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Old 29th Mar 2018, 07:14
  #52 (permalink)  
Piltdown Man
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wor Yerm
Age: 67
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Is it surprising that a major employer of newly qualified cadets finds half of whom apply unsuitable? If I think back, I was probably unsuitable but I got lucky. Even now in some things I’m not considered to be a fit and proper person as I have banned from Jet Blast. Not all of us can do what we want when we want.

Flying is is no different from any other job. Employers have their criteria and one of them is a Frozen ATPL. The more complicated, difficult to acquire and less tangible values that employers are looking for personal attributes. Flying schools do not develop these. This is why advice to hopefuls has consistently been ignore flying, go to university or get a trade, live a life and then go flying. The exceptions to this are this those who learn to fly with armed services because they will be getting plenty of life experience in the process.

If you think I’m wrong consider this. What rational person spends in the order of £130-£150,000 on the possibility they might end up with a job pushing buttons? Admittedly the view is good but what makes people want to go flying? I think the answer for far too many is the perceived status and respect of the job. As a result, too many of the wrong types of people apply and they, with the ones who need to grow up a bit, find it difficult to get a job. The latter stand a chance. The former might never get employed.

What is refreshing is that the attributes that make a good pilot are now starting to be publicly discussed. The ATPL is just one minor requirement for a job. The really important bits are hidden inside a person and are developed through life, not training and they cannot be purchased... fortunately.

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