Sky Scratcher
Hi, I started out in working life as a butcher, after 5 years I decided I wanted sometheing a bit more interesting, so I joined the Army, served with Airborne forces and the Army Air corps in the 1980's, I had always been interested in aircraft, my dad was a Lancaster gunner in WW2, so i spent a lot of my childhood going to airshows etc...gives you a clue about my age!! My brother went into aviation as an engineer for BA and then Virgin...so i suppose aviation is in the blood.
I tried to become a pilot in the Army, but they said I would never make it in the alloted time, so I did my 12 yrs in the forces, came out and spent the next 10 years in Telecoms as an engineer and then sales etc, earnt very good money, but hated the job in the end.
I took up flying in 2003 and got my PPL, did the IMC and night rating etc and built up some hours at the weekend, when the big telecoms company decided to make people redundant in 2004, i took the money and ran, decided i wanted to become a commercial pilot, everyone at my club, you know, the old and bold etc!! said I was to old to get a job, was approaching 45 at the time, but hey i went ahead, enrolled with Bristol groundschool, got a set of Oxford books as well, when they arrived in the post I nearly s**t myself as I thought there is no way i can possibly do this lot ? however perseverance and hard work paid off and after a couple of resits, I passed the ATPL exams some 14 months later, then went to the bottom of the next pile, borrowed a bit off the bank and used my business (had set up a delevery business) to fund my flying training, did my CPL and IR and MCC with a private school in the West Midlands,
I then started to send out some 200 CV's, got about10 no thanks replies back, I then went and did a pilot interview course with Pilot Pete who is on this forum, good course and got lots of very positive help , but was then lucky enough to get an interview and sim test for a company who flew recon stuff, did 3 months with them and got some more hours, but the type of flying was not for me, so I decided to go and invest 16k in a Turbo prop type rating, met 2 Captains on the course from a company who were quite impressed with the work and effort and brave decision, as they put it to go into aviation at my time of life !!
Anyway to cut story short, they put me forward for an interview and I got a job, I now fly in Europe as an FO on the ATR, the hours are long,the pay is ok, the travelling to and from work is a pain and expensive and I spend perhaps 8 nights a month in my own bed at home !! but the experience i have gained in the last 12 months has been enormous and what then seemed a daunting and impossible task is now a lot easier, the learning curve has gone through the roof....I am about 50k in debt, would I change it?....no way...every day is different, the guys and girls I fly with are excellent and I am sure maybe in 2 years the job market will improve and then who knows?
So you do what makes you happy, you may not perhaps start flying proffesionally now and go down a different career path and then come back to it later?, just keep flying if you can, all hours are experience, you may not need to spend 80k out with CTC, CABAIR or OXFORD, there are, as someone else pointed out cheaper ways of doing it, I know several people who went to CTC and Oxford that still dont have jobs 4 years later? get yourself about at local clubs and network, a lot of it in this game is also who you know?
Whatever you decide, good luck, and listen to your dads advice to, I wish now that perhaps I had..
Dougy
