Pilot or dentist? Can't decide
Started by wellwell
i'll give you some massive kudos if you become the first dentist in the space... or in the air if anybody is willing to trust your manual dexterity through turbulances... 
Why not combine the two?
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How?
i'll give you some massive kudos if you become the first dentist in the space... or in the air if anybody is willing to trust your manual dexterity through turbulances...
beat me to it...
How do you KNOW you love dentistry
It seems that you have all of the answwers to your own questions my friend! If you already know that dentistry is a 9 and aviation is a 10, then you must have some general understanding of what your life will be like in either profession. You may be your own best resource for advice with such specific circumstances.
FWIW, with the price of crude hovering around $100 and the airlines tightening their respective belts, a career in aviation seems quite risky compared to dentistry. I have several patients that are corporate pilots who do well and work only 10-15 days a month, but those plum jobs that likely do not come up very often.
I have no idea what it takes to be a pilot, but I imagine it costs considerably less than becoming a dentist and is much cheaper too. Why don't you become a DDS and then pilot your own twin engine cessna for fun rather than work!! Good Luck!!
FWIW, with the price of crude hovering around $100 and the airlines tightening their respective belts, a career in aviation seems quite risky compared to dentistry. I have several patients that are corporate pilots who do well and work only 10-15 days a month, but those plum jobs that likely do not come up very often.
I have no idea what it takes to be a pilot, but I imagine it costs considerably less than becoming a dentist and is much cheaper too. Why don't you become a DDS and then pilot your own twin engine cessna for fun rather than work!! Good Luck!!
My best friend is a pilot for the Air Force. He loves it, but recent changes have put his career in jeapordy and right now it is not easy to get a job as a commercial pilot. You need lots of hours before you can get a decent paying job, so you will likely have to fly a regional for under 30k a year for several years before you acquire the hours you need to get a bigger jet. Or you could go the military route, but again it is also shaky. Great career though. Although you will have to travel and be away from home often. The training is also long, not very easy and tends to be in crappy locations.
If you wanted to do both, you could always become a dentist and then buy a plane. You can get a cesna with fixed gear pretty cheap or buy into a plane with a few guys and share one. A kid in my class flies, both his parents are dentists and they own a few planes. Good luck with your decision.
If you wanted to do both, you could always become a dentist and then buy a plane. You can get a cesna with fixed gear pretty cheap or buy into a plane with a few guys and share one. A kid in my class flies, both his parents are dentists and they own a few planes. Good luck with your decision.
i met a guy that is a cheif mechanic for delta at H. Jackson and did just that...bought a 79 cessna (~30K), rebuilt the whole thing (~60K), and now flies friends, family, and some local clientele around the southeast region. now both his sons are graduated from jacksonville university (or Embry-Riddle - cant remember) as pilots flying with him too...
i'd love to learn to fly...one day...one day...😀
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I am an AF pilot, and lurk the boards here to get involved with my wife's career / dental school.
Actually, it would be kind of easy to do both, but if you have to choose, I'd pick dentistry.
The way to do both is to join the AF Reserves of Air National Guard. If you were accepted, you would go to pilot training for a year, then learn your airframe for a few months. You would be permanently based at home, and would only have to fly one weekend a month, except for a two-week annual get-together.
you would have the best of both worlds, because as glamorous as pilot life might seem, it's a very unstable world when it comes to job security-even in the military.
Also, don't believe anything of what people say on this site about being in the military. There a ton of HPSP cantidates or dentists that think they have good info by watching CNN. Military life can be extraordinarily cool, especially in the ANG/reserves. I'm active duty and have been in for over 15 years, and wouldn't change one thing in my life.
Consider the obvious numbers about giving up dentistry for a year during pilot training, but that would be something that money just cant buy. The cost of training to the AF tops $1 mil, and is worth the 1 year reduction in pay that you'd see. Depending on your sitution and what unit you got hied in, you'd get to travel - and get paid for it without putting a dent in your practice.
For instance, if you got hired in a C-17 unit and owned your own practice, you could volunteer for a week long trip every now and then and easily open your schedule. In that week, you might go back and forth to Germany, Hawaii, etc.
Just going the pilot route if you could have gone to dental school is not a smart move. The future of our profession is just not solid. It's not like the glory days where pilots made good money even. Even getting hired with a major airline takes years and the intro flight pay is horrid. You'd make more as a dentist in a community clinic / state prison gig straight out of school than you'd make in your 4th year in a regional.
For the dirt on getting to pilot training through the AF and job openings, check out baseops.net
Actually, it would be kind of easy to do both, but if you have to choose, I'd pick dentistry.
