Chaps some great stories there, I hope it inspires guys like J-10 to hang in there and pursue the dream. hollingworthp, I have a lot of respect for your story sir.
cyrilroy21, certainly I can give an abbreviated sequence of events since I started, but I dont want to bore everyone to tears!
My interest from aviation came from my father back in the late 70's early eighties, he was an engineer with Pan Am. From about the age of 5, I knew in my heart that being a professional pilot was going to satisfy my career requirements, I had certainly developed a passion for it. Throughout my childhood I spent alot of time finding out more and more about the industry and learning more and more about aircraft. I remember many summers spent on top on the queens building with my parker jacket on, complete with binoculars watching aircraft hoping that one day I would be sitting in the sharp end of a heavy jet.
Going through school, I didnt work as hard as I should have done, and didnt do particularly well at GSCE level, and started to think that I didnt have the aptitude for flying. I spent a couple of years trying to get into BA for there engineering apprenticeship, but was never successful. At the age of 16, I went off to college to study mechanical engineering, where I managed to come out with some very good results, which inspired me to go for my dream job of being a pilot. The bottom line was, as soon as I left school I got my finger out of my ass and done some work. From here I went on to higher education completing a HND in Aerospace Studies, and finally a degree in Aerospace Engineering. I never thought I could achieve this, so I was delighted and it made me more determined to succeed. While I was at college I had a part time job at Tesco where I saved up the money to complete my PPL, this was in 1995, god 16 years ago! 7 years service at Tesco served me well, it gave me the money to fund the PPL and several years of annual hour building to keep current. I spent many happy hours in the florida sunshine flying around and having fun.
All the above took 6 years, and in amongst that time I had applied to every airline under the sun for sponsorship to which I was never successful. Having those doors shut in my face was hard, but I just carried on and again it made me more determined. I was getting to the age of being too old for sponsorship to I decided that I would sponsor myself and go into industry to save up the money required. I was lucky to get a job in the aerospace engineering industry as a designer/planner, and the place I worked was 20 mins walk from my house so it was perfect. I didnt need a car, which saved me some cash, and I didnt change my life style, I would live as if I had still been working in a super market part time while at college, and would save all the surplus cash I had earned. After 4 years of working full time and part time some evenings, I had managed to bank a shade under 40K. In 2002 I left my job as an engineer, and went to the US to complete the hour building phase to make me eligible to start the CPL course. On my return, while having a beer in my local, I bumped into one of my old bosses, and he asked me if I wanted to return to work as a contractor, to work on the refit program for Concorde. This all worked out perfectly, as from the time I had come back from the US, it was pretty much 6 months until my ATPL ground school course started in London. This allowed me to save up some more cash towards my training.
It was 2003 when I started my ATPL ground school at London Met, and spent 6 months great months there. It was hard work, but I met a great bunch of guys, who I still know to this day. We all popped out the other end with our exams passed and were looking forward to the flying phase.
I had lived in London for the ground school, so I had to return to live with my folks while I completed the professional flying phase. I completed the CPL/IR over a period of a year, along with a part time job doing some private hire driving which was a lot of fun. One of the reasons the flying took a while was I injured myself playing squash which put me out of action for 3 months while I was doing my CPL. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as during my return to the latter part of the CPL and the commencement of the IR I became great friends with a guy, Dave, who worked as a dispatcher for an airline based at LHR. We both went through the IR together, back seating each others lessons, and both passed the IR test on the same day late 2004. Dave had made some contacts in the airline and secured an interview in the March of 2005, and later got the job as a pilot starting on the A320, obviously he was delighted and I was delighted for him!
I struggled to get a job so elected to do a flying instructor course at the school I had done my CPL/IR at. I finished that in the summer of 2005 and was then employed at the school as a FI. A lot of the guys I had studied with had gone off to do type ratings, which seemed to be a good bet, and they all ended up with jobs flying various jets. I just didnt have the cash for this, and really wanted to see if I could get an airline job without having to do a type rating.
I instructed for just under 2 years. I really enjoyed this time of my life, it was a lot of fun, but as most instructors will tell you, it is poorly paid and very difficult to live. I got to the winter of 2006, and Dave had told me the airline he worked for were thinking about recruiting and he would recommend me, to which I was so thankful for. By this time I was in my early thirties and was weighing up my options. I had been given some information from some of my ATPL friends regarding type ratings (who were now employed) to which I was trying to resist, but I decided to bite the bullet and do an Airbus course. Of course this was a gamble which I reluctantly took. I did this course late 2006, early 2007. In the February of 2007 I received an email from the airline Dave had recommended me to saying could I come for an interview. I couldnt believe it, the timing had been perfect. On passing the interview (I had never been so nervous as I knew this was the big one!), I went through the sim ride, and was offered a first officer position based at London Heathrow on the Airbus A320. I tell you guys, it was like winning the lottery, I was so pleased.
After around 3 months of training I was finally a fully qualified First Officer, I couldnt believe it, after all those years the hard work, blood sweat and tears had paid off.
After everything I had done since the age of 5 to try and get there, makes me really appreciate the job now. Making a living from flying is a great way to spend your time if you have that flare and passion for aviation.
As my original thread states it has been 4 years since I started, and I have just been promoted to SFO. Time to command is uncertain, but to be honest the main goal has been scored. Command is something that will happen in its own time. For now I am just going to continue to enjoy the job
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