How to Pay?

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bigblockz8

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Nov 8, 2011
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Display name:
Gore
Background: I am a 16yr old ASEL student. I've tried looking for a job for the past year and have applied for 106 different places that came to mind. Thanks to the economy I came up empty handed. I am homeschooled (how I had time to apply to 106 places) and just waiting for my GED results to be on paper in order to go to college.

My question is how did you pay or how are you paying for flight training? Any ideas? It'd be especially helpful if you started flying when you were broke (i.e. pre- and/or during college)

I get a small check about every three months from my youtube partnership but thats only $120-200 depending on views. Allowance isn't really any use as my mom owes me about a tailwheel,floats, and HP signoffs, about 4 grand. That was me saving money from family and such.

I have tried the following:

Looking for a job (107 total tries)

Doing odd jobs (lots of illegal immigrants take that)

Working with my stepfather (didn't work out as he had to pay me and that takes away from our household)

eBay (shipping costs and fees take away the profit!)

Flea Markets (made a profit of $48, minus gas, about $20)

Checked around the airport for work (They've used idle CFIs to cut grass,clean, wash planes,etc.)

Sold stuff (such as buying 10 cameras on sale and selling them one by one for a total profit of $200 which left me with the option of buying 2 more and repeating,took 6 months)

I can't do a loan because my mom owes, college money is separate, in this scenario it does not exist! I need to fly though because that'll count as a total of 24 credits.

Any ideas will be appreciated!*

P.S.- I thought about what most teens do...then I realized that the answer is a. Ask parents, B. Steal from parents, C. Sell illegal items, or D. steal from kids at school. I don't do any of the above!

I would love to be a bit older and just join the TSA and start off at 34k as advertised or become a rampie at an airport but *these ideas have to be for someone under 18 :(
 
Yeah, I remember trying to find a job before I was 18. Its difficult. Most employers stay away because there are plenty of over 18 jobseekers and they are afraid of regulatory issues or extra paperwork.

Where can you go to school that flying counts as 24 credits? Sounds great. I was in business school and I started my own business, incorporated and everything. It didn't count for ****. I tried hard to get credit in an independent study too, no dice. Very frustrating.

Too bad you're not a girl (or are you?) when I was in HS the girls always made good $$ babysitting
 
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Why do you want to be a pilot? Is this a career choice or is it for recreation?
 
1. Purchase this book, The Total MoneyMakeover (currently on sale for $10.00!!), and use it as a good foundation on money and avoiding debt. Also take a look at this chart and take note how a youngster like yourself, starting at age 19, has the potential to have a massive retirement fund on just $166.67 saved per month.

2. Your desire to find employment, and objects to resell, is definitely the right spirit. You just have yet to find the right niche.

Your 107 total total tries (if that's a true number) demonstrates you're willing to make the effort, but something isn't matching up. Start inquiring with the person that interviewed you or made the decision not to hire what it was that came up short and get as many details as they are willing to provide. Eventually you're going to find some common responses that can help you prepare for the next job interview.


Your willingness to find objects for resale demonstrates an entreprenual spirit. Bully for you on this. Not many teens demonstrate that.

Perhaps the solutino is not to go into the "selling" business but more of a service business.

I see Maryland in your location info. Does it snow there? Perhaps you need to set up a snow removal business. This is something that can permit you to start small by finding clients in your neighborhood and shovelling their walks and drives by hand. Eventually save enough money to purchase a 2nd hand snow blower in good condition. This permits you to do the same job, but faster. A $30 shovel job that took you an hour by hand now bundles with others to make you $90/hr. And because you're doing more per hour, you can expand to more territory.

Scaling this up for 5 work hours a day for 4 days a week (depending on snowfall) might peg you at $1500-1800/wk before you deduct your expenses. That's pretty darn good when your buddies at the burger flipping jobs are making less than $500 per week.

Work out deals with your clients to (a) pay you on a job by job basis; (b) pay you on a monthly subscription basis; and (c) give discounts to clients who refer you to more jobs that expand your business to encourage more referrals.

