interestedApology accepted, thank you. The rest of the logic in your generalisation about how the vast majority of airline pilots must be extremely privileged and of sufficient wealth if they have not been through the RAF is again seriously flawed. I will assume it comes from a lack understanding of what is really involved in making that leap from desire to commitment.
I can remember back to the time when I was 21, not long out of a 3 year stint as a soldier and working out how many hours I had to work as a motorcycle courier to be able to afford one hour of tuition and flying for my PPL. The thought of ever actually becoming an airline pilot was considered just a fantasy, one beyond anything I could possibly achieve. I mean, how could anyone with only a few 'O' Levels and a love of aviation have a chance at such a dream job? I wasn't even eligible to apply as aircrew for the RAF or a sponsorship with BOAC because my laziness at school meant that I had no 'A' Levels.
As a youngster in my early 20's the idea that I would ever actually become an airline pilot was just a dream and I resigned myself to the fact that I could at least get a PPL and enjoy some of the privileges that it allows. With no qualifications I made the effort to try and get jobs connected to or involved with aviation such as working as a line service technician or maintenance co-ordinator for an airline to name a few. All the time I was spending every hard earned penny on flying and building my hours and experience.
For four years I flew whenever I could and because I had spent so much time in the USA I flew as cheaply as I could. By the time I was booted out of the USA I had accumulated nearly 200 hours of flying time. The next hurdle was finding myself back in the UK, penniless and in desperate need of some income. A few months living with my sister and her husband until I found a job as a canvasser for a home improvement company and earning enough to put down key money for a dingy flat left me with the realisation that I had to give up any notion of ever becoming an airline pilot. I also gave up flying and let my PPL lapse. I had come to a similar conclusion to yours that only very privileged people can become airline pilots.
For the next 8 years I worked my way up from the bottom of the heap through several different jobs and eventually had a mortgage. All through those 8 years I still maintained my interest in aviation and regularly read various magazines and books to try and keep abreast of what was going on. My partner who I was living with knew about my childhood desire to be an airline pilot after I was taken to visit the cockpit of an Iberia Caravelle when I was about 7 years old. It was my partner who encouraged me to make a decision about my future or forever live with the regret of not having at least tried.
In December 1990 I was made redundant and would have had little problem finding another job in the computer industry but the thought of my 9 to 5 existence was beginning to get me down. I still had that desire to fly for a living. It had been 8 years since I last exercised the privileges of my PPL and I was asking myself would I ever fly again? Because I was living with my partner and she was earning enough to support us she suggested that I should look into how much equity I could raise if I remortgaged my flat, which I was renting out, and find out how much it would actually cost to get my professional licence.
Suffice it to say that I took the plunge in 1991 at the ripe old age of 36 and renewed my PPL and started on a 3 year plan to get my CPL. In between taking time out to build hours in the USA because of the pre JAA requirement to have at least 700 hours to be eligible to even sit the ATPL exams I worked when I could. I had to do all my written exam studies by correspondence course and I knew I had to try and pass everything the first time because a resit would push my budget off the rails. I was committed, had a supportive partner and a very limited budget. It was a huge risk as far as I was concerned, not unlike the kind of risk hundreds of thousands of people take every year when they start their own businesses and this is an analogy I think you should apply to your reasoning.
More businesses fail than succeed but raising the money with a good plan is not beyond the reach of most 'non-privileged' people. The analogy I prefer to use if we are going to compare the costs of raising enough money to study for a professional pilots licence is that of the small business owner. In my case I raised nearly £17K from my remortgage and I added to that over the two and a half years I spent on my studies and exams from part time jobs. It took another few years until I got my break and was on that bottom rung of the pilot job ladder. It was only a first officer position flying a small turboprop but I was 38 years old and had realised my dream. Anything else would be icing on the cake.
Overall I estimate it cost me around £50k gross and nearly 4 years of sacrifice and effort. My return on that investment was priceless. I may only have been earning a subsistence wage in my first piloting job but there is nothing more satisfying than doing something you love and enjoy and getting some recompense for it. In the long term I would aim to build up my experience and fathom out how I was going to actually make a living at it.
Now coming back to your belief that most people who have had to raise the £50K or whatever must therefore be privileged means that anyone who has had to raise a similar amount in order to start their own business must also be privileged even though most of those businesses are going to fail within a few years. The one thing that I have found from most of the pilots I have had the privilege to meet over the years is that almost all of them took some form of risk to raise the money and put so much on the line before they ever had their first flying job, never mind their job at the controls of a passenger jet.
Therefore, your 'belief' that most of us are privileged to have been able to get where we are is wrong and that anyone who has invested £50K or whatever in their career prospects will have budgeted that bit extra to keep their investment alive. How they do that is up to them but if they have decided that their priorities lie elsewhere then it is not for us at PPRuNe or Astraeus to move the goalposts just to accommodate them. The financial aspects are only one part of the investment you have to make when you have a real desire to earn your living by sitting in a fast moving office with an ever changing scene outside the window.
Nothing beats that first flight of the day. It is damp and miserable outside. Low overcast and drizzle. You have completed the paperwork and the check and you are lined up on the runway, the end barely visible through the mist and water droplets on the windscreen. You are cleared for take off, push the thrust levers forward and start your next flight. As soon as you are airborne you are enveloped in the low cloud and you are working very hard to follow your procedure and complete your checks. After a few minutes you break through the top of the clouds into glorious sunshine and the world appears to be a different place. To cap it off you know there's a coffee on the way and you are earning a living from all the enjoyment and satisfaction you get from doing your job and your hobby in a professional and safe manner.
We are privileged to be there but the vast majority of us did not get there because we were privileged... if you get my drift.
[ 29 January 2002: Message edited by: Capt PPRuNe ]</p>