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Old 28th Jun 2009, 04:47
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Zippy Monster
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oop north
Posts: 1,257
Received 8 Likes on 6 Posts
No, you're in the correct forum but a few points:

1 - What exactly do you want help with? Your post is a bit vague.

2 - Sponsorship is pretty much non-existent these days. Regardless of what the flight training organisations say, there are currently very few jobs and a lot of people going through training desperate for the few jobs that do become available. There is no incentive for airlines or FTOs to offer sponsorship when they have a lot of people willing to pay their way through to beat others to the job. It's a case of supply and demand.

3 - CTC Wings, despite the way it is dressed up, is a self-funded route. You will hear it referred to as "sponsorship" because of the way the money flows between different parties, but it still involves you paying them a 'bond' of £69k (from this summer) plus funding all the living costs and various other bits and pieces yourself. Unless you have this saved up - and your initial post suggests you don't - it will almost certainly be taken in the form of a secured loan of some sort (as is the case with most people now.) When you start work, if work is available (and the CTC hold pool is rapidly filling up), you will either start on a reduced 'cadet' salary with the balance paying off your 'bond', or you will go in on a DEP salary and be responsible for repaying it yourself. Either way, you are paying for your training. I know, because I went through the programme and it really does hit you when you start paying it back and you start counting down the 7 long years until it's done. Sit down with a cup of tea and read the long thread on the CTC Wings programme. All 160-odd pages of it.

4 - If you have to wait a few months for your A-level results, what's the problem? Why not just wait?

With respect, your post makes it sounds like you need to do a bit of research of the industry before you start chucking a load of money at it. It's very easy to say "I want to be a pilot" while gazing at the airliners flying overhead, but the reality is the job is a lot less glamorous than one might think. Don't get me wrong, it's great and I wouldn't swap it for any other job in the world, but make sure you know what you're getting into before you start throwing big sums of money around. It really is a massive burden to carry.
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