This model also works when the snow goes away and the grass starts growing. Just replace the shovels and snowblower with a pushmower that graduates to a nice "ride-on" mower. And if you're really good at selling your services, you'll get 2 or 3 houses next door to one another and can knock out all three at the same time.

And don't limit to just homeowners. I bet you there are some small business that might pay a bit more for your services because they depend on their frontages kept nice and neat to attract their customers. They can also be a great source for referrals.
 
I applaud your entrepreneurial spirit - you are definately going to be succesful one day. I think you should turn your experiences trying to raise flying funds into an essay and then apply for all of the flight training scholarships you can find.

And I second the snow-removal/lawncutting business. One of the most lucrative things you can do at that age easily. If you have the talent, you can also make good money as a DJ in the DC area.
 
bigblockz8 said:
Background: I am a 16yr old ASEL student. I've tried looking for a job for the past year and have applied for 106 different places that came to mind. Thanks to the economy I came up empty handed. I am homeschooled (how I had time to apply to 106 places) and just waiting for my GED results to be on paper in order to go to college.

My question is how did you pay or how are you paying for flight training? Any ideas? It'd be especially helpful if you started flying when you were broke (i.e. pre- and/or during college)

I get a small check about every three months from my youtube partnership but thats only $120-200 depending on views. Allowance isn't really any use as my mom owes me about a tailwheel,floats, and HP signoffs, about 4 grand. That was me saving money from family and such.

I have tried the following:

Looking for a job (107 total tries)

Doing odd jobs (lots of illegal immigrants take that)

Working with my stepfather (didn't work out as he had to pay me and that takes away from our household)

eBay (shipping costs and fees take away the profit!)

Flea Markets (made a profit of $48, minus gas, about $20)

Checked around the airport for work (They've used idle CFIs to cut grass,clean, wash planes,etc.)

Sold stuff (such as buying 10 cameras on sale and selling them one by one for a total profit of $200 which left me with the option of buying 2 more and repeating,took 6 months)

I can't do a loan because my mom owes, college money is separate, in this scenario it does not exist! I need to fly though because that'll count as a total of 24 credits.

Any ideas will be appreciated!*

P.S.- I thought about what most teens do...then I realized that the answer is a. Ask parents, B. Steal from parents, C. Sell illegal items, or D. steal from kids at school. I don't do any of the above!

I would love to be a bit older and just join the TSA and start off at 34k as advertised or become a rampie at an airport but *these ideas have to be for someone under 18 :(
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I'm not sure that I really have an answer for you - but I can tell you that I was once in a boat very similar to yours.

I was a normal kid playing cowboys and indians or whatever until I was about 10 years old. Around that age - somehow - my mom had the sense to buy a computer for the family. It was a Packard Bell clocking in at 133 mhz running Windows 95.

I spent pretty much every spare moment I could on that thing learning as much as possible. I was fascinated by the internet and wanted to know how it worked. Not only did I want to know how it worked - I wanted to run the internet.

When I was in 6th grade I came across a local businessman that ran a small printing shop. He needed a website for his business and for his journal he published. I had no idea how to build a website but somehow managed to get it together with some perl scripts and front page. This gave me enough cash to buy my OWN computer and not have to fight over the family one with my siblings.

Around that same time period I became absolutely fascinated with some online chat software (The Palace). It consisted of a client you'd install on your computer and servers you'd connect to. I really wanted to run these servers.

I installed Windows NT on some piece of crap computer that was "broken" that someone gave me and tried running the Windows Palace Chat Server. I learned real quick that this wasn't stable. I started looking into how others were doing it and learned they were using something called Linux.

I spent most of that summer trying to figure out how to get Linux to run on the crappy hardware I had - must have recompiled the kernel a thousand times (which took a really long time back then).

I finally had a Linux server and I could run a palace or two. I immediately launched a business (I was maybe 13 at this point) hosting these chat servers. I was doing this on my cable modem and it didn't work well at all. But I was able to get enough capital (a few hundred dollars) to rent a dedicated server on the internet. Over the course of the next year I grew that business to where I had a hundred or so clients and a few servers. I wasn't really pocketing much cash - I was reinvesting everything into the business.

