Gees guys, I can see the chip on the shoulder from here.
2wings,
Okay so the Airlines might like a degree on your CV , but if you have a look at entry requirements for sponsorship, most only ask for 2 A levels. What most airlines really want is experienced pilots with hours in the logbook! Bow5 you are arrogant and your full of crap.
Point 1) Airlines that ask for two A-levels specify it as a minimum for application. That doesn't mean you wouldn't or shouldn't get sponsorship with 2 A-levels but it is specified as MINIMUM. Most also state that 'having a degree would be a significant advantage'. I never wrote that I thought someone without a degree should not be a professional pilot. Far from it. I was responding to the fact that people have the audacity to dismiss a degree as a 'piece of paper' paid for by rich parents. I for one worked bl**dy hard to get there, stay there and have done since leaving. If you think that everyone who goes to University has rich parents then you are a long way wide of the mark. Generally it is the complete opposite. Has it occured to you that people go to university and 'graft' to stay there and then 'pay for their own training with their own hard graft!' afterwards? Obviously not.
Point 2) How exactly does someone who has borrowed £45,000 to train to get the basic licence then become an 'experienced pilot with hours in the logbook' given the current employment prospects? Where does the money come to pay back the loan and pay for the hours? Another loan maybe.
Point 3) Maybe I am. Maybe i'm not. Depends what kind of mood i'm in I guess.
My view is that anyone who can do the training deserves to be a pilot, degree or no degree. I do, however,, have a problem with banks lending huge sums of money (£45,000 is a hell of a lot) to someone who, if they can't get a flying job, will struggle to pay it back. Banks couldn't care less if someone secures a loan then defaults on the payments. They will get their money back one way or another.
Take it easy,
bow5.
