Re: Advice to become a pilot
Hi,
I'm in a similar situation to yourself, in the lower sixth form and hoping to become a commercial pilot.
I have decided to skip uni because I feel its not something I would not enjoy and i feel i would be mature enough to start my flight training straight after my A Levels. It would also put me in more debt than i could possibly handle. But going to uni is a personal decision.
Having a degree is good for a back-up just in case your lose your medical or even if you get bored with aviation or decide its not something you want to do; you can pursue another career.
Its also useful to have a degree in terms of sponsorships because these schemes want to find individuals who have commitment, maturity and aptitude.
However there are no sponsorships around at the moment, the closest thing you can get is the CTC scheme however that requires you to take out a £60k bond and when you finish your training and start a job the salary is quite a bit lower that the standard direct entry pilot salary. The pass rate for this scheme is about 2%
Oxford and FTE had some airline-backed partial sponsorships in the summer which allowed you to take out an unsecured loan, the overall reduction in the costs was about £5k-ish i believe, so its nothing to hark on about.
You can try for the various scholarships and bursaries offered by the likes of GAPAN and the Air League. GAPAN offer one J N Somers scholarships which funds you from 0-fATPL but it would be incredibly hard to get.
I'm still considering whether to go modular or integrated, both schemes have their positives and negatives. Going modular would reduce the finance side of things heavily, whereas going integrated would (please dont shout at me folks) MOST PROBABLY increase my chances of employment.
I hope that helps you a little, if you have any more questions feel free to PM me as we're in the same boat!
Arpan