Ok,
I was a cadet, but I've had my knocks along the way so I can give you a bit of advice. For a start, self sponsorship is risky. Yes, you can earn the money to pay for it yourself, but flight schools are not always kind to self funding students and it's a crap way to waste years of savings if you don't get the end result you need - ie - you need to leave the school with a good enough reference to get a job low hours. Thats fact. And it can't be taken for granted cos Ive had a lot of friends screwed by flying colleges.
Secondly, it is a dream job, but the reality of it is different and unless you really really know for certain that you want to fly, for example you have a ppl, then I wouldn't tell anyone to put all their eggs in this basket. The process of qualifying can be stressful and disillusioning when you are funding yourself and thats the part people don't plan for.
If you have to achieve this in order to be happy, then don't ever give up. Keep thinking of ways in. But coming from someone who did admittedly struggle a bit, it's not a nice path when things start going wrong for you and the dream soon vanishes.
I feel for you as I believe in fighting for dreams, even the crazy crazy ones, but flight training is a heartache and if you have financial pressures too then that makes it worse. You have already failed sponsorships, which actually isn't necessarily a reflection on you, but that won't have helped your confidence.
Take heed.
GE xx
Just reread this thread and had an afterthought.
There\'s a lot of sour grapes from those who weren\'t sponsored and they take delight in telling us all how hard they have worked etc etc etc.
Well, the majority of my friends in flying were sponsored, so it does happen to a lot of people, and I\'ll have you all know that sponsorships don\'t just fall on the laps of the Gods. So I understand the disappointment in failing to get one, it would have broken my heart not to have got one, and it\'s a little harsh to start telling people that they should get off their arses and do it all themselves. Yes, some people do that and make it, but HELLO A LOT MORE DONT.
Redmania, stay positive but don\'t listen to those who say you don\'t deserve. Thats just resentful rubbish. I\'m in the job, I enjoy it, I count myself lucky, and because I know I was lucky I really want to encourage those who are still trying for it. Go for it. Good luck.