Advice please...PPL/COMMERCIAL

[sm85]

Firstly,Hello!
I'm new on the forum and have only just registered.

I am looking for some advice (lots of it I think) so I will just fire out some of my questions and briefly describe my situation.

My situation: I am 28, live on the south coast (Bournemouth) I achieved my PPL back in 2004/5 but was unable to keep up the hours to keep it valid, time has passed by with no flying and I have not revalidated the licence.

I have been in employment in the marine industry over this period of time. I am feeling stale in my industry/employment and am now considering a (big) change in career direction and am looking into the feasibility of flying commercially.

- Will it be possible to use the PPL towards commercial certification without completely re-doing all of the work / investment? I accept I will have to more or less start again regarding study etc

- What are the current options like regarding sponsorship/part sponsorship? are there any operators I should look at contacting?

- Are loans still available for commercial pilot training? If self funding, what are the employment prospects like?

I think my next step is to go for a Class 1 medical to make sure I am capable of pursuing this and to speak to some schools about my options and a way forward, although I do think everything from a training provider should be taken with a pinch of salt , hence my post on this forum.

If I make the decision to go for it, I think the biggest hurdle would be funding and living whilst training as I am very used to receiving a pay cheque each month. A sponsorship opportunity would be a dream situation but I cannot seem to find any good resources on the internet.

If anyone has any advice or entered the commercial pilot world from a similar situation ( after years of employment in another industry etc) it would be very gratefully received!

[Genghis the Engineer]

yes, none, yes, marginal.

I did a CPL as an enthusiastic and experienced PPL and Chartered Engineer. I don't regret it for a moment, and added an instructors rating. I've probably recovered the cost of the instructors rating, but not the CPL. Fortunately I'm still happy as an engineer and never really intended to try and become a full time pilot. Weekend instructing however, is a heck of a lot of fun.

[sm85]

Hi Genghis,

If you don't mind me asking, did you fit the Commercial training in whilst maintaining your employment? or did you go the full time route?

This is something I am looking at as a new career so think the only way to do it is to be fully committed and go for the full time training route. It is just question of managing time/money etc over the duration

[CTC_Cadet]

Hi SM85.

As you can probably tell from my username, I'm a cadet currently on the wings course studying for a frozen ATPL (CPL/IR) at CTC Aviation. Firstly, I know that CTC do have an allowance for previous hours flown, although I'm not entirely sure on how much exactly is credited.

Sponsorship. As an aspiring pilot, it's been painful to see that no real opportunities have emerged offering a full sponsorship post 9/11. However, there are various airlines (EasyJet, Monarch, Qatar) who offer MPL courses. To summarise, the MPL is a training course developed alongside the airlines in order to produce low hour pilots who are specially trained already in Multi-crew operations, and have plenty of sim hours. The main bonus for the cadet is that obviously - as long as you pass the selection and also all of the CAA exams to the required grade, you're pretty much guaranteed a job with that parent airline on completion of training. In this current day and age, myself included whilst on the wings course, the forecast is 5 months in the hold pool waiting for my turn to sit in the right hand seat.

With CTC and OAA, BBVA offer finance solutions, although I can honestly say it's not a great deal. I mean yeah, it's there, and people who are desperate to get on the course will indeed take a loan through BBVA, I very nearly did! However if you have ANY other financial resource, try your hardest to fund it that way!

With regards accommodation.. I assume you've looked at the big schools like CTC/OAA/FTE? CTC's wings package is £69,000 (not including the cost of flying in New Zealand, which for me was £10,700 but varies each month!) BUT accommodation is included in the price, and I was very impressed with the accommodation my peers and I lived in! As for OAA, they have 'halls of residence' but they are £7000 for the duration of groundschool, failing that - Kidlington is a fairly expensive place to rent.. Added to the cost of flight training with OAA (again around £80,000) it all begins to get very expensive before you've even thought about adding a Type Rating at the end of the course!

All I can say is continue and obtain your Class 1 medical, and try and get to ALL of the schools open days, and work out for yourself which school suits you. I chose CTC because of the employment statistics, that for me is the most important stat after parting with £80,000! But I have many friends who have been through OAA and couldn't rate the school high enough. And of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a PM!

From my username please do not think that I am biased toward CTC in any way, I am very honest and give my own opinion.

[sm85]

Hi @CTC_Cadet

Thanks for the reply,

As this is a career change I am definitely looking at all my options, In terms of continuity and progression a full time training route is the best option (for me) and I have not ruled out the full time route, as I am based close to Bournemouth I am going to get my PPL sorted out as a starting point to move on from, which is also convenient if I decide to go the modular route.

Regarding CTC do you mind shedding some light,,,I have completed the initial CTC Wings online application which only asks for personal and contact details and then up pops a message telling me they will be in touch for the rest of the details such as employment history, qualifications etc, so far I've had no reply, do they normally take a little time to get back to applicants ? Are there many applicants of my age accepted on to the scheme?

[CTC_Cadet]

Hi Steve,

I understand, and getting your PPL first would certainly show the recruitment team of any flight school that you mean business. CTC have a very varied ages in each course. Take my course for example, the youngest guy was 18 when he started and the most senior being 35. As long as you're still able to obtain a class 1 medical age wouldn't be an issue.

With me I was in a slightly different boat, I applied to see if I was good enough to get onto a course first and foremost, but at the same time applied for the EasyJet MPL at OAA. I was successful for the first few phases at OAA, getting to the final inteview with EasyJet and fluffing it, but during that time didn't really continue my application with CTC until a year or so later. It did take them a little while to get back to me, but the best thing you can do is if you feel it has been quite a considerable time, email them to check they received it. I have a feeling a lot of people have applied recently as CTC have just held an open day.. usually follows with a lot of applicants!

Please feel free to ask any more question you may have.

[Halfwayback]

Hi Sm85

Welcome to the Wannabee forum of PPRuNe!

You will find lots of people here willing to help you get the first foot on the rung of the commercial aviation ladder - indeed you have already had replies!

You have obviously thought the career move through but if you do a little more research (use the Search function) you will find a lot of your questions have been asked and answered before.

Sadly it will also give you a good idea of the parlous state of the industry at the moment. It will also show you some of the pitfalls and expenses that lie ahead.

Good luck

HWB

Moderator

PS Before the usual sciolists begin baying I'll close the thread for now. Give me a call when you need more advice - or start a new thread!