Professional Pilot Training (includes ground studies)A forum for those on the steep path to that coveted professional licence. Whether studying for the written exams, training for the flight tests or building experience here's where you can hang out.
i owe it to the many years of my mother teaching me about the ways in life. It has made me a much more independant and mature person who values just about everything in life and takes nothing for granted. She also made it clear to me that nothing ever comes free in life and if you want to get somewhere, you have to put in the graft and work!!!
Last edited by Felix Saddler : 17th May 2006 at 10:27.
I am kanak and i am also 17. I finished my 12 years in school (this is the way its told in India )and i am an Indian.
I was planning to do my CPL in australia,sydney with Basair aviation college.
I am having a great advantage with my nationality as i am an indian. There is lot of lack in pilots in india and i think i can get a job directly after i finish my cpl with some domestic airlines and build my hours.
Then when i have enough hours i can go to big airlines,
Hi
I know reading the posts you have received that everyone is giving there 2 pence worth (if you had all them 2p you wouldn't need a job!!) However I’m a couple of years older than you and was very much in the same position 2 years ago, so as much as it's worth I’ll tell you what i did.
I took a gap year and worked solid for 11 months, after that i went to the states and completed my ppl, i then went to Loughborough University to study aeronautical engineering. This is with the view of going to oxford once i graduate.
I understand this will leave me in more debt and a mortgage is out of the question for a good 10 years but it gives me a fall back option should i not like flying or a medical problem or another 9/11.
University is a great life i joined the Uni flying club "LSFC" which gave me more opportunities to fly and expand my overall understanding of aviation.
Taking this route means that when you go to oxford, CTC, Cabair your more mature and have got used to been away from home, because what I’ve heard is that the ATPL exams are hard, the work is hard so the last thing you want is to be upset or confused because your away from home.
Anyway good luck in whatever you choose to do and i hope i have assisted you if you need any more help or advise please e-mail me at .
Thanks
Tom
Loughborough is an awesome place, it is a campus university so everything is in one place. If you are into sports loughborough is the best sporting university in the country by a long way, we have every sport imaginable on offer for all levels, pluss in the summer you can lay in the grass and watch the cricket, without a care in the world!!
We also have one of the bigest students unions in the counrty the only one which is owned by the students, the SU also house lots of clubs and socities covering a wide range of interests has i've mentioned earlier we also have a flying club. Feel free to look at the unions website http://www.lufbra.net (totty spotter is a laugh) this gives you an idea of the social side of things something which is massivily incouraged here.
As for the course, the standard Aero BEng course requires BBC i think with B in maths and physics, please don't stop reading here if you don't have them, the uni usally accepts lower pluss there is a course called 'Air transport managment' which a lot of pilots take. I have placed 2 links at the bottom to the 2 courses, please have a look or come to see us at our open day.
I Hope this helps and you choose to come and experiance the 'Loughborough Experiance'
I have already posted this up in another thread but London Metropolitan University does a degree which incorporates your PPL, CPL and ATPL Theory. Its called Aviation Management and Operations (Pilots Pathway). Its only a foundation degree which is two years in total. The first year is just covering basics of aviation operations, airline marketing, HRM in aviation etc. Then you need to do your PPL in the summer break so you can start your ATPL theory in the second year. And in the second summer break you need to do your CPL to get the degree, but nearly everyone goes and does the CPL/IR with an MCC so they have a f(ATPL). So really its just one year extra of education to get a degree related to your career. Pretty good if you ask me!
Felix, i do the same (near enough) Courses as you, and i have been told that if you are to retake the whole year, it would look very poor on your UCAS application. As quite a few courses say that the A level course is to be completed in 2 years. (some even without resits).
I know the feeling, under pressure, stressed out - hey all part of A levels, they are not hard, just a pain in the butt.
I am aiming for AAB as you are, but possibly ABB if im lucky due to the severe lack of work put in this year. will 101% go to uni even if i ended up with BBB and was on my 2nd choice course.
Just do the As levels and see where to go from their, actual AND predicted grades go down on UCAS application, so you will probably get conditional offers all over the show.
Hope you dont want to do a degree in underwater basket weaving
Once you have completed your flight training you will have the same hours as you would if you just went to get the license. Also if you perform outstanding at a school, you never know they might recommend you to an airline if an airline calls the school up to ask if they have pilots that could be suitable. However this is how I see it, once you finish your license you will have exactly the same or similar hours and experience as everyone else, just out of a flying school, but will have a industry related degree. I feel that may just give you an edge to get in the interview room and have a shot at the job.
Well ive been watching this thread closely, as its a situation ive found myself in at the moment. I have applied through ucas and have been accepted to all of my choices one being lborough doing computer science though, however i sit here at my desk reading books in prep for my exams, and watch the planes go by my window, im right near Heathrow airport, and i just sit and wonder and keep telling myself one day i will be there. I don't want to go uni because i will enjoy studying comp sci, although im abit of a computer boff id be doing it for backup purposes purely. I think to my self there is nothing in this world i would want to be doing apart from one day flying an airliner be it a small one, i want my office to be at 33 000 ft. If this is all i want to be doing in life i dont think i should go into a frame of mind about backup plans, if you try hard enough for something its always achievable. Im 18 IF i were to complete a course fully i would be qualified by 20 this gives me time to go round looking, networking, applying etc if i had a degree i wouldnt complete the course (flying) and then try looking for a job for 6months to a year then say allow this ill go into the I.T profession, id work my guts out doing what ever it takes to make it there.You live your life once, live it like theres no tomorrow.
