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Paying For Flight Training

There is no question: Flight training is not inexpensive.  However, it is typically considerably less expensive to learn to fly and receive your certificates and ratings in the U.S. than it is in Europe and Asia.  And in many countries in Africa and Asia, there is simply not the professional flight training easily available that is needed to become a career pilot.  In addition, there is the weather factor: In many places, the weather is just not consistently good enough for daily flying, so building your flight hours takes a long, long time.  That’s one of the reasons Florida is such a popular place to learn to fly — as well as having a lower cost of living than many areas in the U.S.

How can you fund flight training?  Many students take out loans. If you are a U.S. or international student, you may want to contact your bank first and see if they can help. Specialty loans, such as those used for career training, require good credit or a co-signer, but may carry terms and options that are attractive to student borrowers and more favorable than traditional loans. Phoenix East also has relationships with Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Sallie Mae for loans. Call an Admissions Officer at Phoenix East Aviation for more details about this.

There are also some scholarships available. Scholarships and grants are awarded on talent, merit or special circumstances, depending on the organization that is granting the scholarship. One way to use scholarship money is to apply for many of them.  grants and scholarships — often $200-$1,500 — don’t have as many applicants as the bigger money scholarships. Here are some resources to get you started.

Able Flight (ableflight.org),

FAA Education Resources:(faa.gov/education_research/education/student_resources/scholarships_grants/index.cfm),

AvScholars (avscholars.com),

Aviation Scholarships(aviation-scholarship.com)                                                                                                                              

Women in Aviation International (wai.org/education/scholarships.cfm)

U.S. Department of Education (studentaid.ed.gov)            

For more details on funding your pilot training, talk to an Admissions Officer at Phoenix East. Call 1-800-868-4359 (U.S.) or 1-386-258-0703 (worldwide).