Finishing A levels this year. Need advice!!

[IFRKING]

Hello guys and gals!

I'm age 18 and going to finish my a levels this May:) straight after that I'm planning to start my PPL but have no idea what to do next.
As you may know not every 18 year old has 85 odd grand lying in their pocket.
The highest my parents could offer me was £30K and obviously isn't enough for a full frozen ATPL.

I need some advice on what routes are the easiest both time wise and financially.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

What I can tell you is that after PPL you may start studying ATPL theory in DL and whilst working so that you may earn some money on your own while living at your parents'.
After that you go somewhere cheap for hour building like the USA, Spain, Portugal, or somewhere in Eastern Europe like Latvia, Poland, Croatia...
Also you can take your CPL, ME and IR somewhere cheaper than the UK. For example Poland!
Obtaining American licences and ratings and then convert them may turn out to be more expensive than directly obtaining european licences and ratings.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

Also, I don't want to say that you should plan everything strictly, but I do think you can do everything within your budget. Once again, Poland!

[IFRKING]

Any recommended FTO's in Poland and a rough estimate on cost?

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

Give a look at Bartolini Air. From 0 to ATPL frozen they say that it would cost you €44.000 but that's integrated and based on minimums.
I think that modular is always the way to go.

[Mikeoscar94]

Aeros Flight Training offer ATPL Ground School, CPL, MEP and IR in conjunction with ProPilot ATPL Ground School for £23,128.

I also believe Aeros Flight Training will soon be doing MCC courses at their Coventry base.

Anyway, good luck! Research research research!

From another teenage pilot. ;)

Edit: Aeros are not a Poland FTO. All based in the UK with premises at Cardiff, Gloucester, Wellesbourne, Coventry and Nottingham City.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

I am hardly considering the UK 'cause for an Italian it would be expensive and I would risk exchange rates fluctuations.

[average-punter]

Get the best paid job you can to fund it!

@RedBullGaveMeWings For a non-British native you have an exceptional command of English, every one of your posts that I've read is written very well.

[RedBullGaveMeWings]

Thanks! I still have to work on my accent inclination though!:ugh::E

[Mikehotel152]

You ask for advice? Ok.

There are thousands of young pilots already holding a CPL/IR who are keen to get a job flying airliners. There are very few jobs. Even Ryanair is slashing recruitment targets by 50%. Only a fraction will get a job in the industry before the basic need to earn a living kicks in and they have to go to the job centre where their expensive flight training will mean nothing.

The lucky few will be the pilots who the few recruiting airlines see as the safest bet. The airlines will be biased towards integrated course cadets until the recession ends and the cadet requirements increase. Therefore doing training as soon as you can on a budget could get you the minimum qualifications but precious little hope of getting a job.

My advice at 18 and with A-Levels is to get a job in an aviation related industry. Go work at airfield, a chart compiler like Aerad, an airport as a dispatcher, or even at a decent airline as cabin crew. Use your earnings to pay for your PPL and make sure you actually have a aptitude for flying. Many people love the idea of being a commercial pilot but don't have the basic skills. No point spending £100k only to find you fail the computer aptitude tests that most airlines use.

After a few years earning money and getting your PPL you will still be young, probably early twenties, and you will be financially secure. You may even have started saving, you will have a credit rating, you will be in a position to take your parent's money and pay for commercial flight training at a decent FTO. By then the recession might have ended, all those pilots currently qualified but jobless will have moved on, forced to go work in another industry, and you will be perfectly placed to get a job.

This mad rush to get a CPL/IR by the age of 21 when we are in the deepest recession since the 1920s and there are no jobs is baffling. By all means apply to BA for a cadet job. If you get it, fantastic, you have the 'right stuff'. If you don't and you find the tests incredibly difficult, be honest with yourself, get a job in aviation and bide your time.

Good luck.

[Sygyzy]

Sound advice there. In all aspects of life there are people whose sole aim is to part you from your money. Aviation is no different.

40 or 50 years ago there were two ways into a flying career-just about-a sponsored scheme or the forces. There were a few who had the money to pay, but from the average lad's POV those people were almost super rich. If you didn't cut the mustard and managed to get someone else to pay for your training you looked for another career-by and large, there are always exceptions.

I think a large number of people should be asking themselves...If I'm not a cut above the others and can get into the forces/a sponsored scheme should I really be spending all this money on a dream.

Many of my friends dropped by the wayside at Biggin Hill/Hamble/Oxford/Perth in the '60's. They all picked themselves up, went elsewhere and were successful in other fields. Some got a PPL in later life and thoroughly enjoyed their flying. Parents didn't have large sums in house equity and struggled to put more that one child through university.

With the dips in economy even then the wash out rate on sponsored courses/forces was horrendous too-40% to 50%% wasn't unusual as the airlines/RAF didn't need all those new recruits. The sponsoring deals stopped and airlines didn't recruit. Flight decks went from 3 man to 2 (eg Trident/Vanguard to 737) and the airlines were overstuffed with pilots for years.

It's the same today, but the view has been skewed as people have other/more sources to large sums of money. The schools are bound to tell you that you have the potential to be the next Tom Cruise. Without your money their business plan is tanked.

And so the race to the bottom continues. People desperate to get a foot in the airline door will sell their souls/their granny/their integrity when in truth they shouldn't be there in the first place.

We don't see this in other 'professions'. There doesn't seem to be the equivalent of a P2F scheme in the medical profession-not good enough and you don't get in.

Maybe it's time for aspirants to smell the coffee.

[Depone]

That's the voice of a child speaking, Greg. Sorry to be condescending but we are not talking about Mickey Mouse money or a career at McDonalds. Being a commercial pilot is a technically and intellectually demanding career. It is not for anyone who 'dreams' of flying an airliner after playing Flightsim on his or her PC, just as a fifteen year old who kicks ass at COD on the Xbox 360 isn't necessarily cut out for a career in the SAS.

Yes, you only get one life. Yes, aim high, follow your dreams, fulfil all the cliches you can find BUT go about it in a carefully considered, mature and well-researched way. Don't burn £100k of someone else's money when you're still growing up, maturing and learning what you are capable of in life. Don't get yourself in huge amounts of debt that will blight your twenties and thirties because you 'just had to try it'. This is especially true now, as others have said, when THERE ARE HARDLY ANY JOBS.

[Contact Approach]

Keep the 30K, pay your way through your PPL, ATPL's and hour building. Then complete the CPL/IR/MCC full time with the 30k when you see viable.