However, to get somewhere in life you want to be you have to work through the bad times where everything seems pointless and boring until you finally reach a stage in which you are totally qualified, so that if you do not exceed in finding your dreams, you can quite easily jump into something just as interesting and not have to suffer a lacklust and have an extremely boring life. From this thread i have learnt that the only way in which i am going to make it as a pilot, and achieve my dream is to pull myself through all the hard and boring times and not to influence myself with the thought that i could already be flying and that next step closer to joining an airline. We all would agree (even me now ) that the best way to do this is to go to uni, get a degree and find a suitable job in which you can pay yourself through flight school without the thought of huge debts. This way you can experience life to the full, tie up all lose ends that may hinder you in later life, say if you were to fail a medical, which is quite possible, you would have many other options open to you, etc,etc,etc.
The matter of the fact is, that the temptation to fly distracts us from more important issues in earlier life, such as uni, studying, learning the ways of life, etc. I know now that uni is something that we should all experience, we should concentrate more on succeeding one's self through life instead of using every possible excuse to get by an easier way.
Hi guy.
I have been reading all the "should you have a degree" post but found none that really reflect my circumstances. Let me explain....
I have just finished my second year of a four year degree in Civil Engineering. I did very badly and have transfered to year two of Project Management, which is a very similar course but without the maths! Thing is I hated the civil engineering and there is every likelyhood I will hate the new course as well. Also if I end up failign the course after four years I really will have wasted my time.
University would be much more bareable if I could do my PPL or something while at university, then at least I would be doing something towards my chosen career. My course is full time so I cant work and dont have any funds to pay for a PPL.
What I really want to do is just quite and start to work towards my ATPL licence as that is what I want to do, not civil engineering. I started doing it as a dackup but now, even if I couldn't fly for a living for whatever reason I would not do civil engineering as a career anyway. I would prefer to do a differnt degree that I wanted to do if it ever came to getting a career outside of flying and doing it as a mature student at the time. It feels like I am doing a degree that I hate and that will have no realy impact on my flying career (as its a backup, and one I wouldn't use anyway).
The things stopping me quitting are that an airline may see the quitting as a bad thing, and that they may feel that someone who has a backup plan is more the sort of person they want to employ.
All the other treads on here are from the point of view of someone who is going to go to university rather than someone who is already there and hateing it. So I would be very grateful of anyones thoughts on this dilema.
PS I am already 23 and will be 26 when I garduate.
Hey, i am in 100% same situation, i am 22, and will be 26 when i have done my MEng at uni, i am unsure if i should just go for integrated or stick out Uni.
So far i have decided to stick uni out as it will give me an extra reason for employing me, i can do a modular ATPL whilst at Uni and the year after so by 27 i should be in a possition to go and start applying with the airlines.
What has been playing on my mind is if i should just go Integrated and then in two years or less i can be applying to airline, thats a three year saving but no degree? I was thinking i can always do an Open uni degree if must.
But i will wait to see some more posts to your thread, i really feel i am in the same situation more or less and need to get a route and not just go with the flow. Sorry in a way to Hi-Jack your thread...
Hi planecrazy.eu. Nice to meet someone else with the same decisions.
All I want to do is FLY. Its so frustrating. If there was no reason to do a degree from airline employers point of view my decisions would be much easier because they would all be to do with flying and I would be working towards my goal which would help when the training gets hard. As it is I feel I am stuck in a dead end. I just dont want to make a rash decision and burn my bridges too soon by quitting university if that will look bad to the airlines.
Open university is a good idea, I hadn't really though of that. Some job that allowed you to get a degree while you worked would be ok as well. A part time degree.
Would your modular ATPL be self financed because if not then I would like to hear how you would do that while at uni as I've not really looked into the modular route as much. I can't afford to self finance it though
I have always felt the same as you but in the long run for me it was more sensible to finish off the degree to get a job that would pay for the flying training.
I understand where you're coming from because, as you, I only want to fly. But you should know that having a degree will NOT help you get a flying job. Your flying record is all that counts to getting an interview, and how you behave in the interview is what gets you the job. Uni doesn't even enter into it.
However, uni will most certainly mature you into a more well-rounded character which MIGHT (but no guarantees) give you an edge at an interview in regards to how you come across.
Don't leave university in a half-ars*d way. Have a plan on how/where you would like to train. You can always do/finish a degree later with part-time study, or distance learning.
Uni or Not
Uni & Grades
) that the best way to do this is to go to uni, get a degree and find a suitable job in which you can pay yourself through flight school without the thought of huge debts. This way you can experience life to the full, tie up all lose ends that may hinder you in later life, say if you were to fail a medical, which is quite possible, you would have many other options open to you, etc,etc,etc. 
Thing is I hated the civil engineering and there is every likelyhood I will hate the new course as well. 
Also if I end up failign the course after four years I really will have wasted my time.
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