TicTac you are almost in exactly the same position i was after leaving uni. Always wanted to be a pilot, always put off by the cost, felt i should go to uni, no sponsoships about. Left uni with an honours degree with a science background and the jobs i was offered started about 7500 rising to maybe 10000 after 6 months, most of these jobs demanded a degree!, how can the british economy be great when qualified people get less than office juniors? so i knocked about for the best part of 2 years with bar jobs and temping jobs, always believing that the big job was out there for me to fund my training, for inexperienced guys it ain't. Bite the bullet take the loan and hopefully with no more tragedies in a couple of years there will be jobs for everyone. Having almost finished my atpl's would i say that my training so far was fun, well the ppl was, but in the whole you don't do much whilst doing your atpl's but study. Do i regret going down this path?
Sometimes.
Do i get disillusioned when people i have met along the way whilst training, who have all the ratings and over a 1000 hours, and have done for a while still don't have jobs?
Of course.
If i could go back to the day when i decided to start my professional flying training and change my mind would i?
AND THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART NO!!!!!!!!!!
If you are passionate enough about flying as a career then its a long hard road but you'll get through, you'll feel violated in everyway and whilst your friends are driving about in nice new cars and going away on holidays twice a year you'll be stuck in the library studying eating a can of beans for dinner. Its a risk but a calculated one
Whatever the outcome
GOOD LUCK
