Hi guys, a bit of backstory: My father was a pilot for Southwest Airlines for about twenty years. He's mentioned the pilot shortage multiple times (that it's on the way due to the overwhelming requirements for new pilots to get enough hours). At 31 years old I've worked successfully as an actor and had plenty of jobs, but with COVID 19 happening and cancelling all theaters in the USA and pretty much the world until 2021, I'm weighing my options and maybe looking to completely switch careers. My father has been retired for a number of years now, and has been out of the hiring game for considerably longer. Here is some of what he says:

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• It would cost you about half a million dollars before you could be hired by a commercial airline.
• You'd be then paying it off for the next ten years
• It would be wiser to look at a career in air traffic/dispatch

How much of this would you guys agree with? What's more, what advice would you give to someone who is willing to put in the work who would make the career change to become a pilot? As an aside I am in excellent physical condition with no vision problems. Thank you for any help in advance.

EDIT: this post was made in 2002 at a time when there was no theatre work available and I was miserable. Since then we’ve opened back up and I’ve been working again consistently since we came back. Piloting was never the passion, it was completely a survival job thing. Thank you all for your input.