I have always had a passion and strong interest in flying.

I have always had a passion and strong interest in flying. I am going into year 11 now and am beginning to look at future careers. Does anyone have any comments on pilot training?

Pick a Flying School that is successful.Too many have gone broke.Ensure your instructor is a Grade One,highly experienced and their best instructor.This can influence your flying ability greatly.Ensure with each training flight you get a pre and post flight briefing.Search around with these things in mind.

It depends what way you want to go there. There are plenty of ways. Example is the VA pilot cadet program (also JQ and REX). Another is university (Swineburne, UNSW, and Griffith), or you could do it privately however this requires upfront payment and is usually very expensive. Think $250 an hour for a good instructor. Remember to get your PPL (Private Pilot's License) people usually need between 40-60 hours completed, so the cost will add up pretty quickly. I'm trying to become a pilot too (I am 12 months out of school now) and after having first hand experienced how hard it really is, I am starting to lose motivation. With that said, I am working towards an aviation degree. Feel free to email me or something if you want some more advice? 

Sorry, that should read an accounting degree. 

Thank you for the great advice. 

Perhaps you could consider the business side of aviation? I am doing accounting and maybe hoping to work for Virgin one day. 

Good point AndrewYes. I've just completed my first year at uni doing an aviation management degree. It has definetely been interesting and gives one a very good grasp of the aviation industry in general.

True :). I am trying to do a dual commerce/aviation management. Undecided on what uni to go through though, I'm currently at QUT. Any suggestions on a good uni to go through? 

I am at UQ doing Business Management, extremely interested in the aviation industry and keen to get a better grasp on the av management courses available. We should email or something haha

The first thing you have to think about is how are you going to pay for your training. As others have said it is very expensive, caditships can cost $100K+. To get your CPL you need 150+ hours all of them you would ofcourse have to pay for....

Unfortunaty the first step is having the means to pay ....

Another note is that with a cadetship, you're locked into the same company for usually 7+ years, and during that time you're repaying your training debt, which could mean you are actually earning peanuts compared to your comrades. It will definitelty be a hard road now. 

@AndrewYes: I'm at RMIT in Melbourne - excellent single and double aviation degree. I'm doing the latter so it's an aviation/business course.

I'm thinking about doing that! I just moved to SYD from OOL but I don't think many uni's except UNSW do it here and I would rather stick with something abit smaller. That sounds awesome. 

There's always the Air Force. Of course not everyone in the Air Force gets to be a pilot, but if you do then it's all paid for. And if you don't, then you can probably get to at least hang around near planes a whole lot...

Does anyone know what it's like to be a pilot, lifestyle wise? Is it difficult doing it your entire life if you're planning to have a family?

What are the key barriers / skills required to be a successful pilot? Assuming you had $100,000 sitting in the bank for whatever education you need.