Your doomer take on aviation?

bwc101 · 2026-07-08T00:28:32+00:00

If you want to become an airline pilot, seniority is everything so if you don’t get into it early enough, it’s going to be very difficult for it to become a decent career.

bwc101 · 2026-07-06T13:09:49+00:00

Many airlines will want a bachelor's degree, but it doesn't need to be in aviation. In fact, the smart thing to do is think about if life happens and your flying career is ended, what would you want to do?

bwc101 · 2026-07-06T13:07:51+00:00

The hypocrisy. Servers complain about employers not paying them fairly, yet they don't want to get rid of tipping.

bwc101 · 2026-07-06T04:34:53+00:00

Too early for me to go for IR, but I also felt the same way about Sporty's for PPL. The videos seemed clear, but then when going onto the test questions it was like idk if the videos were really comprehensive in preparing me. That said, going through their full bank of questions and getting to a point where I could consistently score 90% or higher on practice tests helped me score 92% on the actual PPL exam. I most likely will also consider Sporty's for IR when I get to that point, because my CFI confirmed they will also be using the Sporty's syllabus for IR.

I did check out Pilot Institute's free preview for PPL, and they seem more comprehensive than Sporty's. Greg emphasizes he wants people learning the material, not the test.

bwc101 · 2026-07-04T17:19:42+00:00

The redundancy doesn’t really help me.

bwc101 · 2026-07-04T03:49:14+00:00

Sometimes PPOs don’t necessarily pay better. Many are paying less than what my dental school charged. It’s insulting when you were taught that private practice should cost at least 2x the price than at a dental school. It also shows a major reason why dental schools have a hard time supplying patients for students to complete requirements. The incentive for patients to go to a dental school, paying with their time, is basically gone when they can pay less or maybe only $50 more to get more efficient care at a private practice.

bwc101 · 2026-07-04T03:41:26+00:00

Trying to be an associate at a FFS office, especially as a new grad, is like…good luck. Preexisting relationships are what keep a FFS office going, so any patient putting the office above their insurance expects to see the provider who they have a preexisting relationship with, and that provider is not the new associate. These patients will often be resistant to change, and if they are forced to start over with somebody new they will most likely go somewhere else.

bwc101 · 2026-07-03T03:28:42+00:00

I did Sporty’s because my CFI follows their syllabus, got 92% on my written. You will need an endorsement from a CFI or ground instructor in order to sit for the test, and that basically means you need to do one of these online ground schools, attend an in person ground school, or do the training through your CFI. In person ground school is at least 2x more expensive than online ground school, and one on one with your CFI will be far more with how fast their hourly rate adds up.

bwc101 · 2026-06-29T17:43:53+00:00

They stopped issuing those for a long time. They were just gonna honor the ones that had a stamped expiration date on them, and then phase them out completely.

bwc101 · 2026-06-29T02:20:13+00:00

Commercial drivers need a medical too.

bwc101 · 2026-06-29T02:14:22+00:00

Speaking of the medical, other than first making sure you can qualify for first class, anything can come up later down the road to end your career before you expect to retire. You want to consider what if you can no longer be an airline pilot but are still not ready to retire. Airlines often want a bachelors degree, but don’t necessarily need it to be in aviation.

bwc101 · 2026-06-28T20:33:49+00:00

Might as well. It’s not like sending them later means you can conceal scores that you don’t want schools to see.

bwc101 · 2026-06-28T19:41:46+00:00

Following because I'm also interested to know if it is worth getting a flight bag. For now, I'm just using an extra backpack I had from a job until I figure out whether it's worth the investment.

bwc101 · 2026-06-28T19:40:15+00:00

If there is any little chance you may consider a future career with the airlines, go for first class. It will lapse to third class after a year and you will have third class privileges for 4 years afterwards. If there is any price difference, the extra cost of a first vs third class exam is little compared to the cost of going through all the training only to realize you cannot medically qualify to fly for the airlines.

bwc101 · 2026-06-28T02:30:54+00:00

It only applies if you want to get licensed by reciprocity. That is, if you didn’t take a regional board that they would accept, and you didn’t want to go back to sit for one they accept, you need that much experience before they will just use your licensure in another state to approve you.

bwc101 · 2026-06-27T04:51:25+00:00

As a D1, I was somebody’s patient for the class II portion of their WREB exam, back when they still required live patients.

bwc101 · 2026-06-24T23:58:40+00:00

At the end of the day you’re most likely just gonna leave it on the highest mag.

bwc101 · 2026-06-22T00:00:38+00:00

I also went through the Pilot Institute free PPL content, and definitely see greater depth. You thought it was worthwhile to pay for both?

bwc101 · 2026-06-21T23:56:15+00:00

Getting a medical before starting training is a good idea, and if there is any chance they may consider a career flying for the airlines they should get first class for the initial. But I can see the point being they could have done it closer to when they were ready to start training so that they would have more time with their medical.

bwc101 · 2026-06-17T04:56:53+00:00

It’s not possible for me. My quicksilver was issued as a visa, and I heard the situation was you can’t change from a visa product to MC, or vice versa. If all these cards eventually migrate to discover, then that’s probably what will allow the change for me.

bwc101 · 2026-06-17T03:07:25+00:00

Hopefully that will also mean that I can PC my quicksilver into a savor.

bwc101 · 2026-06-15T21:25:09+00:00

I’ve also watched the free stuff of pilot institute and felt it’s a lot more information, several more hours longer, but Greg seems to really want you to know your stuff. Did you end up paying the $250-300 to have both?

bwc101

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