PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Type Rating - which type, where, why pay etc?
Old 19th Oct 2004, 00:23
  #385 (permalink)  
Bealzebub
 
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Question

Monkey ? Ponies ? Walrus ? Ox ?

Have you thought instead about becoming a vet ?

If you decide to go and get a "frozen", (would that be an ATPL ?) Whats the likelihood of having to pay for a type rating ? Who can say. You have to pass the various obstacles in obtaining a licence first and the Class 1 medical requirements. I suspect your figure of "65K" is fairly arbitary since the costs for any individual vary with their own ability and experience and of course luck ! In truth a few hundred hours and a bought type rating isn't going to excite anybody other than companies who might be looking for low houred pilots on low salaries who will also assume the financial risk for their own training costs. Certainly there are a few around today, but who can predict what will happen next month or next year. I suspect it wouldn't take much more than 1 or 2 high profile incidents for Airline Insurance companies to put a fiscal stop to this practice and specify minimum levels of experience. Of course that is only my opinion and you pay your money and take your chances.

As others will tell you there are no guarantees in this business, but there is a need to consistently and adequately prove yourself. The best advice you can be given is to research the many threads here and speak to others who have embarked on this path and then decide if it is really a risk you want to take, and then how best you can plan a strategy to give you the optimum chance of achieving that goal. For most people money is a serious obstacle and clearly the cost of training may prove to be a compromise between the best you can perceive and the best you can afford. There is often truth in the saying that you get what you pay for, and cheaper schools may prove to be a false economy if it requires resits or takes longer to achieve the requisite standards. Type ratings ( as they apply to large aircraft types) are very much at the end of a professional licence course and I am not at all sure I would even worry about such things until the licence itself was obtained. Then and only then might it be a consideration to move onto the employment stage.
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