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.
You can go to university and spend 3 years there, and in that three years you could of got your CPL/IR and be in a job. Where as if you do your training first, then you have got it out of the way, and then do your university after your training (as it only takes 2 years - as you wont get it into one year so take 2 off) and while at uni, you can then search for jobs and just drop out if a good one comes your way.
A degree is a good thing, no doubt about it, but you can get one when you like as lots of mature students are around nowadays. Your age is a useful thing in the industry and no doubt having a license as early as possible is a good thing!!
Your call.
This is my opinion and anyone who disagrees i dont really want to know, as all people do on PPRuNe is whine
Good, that means I can make a decision on where to do my PPL based purely on convenience and quality of school - rather than thinking about the ATPL situation as well.
Looks like it is a better idea to wait until after uni before starting a PPL. barké I could never consider 'dropping out of uni' - hope you don't mind me disagreeing, but I commit to everything I do.
smith No need to be sarcastic?
I doubt I'd have funding for much flying during uni, but I could still apply for the UAS right? I think it would be better to concentrate on the degree, then concentrate on the flight training afterwards. I don't like the idea of having large gaps between flying - especially at an early stage of learning.
David UK So true about the careers advisors not knowing much about aviation jobs.
Thought I would resurrect this thread and let you know how I'm getting on. Not that anyone's interested (but I'd like to think someone out there will benefit from reading this!)
So, during my second year of college (A-level finals 2009), I began training for my JAA PPL at Leicestershire Aeroclub. Meanwhile, I applied for a place on the Mathematics (G100) course at The University of Nottingham. As the year went by, flying went well and I was progressing through the PPL. College went well and I was offered a conditional place at Nottingham (among others).
Summer was lovely. A-level results arrived in August and I got my confirmed place at Nottingham. In September, after 3 cancellations for my Skills Test, I passed the PPL - with 5 days to spare before I moved to Nottingham.
Flying was being funded by part-time work. I'd like to offer my strongest recommendations for Leicester Airport. The rates are excellent (£122ph dual, C-152). Throughout my training, everyone I met was supportive and encouraging. During the year, I flew with almost every one of the 4-5 outstanding instructors (including the CFI). It is a great place to learn to fly and I would recommend it to anyone in the area.
In 2009, I was lucky enough to win an Air League scholarship which paid for my final 12 hours before the Skills Test. I'd like to take the opportunity to once again thank the Air League for their wonderful generosity in awarding this scholarship. The interview/selection process was a great experience and I met many interesting people from different parts of the country!
I am now in second year on the Maths course. Uni is incredible. I've learnt more in the last 2 years about life than I had ever done in my previous 18. Do not pass up the opportunity to go to uni - you will regret it.
I am still very much determined to become an airline pilot. My plan is to come out of uni with a respectable degree and enter into any well-paying full-time job for a few years. This is a question I want to ask: What jobs or sectors would you suggest?
All going well, I'll gather together enough cash to start training modular for the ATPL. Hopefully the industry (and economy in general) will have picked up in a few years. Maybe a UK airline will be brave enough to offer some kind of sponsorship?
Happy New Year! Let's hope 2011 marks the return of aviation success.
great to hear rikesh! I'm dong kinda the same, I finish my bachelor this year and will start my PPL this year to get some hours in the 2 years i got left at college. Keep this topic updateed;-)
I think we have a lot of similarities my friend. Was your air league scholarship at Tayside in Dundee by any chance? I had a couple scholarships there through air cadets that got me 35 hours of my ppl.
That ppl I finished at Phoenix Aviation at Netherthorpe, near Worksop just north of Nottingham. (very cheap with no landing/membership/joining fees, and makes you excellent at landings - shortest licenced runway in the uk!) I mention that because I'm at Nottingham Uni too, in my third and final year of a physics degree.
I too have the eventual aim of being an airline pilot, although I have my heart set on doing some bush flying and similar first. I'll be starting my hour building and ATPL theory this summer after I graduate.
Drop me a pm if you'd like to meet up and chat in Nottingham once term starts. It's surprising how few pilots I meet in real life when there are supposedly thousands of qualified unemployed ones all over the place!
It's surprising how few pilots I meet in real life when there are supposedly thousands of qualified unemployed ones all over the place!
As of 2008 there were approximately 17000 ATPL/CPL holders in the UK. With a population of 61 million, you would have to meet 3588 people before you were statistically likely to meet an airline pilot. Assuming that 20% of the 17000 are unemployed then your chances of meeting an unemployed airline pilot are one in 17941.
Hi Rikesh! Glad to hear your doing well, and keep following the dream!