The company that wrote the Palace Chat software went broke in the dotcom boom and as a result I started losing clients. I decided to just sell it all to a competitor and I walked away with a few dollars.

I didn't make much money in the above but I learned a hell of a lot.

My life got a little more complicated in my teenage years do to various reasons. When I turned 16 years old I applied for a job at Best Buy fixing computers (before they were geek squad) and was hired. I was working nearly 40 hours a week and going to high school. I moved out at about this same time.

I was pretty much running myself into the ground. All I did was work and I couldn't stand high school where I gained nothing and was constantly harassed by the teaching staff for my "slacking off". Looking back, I can see why they did it, at the same time they had no perspective on my life and really made things complicated for me. I was sick of that and dropped out of high school at 16 years old.

When I turned 17 years old I decided to get my private pilots certificate. I honestly have no idea how the hell I was able to afford it on my income but I did. I paid for every penny of that myself as a 17 year old drop out and had my private certificate within 8 months of starting.

Somewhere around 18 I decided there had to be something better in life then removing people's spyware for a terrible wage. I quit and my life rapidly accelerated.

I'm now a:
high school dropout
homeowner
commercial pilot
flight instructor
software developer
IT guy (dev/linux/infrastructure)

Today at 24 I make more then both of my parents combined. Everything I have I've earned myself. My secret? I never let someone tell me I couldn't do something. I didn't play video games all day or watch TV. I taught myself constantly. Ask yourself if you know more today then you did yesterday. If you don't - you're not trying hard enough.
 
We turn about 5 linemen per year into pilots. We have made several into CFIs and then hired them. They wash planes, clean the grounds, pump fuel, and do all manner of odd jobs. They are paid in pure flight time, they bring parental consent, and can start as young as 12.

Having smarts, a work ethic (this is getting tough to find), and a pleasant attitude is the only requirement. A love of aviation is a given. Sounds like you'd be hired on the spot with us.

Maybe MD is different. Making CFIs cut grass is despicable. Give those CFIs my contact info so I can ship them southwest where they'll be appreciated as faculty, not worked like mules. :)
 
AggieMike88 said:
1. Purchase this book, The Total MoneyMakeover (currently on sale for $10.00!!), and use it as a good foundation on money and avoiding debt. Also take a look at this chart and take note how a youngster like yourself, starting at age 19, has the potential to have a massive retirement fund on just $166.67 saved per month.
Click to expand...

wait a second i thought the point was to die as soon as the last credit card was maxed out. doing anything less means you didn't have enough fun.

too the OP I received social security payments between ages 7 and 18 which my father wisely saved for me so that my post high school education would be paid for. it took care of my flight training plus pretty much all of my bachelors degree.

i would, of course, recommend you look into gliders. many clubs have programs which exchange flight time for line work for young members. the SSA also has several scholarships available for youth members. www.ssa.org
 
AggieMike has some good ideas.

Here's what the two boys (twins) across the street from me did: They started mowing lawns. One pushed the mower, the other used the weedeater, then they'd trade off. They had a wagon they attached to the back of their bikes so they could tow their mower, gas, and trimmer around the neighborhood (this was before they could drive). Eventually, they had that "aha" moment - they started calling realtors who had signs in the yards of empty houses. That got them contracts and connections to mow more yards. Then, when more houses were vacant because of foreclosures, they got even more work. Eventually, they had enough money to buy a pickup, which enabled them to get more jobs. Then, they hired another friend to take up extra yards that they couldn't do themselves. I think they do driveway shoveling in the winter for their clients, too.

They'll be headed off to college next fall - and all the folks in our cul-de-sac will be stuck mowing our own lawns again.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Also take a look at this chart and take note how a youngster like yourself, starting at age 19, has the potential to have a massive retirement fund on just $166.67 saved per month.
Click to expand...

ROFLMAO, where the hell are Ben and Arthur finding 12% returns??? That chart is great for demonstrating the effect of compound interest but at todays interest rates the effect is seriously diluted.

investing.png
 
jesse said:
I'm not sure that I really have an answer for you - but I can tell you that I was once in a boat very similar to yours.

