PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The CTC Wings (Cadets) Thread - Part 2.
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Old 3rd Feb 2010, 19:03
  #3584 (permalink)  
x933
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
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FFS. You really haven't bothered reading any other posts on here.

In 2 years time...you'll be a 250hr pilot sat in a big global hold pool with a good few thousand pilots that are typed, experienced and far more employable than you. It's boring the number of speculative phone calls my company gets from people just like you.

If you *seriously* *absolutely* *must* start training now (And other than it being a dream there's no good reason to), do a PPL and for gods sake enjoy it. Get 100hrs (or however much else you want/need) doing something fun - touring around europe, aerobatics (which will teach you a damn sight more about flying than burning holes in the sky flying navigation exercises - which is mostly lots of mental maths and making sure the aircraft does nothing but fly in a straight line, which is pathologically boring) or air racing. Doing a night rating won't harm, it'll mean you can spend more time on it and that in turn will make *You* a better pilot.

THEN see what the market is doing. If needs require you can bash out the ATPL exams, a CPL and IR in 9 months and I can guarantee the market won't turn that quickly - not a hope in hell.

Countless friends have gone through the mill at CabTEford and have had precisely no support upon graduation - regardless of what the bumff says when they sign off your IR/MCC you're on your own. The flexi-crew deal is garbage and the other eazyjet stuff they were generating didn't pay enough to live off.

For reference - I went to uni, didn't get into the RAF, failed selection for CTC (How lucky was I, this was 2007), took an office job in Aviation to bide my time and now earn pretty much what your common or garden F/O does, live in London, get to play with some seriously cool toys and *still* have enough left to be able to play with a Warrior / Chipmunk when I feel like it, go on holiday and pay london prices for stuff. I still love flying, and maybe one day will do the whole CPL/IR thing. And i'm far less stressed than I would be if I £1500 of my income was being burnt every month.
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