Becoming an airline pilot: Is it a dream or a form of mental illness?

[Seaweed Knees]

Why are you doing it?

You've taken out a loan of anything up to £70000 so that you can get in line for one of the few airline jobs out there.

You don't know if you'll even enjoy it.

You spend the money without considering if you even have the ability.

With all the competition, chances are you'll never get the job anyway.

So, why did you decide to become a professional pilot?
Whats so great about the job that youre willing to bet such a huge sum of money with such terrible odds?

[Send Clowns]

...one of the few airline jobs out there...I'm not sure you'd get any airline crewing department to agree to that clause. I know of several that are concerned about availability of suitable candidates. There are hundreds of jobs out there, and not all of them within the airlines. It looks like I am in line for a job with one or other of the many small air charter companies out there, as I want to fly a more varied routine for a few years. I am doing it all because I love being airborne, I delight in flying, and the sky can be one of the most beautiful sights in the world (of those not requiring female company and persuasion :E ).

However, to answer you headline directly - it's both :p

[scroggs]

Whats so great about the job that youre willing to bet such a huge sum of money with such terrible odds

I've often wondered that as well! After all, the vast majority of wannabes have no idea what my job is really like, so how did they decide it's what they want to do? They have no access to the flight deck, there aren't many books about flying in a modern airline environment, and information generally is pretty hard to come by. A perusal of this site (even though most wannabes are barely aware of the other 50-odd fora available here) reveals that many pilots are dissatisfied with their lot in life, so what is it that persuades people to spend all that dosh?

I'm left with the inescapable conculsion that their ambition is fed by Airplane 1 & 2 and Catch Me If You Can and little else!

Scroggs

[Fish Out of Water]

With that kind of attitude no-one would get a job!

Most of the people who fly professionally used to dream of it at some point or other way before they used to fly. What's so good about it - are you joking!!!!

As for the lack of jobs - many of us came into aviation in worse times than this, I for one was just post 911 complete with my 200hrs. I got a jet job, my friends got a job - now off to fly longhaul and see the world for free.

But if others would prefer to sit behind a desk it's up to them I suppose (whatever floats your boat). Get fed up of pessimistic posts like this, grow some balls and live the dream.:cool:

[scroggs]

What attitude? What pessimism? It was a reasonable post, asked politely and it is a worthwhile topic for discussion. Clowns answered with his point of view, and I echoed Seaweed Knees' curiosity with a slightly ironic twist.What's so good about it - are you joking!!!!
No, I don't think he was. But you haven't answered the question...

Scroggs

[First.officer]

...well, for me, it was a case of putting all the cash on the 3:30 at Newmarket or going down the route of the frozen ATPL - thought the second option sounded like a much more risky punt and went for it !! lol :D
after all, its only money !!!! can't take it with you !!!

[High Wing Drifter]

Not a difficult one. I wanted a career change and flying is one of the few careers that pays a decent amount (eventually) and suits my persona. I can afford to loose the money, but I don't see it like that as I will always fly be it privately or instructing whatever happens.

Anyway, flying teaches you much more than simply flying.

[wbryce]

I agree HWD, the atpls near enough teach you how to be a plumber, electrician, engineer, doctor, meteorologist, mechanic and last but not least....a pilot! :E

[High Wing Drifter]

I agree HWD, the atpls near enough teach you how to be a plumber, electrician, engineer, doctor, meteorologist, mechanic and last but not least....a pilot!
Scalpel...

[Charlie Zulu]

Having had around three hundred hours and four years of enjoyable general aviation flying, I decided it was either stay in the IT industry for the rest of my career or go professional.

Before I decided to go professional, I was lucky enough to be invited along on flight deck trips with friends who were members of the flying club of which I was a member.

These weren't only the flight itself but meeting the crew before they started their pre-flight paperwork in the ops room to after the post flight paperwork at the end of the day.

It is a great shame that airlines do not allow these kind of experience flights for potential crew since 9/11. It would be a great insight for many of these young and older potential professional pilots to see what the job entails...

...however I am fully aware that there is a lot more to the career than that I have experienced as an outsider.

About the closest one can get nowadays are the numerous videos that are available. However this doesn't do the career justice and invariably they only go through the flight itself whilst explaining the aircraft systems.

[hingey]

As I wannabe I feel I should make a contribution to this thread.

I have never seen any of the "Airplane" films, or "Catch me if you can" or any of the cockpit DVD's. Nor have I ever experienced a commercial flight from the planning, onto the flight deck to the closing paperwork as CZ has. I have overseen the planning and paperwork, and have talked with many professionals about the bores and downfalls of the job, so I would claim not to be wearing rosy specs!

For me, flying has always been a dream. As a littler lad I would always look up and wish it were I flying whatever soared above my head. Getting my PPL was to an extent a fulfilment of that dream, and I was (and still am) determined to keep flying, thought the costs pose a problem. The only other career I have really considered is going into theatre, or stage management. However I enjoy flying more, and there are greater percentage of unemployed actors than there is pilots!

I've been very fortunate in that I know what I want to do. Most of my college friends are going to Uni next year without having a clue what they actually want to do with their lives. My ambition drives me and gives me something to work towards. I don't really care where and what I fly, I', quite happy to make a humble living doing one of the worst paid jobs in aviation, so long as I can afford to live. But so long as I fly, I'm content. That feeling you get when you're pottering along, watching the clouds, and it dawns on you that you're flying! One of man's oldest dreams, certainly my own.

I am about to pour a vast sum of money into my professional training and am prepared to scrape a living with exploiting management in rickety aircraft held together with duct tape because I love flying.

h

[scroggs]

It is a great shame that airlines do not allow these kind of experience flights for potential crew since 9/11. It would be a great insight for many of these young and older potential professional pilots to see what the job entails...

Unfortunately, it's not airlines that refuse you entry to the flightdeck, it's national legislation. It's very unlikely to change. It is a great shame, as flightdeck visits meant that you could see the operation all the way from check-in to ceasework and get a far better idea of the job than you can now. As my slightly tongue-in-cheek post above suggests, all that is available to feed the wannabe's ambition these days is second-rate Hollywood movies and some overly sycophantic from-the-cockpit videos. ;)

Almost any other profession will give you the opportunity to have a look 'under the hood', and with most it's reasonably obvious what much of the job entails. Even military flying is more accessible to a wannabe than the airline world through the ATC/CCF, University Air Squadrons, work experience and other visits. But the poor airline wannabe has to satisfy him/herself with flights in light aircraft, the aforementioned movies, this website, and a hefty dose of imagination. That's all very well, but it has two major disadvantages: it doesn't reward the genuine interest enough, and thus we probably lose some good people, and secondly it doesn't do enough to discourage those whose interest is superficial - the sort for whom Airliners.net would be far more interesting than Pprune.

Scroggs

[Wodka]

Get a job as cabin crew even if its only for a few months ... the training is good (and useful) and more importantly you are part of an operating crew once qualified so you get a feel for the life - ie the rosters, disruption, endless longing for sleep etc etc! :)

You will also find the jumpseat is an option when you have spare crew on the a/c. Poss the only way into the flightdeck now post 9/11. It will also look good when you come to interview for the RHS because you can see things from both sides of the flight deck door.

I was fortunate enough to have a mate flying pre 9/11 so did many jumpseat rides with him aswell as my stint at cabin crew :)

[monkeytribe]

Or you can use that Xmas money for this:

Try me! (http://www.virtualaviation.co.uk/potf/index.html)