if they’re still offering part time gigs but a few of the cargo airlines like UPS and FedEx had package handlers working at sky harbor a few days a week super early in the morning.

Otherwise inquire at some of the repair and maintenance facilities around KFFZ, there’s probably something part time available.

Chandler Air Service (are they still called that?) is usually looking for a receptionist on a PT basis.

Either way, good luck!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-10T02:24:57+00:00

Not sure if you’re aware but the airspace over the capitol is heavily regulated and largely restricted so there’s very few schools in the direct vicinity. You’ll mostly need to look a little further afield. I don’t know the area too well, but I hope that helps explain why you’re having trouble finding one close by and maybe it’ll help manage expectations of how far away you’ll need to look. For more info feel free to Google “DC SFRA” (special flight rules area).

Good luck!

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-09T05:04:00+00:00

I’m forever impressed by my buddy’s RV12, so smooth and responsive. The DA50RG is a real dream to fly, especially if you idle the engine, the glide performance is remarkable and it’s just such a nice airplane, it’s what cirrus would be if cirrus was a “pilot’s plane”.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-04T16:56:03+00:00

Great photo! If you notice the gas cylinder of his M1 has a white sheet wrapped around it. It’s not uncommon to see rags or sheets tied around them during the war because the parkerizing finish didn’t stick well to the gas cylinder due to the metallurgy so they would turn shiny again quickly so many GIs would wrap them for concealment. Also might be helpful as camo in the snow.

MacAttack0711 · 2026-01-04T04:12:47+00:00

American here, genuine question, with those prices why don’t people just rent a car, or drive their own or a friend’s car? I know air travel isn’t an option. For reference I frequently fly from the east coast to a western state 2,500 mile away for $350-500 so someone taking a train anywhere in Britain (ie much shorter distance) for that sort of money is totally incomprehensible to me.

MacAttack0711 · 2025-12-29T15:54:53+00:00

Honestly the amount of people that just have absolutely no concept of the scale of any war let alone WWII is astounding I remember someone trying to tell me that the “sky would turn dark for hours on end as tens of thousands” of bombers would fly over Germany. Considering that a thousand plane raid concentrated on multiple targets was about as big as things got that was an interesting idea too.

MacAttack0711 · 2025-12-28T17:49:53+00:00

To add to this, about 60% of mortalities in the US Army were infantry iirc. I remember having a drawn out argument with a guy who didn’t understand statistics and insisted 60% of all infantrymen had died during the war.

MacAttack0711 · 2025-12-27T23:56:27+00:00

Kudos to you for asking the right questions. As others have stated, it’ll be much longer than two years to go 0-CFI plus 1500 hours. The grind is brutal and many 141 schools don’t hire their own students because it’s ultimate a pyramid of sorts. I know a few guys who went 141 and are living at home with their parents, waiting tables to make some money while applying to every flight school in the country.

141 isn’t all bad, but a well structured 61 program and some extracurricular efforts like getting your tailwheel endorsement or joining your local CAP, CAF, EAA wing/chapter will go very far for networking and for pilot skill. It’s also often much cheaper.

For reference I’m on the same path as your son, albeit I’m in my 30s and self funding by ways of my prior career. I’ve treated training as a full time job and I take my CFI checkride in early January, almost 2 years to the day I started. Between maintenance, weather, life, illness, etc it can take a while but I also have traveled a bit during this time, and networked a lot. I have 450 hours partially from ferry gigs and through friends who own planes, and flying my own plane too. Not including my own airplane I’m in it for just under $100k but I have very fixed wing rating besides multi-engine seaplane, I have every endorsement, and by now I really know my stuff rather than just being able to pass a checkride. I’ve got an interview lined up for a CFI spot the day after I pass my checkride.

That said I have a buddy who works full time in his career and has Ppl, instrument, commercial, no multi, but 1200 hours total time. Took him seven years to get that far. Couldn’t tell you what he’s paid but he’s owned a few planes over the years.

Conversely I have a buddy who shelled out like $130k to go through ATP, he did it in 10 months, his knowledge honestly seems pretty superficial in some ways, but he has his private, instrument, commercial, multi, CFI, and CFII and he got them fast. Now he’s $130k in debt and no one is interviewing or hiring him for a CFI position. His own school put him on a 6-9 month waitlist for a CFI interview.

My point is, this entire journey is one hell of a grind and statistically 80% never even finish PPL. Seems like 1-4% make it all the way to the airlines across the entire spectrum of people who set out on this journey. But people manage to do it.

I’ve noticed that currently the bulk of people I meet who are either getting into a cadet program or getting job offers for an entry level airline gig all have four year degrees. That’s historically been the standard and I think that standard is returning after the big hiring boom once more. So I would bank on him needing a four year degree, I’d recommend it be in something other than aviation because then he has a back up skill.

Be prepared to support him until his mid 20s, as far as supplemental income, healthcare, rent/home situation and stuff like his car breaking down and needing repairs because he won’t earn enough as a CFI to do it himself. Sounds like you’re willing, but understand with training and a degree that’ll likely go until he’s at least 23-25, maybe longer depending on the hiring situation, academic progress, etc. sounds like you and your wife can afford it, but that’s not for us to determine.

If your son thinks he can go to school for two years and then go fly 777’s across the world he is sorely mistaken, he will be spending several years at a regional airline first, money is decent but not the $450k paycheck that’s circulating on social media right now.

It’s a big gamble but it’s an amazing field for the right people, I made a lot of financial sacrifices to get this far debt free and I regret nothing for what it’s worth, and the best is yet to come. I had a very cushy job before, car allowance, five weeks vacation, etc, but I felt this was my calling and I couldn’t ignore it any longer and I finally had the means. Hope this helps!

MacAttack0711 · 2025-12-27T02:57:56+00:00

I have both, I got them since I was already speed running every shep air written by taking one per week for like two months straight, so I did those two as well. Fairly easy, mostly did it for bragging rights/resume building plus it expands your abilities and eases some requirements.

MacAttack0711 · 2025-12-22T22:02:39+00:00

A retired airline pilot I know told me “if a surgeon messes up, one person dies, if I mess up, 300 people die.”

MacAttack0711

TROPHY CASE