For me, I am currently doing option 2 -
2. Complete A-Levels, then do modular training towards an fATPL while keeping my part-time job to pay for it. Possibly take out a loan to assist, depending on the actual costs. Then, apply for airlines.
Well I havn't taken a loan out and don't plan to. I finished A Levels and have been in full time employment ever since, saving for my pilot training. And you know what, a bit of me says maybe I should have gone to Uni, but to be honest I still don't regret not going. I think things have changed over the years, and with soo many people comming out of uni waving their degrees in the air and not enough jobs to go round, I think really a degree is only worth doing if doing something specific like becomming a doctor, or a lawyer or a teacher.
By all means I agree that a degree is good to fall back on should things turn bad. But only if it's a degree that means something! Doing a degree in say television studies is not really going to do any favours for you. More employers now are really looking at what work experience you have had in sales or customer service etc. Plus think about the costs, the costs of doing a degree and then the pilot training is going to cost as much as an integrated course anyway.
At the end of the day, its up to the individual really in what they decide. I just wanted to put my version across to everyone, as quite a lot of people I know have either taken up the air force route, gone integrated, or went to uni.
You have taken a well balanced, methodical approach to your training so far.
A decade ago, this would still have been an excellent career choice for you, but I suspect the tide may have turned too much for you. If you're doing a maths degree, you're probably bordering on being a straight A student and I really question whether you will go down this career once you get sucked into a proper graduate role after your degree. It is not a question to answer now, as you will no doubt strongly object but let us know in another 2.5 years!
As of 2008 there were approximately 17000 ATPL/CPL holders in the UK. With a population of 61 million, you would have to meet 3588 people before you were statistically likely to meet an airline pilot. Assuming that 20% of the 17000 are unemployed then your chances of meeting an unemployed airline pilot are one in 17941.
I'm sure you realise I was joking, but for the sake of arguement you're not taking into account the likely demographic of those I meet. Very few of the one third of the 61 million population that are under 16 or over retirement age will have an ATPL for example , and I assure you they don't make up much of a proportion of those I meet.
The people I do meet: those studying a maths/science/engineering course at uni like me, or those who frequent the airfields I fly at, however, I'm sure you'll agree are much more likely candidates.
Perhaps you could try the cadetship with Cathay Pacific
I applied for this in 2011 and have heard nothing back!
Meanwhile, I went for the BA FPP but was eliminated at the assessment centre stage. Didn't realise there would be a Physics test! Passed everything else and met some great candidates. In hindsight, with all those who've been placed in a hold pool, I'm not sure failing at this stage (only £200 down) was such a bad thing.
Quote:
A decade ago, this would still have been an excellent career choice for you, but I suspect the tide may have turned too much for you. If you're doing a maths degree, you're probably bordering on being a straight A student and I really question whether you will go down this career once you get sucked into a proper graduate role after your degree. It is not a question to answer now, as you will no doubt strongly object but let us know in another 2.5 years!
This hits the nail on the head. I will be starting a graduate job soon and many doubts are swirling through my mind. Do I spend the next few years saving and then spend £50k on modular ATPL training? Only to find myself in what has clearly become an employer's market.
I haven't been on these forums for a while, but a glance through the Interviews, jobs & sponsorship section tells me this:
There are many qualified, experienced pilots who cannot find work with airlines.
Those who have jobs are rewarded with low salary and increasingly unfair working conditions.
There is a growing culture of buying type ratings. Those with money can 'buy' their way into a job.
Alternatively, do I work in the graduate role, progress up the ladder etc and keep flying as a passion? Build up hours, get some ratings (Night, IMC) and enjoy it whilst earning far more than I would as an (unemployed) commercial pilot? The only issue with this being that I would be forever looking up at the sky, wishing I was there.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the working world is like. It is likely that my experiences in the next couple of years that will determine whether I go down the airline pilot route or not. But regardless, I will continue to fly and maintain my PPL.
Interesting, isn't it, how at 17/18 we think we have to be on the flight deck by our early 20s and when we get to 20/21 we realise there is no real rush.
I'm glad, having seen your initial post, that you chose the direction you did. It is coincidentally the same path I took, albeit a couple of years ahead of yourself.
Whichever route you take you're going to do alright, and that's a nice feeling to have.
Without going into too many details that may offend I'd simply say caution on CTC!!
If you are looking into them make sure you know EXACTLY what the terms of them "paying" for your training are. If there was a simple way to get training paid for and a "guaranteed" airline job at the end of it then every man and his dog would be doing it.
An update, 2.5 years on...
, and I assure you they don't make up much of a proportion of those I meet. 
