The Butler - I bet you that I could do a Modular course faster than you could do an Integrated course at OATS right now. Furthermore it would cost tens of thousands of pounds less.
I would walk out of my front door this morning and go to someone like Aeros at Staverton, enrol for a PPL course and go on the first flight this afternoon. See the doc tomorrow for a medical and then do 2 hours flying a day for the rest of the month and have my PPL issued in Sept.
I'd then hop on a big shiny plane to Florida where its not a bad time to bang out some hour building. I'd knock on the door of, say Naples, get checked out and flying within 48hrs. I reckon I could knock off 100hrs in three weeks so by the end of Oct I'd be back in Blighty. Where I'd hot foot it down to see Alex Whittingham in Bristol who'd sort me out with an excellent ATPL groundschool distance learning package.
I'd tackle that full time 8hrs a day and do the brush up courses to prepare me for the first exam series in the New Year. I'd be ready to complete the ATPL exam series in March. April is a lovely time to start a CPL MULTI and IR course and conveniently for me Westflight at my local airfield in Staverton would find me a place in their school which has 3 veeery experienced instructor with an aircraft each and only 2 students apiece to look after. (Top tip with flying schools - ask about instructor to aircraft to student ratios - then follow up with a question about servicability!)
It would take only 3 months allowing for weekends off and bad weather to complete all the training. Oh, add a week on the end there for an MCC course wherever its quickest and cheapest.
Then its off down to Gatwick with a bundle of paperwork and licenses to have a shiny new CPL/IR Frzn ATPL minted. Unfortunately I might get stuck in the July M25 start of school holidays traffic.
By which point I suspect you at your large FTO would just about be passing progress test 2.
Whilst belting out 200 pointless CV's I would be chatting to my old chums at Westflight or Aeros about the possibility of doing an FI rating with the spare £20k I've still got left. After no airline jumps to hire me I spend most of August and September doing the FI rating. October is not the busiest time for flying schools but luckily for me two instructors at Aeros just got the good news that Netjets wanted one of them and BACX the other.
As this news spreads throughout the hangar I hurredly make my way to the CFIs office nervously straightening my tie. 5 minutes later I leave the office with a new job that never got close to being advertised.
Its now late October and I am really enjoying my new life buzzing about the skies of Gloucestershire being paid. My car is old and my bank manager menacing but I only spent £50,000, I am earning enough to get by on for now and I'm being very nice to everyone at the airfield including the bizjet charter outfit in the hangar across the way. I hear they might be getting a new aircraft in the New Year...
Meanwhile you are, 15 months later, desperately trying to secure an aircraft, a test slot and a decent bit of weather to take your IRT. You've attended the recent careers pep talk and your CV is a thing of beauty. You're £70k in an not quite there yet but you have high hopes. Someone on the course the one before yours got a job, apparently, with Ryanair and he reckons that they will be looking for at least 10 more next month. You have high hopes.
Cheers
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