Becoming a commercial pilot?
 

Right chaps. Very tired of my current job. Involves property & development etc. Now things have obviously reached a peak and lean times are ahead of us I really want a change. Have flown a couple of times and like the career path that a pilot could offer.

I have approximately £60,000 cash that I am prepared to 'invest' in my future (and my house which has a low mortgage so could be re-mortgaged if I needed more) so from what I can see on google that would be enough to achieve a CPL. I'm mid twenties and have no ties so I would be happy to train in either north america/canada or mainland europe. Has anyone flightman etc got any advice on what is the best way forward? Or any thoughts on who I should speak to?

Google seems to show that pilot magazine and other flying magazines will have some info in. So will pick up a copy.

Have worked hard for last few years to build a bit of a war chest to do this and now am quite happy to follow full time, just need the advice on how to do!

Appreciate any thoughts

chop :)

How old are you?

24

chop :)

Good luck to you mate
dont forget your flaps and to say "cabin doors to manual" when coming in to land. i think the rest is easy to pick up

Lets be honest, you saw the video of that french dolly getting her baps out for the pilot etc and you fancy that lifestyle :D

me? Never.

chop :D

There was a good thread on this a year ago. Basically most people will spend their hard-earned fighting with thousands of others in the queue to end up getting a crap and boring job. A few lucky ones will make it. I think that was the gist of it.

Spend 5 or 10k on a PPL, put the other 50k into getting a cushy job that allows you to fly occasionally :)

I know several year ago people used to go to America for a few weeks to get their PPL, as it is a lot cheaper out there.

Not sure if this is still the case nowadays.

24?..hmm not what your profile says!

I knew I guy from school who wanted to be a commercial pilot - he applied for BA etc, but didn't get in, so he paid for his own training. Did this in the states and his parent re-morgaged their house to pay for this (cost in the region of 50k and this is 2000-1). He got work flying small aircraft after the training and slowly worked his way up. He was up to flying medium jets (737's, A317's) for the budget airlines until about a year ago I think when he got a job with BA (basically his aim) and now flies larger jets - A340's etc.

Just shows it can be done if you have the ambition. I expect it's all paid off financially too, as I expect he's taking in the region of 50k now having started at BA (at a guess).

A bloke I know flies for BMI Baby and he paid to train himself - I dont know how much it cost, but it took him a long time.

Personally if I was going to train as a pilot it would be on helicopters - no really boring long hall flights and you could get a really cool job like chasing chavs in stolen cars for the police.

I always really fancied being a pilot but you need to be called either Mike or Richard, usually with a surname of King.

Too old now at 37 so its either as a passenger of MS Flight Sim.

I suspect the reality might not be as appealing as the image, medicals, simulator training, flying knobheads to Palma week in week out, all that responsibility and it generally isnt perhaps as well paid as we think unless you are a captain with a prestige airline. Also, must be quite dispruptive to family life if you do long haul.

Still all the stewardesses (or stewards) you could want, travel and being in charge of 200 tonnes of fuel, aluminium, plastic, 300 people and several computers 37,000 feet in the sky !

a mate of mine roughly same age as yourself, paid around 60k for training (couldnt say if it was here or elsewhere, would have thought here though) and now works for monarch, from what i gather he's still doing the sort of in-flight training now but shouldnt be long till he's fully qualified.

Since you know that you like the idea of flying, and it does not suit everyone of course, then you should go for the CPL/ATPL as you are prepared to invest in getting the licences. It is an expensive business of course unless you can get sponsored by an airline.

Nearly all my flying was full military stuff, but I did do time on the VC10 which was operated exactly as a civil airline would and I enjoyed it very much.

It will be graft to get the licences but a very rewarding career. Best of luck.

Les :)

"I always really fancied being a pilot but you need to be called either Mike or Richard, usually with a surname of King."

:lol:
strangely enough he's called Richard.

I know of someone who trained to be a pilot and I beleive is qualified but could never get picked up.

His mother spent her pension getting him through but he isn't flying. I heard it was down to class (Not posh enough so to speak) as to why he couldn't get a pilot job. Could well be wrong but its what I heard.

Thanks for checking but rest assured I know how old I am. :confused:

chop

Oxford Aviation Academy

They have a pilot training open day on the 23rd. Don't know where you're based but this is one of the best training schools in the uk.

