A question for the professionals

[timzsta]

I thought I would add my story so far and the factors that influenced my decisions.

I had boyhood dreams of becoming a pilot but as a teenager I lacked self confidence and thought that "only really special people can become pilots". Well that is probably what a very small minority of pilots think, most I have met are down to earth guys and girls and probably dont think of themselves in that way. I suppose simply put they are confident, but not arrogant. I think there is something about that in the Human Factors syllabus somewhere.

So aged 18 I went of to the Britannia Royal Naval College and trained as a Warfare Branch Officer. During my training I got to see some Fighter Controllers at work and decided that was the route for me. As fate would have it I became the Fighter Controller of a Sea Harrier squadron and I began to realise that I too could become a Pilot. The pilot's were no different from me - just motivated people who had an ambition and had been prepared to work hard to achieve it. So I saved up some money and left the Navy with everyone wishing me good luck for my new career. But three months before I was due to leave 9/11 occured. I continued with my plans - never let anyone or anything stand in the way of your ambition to be a pilot.

During my last year or so in the RN I studied for my PPL examinations, and took them at a flying school at my local airport, Southend. I had also undertaken a trial flight and had the privilege to fly in the back of a Harrier T8 two seat trainer before I left the Navy, an awesome experience. I got my Class 1 and having completed the last PPL exams and my RT exam just after leaving the RN I set out to Long Beach California to do my PPL flying training. I chose a 55 hour course, with UK Flight Training.

Having completed all my ground exams before getting to the states allowed me to concentrate on flying - a big benefit it proved. Why the USA then? Cheaper simply. Fuel cheaper, aircraft cheaper and weather perfect, even in January. In fact flying conditions at that time of year are just about perfect in California. Temperature is about 20 deg typically, vis is great (in the height of summer smog is a big problem). I completed my PPL course in 3 and a half weeks and came home a week earlier then planned (the cost of changing my flight was £100 - against something like £250 for another week in the motel - the £150 will pay for 3 ATPL exam fees).

Of course now it was time to get a job again. I searched the internet and noted that KLM UK were looking for Customer Service Agents at London Stansted, about 45 mins drive from my home in Essex. I applied and got a job, full time. It was actually working as a Check In Agent for their low cost subsidurary Buzz. I can honestly say the 12 months I had with Buzz were amongst the best of my life. The people were awesome, such a great happy bunch of boys and girls working hard to deliver a bit of quality to their customers. We also enjoyed a strong social life outside off work, work hard play hard, you must relax in life, it cant all be work and study or you will go nuts! I also learnt a great deal about how an airline should and shouldn't be run. Buzz had some strengths but its weaknesses put it out of business. And having been in Frankfurt working for Buzz assisting a new handling agent the Captain on my return flight back to Stansted let me join the crew on the jumpseat. This was about a month before my first exams and was very beneficial - I got to see systems I had learnt about in use for real.

Having settled into my job at Buzz the quest for knowledge and what to do on my days off was bugging me and so I decided to begin a Distance Learning course with London Metroplitan University. My reasons for choosing them were principally that it was nearby - about 45 minutes on the train up to Fenchurch Station and then a two minute walk around the corner. That meant when it came to revision weeks I would not have the worries of finding and paying for accomodation - I could commute for the cost of about £60 for each revision week, which is about the cost of a nite in a B&B. I read about various schools on PPRUNE and the only derogatory comments about LMU were from people who had failed exams, something I was not intending to do!

So I began the Distance Learning course and after six months or so of studying I sat the first 8 exams. The course was hard work - alot to learn, and the only one who can learn it is me. I choose Distance Learning as I felt I needed to keep working to save up some more money and the market place for freshly qualified pilots in 2002 / 2003 was still very downtrodden. I was delighted to pass all eight exams, some of them with scores over 90%.

This great news was tainted by the sad news the Buzz was leaking money at an alarming rate and that low cost rival Ryanair was going to buy us out. Over a period of a few weeks it became clear that all of us in Customer Services were to loose our jobs. We made the most of the last few weeks together with some huge nights out and I am glad to say I am still in touch with a great deal off those wonderful people. I began looking for another job and found one as a Dispatcher for Servisair.

