Originally Posted by
mystify2431
Hello everyone. I'm 35 years young and am considering a career change. I'm in quite a fortunate position where I have enough savings and can finally pursue the dream of being a pilot.
It seems like every view suggests going the modular route and given I could carry on working while pursuing that it seems like a no-brainer. So I plan to do a trial PPL lesson and get a Class 1 medical booked in in the next few months and see how it goes from there.
I live in London, and would prefer to stay in the area both during the training period and ideally during a potential pilot career although I appreciate that being picky about jobs is probably not a liberty I'll have.
This brings me to my first question, related to Brexit, and how it is impacting opportunities for UK pilots. Jobs seem to be competitive enough at is, and I have read a few articles suggesting it had made it more challenging for UK pilots by essentially limiting them to UK aircraft based in the UK. Is this still an ongoing issue? It seems like it would be a huge challenge to get employed compared to being able to choose across an entire continent and it is something I am concerned about.
Regarding the medical, my main concern (at least that I'm aware of) is my eyesight is quite poor (I'm around a -7 in both eyes) and it looks like the requirements are for a maximum of -6 for short-sightedness although if I'm reading it correctly it seems that it could be passable if referred for further assessment. Does anyone have any experience of this or if this is a total non-starter then it would be good to know!
I'd also like to get a better idea of starting pilot salaries. I'm happy to take a paycut from what I currently earn but it would be good to know what sort of figures to expect so I can adjust my lifestyle accordingly. I do have a mortgage so there is a limit to have far I can go. I've seen everything from 30k to 75k suggested online for a fresh pilot.
Any advice on the above would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Ok. No one appears to have answered your questions or offered their thoughts.
Your eyesight may present an issue. Your Class 1 medical will let you know soon enough.
If you only get a UK CPL/ATPL you'll be restricted to only flying G-reg aircraft. Unless the UK rejoins EASA, that will remain the case. If you want both licences, then you'll have to do all the exams effectively twice. Yes, it's nuts... Of course, when you have experience, you can apply to the Gulf states and they'll take care of the licence validation.
You've answered your own question about staying in London. You could be lucky, but I would bet on moving away from London for a good few years. I moved 10,000km.
New CPL salaries? As ever, it depends on what/how/where. Personally, I'd budget a salary from £25K upwards. If you start instructing, half that. Yes, it's that bad. This of course, assumes you get a job after you finish your training. If you don't, you'll have to budget to keep your Instrument rating and medical current. The IR skills deteriorate pretty quickly.