Airline Pilot - Is it worth realistic/worth it? UK advice needed from Pilots

[Charlie_boy]

Being an Airline Pilot was a dream when I was younger (For many people)

I'm now 24 Years old with a 1st Class Degree (Geography and Environmental Studies) stuck in a low paying dead end desk (Earning 18,000k a year, 1,200 a month after tax)

With Cost of living I am only saving roughly £500 a month :ugh:

Current Saving

I nearly have £10,000 savings

I definitely want to get my PPL hoping to take written exams/Medical in the UK and then Flight traning in the USA

1) Will 10k be enough to cover everything, from flights to the usa,
accomodation, training?

After my completing my PPL I have two routes I can take....

Get an outdoors ranger type job hopefully eaning 23-25k (Meaning I can save roughly 1,000 a month)

Should I

a) Just use savings for Private flying and enjoy the the rest of my 20's and stick to a lowish paying job for the forseeable future

b) Save every penny I can and hopefully complete a frozen ATPL by the time I'm 30-35 and be earning good money in my 40's

Basically I'm asking is the dream worth it.....How do you (Airline Pilots) actually find the job (Job Satisfaction) .......

[r1flyguy35]

Truthfully!!!!!

Only you know the answer!

Is it the job or the money your interested in?????

I had my PPL in my early 20's, I didn't take the plunge to study for the commercial side of flying until I was 33, I got offered a job 6 months after I qualified and I'm working commercially now,
The money.... Is Better than my previous occupation.....
The job satisfaction.... Well worth it (considering my previous occupation)

I suggest you go flying with the first thought of gaining a PP, and to see if you actually enjoy it, then go from there :ok:

[Charlie_boy]

Thanks for the reply...What was your previous employment

How do you find it as a lifestyle? Being in hotels all the time...Away from "home", No set routines.....etc Does it get boring being up at altitude looking over ocean for hours on end

[G-F0RC3]

It's quite a subjective question, I suppose. I mean; its worth depends on how much you value it as a career.

To me, it's worth a lot, but that's because I have a real love for flying. I'm not an airline pilot, but I have a PPL. But would I risk my house on the training? I doubt it - I don't think it's worth that risk, particularly if other people rely on that house being there. On top of that, I probably make more in my current job than I would as a newly qualified airline pilot with such a debt to service. It would take me until I had cleared the debt off and moved up quite a few pay grades in an airline to earn my current salary. So such a decision wouldn't seem logical from a financial perspective.

But anyway, should one never achieve the dream it's not the end of the world. I mean, I've come to learn that you're not always going to get your own way in life. :(

[six7driver]

Charlie boy, I started at about your age, even later as I finished my CPL at age 26 (you can accelerate your career If you have the resources). I finished a university degree as well, and after all was done I was very much in debt and didn't have bright job prospects. But, when you love flying, when all you do is dream of getting paid to enjoy something you loved paying for, it keeps you going. I had to chase the dream though, half way across the world...but by staying humble, and with he help of a lot of good people through the years, I'm a Captain on a wide body jet. It's not the glamorous job it used to be, but it is still fun for me and going to work, most times feels great. The hours are long, the shifts are sometimes bad. You're away from family more than you want to be, but you're doing something you enjoy, period. If you have the passion for it, you're half way here, after that it's all about persistence. Successful pilots are seldom born, like me they take years (17 years in my case) to make. I'd say go for it, I did and I' don't regret a minute! Good luck!:ok:

[r1flyguy35]

"Thanks for the reply...What was your previous employment

How do you find it as a lifestyle? Being in hotels all the time...Away from "home", No set routines.....etc Does it get boring being up at altitude looking over ocean for hours on end"


Emergency Services ;)


Lifestyle, that again depends on you! Do you enjoy your own company, do you work well in a team or close quarters hours on end with the same person, or in some pilots cases, a different colleague everytime?

I would say, different companies, categories, bring different 'lifestyles'

I work in a small'ish company, around 120 pilots across 2 fleets, with only 20 or so on the fleet I'm on and everyone knows everyone, so it's close knit and a huge variety of nationalities
The shift system is great (for me) we only work nights (freight) and I happen to be an SFO on the most beautiful aircraft ever to be built, we also only fly short sectors between 2.5 - 6 hours max maybe 2 sectors in a night and although the locations are repetitive they are great places to be.

Being away from home...... Again, depends on you & your circumstances. I didn't have a child unit. 2.5 years ago so that's when it changed for me, before then, it never bothered me :)

As I say, it's all down to you, your personal circumstances and want to fly

Some jobs will not be as easy, but if you just want to fly and you finally reach the point where every flight you do, your getting paid for it, then that may very well be the making of you as a career pilot

I had the chance of a great career and great pension in my previous job, (I flew privately for pleasure during this period) but after 11years, I knew what I really wanted to do and needed to try, I left a secure job for the unknown, do I regret it, absolutely not

[Artie Fufkin]

How do you find it as a lifestyle? Being in hotels all the time...Away from "home", No set routines.....etc

It is impossible to predict which lifestyle you will end up with. A job at Easy will have a very different lifestyle attached than that at Air Atlantique, which will be different to Virgin, which will be different to Qatar. You could end up at any of them. The choice may not be yours.

Some will offer home every night, others will be away from home for several days at a time, others will involve up routing yourself and moving to a separate country and culture. Some will involve deep night flying, others will offer long working hours, others will offer repetitive routing and rosters. Either way, kiss goodbye to weekends, bank holidays, the kids half term and a long christmas break.

I left a career in something else. Once the flying honeymoon wore off, I found aspects of my old career and lifestyle appealing (they were actually the aspects of the my previous career I most despised at the time). But, it was undoubtably the best decision I have ever made. Some aspects of the job suck, most don't. Ultimately, I love flying and that's the end of it.

The advise I got before starting was to be sure you loved flying. "Because when it's 3am, dark, cold and raining outside and you've got to get out of bed to go flying, only a passion for what you're doing will ultimately see you through."

Does it get boring being up at altitude looking over ocean for hours on end

The most I have done is 5 hours over the sea (both ways, so 10 hours in one day) That particular flight passed quickly with both the First Officer and myself arriving back at base still with a lot to say to each other, saying we'd "catch up" next week and finish off all the things we wanted to talk about but didn't have the time. On other sectors, under an hour, over land, it's like watching paint dry. It all depends on your crew.

edited to add

r1flyguy35 is on the money - only you know the answer. It's undeniably a great job, but there are downsides. Just how compelled are you to scratch that itch?

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

There is some sound advice here.

I spent many years chasing the dream, from my education, to working in industry and working as a flight instructor I can say now that reaching a point to working for an airline is absolutely fantastic. After 8 years of professional flying I have very much enjoyed every minute of it and still am.

If this career and love of aviating is in your blood, the whole journey is worth all the blood sweat and tears of getting there. The job will bring you many challenges, but if you have the drive it is very rewarding.

I would go for it, and enjoy it.

All the best.