I was a normal kid playing cowboys and indians or whatever until I was about 10 years old. Around that age - somehow - my mom had the sense to buy a computer for the family. It was a Packard Bell clocking in at 133 mhz running Windows 95.

I spent pretty much every spare moment I could on that thing learning as much as possible. I was fascinated by the internet and wanted to know how it worked. Not only did I want to know how it worked - I wanted to run the internet.

When I was in 6th grade I came across a local businessman that ran a small printing shop. He needed a website for his business and for his journal he published. I had no idea how to build a website but somehow managed to get it together with some perl scripts and front page. This gave me enough cash to buy my OWN computer and not have to fight over the family one with my siblings.

Around that same time period I became absolutely fascinated with some online chat software (The Palace). It consisted of a client you'd install on your computer and servers you'd connect to. I really wanted to run these servers.

I installed Windows NT on some piece of crap computer that was "broken" that someone gave me and tried running the Windows Palace Chat Server. I learned real quick that this wasn't stable. I started looking into how others were doing it and learned they were using something called Linux.

I spent most of that summer trying to figure out how to get Linux to run on the crappy hardware I had - must have recompiled the kernel a thousand times (which took a really long time back then).

I finally had a Linux server and I could run a palace or two. I immediately launched a business (I was maybe 13 at this point) hosting these chat servers. I was doing this on my cable modem and it didn't work well at all. But I was able to get enough capital (a few hundred dollars) to rent a dedicated server on the internet. Over the course of the next year I grew that business to where I had a hundred or so clients and a few servers. I wasn't really pocketing much cash - I was reinvesting everything into the business.

The company that wrote the Palace Chat software went broke in the dotcom boom and as a result I started losing clients. I decided to just sell it all to a competitor and I walked away with a few dollars.

I didn't make much money in the above but I learned a hell of a lot.

My life got a little more complicated in my teenage years do to various reasons. When I turned 16 years old I applied for a job at Best Buy fixing computers (before they were geek squad) and was hired. I was working nearly 40 hours a week and going to high school. I moved out at about this same time.

I was pretty much running myself into the ground. All I did was work and I couldn't stand high school where I gained nothing and was constantly harassed by the teaching staff for my "slacking off". Looking back, I can see why they did it, at the same time they had no perspective on my life and really made things complicated for me. I was sick of that and dropped out of high school at 16 years old.

When I turned 17 years old I decided to get my private pilots certificate. I honestly have no idea how the hell I was able to afford it on my income but I did. I paid for every penny of that myself as a 17 year old drop out and had my private certificate within 8 months of starting.

Somewhere around 18 I decided there had to be something better in life then removing people's spyware for a terrible wage. I quit and my life rapidly accelerated.

I'm now a:
high school dropout
homeowner
commercial pilot
flight instructor
software developer
IT guy (dev/linux/infrastructure)

Today at 24 I make more then both of my parents combined. Everything I have I've earned myself. My secret? I never let someone tell me I couldn't do something. I didn't play video games all day or watch TV. I taught myself constantly. Ask yourself if you know more today then you did yesterday. If you don't - you're not trying hard enough.
Click to expand...

Wow! Quite a few accomplishments! Thanks for the pep talk. I've been trying business ideas since I was in 1st grade. First idea was candy as a cereal...didn't work. (A Hershey's bar in milk is just that and nothing more) I tried servers for a business up the road but they went with a real company and I had to sell my equip. I got an offer from Geek Squad but they thought I was older than I am so that's on hold. Too bad there isn't a POH for life, would be very useful! Thanks for the reply!
 
Grocery stores are almost always hiring teenagers as baggers and cashiers. I'm 18 saving for the instrument rating and I work retail. Definitely try the airport as suggested above. I was recently offered a line job at the local airport but had to turn it down because I'll be going home from college for winter break in a couple weeks. Really would have loved that job!
 
