Sitting here having been made redundant a few days ago after my employer went into administration, I am tempted to say, ‘no don’t do it….. Ever!!! But the fact you’re asking this during this appalling time that may fall on deaf ears, no offence thats what I was once like.
The job itself is good, the flying, the people you meet/work with, it’s all the other headaches that you should be aware off before investing many many thousands of pounds of your hard earned cash into an uncertain future.
As I’m feeling particularly sorry for myself at the moment I will give you the ‘warts’ side of the career you desire.
Compare that then if you wish to someone who is having a good time of it at the moment and make your choice.
OK off with the rose tinted specs.
The training
Its long and tough, you will spend 12 months, or many more, without being able to socialise properly, and whenever you do take a break from the books you will feel guilty and find yourself back in them. It’s hard going and you will question yourself frequently.
The flying,
Hard work , expensive, and if your anything like me then you will give over your £600 each time you go flying in a light twin, wondering if you will ever really make it. Kind of takes the shine off it
The job search
So get through to this point, blue book in hand. CPL/IR/MCC sounds great doesn’t it? Right now, that’s about all you have, now it’s whether luck is on your side. You are now £60k to£80k down and you will feel like you have made it. Boy oh boy, you haven’t.
In fact I will go as far as to say you never really make it. Be it you with 250 hours and a blue book or some colleagues of mine over 50 years old with 10000 hours who no one wants to employ because of their age, or me, who with a fair few hours in the right hand seat cannot get a job in Europe because I am either a) not a captain b) got the wrong rating or c) not fluent in German, French or any other none aviation language.
So you strike lucky, you get a job. You are now subject to the most regulated profession in the world. Every 6 months you will lose sleep or at least feel very vulnerable as you enter the moving box and your licence is on the line. Every year you will be prodded and poked and if your heart so much as tickles itself, you will be out the door for a minimum of 6 months, or worst case, forever.
So your healthy, you do well in the simulator, you perform to a good standard on the line checks, you feel like you made it. Then you find that you need to move bases, not your choice. So the money you thought was adequate and serviced your loans is now halved as you have to commute from home, rent some digs. Couple that with being away from your family and you will question the day you ever started writing cheques to a training organization.
So you can put up with all that, then you go to work one day and find that your pass doesn’t work anymore, security don’t explain why, they just escort you away from the area. A call to your company doesn’t help as the phones are all engaged, so you phone your mate who is also sitting in his 6 by 6 room, wishing he was somewhere else. Only when you speak to him you find he’s upset, really upset, he has 2 kids, rents a house (had to sell his to fund his training) and it’s a week before Christmas.
It’s over mate, the companies gone under.
So when it sinks in and you are sitting there on Christmas morning watching your kids open their selection boxes as main presents, your throat becomes choked up and tears runs down your face………. Was it worth it for the pleasure of flying a plane? No it bloody isn’t!
Take that for what you will, I am sorry if it seems harsh, but that’s the reality for me and a lot of other ‘experienced’ guys and girls, let alone those newly qualified.
Enter this game at your peril my friend, don’t do it without some serious research and before you commit, ask yourself this. Do I want it that much?
One thing you can be sure if, there will be people in the UK today flying overhead as you read, who in a few months time will be feeling pretty much like I am today. Its an uncertain world and its going to be a slow slow recovery.
As for me , I have spent the last week sitting on this darn laptop sending of C.V.s to every place on the globe, as yet without reply, my only break, to sign on today at the job centre.
My future is probably going to mean leaving the UK, leaving my family for many months at a time to a country that given the choice, I probably wouldn’t even go to on a holiday. Oh I didn’t mention that, since I have been doing this ‘career’ I haven’t been able to afford a proper holiday.
There is a plus side to this job and please bare in mind I am not in the best frame of mind at the moment, but do take what I say as real because for me and many others like me it is all to real.
Best of luck