Where to go from here?
Hi all,
This is my first post on here – I try and keep a watching brief when I can and it would appear that this is the perfect place to pose my situation.
I’m sure many of you will be familiar with my story or know someone who is in the same situation. Although I’ll try and keep it brief, I apologise in advance if this is rather long-winded.
Firstly, I’m 29 years old and a very low hours pilot –around 275 to be precise. I took an integrated training course with a well known FTO and graduated in late 2008. For the record, I passed all of my ATPL theory exams and flight tests first time, including the MEIR. I count myself very lucky to have achieved the qualification and like most, I aspire to be a commercial pilot one day.
However, as you may have noticed, the timing of my graduation could not have been worse and I ended up back living with the parents with no flying job, no money and a mountain of debt. I don’t mind revealing that this mountain of debt was around £73k from a well known bank, notably secured on my parent’s house. So far I’m sure there are many of you who can relate to this.
I then spent the next 5 months trying to find a job – not a flying job (although not for want of trying), but a ‘normal’ job. I applied for everything going from binman to cleaner, and eventually landed on my feet so to speak in a job related to aviation (but sadly not flying).
As for the flying, I revalidated the IR in the sim the first year (September 2009), just to keep my options open. However, the following year I was unable to afford to pay for the revalidation in the aircraft, therefore I had no option but to let the whole qualification lapse.
Since 2008, I have flown twice in a Cessna 152, both times as a birthday treat to keep the dream alive. I live in one of the most expensive areas of the country to go flying, hence why I haven’t done any. In an ideal situation, I would love to have kept my single engine rating going so I could fly for leisure, take family and friends up etc. I would also have liked to renew my MEIR every year and possibly do at least one flight a month in a multi engine to practice NDB and ILS approaches etc.
Because the job I am in is related to aviation, I still glimpse the bustle of an airport every day and gaze out over the airfield thinking what could be. Whilst this is not ideal, at least I’m not stuck in an office somewhere wondering where did it all go wrong.
So my question to everyone on here is really where to go from here. I pay back around £1k per month of my loan and at the current rate, I’ll be debt free in around 4 years time. I can’t leave my job because other than a flying job, there’s nothing out there which I can be paid higher for unless I go back to education or training. This isn’t an option because then there’s no income coming in to meet my loan repayments. I can’t relocate abroad or try my luck elsewhere for the same reasons.
I have come up with a few potential plans to fulfil mydream. The first is to renew my qualification and put me back in the pilot employment market. I have the money to do this but I don’t have the time – I spend most of my time working all hours under the sun to make ends meet. However, once I’m all renewed, then what? I’m a realist and the chances of a job are almost nil here in the UK. Also, once renewed, I don’t want to let the licence lapse again and get myself into the same mess I’m in now. So I’d have to spend the cash to keep it going, cash which I can’t afford on a regular basis.
I’ve also thought about an instructor’s course. However, I’d have to start single engine flying way before I did this course – back to living in one of the most expensive areas of the country to do this and also the time issue. Again, once I’ve gained the qualification, where do I go with that?
I can’t try my luck abroad as we’re back to the whole relocation issue as I can’t afford to quit my job to meet my loan repayments.
So what do I do? I currently cling on to the hope that one day the airline industry will go back to how it was just before the summer of 2008 i.e. expansion, thousands of pilot jobs etc. And if I get an interview with an airline when that day comes, hopefully they will see my situation and will realise there’s no one else to fly their aeroplanes! All I know is that until I have given the flying one final go or accepted it's never going to happen, I can't move on with my life.
All responses will be greatly received and I look forward to reading them (when I have time!).