If you're a reader "48 days to the work you love" is also good. It's not about applying for jobs in the paper or online. It's about talking to people who know someone (and they may know someone) that needs a guy like you. 48 days... talks about you selling yourself to a company that doesn't even know they need you. Before the gym I belonged to close I was considering inquiring about working with them not as a salesperson or a trainer or as a person who cleans but to "Show them where they are going wrong" evidentally a lot because they closed. I recommend the book - probably can get it at the library. Can't you work at a grocery store? Our local one "Kroger's" higher the minors to do bagging which is BORING but it's still money.
 
tonycondon said:
where the hell are Ben and Arthur finding 12% returns??? That chart is great for demonstrating the effect of compound interest but at todays interest rates the effect is seriously diluted.
Click to expand...
I'll answer the question, but let's be careful not to drift the thread away from helping this young man acheive his goals.

We can start a new thread if there is a big need to discuss money theory and those that promote their own variety.


I agree with you, Tony, that when viewed in the "short" run, it's difficult to find anything offering up anything that will provide a return close to 8%, let alone 12%. But solid investing is a long term game. The following web page explains where 12% was derived from.

From this page on DaveRamsey.com:
Twelve percent—whether you first heard Dave mention it in the Financial Peace University lesson Of Mice And Mutual Funds or you read it on daveramsey.com, it was undoubtedly followed by questions.

But most of those questions boil down to two important ones: “Can I really get a 12% return on my mutual fund investments, even in today’s market?” and “If I can, what mutual funds should I choose?”

Where Does It Come From?
When Dave says you can expect to make 12% on your investments, he’s using a real number that’s based on the historical average annual return of the S&P 500. The S&P 500 gauges the performance of the stocks of the 500 largest, most stable companies in the Stock Exchange. It is often considered the most accurate measure of the stock market as a whole. The current average annual return from 1926, the year of the S&P’s inception, through 2010 is 11.84%. That’s a long look back, and most people aren’t interested in what happened in the market 80 years ago.

So let’s look at some numbers that are closer to home. From 1991–2010, the S&P’s average is 10.66%. From 1986–2010, it’s 11.28%. In 2009, the market’s annual return was 26.46%. In 2010, it was 8%.

So you can see, 12% is not a magic number. But based on the history of the market, it’s a reasonable expectation for your long-term investments. It’s simply a part of the conversation about investing.

But What About The ‘Lost Decade’?
Dave often points out that every 10-year period in the market’s history has made money, and that was true until the latest market drop in 2008. From 2000–2009, the market endured a major terrorist attack and a recession. S&P 500 reflected those tough times with an average annual return of 1% and a period of negative returns after that, leading the media to call it the “lost decade.”

But that is only part of the picture. In the 10-year period right before that, 1990–1999, the S&P averaged 19% annually. Put the two decades together, and you get a respectable 10% average annual return.

But that’s the past, right? You want to know what to expect in the future. In investing, we can only base our expectations on how the market has behaved in the past. And the past shows us that each 10-year period of low returns has been followed by a 10-year period of excellent returns, ranging from 13% to 18%!

If You’re Still Unsure…
Will your investments make that much? Maybe. Maybe more. But the idea here is that you invest and invest for the long haul. Don’t let your opinion over whether or not you think a 12% return is possible keep you from investing.

In fact, if you’d rather project your mutual funds to grow at 10% or 8%—that’s cool with us. Just set a goal and invest whatever you need to in order to meet that goal.

How To Find Your Funds
It’s not difficult to find several mutual funds that average or exceed 12% long-term growth, even in today’s market. An experienced investing professional can help you find good mutual funds in each of the four categories Dave recommends. (Large Cap, Mid Cap, Index, International --AM88)

But the value of a professional advisor doesn’t end there. The stock market will have its ups and downs, and the downs are scary times for investors. They react by pulling their money out of their investments—that’s exactly what millions of investors did as the market plunged in 2008. But that only made their losses permanent. If they’d stuck with their investments like Dave advises, their value would have risen along with the stock market over the next two years.​
 
saracelica said:
If you're a reader "48 days to the work you love" is also good. It's not about applying for jobs in the paper or online. It's about talking to people who know someone (and they may know someone) that needs a guy like you. 48 days... talks about you selling yourself to a company that doesn't even know they need you.
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Big +1 for this book. Accompanying website is www.48days.com

Other good reading material
  • QBQ - The Question Behind the Question
  • The Legend of the Monk and The Merchant (discusses finding a career you can be very passionate about
  • The Millionaire Next Door
  • From Good to Great.

