Are these as/a level options good for becoming a pilot?

[captainHicks]

Geography
Mathematics
Physics
Biology

Hopefully get some pretty good GCSE's

Cheers

[SW1]

Hi,

this topic has been covered in some detail previously. There is also a wealth of information on various others.

Welcome to the prune.:)


What A-levels (and degree course)? (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164926)

In addition, you dont need to fudge your A-levels with something thats not relevent or uninteresting. I new I needed Maths definetley to become a pilot but wasnt too keen on doing Physics and say Chemistry, so I looked into Vocational A-levels (AVCE). I chose in the end to do A-level Maths and AVCE Engineering, which is a 12 unit double award equivalent to 2 A-levels. Got me into Uni okay and passed all my ATPLs due to a lot of the knowledge picked up from that course.

Just a thought

[Genghis the Engineer]

Maths, physics + whatever will be most fun but you'll also actually pass.

G

[captainHicks]

Thanks guys yep love geography hopefully biology will be good aswell

I will find maths and physics hard tho probably

Thank you for the welcome :)

[captainHicks]

Thank you very much for your input :) I will consider that. I will just have to see what I get in my a-levels first. I'm just waiting for my GCSE results at this moment in time.

[ba038]

Due to this being an education thread .....i would like to get some advice on which degree to choose for uni next year.Please bare in mind i am a wannabe.


my AS that i have done so far are....Geography , media , politics.


I do like geography. But im finding it hard to decide on which degree would get me furthur if aviation does not work out for me.

i dont mind getting in banking/finance sector......but maths isnt my strongest subject unfortunantly.

sorry for the spelling mistakes im writing on my phone.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Being harsh here - there are no scientifically or mathematically literate subjects in there at-all, nor anything deeply written-literate, and most of the world would regard A-level politics or media studies as "hobby": the sort of thing you do extra as light relief from several serious subjects.

You could do Geography at degree level I suppose, but that would be because you fancy doing a geography degree and would have no real benefits to any kind of aviation career. (Or you could do a degree in politics or media studies, in which case you're pretty much unemployable, even in the media or for a political organisation.)

If you plan on doing a degree with any real relevance to an aviation career, frankly I'd re-do your lower sixth with something with maths and science in it.

On the other hand, as many others have said before - don't waste your time with a degree if you've no career aspirations beyond pilot, get out now and get on with ATPL studies.

G

Due to this being an education thread .....i would like to get some advice on which degree to choose for uni next year.Please bare in mind i am a wannabe.


my AS that i have done so far are....Geography , media , politics.


I do like geography. But im finding it hard to decide on which degree would get me furthur if aviation does not work out for me.

i dont mind getting in banking/finance sector......but maths isnt my strongest subject unfortunantly.

sorry for the spelling mistakes im writing on my phone.

[Lightning Mate]

Genghis just summed it up.

[rogerg]

The RAF liked English, Maths, a science subject, and one other.
A good all round mix.

[BullHughes]

I did A-Levels in English Literature, Maths, Physics and Psychology. Got top grades then when to uni and got a first class honours degree in Aviation Technology. Completed my PPL while at uni and have now got 100hrs total time (doing a complex checkout on Thursday), but have never been able to afford or find time for the CPL stuff.
Now working as an avionics technician on Apache helicopters in the Army, desperately trying to scrape together money to do the ATPLs CPL and IR in one lump when I finish the army in four years (if I'm still alive :{). I recently started the ATPL distance learning but have already found it impossible to keep up the study and book time off for the consolidation courses, so I shelved the idea of doing it part-time. I'll just save the money instead.
My girlfriend by contrast, has full JAA and FAA CPL IR MCC with 1000hrs instructing. She never did A-Levels at all, but got all her licences when she was 19-20, yet has never had even an interview with an airline, despite her CV being sent around. She's starting to become disillusioned and fed up with instructing, but she has no other profession to turn to.
Lack of further academic qualifications is proving a problem, and may well be one of the reasons she's not getting replies to her CV. Incidentally she found her ATPL exams a real struggle and had to resit the whole lot.

