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.
hi everyone Im new to this site and have a really big question on my mind.
I want to be a pilot no matter what butmy grades just aint up to par I currently sit on 2 as results C and D but plan on getting at least 2 B's this year at A2 as I did no work last year. I am currently at the option where I go to university or straight into the work place and to be honest I would rather be up in the sky than down in the class room. Im really asking anyone for advice as their help and guidance would be much appreciated. At the moment I am stuck for choices with wanting to apply for the RAF or British Airways (next year of coarse). So if all is well I shall meet the requirements that both have put out on their web sites 2 C's at A level (minimum requirements). I need advice on whether I should go to university, go to a university where an RAF flying squadron is based (meaning leaving the country as I live in N.Ireland) or apply straight away when I get my results, or if any of you have any other helpful options that would aid me and allow me to stand a better chance against other prospective pilots then please please help me.
I would say, forget pilot training and joining the Raf, your grades are no way good enough, and to be a pilot...you competing Versus the best!
why no become a landscape gardener??
The three options you state all require dedication.
What I would suggest (by the way I’m no expert – its just the way I see it) you apply to a good university and join the flying school. As well as gaining a good qualification (depending you put in the work!) university will give you excellent communication and teamwork skills, which if you read the GAPAN pilot selection questionnaire (Q1) are ranked more favourably than education and technical knowledge. NOW THIS IS THE BIGGY you get a plan b, so if plan a (pilot) goes belly up you can still pay the bills.
What I would say though is don’t do IT (I did like so many others and it’s an industry which is probably as unstable as the airline industry!) go for a degree that gets you a professional qualification!! I’ve got lots of mates that have done quantity surveying etc. and they are walking straight into well-paid jobs!!
Oh yeah forgot to mention the life experience you get at uni!
this follows on from olly who posted while I was typing
So your question is, RAF or BA?.. and straight after A2 application or after uni? I guess it really is whatever you feel like at the time. I wanted to be a pilot with BA for yonks, but when I dug in deep and started thinking hard I started looking for other options. I now view my flying as a VERY expensive hobby, and that is what I've planned for. I decided not to apply for BA just yet. But as long as you think hard and try hard you can do whatever you want.
Start networking. Get yourselves people within RAF and BA who can tell you out what's happening. Think about uni. You'll be able to get a default (as in backup) degree which you can turn to if anything stops you from reaching your main goal, and if you're lucky, the uni you choose will have a UAS like many in mainland Britain.
May I ask a C and D in what A levels? I'm sure you can improve in the year cause you'll have the option to resit a lot of AS exams if you need to. Oh, and as you're new to the site, the search link will help you dredge up some older posts of others in your shoes.
thanks for all your help even from hustler as its only motivated me more. The C was in ICT and the D was english literature.
hustler how can you say to give up now with those grades surely even if you meet the minimum requirements then you are just as eligable for the job as the next guy?
Ped, poppet..
I'm sure this has been said many times before on many a forum and thread... But if someone at your (st)age wants something as much as you obviously want to be a pilot, it has to be a good idea to look closely into why you want it. What is it about the job that attracts you? Do you want to do it for the right reasons?
Perhaps you do, and there's more than one Right Reason.
But the best way to find out is to get the best education you can. You have a fantastic opportunity to pursue education for its own sake, perhaps your last opportunity. Use it. Go to Uni, opt for a subject that stimulates and interests you (as long as it's not "Becoming a Pilot Studies"); broaden your mind; have fun; grow up (I say that in no pejorative sense). And yes, join the UAC and get some hours.
You will gain from it all immensely. And potential employers will like it too, if you do decide in the end that flying is for you. Times, they are a-changing....
On a serious note I would say as follows (and I'm no careers advisor)
Uni as a backup plan get a degree, and some life experiences (doing runners from restaurants, stealing traffic cones, writing sob stories for access funds etc etc) Have 3-4 years of mayhem.
Join the UAS (if they still exist??)