Having got another job the studies began again as I worked through the last six exam subjects. The "Navs" as the are sometimes referred are definetely the harder of the exams and it was hard work at times. But I could not have asked for more support from LMU and their staff, particularly the Distance Learning tutor Geoff Bull (who was ex RN like me) and Pete Knapp who did General Nav.

My new job was also proving very beneficial. I continued to learn new and interesting things about aviation and flying and became good friends with a number of pilots from Air Berlin and WDL (the 146 operator who was flying from them) and Hamburg International (who were flying D-AHIA an D-AHIC, 737-700s for Air Berlin). People from MyTravel and Astreaus (who were flying for Iceland Express) were also encouraging and took an interest. I even got offerend another jumpseat ride, which I snapped up. This proved beneficial once again, just a few weeks before my final exams, I payed real attention to what the autopilot was doing as I was sittting Instruments, once again it was of huge benefit.

I also completed my night rating that winter, and having a few hours in an aircraft with an Instructor greatly improved my flying, inparticular landing. My hard work studying was rewarded with another six passes - so 100% first time passes at ATPL theoreticals. With hard work and good support you can achieve success at the exams as a Distance Learner. I was delighted.

Over the preceeding few months I had been looking at which local schools to undertake my hours building / CPL and IR with. I ruled out Cabair as it ment going to either Cranfield (which meant I would incur the cost of living expenses and accomodation on top of the training costs - I simply didn't have the money) or Biggin Hill. Biggin Hill was driveable, but it was the M25 and I just couldn't face the stress of that awefull motorway everyday to go flying and I never even visited it to be perfectly honest, so I cannot say a great deal about it.

I also looked at Southend School of Flying, who took me up in the back of a Seneca when I looked around. This was the most local to home, about 20 minutes drive away. They have a good reputation and used LMU's simulators for IR training. The instructors seemed welcoming and it had the benefit of being at an airfield I was familar with.

The last place I went to was Stapleford. I actually flew there in a Cessna to talk the people there, my first landing on a grass strip. As with Southend I talked to some students and got good reports. Stapleford though for me offered three advantages over Southend. First they had simulators of their own on site - this meant if you are struggling with something on the IR course you could spend extra time in the sim - cheaper then in the aircraft by a long way. Second - no landing fees for club members at Stapleford. Each time the tyres touch the ground at Southend you are looking at about £12 to the airport, about £7 for a touch and go - and thats a lot of money over a course. Thirdly hours building was cheapest at Stapleford. It was further to drive, but this course would be more then offset against the other savings and to be honest the setup at Stapleford was the most impressive and it had an excellent reputation. Several pilots I met at work praised Stapleford, including one from as far away as Malta.

My mind was made up and I decided to leave work to start my hours builing, CPL/IR full time and that is where I am at now. The overriding things I would say you must bear in mind are that this is an expensive game and only you can put the work in. For some, they have huge amounts of money and can afford a full time integrated course at one of the big organisations. And thats fair enough, we all have different backgrounds and financial situations, that's called life. But high quality training is available at reasonable rates from smaller schools and as Scroggs pointed out (and has been re-inforced by several mates who fly commercially) - the airlines really are not interested where you trained. My best mates impressions of his interview with his first airline employer were that they wanted two things. Have I got a valid license, and is this the kind of bloke I would want to spend all day on the flight deck with and then have a pint with (and I stress A PINT, ie the singular!!) in the hotel bar on the nightstop at the end of the day?. I think that was brought out too in Danny's post that was pasted in above. Also everyones opinions and situations are different. Just because LMU or Stapleford were right for me, it doesn't mean that they are best for someone else. Everyone must make up their own mind, be comfortable with their training provider and then apply yourslef 100% to what you are doing here and now. Be that studying a subject for exams, revision for exams, a night rating course or your IR. You must have that ultimate goal of the first job in the RHS but you must not lose focus on the present as you work towards it - or you wont achive your goal.

So in a few months I should have my CPL/IR and MCC done, and then the really hard part begins - getting a job!!!!

Edited because I still can't spell.