However, she's closer to getting an airline job than I am simply by having a CPL!
If I can raise the money for the commercial training I'm confident I'd find the training straightforward and could put together a pretty strong CV with the course completely paid for, although being 24 at the moment, I would be 30plus with only 220hrs by the time I completed it.
My girlfriend is still in her late-twenties (i think :O) and has 1000hrs plus... but thats it, and she's still paying off loans.
Some food for thought here guys about the pros and cons of further academic study against plunging straight into flight training, particularly if money is an issue (as it is for most of us). If you find A-Levels and uni a struggle, getting a PPL will really cheer you up!

[BelArgUSA]

All science subjects are fine... especially math and physics...
xxx
I would replace the "biology" suggested subject with "geography". Biology includes zoology or botanics - dont need to know much about having dogs in a kennel with the bagage nor do you grow roses on the flight deck to please you lady captain...?
xxx
If you research my infamous background, you shall see that I have full fluency in a few languages, I would suggest that you study some French if your airline operates into Africa, or study Spanish for Central and South America. Maybe some people can massacre some English, within 1/4 DME of airports. Knowing the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet, might be a help in Eastern Europe and Asia. I only know 50 or 100 words or sentences of Russian, but I can figure many words knowing their alphabet.
xxx
Of course, if you are a native Anglo-Saxon, stick to "English only" and ignore the other dialects spoken by some (or numerous) foreign ATCO... You see, we all know perfectly well that the language of aviation is English... at least that is what we are told during training...
xxx
:8
Happy contrails

[1mag1n3]

Well I have just finished my A Levels, and I am due results for them on the 20th August. I should achieve AAA in Maths, Further Maths and Geography but then a C in Physics, since it was my 4th A Level with a bad teacher!

I am currently in looking for a job as oppose to going to university, im onto stage 2 for air traffic control for NATS, and I have a interview pending with a very well known cruise line. A Levels do help, since its a good fall back. You can get many "trainee" jobs with A Levels and such like.

Take what your good at though. AAA in non-science courses would be better than CCC in science subjects.

Good luck with the studies! I remember 2 years ago making a similar topic to you, yet now its already final results in a few weeks. Time flies! Just a shame about the recession, since its ruined any chances for me to get into the aviation career early, so im trying to get a job to save some pennies and kill a few years!

[GeorgEGNT]

I decided not to study at university in favour of the 'working and saving' approach to my flying. Even though I have some pretty poor A-Levels (C and E, I have my reasons, which I don't want to get into) I had managed to convince myself that I would still be Ok finding an airline job once I had my licenses.

After waving goodbye to all of my friends as they set off to university, to a new city, to independence, to new friends, to new lives, I set out trying to find a job, still telling myself I made the right decision about university. I signed onto the dole in september and it was the worst experience of my life.

It wasnt until April this year that I actually got that phone call. I was offered a seasonal job at Newcastle Airport working as an aircraft cleaner. At first I thought it was brilliant, getting a job at the airport, working on aircraft etc and don't get me wrong I have enjoyed some aspects of it and have made some good friends.
But after a month or so, the 12 hour night shifts started to take their toll on me and my aircraft cleaner job became nothing more than a cleaning job in an understaffed company with a large workload every night.

The last 8 months have been a very good in terms of character building and life experience however, I'm not really earning enough to seriously fund commercial pilot training, plus my contract runs out in October anyway, so I would probably just go straight back on the dole then.

Last month, I decided to apply to university again for September, and it wasnt a case of should but want to go this year. Yes, I have a career ambition but I am also 19 and would like to enjoy the experience of university and at the end of the day, I will have a better looking CV as a result of it too. I've decided that I'm in no particular hurry to get into the RHS. I'd much rather take it slower and savour the experience of my journey into the RHS. Some people may not agree with this approach, but I do and thats whats important.

GeorgEGNT