A biz idea I just thought of, and actually a service I need to find someone to help me with: Social Media for a business.

As a 16 year old, you practically live on Facebook and Twitter. It's possible you already know (or can quickly develop) the talents to get noticed on those sites and develop a strong following.

There are many businesses (like mine) that need to get set up and develop exposure on the social media sites. But don't have either the time or the clues needed to make this effort successful.

If you came to me and pitched your talents "For a modest fee of $___, paid 50/50 (last part is performanced based), and a bonus structure if we exceed a challenging goal, I will get your business out there on social media and develop a thriving following. For a recurring fee of $____, we can do a subscription deal where I continue to work on your project and help you grow even more." Then I would definitely want to talk with you more and see what you could do for me.
 
Have you talked to any of your parents/step parents friends? Most people will have a hard time hiring and investing in someone your age. It's not fair, just the way it is. Have you thought about a trades helper? Look at local trade unions.
 
If you are computer savvy, start cleaning viruses. Put together a kit (Combofix, Malware Bytes, a nice linux distro, UBCD), and create few business cards. Bomb the crap out of Craigslist in your area. Charge $50/visit. I am sure you can grab up to $500/week. Drop off business card for more return business.

eBay is wonderful as well. If you have a seller's account, you can start selling things that you can get for free. Tons of people selling GNU software. While it may seem wrong, it's perfectly legal. I get about $1500/month for about 1 hour of work a day from it.
 
Jesse is the man, listen to him.

I'll echo all of the above...if you want to stop at a private ticket, that's well within your grasp as a hard and dedicated worker. If you want to further your flying career, you're probably going to end up taking some loans out at some point.

I had it easy though for my private, my dad was my CFI. All I had to pay for was the airplane, and he even helped me out with that when I needed it. I'm 19 now and in my 2nd semester of school at the community college of Beaver county, they offer ATC degrees and an associates in professional aviation. You take the normal pt 141 classes through the college, but the flying is on you. Contracted out to two flight schools on the field. Because I'm a PA resident, I get 40% off the airplanes - a big help. But I've still had to take loans out.

Bottom line: do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.
 
Arbiter419 said:
Jesse is the man, listen to him.

I'll echo all of the above...if you want to stop at a private ticket, that's well within your grasp as a hard and dedicated worker. If you want to further your flying career, you're probably going to end up taking some loans out at some point.

I had it easy though for my private, my dad was my CFI. All I had to pay for was the airplane, and he even helped me out with that when I needed it. I'm 19 now and in my 2nd semester of school at the community college of Beaver county, they offer ATC degrees and an associates in professional aviation. You take the normal pt 141 classes through the college, but the flying is on you. Contracted out to two flight schools on the field. Because I'm a PA resident, I get 40% off the airplanes - a big help. But I've still had to take loans out.

Bottom line: do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have some money from doing what I needed to do. That's saved for, interestingly enough, CCBC! Not of Beaver County though, instead for Baltimore County. They virtually have the same exact programs. They have 10 schools to go to. I want to go the commercial route.
 
