4 years on...

[hollingworthp]

I can't hope to improve on the superb thread from G-SXTY, but here is at least my brief story. I couldn't be more happy with the improvement in my conditions from 4 years ago.

Pretty much 4 years to the day, I was still stuck at home full-time surviving on carers allowance / income support etc having given up my self-employed work 2 years prior to care for my wife. Her rapidly deteriorating Multiple Sclerosis had taken her from a 'normal' walking, working/studying condition to being confined to a hospital bed in the living room of our 2-bed semi in the space of 6 months. In Jan 2005 I heard about the NetJets cadet scheme and being 28 (at the time), no degree and out of work, I was not optimistic. She had just been offered Chemotherapy as a trial treatment for her MS and was a a short way into that.

Long story short, by the first August bank-holiday of 2007 I was preparing to start my course at Oxford having been offered a place on the scheme (and finally sorted out the funding as this was not a sponsored scheme). In the time from Jan to August my wife was showing some good recovery, regaining movement etc (it had gotten that bad). I was to stay at home and commute to ground-school (being only 10 miles from Kidlington). During those first 6 months her condition continued to improve.

In March 08 - with some trepidation on the part of both my wife & I - I set off to Arizona for 5 months of basic flight training up to CPL. I really enjoyed the time in the states and my wife continued to improve so rapidly that she was able to come out to Arizona with her parents for a 2 week holiday. I rented a house with a pool etc and it was great to see how far she (and we) had come.

By the end of November 08 the MCC/JOC was done and the course at Oxford was all but complete. NJE had amended the course slightly to add on 5 hours aerobatics (presumably to improve handling for jet-upsets etc) and 5 hours of VFR flight around the TMA. It took me till early February to finish that based on Weather and I also gave priority to the other cadets who were keen to get home and I was still living in mine during the training.

It was touch and go whether we would even start with NetJets and our Indoc date was pushed several times but eventually we received the date in March which happened to be 2 days after our graduation ball from Oxford. So with some pretty stinking hangovers, the 7 cadets who graduated on my course set out for Lisbon from the ball the following morning and had the Sunday to recover in the hotel before starting our first paid day with the company.

You didn't find out what fleet you were on until you found your name-card indicating you seat in the welcome room at Indoc. There were all the manuals for your aircraft and I do remember feeling a little disappointed with the Excel as I remember preferring the Hawker 800 at the time. (Looking back on it, I am VERY glad to have the Excel as it is a much more marketable rating). This rating is bonded for 24 months, decreasing by 1 month for every month of service.

For the first few flights, I remember feeling like an imposter, that I shouldn't have been there. I was still mentally sat in the FBO back at our departure airport by the time we had landed - that's how far behind the aircraft I felt. Now with 500 hours on type, I am still hugely grateful for the knowledge & experience of the person sitting to my left. Just last weekend I operated as a Pilots Assistant (not sure on the legally correct term - but more on that later) on a Beach King Air 200 for a set of Air Ambulance flights and my enormous respect for single-pilot IFR was renewed!

Only a few months into my employment, a raft of voluntary cost-saving options were announced to mitigate compulsory job loses (scary for anyone, but I now had a hefty amount of investment into a licence which would be worthless even as a paperweight should I lose my job). So I went for a 4 year Job Share starting 1st August 2009. Basically on that date I dropped to 60% salary (100% is €56500 so I was still doing MUCH better than on state benefits - particularly when you add in a tax break we had from HMRC giving us €20,000 per year free of tax as a Return of Training Expenses). The first year of job share was a 'year on' where I worked as usual but on reduced salary. The come 1st August 2010 I started a year of paid leave (still 60%).

There is a clause allowing us to fly for other companies during our year off - but being of such low hours, I was not expecting to find anything.

But find something I did (thanks to the significantly more marketable Excel rating) and I was only at home for 5-6 weeks before starting with another company who have given me a fully employed contract until I return to NJE for another year on this coming August. I am not flying as much as I did at NetJets - but I am getting paid 2 salaries for not flying, so have no real grounds for complaint. Plus my wife continues to improve and is now largely independent. I have had LOADS of time to work on the house and have more time than is healthy on this site. But there we go - not a bad change from 4 years ago!

PS - I love my job(s) and don't regret a single day of it. That said, would I recommend training afresh to someone now (or in the last 2 years) - no I would not. When I started back in early-mid 2007, things were still rosy, BA still offering Oxford students jobs before their Instrument training etc.

EDIT - I forgot to add anything about the King Air flight. The company where I am now has operates (in addition to Excels and several other types) a few King Airs. These are certified as single pilot but the company likes to always operate a PA in the Right Seat to operate radios, read checklists, deal with pax / fuel / fbo etc. I had volunteered for standby and got called out to do 4 flights for a heart transplant for Gt Ormand St. Having the Air Ambulance in the callsign is pretty handy for short cuts and even getting Heathrow to allow you to land on the 'take off' runway at 7am