Step 1: Go get a
2nd Class medical and your Student Pilot Certificate before you do anything else. Then go for your intro flight and pursue the Private I'd recommend doing a structured
Part 141 school. I'd also recommend going to visit a Helicopter school early in your training and get a Helio flight as well, if you haven't flown in one it's different than airplane (I've flown in a few but never touched the controls). Talk to guys that do the type of flying you want to do as well. Guys doing the type of flying you want to do will be the best source of information.
When I was a kid I had pretty much made up my mind that I was going to become a Pilot, specifically I wanted to be an Airline Pilot. I took my first flight lesson in 1991 and spent 2 weeks each summer at an Aviation Day Camp (from age 11-13) where we'd get Ground Instruction and Fly with an Instructor a few times each session. I flew enough to amass a dozen hours or so and set my sights on going to College at Embry-Riddle and while in High School I took the appropriate Math & Science courses to get accepted there (along with the GPA and SAT score), I ended up graduating from ERAU in 2002 with a Safety Sciences Major and Human Factors Minor and THANK GOD because even though I got my Private I needed to get a Statement of Demonstrated Ability to fly at night and by color signal due to having color vision deficiency and I probably would never have been picked up by an airline, also my Degree has allowed me to have a well paying career working in Space and Defense for the last 17 years (I'm way further ahead financially than if I had a flying career). I started at ERAU in the "Aero Sci" program aka flight school and made many friends that were in the same program that I still keep up with today, of all those guys only 1 flies for the Airlines today, 1 flies Corporate (a sweet gig that he quit Delta for), another is a U2 Pilot but the rest wound up in different career fields ATC, Airfield Management, Accounting, TV producer and Defense Contracting (there are 4 of us Alumni that sit in the same aisle of offices). One common thing we all had in common was we wanted to fly for the airlines when we started and with the exception of 1, went another route either we found other types of flying or were unable to physically or financially get to ATP.
Having a BACKUP plan or at least a backup skill set will be helpful because as you may or may not know Aviation is Cyclical,
9/11,
2008 Economic Crisis and COVID are 3 major events in the last 20 years that lead to significant Pilot Furloughs. Right now there's not much Oil Drilling so a lot Helo Pilots are on the sidelines as well. The Wildland fire season is 3 months out of the year, so you better have other gigs and you will probably be fighting fires where you're needed not just waiting around for one to start in Cali (could be anywhere in the West including Canada).
Someone mentioned A&P, that rating will help you land a job as a bush Pilot in Africa and even Alaska; but it's a painfully slow certificate to earn. Bush can be a very rewarding job and is probably the most challenging flying you can do. I passed the written A&P exams but did not have the patience to gut it out at near minimum wage for 30 months or worse yet pay a
Part 147 school and have to put in 1900hrs of schooling in 18-24 months! The A&P students at ERAU typically were in the classroom/hangar 40hrs/week with studying/homework on top of that. That left little time to get a part time job to pay bills. If you can live with your Parents or other Family for free and commute to a 147 school that would definitely be ideal if you want to get an A&P or if you can find an FBO and apprentice in the day and do school/flying in the afternoon or evenings (I did it for a year but the pay was too low). Not only can it help getting a flying job, if you ever lose your medical you can fall back on your A&P skills to keep $$$$ coming in, whether it's an FBO at a GA field, an Airline or even a Defense Contractor (lots of Military Planes get "Depot Maintenance" performed by Contractors) you can readily find a job.
There are a few routes to becoming a Commercial Helicopter Pilot. Without having to spend a mountain of cash, you can join the Army National Guard and become a Helio pilot. You can fly 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year and have a civilian career as well. My coworker did it and became a Blackhawk pilot but switched to KingAirs (C-12s) and says he'll never fly a death trap rotorwing again! Another friend of mine is a Pilot for PHI
http://www.phihelico.com/ He lives here in Colorado but commutes down to New Orleans when he needs to work. He makes great money although he did pay out a lot of money to get his ratings.
