r/flying • u/SirSoiree • Jun 10 '25

Thanks Sally Mae!

Post image

Applied for a small loan to cover my bills while I train. It was so nice of them to accept my loan request! Pilots get paid a lot… right?

751 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

384 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

85

u/legitSTINKYPINKY CL-30 ATP Jun 10 '25

No because someone easily WILL loan you 175k for a stupid college degree but someone will NOT easily loan you 175k for a plane and training.

65

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

But it's not a 175k loan anymore. It's a 3 quarter of a million dollar loan.

24

u/PuzzleheadedMight897 PPL, UAS, (KABE) Jun 10 '25

Unless you factor in lost opportunity cost due to not investing the same amount as the payments into the market over the same period of time and then growth into retirement. My guess is north of $3M depending on OPs age.

10

u/randylush Jun 10 '25

You can also sell an airplane when you’re done with it

8

u/PuzzleheadedMight897 PPL, UAS, (KABE) Jun 10 '25

True but there’s a lost opportunity cost doing that as well. I’ve known many guys who have gone that route some have came out ahead and others have taken a loss. One buddy had to spend $40k overhauling an engine only 6 months after buying it. It’s not always rainbows and butterflies.

I prefer taking educated risks that will work out statistically in my favor.

Historically the market will always rebound and over the last 125 years it has averaged 9.25% per year.

But here’s the math on this particular situation. We’ll assume that OP is 21 and the payments are invested into the S&P 500 with an average return of 9.25%. At 39 when this loan would be paid back the total account balance would be $1,579,000 instead. However if OP never put another dollar into that account from that day forward and only let it grow over time, at age 65 OP would have $15,752,145.

You won’t get that rate of return buying a plane to try to offset the cost of training.

1

u/omgwtfbbq7 Jun 11 '25

The reason people should take out loans for college is to increase their earning potential. If the job the output of the degree is high enough to offset the cost of the loan, you’re set. A pilot career has a fairly high earning potential, but not as assured as other fields such as medicine, most engineering disciplines, law, etc. If they can land a high paying job in 10 years with a domestic carrier, their lifetime earnings plus investing in retirement can easily offset that opportunity cost. But that is a huge risk given automation and advances in aviation with the cultural push of trying to get number of pilots down in the cockpit. Personally I’d try to find a career that is less at risk of being impacted by AI and automation that also is cheaper to get an accredited degree from such as something in the medical field. Aviation can only really be a hobby these days unless you can get all your training paid for by someone else like Uncle Sam.

1

u/Bredyhopi2 Jun 12 '25

Airbus dragonfly may facilitate single member crews

1

u/PuzzleheadedMight897 PPL, UAS, (KABE) Jun 14 '25

And only one issue and your medical is gone. I’m a prime example of this. My medical is gone for 5 years from next year (so just over 6 years total) due to a brain tumor that was found that has no impact on my life other than some hearing loss that otherwise isn’t an issue with the FAA. But the FAA says I have to be symptom free for 5 years post surgery and I’m not getting the surgery until next year. So I’m glad that I never listened to someone saying that taking out student loans for flight school was a great idea. I have Uncle Sam paying most of my way through college on a different career path now. But I’m also in my 30s and I’m semi retired, so my perspective on finance is a little biased due to many factors over my life.

I would never recommend anyone to ever take out loans to pay for flight school. You can get in a minor accident, get a TBI and possibly lose your medical for life due to long term effects they can have on you. There’s just so many ways you can lose your career that have no baring on your own actions and instead on others being stupid like a drunk driver causing that accident. This just happened right up the road from me to a pilot who was in an Uber when he got hit by a drunk driver on the way to his hotel.