Nick Young

I know from previous threads that there are some Pilots/ex Pilots on this BBS.My question is, at present im seriously thinking of going for my Private Pilots License and was wondering what sort of advice anyone could give me i.e. once I achieve the license could I use it for a long term career.What does anyone think?.
Nick Y

Ian Cook

Hmm, PPL cannot be used for a career at all ! You need CPL or ATPL for a career in flying, although you could go the instructor route, i think this needs 400 hours P1 and the instructor course (i may be wrong on the hours though !)

If you decide to do it anyway good luck

Ian
PPL (Helicopters)

Paul Wilson

Top site to have a look at is

SimonH

As the folks have said above if you are serious about wanting to get into aviation career-wise then you need to be considering a full ATPL or CPL course which can cost the thick end of £50k if you do it off your own back. Many airlines will offer sponsorship schemes although competition is particularly fierce for the very limited places on these courses.

A PPL will allow you to do a bit of tooling about in a Flying club aircraft at weekends but that's about it. To "go" further you need things like Night and Instrument Ratings all of which cost yet more.
Think carefully about what exactly you want from an pilot's qualification; if you're thinking long term carerr then, as Paul says above, check out Pprune as there's a huge amount of good gen on there. If you just want to take your girlfriend flying at weekends then go for a PPL.

BTW Pprune are holding a "Seminar" near Gatwick in early June for "wannabees" with a bunch of airline/flying school folk giving "lectures" on how to it/what to do etc etc. I'm giving one on the Military Flying training system, assuming I manage to get all my **** in one sock by June 9th!! Check out the Wannabees forum on Pprune.

Simon
RAF