The way to do both is to join the AF Reserves of Air National Guard. If you were accepted, you would go to pilot training for a year, then learn your airframe for a few months. You would be permanently based at home, and would only have to fly one weekend a month, except for a two-week annual get-together.
you would have the best of both worlds, because as glamorous as pilot life might seem, it's a very unstable world when it comes to job security-even in the military.
Also, don't believe anything of what people say on this site about being in the military. There a ton of HPSP cantidates or dentists that think they have good info by watching CNN. Military life can be extraordinarily cool, especially in the ANG/reserves. I'm active duty and have been in for over 15 years, and wouldn't change one thing in my life.
Consider the obvious numbers about giving up dentistry for a year during pilot training, but that would be something that money just cant buy. The cost of training to the AF tops $1 mil, and is worth the 1 year reduction in pay that you'd see. Depending on your sitution and what unit you got hied in, you'd get to travel - and get paid for it without putting a dent in your practice.
For instance, if you got hired in a C-17 unit and owned your own practice, you could volunteer for a week long trip every now and then and easily open your schedule. In that week, you might go back and forth to Germany, Hawaii, etc.
Just going the pilot route if you could have gone to dental school is not a smart move. The future of our profession is just not solid. It's not like the glory days where pilots made good money even. Even getting hired with a major airline takes years and the intro flight pay is horrid. You'd make more as a dentist in a community clinic / state prison gig straight out of school than you'd make in your 4th year in a regional.
For the dirt on getting to pilot training through the AF and job openings, check out baseops.net
J
jackbauer!
I faced the same decision and chose dentistry. Aviation is a great hobby, but a ****ty career.
Aviation:
Crappy money (at first especially)
No autonomy
Horrible schedule
Terrible family life
Very repetitive
Amazing hobby!
Dentistry:
Opposite of everything listed above
Choose dentistry and never look back. You can make enough money as a dentist to own or share a plane. Not only will you be flying, but you'll enjoy it!
jb!🙂
I have spent a lot of time chartering and working with small plane pilots. Honestly, in the commercial sector they really are glorified cab drivers. If you could get into something a little more high speed such as helicopters or military I think it would be fun, but both those fields also have many compromises. I think the best thing is to be a dentist and buy your own plane. Just don't ask what happened to my orthodontist flying his supercub.🙁
T
toothfairy85
Go to school and become a dentist. Get your pilot's license and join the Flying Dentist Association.
I wouldn't agree with the glorified cab driver remark at all. I've been in the air with passengers after having lost an engine on a two-engine plane, navigating around thunderstorms to make it to the field on one engine and a new co-pilot. There's a little more skill involved.
Its still a tremendous amount of responsibility, and the job is very interesting, but in the end its a job.
Flying on your own in a cessna is going to get more expensive in the coming years, but it is fun.
Its still a tremendous amount of responsibility, and the job is very interesting, but in the end its a job.
Flying on your own in a cessna is going to get more expensive in the coming years, but it is fun.
JB hit the nail right on the head. I am a pilot...a commercial, multi-engine, instrument rated pilot. Unless you like being gone away from your family and children (now or later if you don't have them yet) then you don't want to be the pilot. If you are an airline pilot you have to take airman/recurrent checks every 6 months. If you bust one you can retake if you bust two your fired. That goes on your record for all other airlines to see as well. Another scenario would be medical issues, lets say you have heart problems, migrane headaches, any other ailment that could prevent you from flying safely you lose your medical. No medical = no job. I would choose Dentistry in a heartbeat over airline/corporate pilot and buy your own plane. Flying will stay enjoyable that way. If you do it as a career it you will look at flying as work and not fun. Trust me, I know!!
J
jackbauer!
👍
Good luck getting into dental school--you're making the right decision! I'm from FL also!!
jb!🙂
Agreed!
Aside from the Air Force option, I was at an airshow last year where a guy they called "Doctor Smoke" or something like that was an Oral Surgeon who learned to fly and he had some AWESOME aerobatic moves! I was impressed!
I've actually been in a couple sketch situations as well, but that wasn't what I meant. It certainly takes more skill. I was more referring to the nature of the work that I've seen. A lot of time is spent loading and unloading gear, dealing with fuel, and looking at the horizon. I honestly can not stay awake riding shotgun. Our helicopter pilots flying the Hughes 500 have 10x as much fun, although they deal with about 5x the fuel.🙂 Still can't stay awake when they fly straight, heheh, I would need a lot of sleep. But I'm sure it's a very rewarding job!
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Dude. Do Dentistry!
There is Microsoft Flight Simulator for you to be a pilot. Rave reviews, and
much safer, too.
Holy thread resurrection batman.
There is Microsoft Flight Simulator for you to be a pilot. Rave reviews, and
much safer, too.
Holy thread resurrection batman.
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