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.
A quick ratio type thing just to see how many pilots there are compared to wannabes, the truth is obvious, but just a quick reflection on the current status: (by pilot, I mean airline pilot employed)
Call me stupid call me Dumb, but what is wannabees??, is that people who already got a license but currently unemployed as pilot or are they people who don't have a license and do want to be an airlinepilot in the future??
Surely the term 'pilot' should refer to anyone making a living doing some kind of flying (eg. instructing, search and rescue), not just those who fly for airlines. I hate to be awkward but the airlines aren't everyone's ultimate aim,
Over 1000 posts and I bought this Personal Title to try and tell my mother the embarrassing news that I am a closet Jazz fan.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Manchester
Posts: 138
What about ppl (slight pun intended) with some form of licence who make no money out of it, but hope to someday? Surely even a lowly PPL qualifies you as a pilot rather than a wannabe, or is the term purely a wannabe ATPL holder?
When I was towing gliders in a Pawnee, I wasn't a wanabee because I didn't "wanabee" anywhere else, not in a giant Jet tube full of holiday makers, not in an RAF fast jet, not even in a space shuttle but just there in the old tow plane, engulfed in the fumes from the chemical hopper that were the legacy of the aircraft's spraying days. O.K I thought, the next step is somekind of commercial licence and then of to Africa, the far East or even South America to try my hand at flying freight or spraying cotton. But just then I may have been the lowliest Pilot on Earth, towing gliders for nothing but a caravan and paper boy money, but I was a pilot and that was what counted. Not just someone else staring through the rain emulsioned window of a 8.05 commuter train on their way to the Office, dreaming of what life inside an airliner is like....
Now I drive lorries for a living and there is not one moment when I do not think how good it would be to wake up to an airfield in Summer again. Ahhhh!. perhaps next season.........
Some day, some of you will realise that flying a smaller aircraft IS being a pilot. An airliner is a tube filled with bored people, incl. flight crew. Ive done both and I can assure you all that flying a CitationV into Stravanger in winter eg. is both demanding and fun. your fourth sector of the day from Bristol to Edinburgh in a Dash8 is as often as not mind numbing.
Nothing in this world would drag me back out of executive transport. Its the best job around and most of my friends and ex workmates who still fly for the airlines agree.
I simply got bored. Im in my mid 30`s and for a year or so `d been flying for a regional and it had become "work". Im not knocking airline guys at all, but it was becoming apparent that I wasnt going to be going to work thinking "flying" Iwas thinking " set autopilot" and so I got a job flying Kingairs and now Cfives.
Its a small business and difficult to get into Im afraid and at the mo few people are on the move so there are virtually no vacancies. Its the old chicken and egg routine again. The only real way in ( I returned to an old company Id worked for in the past) is to get an air taxi job, lots of twin time >500 hrs and then the contacts you make will eventually turn up trumps. Yet again its difficult but unlike the airlines who want to see a standardised product, an air taxi co. like to see some stick and rudder flying experience to show you can hack the type of pressure involved in a non airline enviroment. If your hour building in the States dont just fly around Florida, any muppet can do that and its a waste of time. Go west young man. Show that you can hack it in the Rockies and youve got something to talk about at interview.
Banner tow, glider tow, para flying any stick and rudder flying that will show a potential employer what your about. Air Taxi will lead to faster and more comfortable stuff If you can scramble 100hrs of twin time youll get a seneca or a Nav and £25k which is a start.
Excellent Post. Since PPL, a lot of my flying has been in the South Island of New Zealand (Southern Alps) and yep, I get your point. It certainly was 'interesting' at times....downdraughts, weather, comms isolation etc.
What I am wondering is:
For air taxi jobs, is it mainly down to contacts to securing these, or can you generally poke your mug in to an operator with the required licencing and let them take you at 'face value' as it were?
Both really. Get your head round the door and your making contacts!
Few Air Taxi ops have the resources or space to keep hundreds of CVs(we get 30 a week) and/or reply to them all. this is not rudeness or the fact that we dont appreciate what people have been through to get thier tickets but purely lack of time/resources.
Pick 3 or 4 operators, keep popping in, be helpful and maybe get a ride or two on a positioning flight. Pay for your own return rail fare and one day you`ll be there 5 mins after someone has resigned and bobs your uncle, your in. I realise that its expensive but going in with a lapsed IR or multi is a real no no. "Try" and stay as current as you can, grab every hour you can and dont be too picky. One pilot I know turned down a turbo prop recently because they wanted jets, this was August 2001, big mistake and theyve hardly flown since. A bird in the hand and all that.
JH if your qualified, e-mail your Cv through. Weve got nothing happening at the moment but that as you are aware things change.
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