Originally Posted by
AlwaysWondering
Hi fellow Ppruners!
I was wondering if some of the wiser members here would be able to give some advice. I am really unsure what to do. Totally torn in fact.
I'm Irish, but have spent most of my life living in the UK.
At age 18 (in 2010), I passed the entry requirements for the CAE easyjet programme. However, I wasn't in any financial position to join that programme. Several years on, I passed my PPL and night rating in 2018. I had always wanted to be a professional pilot, but things had never added up financially. I saved up and managed to pay for both. To be honest, it wasn't the experience I had hoped for. At my first flight school, I felt like a real failure. I got to 25 hours and had never soloed. It damaged my confidence pretty badly. However, I moved school and managed to come through relatively unscathed with a new FI who I managed to gel with much better and got through the PPL with basically minimum hours (excluding that first 25).
Then I did my ATPLs in 2020 and 2021. I started just as Covid began. It wasn't an easy journey and I ended up taking a six month sabbatical in 2021 from work as I found it a little difficult to focus on both work and the exams. In my mind, it was very much a now or never decision with my 30s very much on the horizon. It wasn't an easy journey (especially with Covid), however, I managed to finish all fourteen (as it was then) ATPLs with 14 first-time passes and a 92% average in late September 2021.
Obviously I was incredibly proud of this achievement. However, I still had so many niggles in my mind. Am I suitable to be a pilot? Over 30 hours to solo isn't at all normal I know. Plus being over 30 means I feel I've missed the mark somehow. I just renewed my class one medical as that isn't an issue.
Basically, my main question is asking for advice what do next. I have saved enough cash for the CPL-IR. Should I go for it? Is there anywhere I can test out my skills to see if I am good enough? My mind is spinning with this decision. Plus, September 2024 might seem a LONG time away, but I know that it isn't really.
Can anyone help with this conundrum?
You’re well on the way through the Modular route so just keep grinding through that and get your ME/IR as soon as you can, then with the MCC and into Ryanair/Wizz. Sooner you’re in and have 500 hours under your belt on a jet the better, then you can apply to the jobs you actually want to do long term.
Flying the big stuff is pretty easy, wouldn’t worry about the solo faf, especially if you had a rotten instructor.