Originally Posted by sapco2
Hi William,
I think you've raised a fair question and enquiries like your's crop up from time to time on this forum.
Firstly good luck with your career aspirations; I've got an 18 year son myself and he wants to follow my footsteps into aviation, albeit I'm doing my level best to encourage him away from the idea!
In answer to your question; you may or may not be lucky enough to get a start job in the freight world but you need to get away from any preconceived ideas you might have about freighting being a launch pad to better things because it isn't.
Getting a professional pilots licence in the first place is the tricky bit and that means lots of hard graft. You can self finance the training, join the military or obtain sponsorship from a host airline or training organisation.
Your question seems to imply you are not interested in the military, so why not surf the web to see which airlines are offering sponsorship. You could help yourself by looking at the Guild of Air Pilots & Air Navigators website; also the RAeS; both organisations host sponsorship schemes.
Once again I wish you good luck with your quest - hope it all works out for you.
Thanks for your reply sapco2. Thanks also for your best wishes on my deisred career, i appreciate that. Why dont you want your son to go into the airline industry though, is it because of all the stress it involves?
Im currentely at uni and doing a PPL as we speak. I am always an active researcher in the industry and check FTO webste's daily to see if there are any schemes going. Albeit there is at the moment with NetJets and OAT forming a partnership. I did look at the military and seriously considered it but i decided that trying to raise money/take a secured loan would be the option for me and then i will hopefully go to OAT or Flight Training Europe. The only reason why i ask about the Freighter is there arent many schemes offered by carriers in the UK. For example, i know that Cathay Pacific and DragonAir do sponsorship schemes where they fully fund the training but for this you must be a resident in Hong Kong and im not!!!!
Just out of interest which plane do you fly??? Im intruiged now!
Thanks for your response to my question
William