How to pay for Pilot training costs and Aviation scholarships?

To become a pilot one has to go to a flight school and receive flight training to get his or her pilot's certificate. You can also read about the basics of getting started with your pilot training by reading my other post (click on the link).

Similar to other professions, pilot training is not cheap. Typical training cost to become a commercial pilot can vary from $30K to $60K depending where you train. Finding a flight school to meet your requirements is one thing, and maybe I'll write about it in some other post. The other thing is how to pay for the flight training?

There are various ways you can pay for your flight training -

1. Pay with your own money
2. Student Loan, grant or scholarship
3. Pay with your work

Paying with your own money may not be a viable solution for most, but still in many cases this could be the solution. You can -

1. Use your cash savings in the bank
2. Get a home equity loan
3. Personal loan - unsecured credit or secured
4. Borrow from family / friends

Another way to pay for your pilot training is by obtaining a student loan. Many flight schools can guide you to these aviation lenders. Also there are scholarships and grants available as well. Here is a list of 101 aviation flight training scholarships and grants.

Most of us who trained in the 80's and before paid for our flight training by working and saving up. Most would work at the airport as fuelers, front desk attendants, dispatchers etc. And then some would have other high paying jobs to earn the money for the flight training tuition.

Here is a post about one such pilot who is currently working on his flight instructor course, who has followed this path - pay with your work.