See how the industry is going, if it looks well, consider after uni. Such a massive financial debt would be huge if you have no backup plan or anything to fall back on (perhaps sponsorship exists again after uni). As for RAF imho so so so so selective, but no harm in trying I suppose, but dont set your heart on it, have parallel contingency plan.
Hi,
I am a year older than you, i have just done my A2's. I had the the same dilemma as you. For me, i have chosen to pursue training rather than Uni at the moment for a whole variety of reasons. What i suggest is that you go through the UCAS system just as I did and at the same time research into flying training, visit schools, prices etc. This way you keep your options open. I made my final decision not to go to Uni on results day, I got 4 A levels and decided that Uni wasn't for me. I have wanted to be a pilot since I was teeny and I am now starting to act on this.
That's cool, so long as it was based on your groundwork and not some line fed to you by FTO's of how good it's going to get and there will be a shortage of pilots, they have to pick up etc etc bla bla, I would like to believe it but the proof will be in the pudding as they say.
Lots of possibilities! Just keep the WHY clear in your mind and then work for it. Keeping your options open and doing something similar to Dozza2k can only be of benefit. Good luck with A2 this year.
Pedracer if you don't understand why just having the minimum qualifications is not enough to get the job, you definitely need to stay in education a bit longer! But, while we're here, try this problem: employer A (let's call him the RAF) says, 'I want 20 new baby pilots. They must have a minimum of 2 A-levels.' He puts the ad in the local rag, and 300 eager young hopefuls turn up. Many have degrees, many more have 3 or more A-levels, at high grade, and some have just the minimum 2. All else being equal, who do you think he'll give the jobs to? Answers on a postcard....
Seriously, you must get the very best results that you can in your A-levels. You have the task of persuading the recruiters (if the RAF is the way you decide to try) that you are determined to succeed in the very difficult course you have chosen. A-levels are a mere bagatelle compared to the trials you will face in your RAF training, and the recruiter is waiting to be impressed by your application and determination. Showing that you really couldn't give a toss about school because you 'jus' wanna fly' is not going to crack it.
Airlines, on the other hand, are not so prescriptive about educational qualifications, but that doesn't mean that they don't matter. You have very little life history. Like the RAF, an airline will want evidence that you can show determination and can work hard even when you don't particularly like what you're doing. The only evidence you can show is your exam results... Getting the picture?
Go to university, take a course you will enjoy - not one you think you 'should' do, learn a bit about life, the universe and everything. If you can, join a University Air Squadron and get some flying, some discipline and some excellent opportunities to try out other activities which you may never have thought about before. Learn about yourself, develop your maturity and find out what's really important to you. Then decide where you are going to spend your lifetime's effort at earning a crust!
I'd agree with just about everything Scroggs said. The just about bit being don't make your choice at uni solely about something that you enjoy. It wont pay the bills.
When I was at uni I had many friends reading weird and wonderful degrees because they were not too sure what they were going to do with their lives.
This may seem academic, no pun intended, at your age but when you have to wait 18 months or so for that pilots job to come having become yet another fATPL or even worse if you are just not destined. What will you do then.
You could possibly be 23yrs old 50k in debt with a fATPL and a B.Sc in Underwater Basket Weaving. Makes for fascinating dinner party conversation but it won't get you another job whilst you (A) wait or (B) move on.
The Armed Forces are not the sort of thing to go into lightly the RAF are going to take 12 years of your life and unless you have a well above average pair of hands you are never really going to know whether you are fast jet, rotary or multis untill it happens which will be many moons after Cranditz and by then you will be stuck with it.
The Army are only going to take 8 years of your life but unless you particularly want to be an army officer 1st and a pilot as a hobby every now and then for 3 hrs a month your are going to run up and down hills at Sandhurst for a year spend 2-3 years on the pilots course and then leave disgruntled with 800 Lynx or Gazelle hours at the end of you 8 years (You may get Apache Sim time if you are touched by Director Army Aviation).