I work for BA as an engineer and can categorically state you don't need a plummy accent or the "right" connections to get a job as a pilot here. We have allsorts of characters sat up front although i'd say 70% do have the aforementioned plummy accent :Suspiciou

It's also worth Googling for cadet schemes with the major airlines as a few do still train from scratch and give you a small wage whilst doing so.

Good luck and I admire you for working hard towards your dream :notworthy

I have just turned 26 and i am in the same boat as you. I have wanted to become a Commercial pilot for years and now finally all things have come together and i start my training next month.

There is a forum you might be interested in PPRuNe Forums - Professional Pilots Rumour Network and scroll down to Proffesional pilot training.

The 60k you have is enough to do the intergrated route which is always the best.

also try Which course? Integrated or Modular?

any other questions you have mail me and i will try help.

nick

I looked into it when leaving Uni (years ago.....).

All the airlines were looking for candidates who already had significant flying experience (which I didn't have) and only one airline was prepared to give a shot to graduates without flying experience.

The airlines attitude was that if you enjoyed flying that much and wanted to be a pilot for them, then you were basically looking to expand on your hobby of flying.
If you didn't fly, then obviously you were not that committed and it was a mere pipe dream.

It's fortunate that the NHS doesn't have the same attitude of prospective doctors.

The surname of Hunt fits too. :D

Plenty of flight schools will train you for the kind of money you are talking about (Oxford has a very good reputation). Some do it in the States/Canada as it can be a lot cheaper but you still need to do a conversion type course to fly in Europe.

I always wanted to do it and could now at 35 afford to do it but I don't think I could cope with defined procedures to follow and the monotony of just going here to there, also sceptical of me being too old but have been told I would still get employed. OK it looks and sounds great but to me I think I would get bored very quickly once you had done your stopovers a few times in your favourite places. Like most jobs I would assume after time you just go through the motions.

If you look at pprune you may get the impression that in the current commercial world we live in being a pilot isn't as good as it 'used to be'. Probably still beats working in IT mind !!

I think the flying part is the easier bit with the exams being the harder component.

Best of luck.

You're pretty much on the ball. With the industry as it is you're most likely to end up (assuming you complete your training) with a 737 rating flying short haul multi-sectors for some grockle airline - not exactly stimulating.

Salaries are generous assuming you get your command but a newly minted SFO will be on a basic of £20k and will have the piss taken out of him on the T & Cs, so you'll spend quite a few years in deficit until you get back to your current salary level and that's without taking into account the £60k you've laid out.

I'm assuming you have actually flown an aircraft or undertaken some form of training? Be aware that the training industry is hell bent on selling you the dream, plus you'll be amongst a load of other wannabes all chasing the dream and only a few actually make it.

Been there, done that, never again.

Is it not really really boring? I'd have thought a taxi driver was more fun!

I only know one pilot who spends all week away from his kids sat in a cockpit or a hotel room, earns £100k but you train for anything that long and you can make £100k without having to get bored out of your mind.

Good luck with it, but beware in the current economic climate as air travel is normally one of the first things to get cut back when it all goes bang.

Edited for accuracy.

Someone I know became a pilot. He trained in States that cost him 50k about 8 years ago. It's deffo gonna be expensive to train. But where there's a will, there's a way :thumb:

Personally, I love planes and flying, the realities of getting married and having kids put paid to any possibility of me going for it, I did consider it when I was 27 and my wife was quite supportive but it would have been mega hardship and I might not have passed so I stuck with my IT career, on nearly 50k and I fly to Atlanta next week, not very glamourous but it pays (most) of the bills, get back from Atlanta and fly to Aberdeen.

I think chopper should go for it.

I spent the Monday and Tuesday on Anglessey and a couple of hours watching the trainee pilots doing circuits in Hawk trainers, now that looked fun, I personally prefer Commercial Airliners as a plane geek but I suspect flying fast millitary jet, choppers (!) or anything else would be much more fun.

I remember that line in Top Gun about "Flying Rubber Dog Turds out of Japan" or something, was I the only one that thought that sounded great, you get to fly the plane and do some hillarious Dog Turd related practical jokes, I suspect one with a real Dog Turd would be best in an environment full of fakes.

Perhaps its best that I dont fly Airliners....

No it isn't

Les

Don't ask if you can just do the taking off bit because you're not that interested in landing :thumb:

Its sounds highly repetitive and incompatible with a nice family life.

I guess if your nerdy loner it may work?