I neglected to mention this but around this time of year a lot of illegal immigrants take up the slack. Grass and snow related subjects are nearly out of question/possibility. I can't compete (economically and morally) with an entire family low balling prices. I bid on apartment carpet cleaning, lost to (ironically enough) a relative who charges $150 per bedroom/unit+material costs to not only clean carpets, but clean the unit AND paint and recarpet it! He uses all 5 kids, his wife, mother-in-law, and mother. Similar situations occur with grass cutting and snow removal. It's gotten to the point that when it snows these poor guys are on corners with shovels waiting to be given work. The area that I live in is mostly town homes, apartments, or houses with small yards. The bigger houses are nearly farmhouses, mansions, or ranches. I don't have a plow truck :( Cheap labor is easy to come by and under-the-table is the norm. I've tried the social networking ideas, set up a few websites, done some auto work,etc. Just not enough work around when most retailers or service providers are franchises or local chains that're well established. I got a job offer through my mom (she is hispanic. My brothers are too, I am half, and my stepfather is wholly) but when I went to Domino's to interview, the owner thought we were illegals and was prepared to pay me $3/hr for 60hrs, then $5 after that with hours of noon-1 am monday through friday! Honestly I wanted to take that job until he said "I'll pay you monthly." Sounds fishy to me plus I do have some dignity! The circumstances are just unique I guess. I'll definately read 48 Days, thanks for all of the replies. I'll give it another shot! The prospect of flying is well worth it! About 1 million out of 7 billion people found a way to pay, I'm sure that I will too!
 
bigblockz8 said:
when I went to Domino's to interview, the owner thought we were illegals and was prepared to pay me $3/hr for 60hrs, then $5 after that with hours of noon-1 am monday through friday!
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Tipped employees have different minimum wages, starting at $2.15/hour (federal), and $3.63/hour (your state). Just FYI.
 
Since you are homeschooled, you have some different connections than the public schoolers - sometimes that's good, sometimes not. Our high schools have connections with a lot of local companies and city offices to provide summer interns. Do you belong to any homeschooling networks that might be able to act as references if you were to try for places like that? Most of these jobs would be with manufacturing or engineering companies and most of the work is pretty low level, but it's a job and experience. My daughter worked for our city engineering department for several summers - it was cheaper for the city to hire summer interns from the high school than it was to hire contractors. Eventually, she ended up driving a city truck and doing road inspections to help catalog repair priorities. She got paid to get sunburned.

Hopefully, that opens up some more possibilities - you'll be competing, though, against other kids that have a high school program behind them. And now is a good time to start lining up summer work - a lot of companies seem to start making their summer-intern hiring decisions in March. Getting your name out there now might give you a head start.
 
bigblockz8 said:
Yeah I have some money from doing what I needed to do. That's saved for, interestingly enough, CCBC! Not of Beaver County though, instead for Baltimore County. They virtually have the same exact programs. They have 10 schools to go to. I want to go the commercial route.
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At least come on over and give us a visit in Beaver County, we have a lot of fun and we do some serious flying. Give me a PM if you have any questions at all.
 
You could always sell your plasma and stuff. Saw an ad in our local paper $100 if you do it twice in a week. :)
 
I wish you success in your endeavor. One thing to keep in mind, life is more of a crock pot than microwave.
 
How good are you with website stuff ?

You sound driven and a self starter, that puts you well ahead of about 3/4 fo the folks in your environment.
 
1- Ask yourself what are you really good at.
2- What can you offer people that others can't or what you can do better.
3- Be creative, its usually something that you see around everyday that you can use to your advantage-(Snuggie, SOB Made millions)

Are you handy around the house where you can sell yourself as a handyman, fixing drywall holes, spot painting, small plumbing fixes like faucets, Stuff that almost anyone can do but doesn't have the time to do it.

What about pet sitting or dog walking, help people that work all day and have a dog.

Biggest thing is to sell yourself, meet people, talk to them. Alot of people have set ideas about 16 y/o's. Change their minds.
 
Meanee said:
Tipped employees have different minimum wages, starting at $2.15/hour (federal), and $3.63/hour (your state). Just FYI.
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The job offer was as a pizza cook. It's not like a small service area, it's quite large. I believe that they have 3 owned delivery cars and they hire 2 more drivers (w/cars) in the summer. He only had 3 cooks total including his son.
 
TommyG said:
1- Ask yourself what are you really good at.
2- What can you offer people that others can't or what you can do better.
3- Be creative, its usually something that you see around everyday that you can use to your advantage-(Snuggie, SOB Made millions)

Are you handy around the house where you can sell yourself as a handyman, fixing drywall holes, spot painting, small plumbing fixes like faucets, Stuff that almost anyone can do but doesn't have the time to do it.

