Pay for Flight school up front or pay as I go?

Question

I have seriously been considering (helicopter) flight school for some time now, and I was wondering of you pilots out there, should I take out a massive loan, spend a year or so in a private school and knock it out, or should I try to keep my day job and pay as I find time and money to train, which could take 8-10 years!

I am afraid that If I take out some huge loan that I will get to the end of it and be 50 hours or so short of an instructors rating and I will be scrapping here and there for hours. I do know that after I get my commercial license, life is going to suck for a while and I'm going to be scrapping for hours any way I can get them

Answer 1

Pay as you go, if the flight school goes out of business, and many do, they will have all of you're money and you are screwed. I would be against getting a loan as starting out you're career in debt is a bad idea, and don't forget starting helicopter pilots don't make a lot of money.

Answer 2

Pay as you go................

"Helicopter School's Crash Leaves Students Grounded"....

If you want to know the dangers of taking out private student loans, or paying "upfront" just ask the 2,500 students who were, until early this year, enrolled at flight academies across the country owned by Silver State Helicopters.

As recounted by The San Diego Union-Tribune, these students were "left in the lurch" when the Nevada-based company, without warning, shut its doors on Super Bowl Sunday and filed for bankruptcy liquidation. Because the schools did not have the proper accreditation to qualify to participate in the federal student aid programs, the company directed students to take out high-cost private student loans to cover the $70,000 tuition that they were required to pay up front. Unfortunately, these students may be stuck repaying these loans for training they did not ultimately receive.

Caveat emptor!!!!

Answer 3

Definitely pay as you go.  It will likely be more expensive to pay it all up front.  Flight schools figure out how long it is likely to take an average person to complete training.  If you are better than average and take less time, you will not be on the winning end of that bargain.

You can still take out a massive loan, just don't hand it all over to a flight school at the beginning.  Just spend it over the course of training.

Answer 4

I think you may be using the phrase "pay as you go" in two different ways here, maybe without intending it.

As far as the payment arrangements at your flight school are concerned, do not ever pay for the entire program up front in advance under any circumstances. You will get burned. Some schools offer a "block rate" where you pay for say 10 hours ahead of time and you get a 5% discount, for example. Those are fine, but don't give any school any more than that at one time. Ideally you should fly an hour then pay for an hour, i.e. pay as you go. You can look up Silver State Helicopters as Cherokeeflyer suggested to see exactly what can happen if you hand over all your money prior to receiving your training.

The second part of your question is a little bit less cut and dry. You could secure a student loan and use that to complete your training quickly and all at once, or you could spread the costs out over a greater period of time so you don't have any substantial debt. You are going to have to consider your personal circumstances and do a lot of planning and research to decide which path is best for you. I can't tell you which one is better, because I don't know your age, financial situation, family situation, goals, etc., etc.

If I had to make general recommendation, I would suggest keeping your job and spreading the costs. Maintaining your financial security will be very beneficial to you, especially if you have or plan to have a family, wife, kids, house, and so on. It may take longer, but the hard work will pay off and you will feel so glad to be debt free when you get your first low paying instructor job. Keeping your day job also has the added benefit of serving as a backup just in case.

You might also consider being a little creative with the planning. As an example, you might not start flying at all for a year or two and save up the money for training, so that you can train more consistently and effectively. If you can avoid stopping and starting too much that will be best, or if you can at least time the stops and starts strategically you will save yourself some trouble.

Getting loans for financing is a pain and can be costly. If you do get a loan, don't hand all that money over to the flight school. Don't let the bank hand it over to the school. Keep it yourself and pay as you go. Also try to get the money from the loan in smaller chunks so you are not paying interest on the whole amount from the very beginning.

You can read one of my previous answers about financing here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

You can locate flight schools in your area here:

http://www.sacusa.com/1directory/states....

http://www.verticalreference.com/helicop...

You can learn more about the helicopter industry and learning to fly on the following sites:

http://www.verticalreference.com/

http://www.justhelicopters.com/

http://www.helicopterflight.net/

Finally, you can read one of my previous answers about learning to fly helicopters here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Good luck!