As for the Navy simliar deal, Britannia Royal Naval College folowed by similar 2-3 years of holding in silly places without porfolio BUT lots more hours, lots more aviation support, lots more divorces but they do get to see the world
IMHO go to uni, do something useful and professional i.e. law, engineering, medicine, surveying, accountancy, town planning, nursing, education. Not because you arent going to make it but just to cover your a*se if another 9/11 happens or if you fall over in a tragic blimp accident and loose your medical. Basically so that if it all goes Pete Tong that you gan walk into another profession and not face too much financial hardship.
It's not doom and gloom its just sensible to get a degree in todays climate it can't harm, don't worry about your As do a foundation course or go through clearing. Once you have a degree you have proven your academic ability and poeple will care far less about your AS or A levels.
Oh and as for having to leave NI well living on the mainland will expand your horizons and allow you the chance to meet, drink wqith and sleep with more people from different places surely. If you have been in NI all your life surely going to the mainland for uni will be a good thing.
Knowledge is power the more you know and the more places you have been and the more things that you have experienced the better and more rounded you become at life.
Not sure what planet you're on but you both seem to view joining BA as an option which you may exercise when it tickles your fancy. Do you think they'll pay for you? Do you think that with those grades they would have taken you on the old scheme as it was?
Get real guys
If you get into a uni with UAS, and then convince the UAS guys to let you in there then snap it up with both hands. The UAS isn't just a flying club - they monitor your academic records. If you aren't doing well you're out.
Pedracer if you're really determined to fly, I wouldn't bother with uni. Get a job, save and get a licence off your own back.
Vortex you're right, of course. My intention was to guide Pedracer and anyone in his place to avoid the degrees they think they 'should' do, like aeronautical engineering and the like, and to think about what they might enjoy. That in no way implies that their choice should be some variety of underwater basket-weaving, and of course they should think about the employability of any degree they take.
If an individual is mathmatically and engineering orientated, then by all means launch into aeronautical engineering - but do it because you want to, not because you feel you have to. You don't! Just about any degree is acceptable to an airline as proof of your ability to study. However, if the airline route proves fruitless, and you have to get a job in the greater economy, then you may be poorly placed with a degree in Real Ales of Rutland, 2003-5. On th other hand...
silverknapper
don't think I said that..? I'm just saying it's nice to have opitions and to know what's going on wherever you wana go. Besides if BA was gona let me in whenever I felt like, that would be really unfair
thanks still to all those with there advice I am starting to learn what I have to do. I get the impression that some of you think Im just a kid that wants to fly I know why Iwant to fly andits for the right reasons. I know how hard it is to get into the RAF and British Airways as there are members within my family that have adviced me on how to go about it and part of that advice has led me to here. I wish that those who have given negative responses would stop doing so as it is no benefit to anyone and especially to me. I need advice and positivity not a form of abuse and negativity at the end of the day you should be here to help me as you are all experienced and advised in different areas of aviation.
Keep all your help coming in it really is much appreciated
Quite a helpful topic this by the looks of things...
ive got some very handy GCSE grades, and I hope to finish up with 4 high A levels, then I would dearly like to start flight training instead of going off to university, so it can be done? People seem to be pointing me towards getting a degree, but I can get a loan for my training from my family, and I couldnt imagine sitting at uni for 2 years when i would rather be somewhere else! Just a thought
It's not really a question of what you want to do as to what you are able to do. With the exception of CTC there appears to be no Professional funding about so if you choose the fATPL route then your choices are integrated or modular.
No problem with either of these but when you have qualified and are after a job it will be a case that you will be poor an unemployed. With a degree you have more earning potential and a safety net, without you have nothing.
More to the point if you don't go to uni now you may find yourself going aged 25 or even later. No it's not impossible at this age and I saw people doing it, who as a result of some life experience took the life very seriously and studied hard and were there solely to acheieve the academic qualification.
It is meant to be more than that and certainly can be, you can do all the things that you haven't done before whilst growing up with people your own age and making friendships for life whilst having experiences that you will keep forever.
If you don't go now you will never really fit in because you will feel older and be older and you will have wasted one of life's golden opportunities. Get to uni then all options are open you might even get your flying out of the UAS up to PPL and beyond whilst getting paid for it.
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