Originally Posted by
Mr.Meerkat
Hey guys!
To be begin with, I'd like to apologise if similar questions have been asked to death but I still wanted some opinions thus here is this thread.
I'm a 17 year old who is a wannabe commercial pilot. Ever since seeing and stepping on my first plane (funnily enough a 747) when I 4 years old, I've wanted to become one. As my age (and title) suggests, I'm in my last year of secondary/high school (S6). I was never going to persuade my mother to allow me to skip university (I actually want a degree as well) and go straight for pilot training so I've managed to make a compromise with her (and myself).
I've applied to 5 universities (3 in England, 2 in Scotland) and if I end up going to Edinburgh university, I'm planning to carry out pilot training while studying in University which allows me to reach my dream sooner while satisfying my mother's requirement. I guess right now most of you are probably thinking about finance as this sounds like disaster, which is probably true if my case was different.
As a Scottish student, unlike my counterparts down south in England, I don't have to pay for tuition fees meaning I won't have to take out a loan for tuition, especially if I stay in Edinburgh as I'd be able to live at home and not pay for accommodation (parents work abroad and are away 8+ months so win/win situation for both my parents and I).
In terms of the fees for pilot training, from working part-time and saving, I've already saved the majority of the costs for PPL training so if I continued to work part-time and included my SAAS grant, I'd actually be able to pay about 70% for the rest of training (assumes total cost from zero to frozen is about £55K). I'd also have my student loan at my disposal (which have the benefits of only 1.5% interest ATM plus if I earn below the threshold, I don't have to "repay" meaning no glaring issues with debt) and would easily cover the other 30%.
In other words, apart from how I'll probably struggle to find the time to study, work part-time and do training, at least in terms of finance, I should be all good.
Okay, down to my questions:
1. What do you guys think of this plan? I feel like I'd be overworking myself as instead of the common full-time job+training, I'm planning to work part-time, study full-time and train, all at the same time. At least I'm an introvert so not having time to socialise does not bother me plus I hate partying as I despise loud places with lots of people.
2. Would airlines be bothered by how it took me 4+ years to complete training? Note: I'm planning to try to obtain my PPL during my summer holiday (starts 23rd May and ends sometime September) as I should be able to afford it by then.
3. What's a good flight school around central belt Scotland? I'm considering ACS as its less than a hour drive away whereas tayside is a little far and the rest doesn't seem to offer CPL training (but will be fine for PPL).
Thanks guys!
P.S. Sorry for the long post. I could have probably taken out some of the information but I wanted to show that at least financially, its viable from my perspective. Also, I know I can just save everything up and start training after my degree but as I'm stubborn, for no real reason, I don't want to do that...
if you actually want a degree and have the benefit of gaining one for free it’s kind of a no brainer. Doing your ppl over the summer is a great idea. If I could redo mine I’d head to the states for 6 weeks and do it for around £8,000 the weather In the U.K. and fast completion of flight training just do not go together.
In terms of Studying for a degree and completing ATPLs .....the best answer is. it depends. I’d say if you’re studying a fairly relevant course to aviation or a low workload course it probably is doable because realistically it’s going to be equally or less intense compared to working full time (I say this because getting into Edinburgh is no easy feat) Plenty of people work full time, have stressful events going on eg moving houses, having kids and do just fine, personally I’m working as cabin crew whilst doing mine and although I’ve set myself a pretty tough schedule, messed around some what initially I’d say I’m pretty much still on track. The only thing you’d need to factor in would be revision weeks and exams around your course, lectures etc.
4, I very much doubt it unless it was over a very large amount of years with that being said though I’m confident people get there PPL when they have there first amount of Meaningful disposable income say early - late twenties and then complete the advanced flying phase say 3 years later after completing the exams and saving for the biggest expense.
I don’t know the schools that way we’ll enough however from social media at least ACS seem to be decent.