flyingdoctor357
I qualified in 2007 so other people will have more recent experience of flight training, but I’ll try and answer your points.
(1) The million dollar question. Who knows? Without a doubt the industry got rid of too many jobs as a result of COVID, leaving airlines and airports short of staff for the rebuild. My employer is a glaring and shameful example of that. All things being equal, there will be a need for some recruitment to replace pilots who’ve been made redundant or left the industry altogether. In the UK, BA, Virgin & Jet2 have all recently advertised pilot vacancies, which is a positive sign. However . . . All things being equal . . .
Russia turning the gas taps off is contributing massively to inflation and the cost of living crisis, not just in the UK but across Europe, and there is little chance of the situation improving anytime soon. There’s a good chance it will provoke a recession, and if that happens don’t expect much expansion / recruitment for the foreseeable.
If you’re impatient to start training (and we’ve all been there) then slow but steady would be my advice.
(2) fATPL, definitely. I assume you know that a MPL course ties you to a specific airline and type of aircraft? If that airline has second thoughts and stops recruiting, they can and will drop you and your course mates in a heartbeat. And it has happened. Your training school might then – without a hint of embarrassment - offer you the ‘opportunity’ to convert onto an fATPL course and pay for it all over again . . .
And if you go fATPL, don’t fall for the marketing hype and be aware you don’t have to go integrated to get into an airline. Modular gives you the same licence for less cash and – crucially in the current climate – allows you to train part time or slow down the pace of training to suit the job market. (See point 1 above). I cannot overemphasise the importance of qualifying when airlines are actually recruiting.
(3) I’m not familiar with the term, but assume it means some sort of link-up with the school and a possible job offer when you qualify. If so it could mean anything from a guaranteed job offer (very unlikely) to your CV landing on a smaller pile and giving you a better chance of an interview. Schools like to big-up their relationships with airlines, for obvious reasons, but in terms of the big picture, if airlines are recruiting there will be jobs out there, if they’re not then you’ll struggle to find work whatever the school’s marketing people tell you.
(4) An often overlooked point . . . The instrument rating must be renewed every year, and as well as the cost of the test, if you’re not flying regularly then expect to budget for some refresher training first to get you back up to speed. IR skills are very perishable, particularly with low hours / experience. As I said it’s a while since I trained, but back then the ball park was to work on £1000 p/a to keep the IR current. On top of that, airlines value currency / recency, especially for low hours pilots. My first employer wanted 50hrs flying experience in the last year, and Virgin’s recent advert wanted 200hrs flying hours in the last year as well as a type rating (not that I’ve checked).
That’s a reflection of the job market and shows they can afford to be picky.
If you’re paying to keep an IR current and only flying 10-20 hours per year, you will be at a significant disadvantage compared to someone with a newly issued licence. (See point 2 above).
Thanks in advance to whatever poor souls deal with the endless stream of wannabes like me.
Not a problem – we were all wannabes once!
