How to get into making flying a career?

There are some real pilots on here that may be able to advise you but best bet would be to speak to a Flight Instruction school about your aim.

All I can say for sure is that without airline sponsership (that these days mainly happens through Universities), it is an expensive affair.

I think for the type of flying you're talking about, you'd be looking at the CPL License which is a notch up from the PPL (Private Pilots License), and allows Commercial Flying (but not Airline Transport which requires the ATPL).

Anyway BEST OF LUCK ! It's great to hear your ambition and if you're getting a good payoff from your old company, who knows it may be feasible for you.

Hopefully some of the real pilots (I'm a would-be Flight Ops Manager rather than a would-be pilot!) that get on here can give you some more practical advice.

Sorry to hear about the redundancy but it often takes this to realise your ambitions. I have a UK ATPL and as suggested it does not come cheap if you go the self sponsored route. The US system is cheaper and easier, but although it is rare over here to have a pilots license lots of people in the states have them. Therefore finding the type of flying you want to do is difficult but certainly not impossible. The main hurdle will be the green card especially now with all the restrictions, "hoop jumping" etc even if just visiting it is fun and games! It is well worth looking into but I would really suggest researching the right to live/work issues first. You can still train in the states for a JAA license it is possibly the cheapest route but there are many pro's and con's doing this.
Good luck

Only you know if you really want to fly. Because if you do, then your a willing to do anything just to obtain it. Its a hard career to get started in, so you have to know

Thanks chaps. Thing is, if someone said 'you could have a job here' I'd be there like a flash. I have relatives in the US (Michigan) so they might help with legal stuff.

Dave

So if you're out of college, how easy is it to be picked up by an airline with sponsorship (here in America)? It's clearly too late to go to an aviation school, I've already gone through my Electrical Engineering degree, but I too would drop that in an instant to be paid to fly!!

Check aviation job sites like www.climbto350.com to see what jobs are on offer. With a lot of airlines laying pilots off post 911 the market has been saturated but there appears to be a lot more movement at the moment. Personally I would suggest carry on with a secure job as long as possible while training and then you can get a feel for the market without giving everything up.