What about pet sitting or dog walking, help people that work all day and have a dog.

Biggest thing is to sell yourself, meet people, talk to them. Alot of people have set ideas about 16 y/o's. Change their minds.
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I had an idea like Snuggie...I made a jacket out of newspaper and glue when I was in 1st grade. I used staples for buttons, one side was on the right, a small hole on the left. Didn't make millions but my mom liked it! :)

I tried dog walking, didn't really work. I used to have a computer business in 5th grade but only made a couple hundred. I recently tried out doing my step father by copying his business strategy and using common sense, basic accounting, and basic business rules but I found that my issue was age. A 16 year old can't drive (I have to wait a few more months). He is a mobile diesel mechanic making good money but his organization sucks! Parts everywhere, jobs missed, invoices misplaced, not enough capital to buy this or that. Long story short I ended up with about $1000 total profit running my own car-less mobile mechanic business. That then got borrowed by family so back to square one. I'll definately retry once I can drive though! PP-ASEL in about 3 months of work tops!
 
Arbiter419 said:
At least come on over and give us a visit in Beaver County, we have a lot of fun and we do some serious flying. Give me a PM if you have any questions at all.
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Yeah I've been meaning to explore PA aviation for a week! There sure is serious flying up there. Just on a drive to Hershey Park I pulled over to watch a Cessna 402 land on a dirt driveway! It was the farm owner, or a pilot that loves coveralls and uses a friend's barn as a hangar.
 
Study real hard and get a ground instructor certificate and maybe while you're hanging around the airport trying everything possible to bum rides, perhaps you can help out tutoring around your flight school.


EDIT: Sorry, forgot you were 16.... gotta be 18 for this.
 
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How does one get a ground instructor certificate?
 
You have to take a "Fundamentals of Instructing" test, and then a rating test, (Basic Ground Instructor, Advanced Ground Instructor or Instrument Ground Instructor).

Gleim has a "Fundamentals of Instructing" test guide, a "Flight/Ground Instructor" test guide, and Gleims Instrument Pilot test guide works just fine for the instrument ground instructor.

I'd recommend the AGI and the IGI. The BGI is pointless to me. (AGI covers BGI, and is only a few questions more on the test).

I took the FOI, AGI, and IGI pretty much all around the same time. Once you take all of the tests, take the score reports to your local FSDO with an application. You'll probably need to call ahead and schedule an appointment to get into the FSDO.

Check out my page:
http://www.asaviationservices.com/groundinstructor.html

Some "Recent Experience" regulations have changed recently, so that area of my page is out of date. Haven't looked too close at the others, but its a starting point.

Pay attention to the "notes" at the bottom. They might answer alot of questions too.
 
First thing it says

"1. You must be atleast 18 years old"
 
David, If you are interested at all, I'd recommend taking the IGI test ASAP, since you just took all your instrument stuff, all that material should still be fresh, and its pretty much the exact same test, and LESS questions.

IGI test is 50 questions, while the IRA test was 60 questions (if i remember right).
 
ajstoner21 said:
Meh. You're close. Its still good to have after you turn 18...


EDIT: Forgot our original poster was only 16...
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The ground instructor ratings were something I planned on. In case I ever has any medical issues, I'd still want to be around GA. That and an A&P which will take a while to get. I've found that by-the-book instructors usually don't know much, or are preaching from a book.

One was giving a little impromptu lesson on helicopters, specifically auto rotations and he got it completely wrong. He wasn't too happy that a 14 year old (at the time) corrected him, explained it, and then everyone had an "AHHH" moment. He was rated for rotorcraft as well! No clue how he messed up.

"In an auto rotation the transmission will disengage and the wind will turn the rotor backward, briefly stopping it." Reality is you first and foremost lower the collective to lower pitch to prevent it from ever stopping! He scared some people with that idea that it stops then goes in reverse. Gyro copter example should be used to teach the basic concept.
 
I put my time into getting into college at your age, went to college, put time in to my studies (although we did have a ground school available to us) and got a good jog at graduation and then I went out and got flying lessons. It was still tight on an entry level engineer's salary.
 
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