PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Flying Training in New Zealand
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Old 5th Dec 2005, 17:56
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Luke SkyToddler
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
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Do you want to become an airline pilot in Europe or New Zealand?

You need to understand that NZ is very different to Europe in that there is no way on earth you can just finish flying school and go join an airline, you need several years of commercial experience on light piston singles and twins before you can even get your CV looked at at the most basic of regional turboprop commuter airlines. Flight training is cheap compared to Europe but there is intense competition for jobs and not a lot of them to be found (why do you think there's so many kiwis and aussies over here in the UK? )

There's a whole forum devoted to this stuff elsewhere on the site, 'dunnunda & godzone'.

As far as schools go, do you know where you're going to be living? There are good schools all over NZ, I know it's hard to grasp this as a wannabe and especially one from the European culture of flight training, but the main thing to keep in mind when selecting a school in NZ is maybe not the training itself but what do they have to offer after you've finished? Where you trained for your PPL and CPL is not really that important to the NZ airlines as it is here in the UK, because you will have done at least 1,500 hours of flying single and twin piston before you get the first airline interview.

Because as I said it's impossible to get an airline job on completion of your bare licence, the best schools to train at are the ones that hire their own graduates as instructors or even better, the ones that have an air taxi / air ambulance / piston twin charter operation as a sideline so you can work towards getting some multi hours and getting your CV on those airline desks once you've got 1,000 - 2,000 total time.

As far as individual schools go, I guess I have a few opinions as to good schools and also a couple of bad ones that you want to avoid. PM me and I'll give you the low down.
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