Mr Brightside,
Once you convert your FAA ratings to JAA you have JAA ratings, the airlines will not particulary care that you have converted your ratings. They will not particulary care that much what career you did previous to your training ( I found it hilarious that someone thought working as a supermarket manager would be agood thing to have on a CV). Supermarker managers play an important role in society, I would be the first to moan if I couldn't get buy Corn Flakes due to lack of managment of supplies. You will meet a range of people during flight training who will have done some far more impressive stuff in their previous careers than been a supermarket manager. Please I mean no disrespect to Supermarket managers; just wanted to highlight the futility of the previous statement. However it is as good as career as any to fund the flight training for someone leaving school with just A levels.
They will not care if you have a degree or not. Some life experience is useful gives you some depth to your conversation if you are stuck down route with someone for a while.
There is alot of rumour and nonsense printed on this forum; remember there are people on this thread giving you advice that haven't even completed training yet much less even found employment.
I was lucky I did go to univeristy but I didn't have to pay tuition fees, as a result I had no debt from University so I was able to start funding my PPL and distance learning once I started working. Also ppl training was only a 100 pounds an hour when I did my PPL, schools are now charging between 130 to 150 an hour for the PPL.
If I had to pay tuition fees I would have opted for an Electrician apprenticeship or tried to become a Licensed Avionics Engineer.
The fact you have a 1000 hours in the logbook will put you ahead of the 250 hours fresh qualifiers.
I myself did all JAA training, but a colleage I had met during a ground school open day went via the FAA route. Upon return to the UK once he completed the JAA conversion he found employment with an air taxi firm. Although I did gain full time flying employment in the end, my colleague was in a full time flying position a good two years before me.
You will need to apply for a visa before training in the US, so ideally you want a school to sponsor you for a J1 visa, this will allow you to work for one year in the US. Also avoid JAA approved training in the US, not because the training is substandard but because US based schools with JAA approvals always charge a premium for the JAA courses. If you are going to train in the US only train for FAA ratings. If you can't get a j1 visa then you could still get bush flying work in Africa on FAA ratings. Remember instructor jobs and bush flying in Africa will not pay that well, but if you can do these on FAA ratings then your next major expense will not occur until you come to convert to the JAA ratings.
Last edited by portsharbourflyer; 29th April 2008 at 15:36.