Jack,
it's an admirable plan, mate, but it makes one fundamental mistake: it assumes you are in control of your career! Believe me, luck and chance play a huge part. But well done for putting your plan up for assessment.
Firstly, and I'm sure you appreciate this, Concorde is unlikely to be in service long enough for you to be able to fly it. Even the best things have to come to an end, and it's probable that Concorde's time will end around 2010 or so. Sorry! Best you aim for the A380 or B747-400X, which will be around in the 20 or so years that it will take you to get to a long-haul command.
To the more practical aspects: good idea to become a Flight Instructor, but don't expect to apply and have someone pay for your training. You will need to find somewhere around £5000 for that course. Also, to become an FI to earn money, you will need a Commercial Pilot's Licence. As you intend to move on to airline flying, you should take the ATPL (Air Transport Pilot's Licence), not the CPL, ground exams. There's little real difference from the work level point of view, and I believe it's very difficult to find anyone who offers a CPL groundschool. Anyway, these will cost you another grand or two - and a
lot of work.
You suggest that you would like to move on to business jet or airline flying later, once you have 'sufficient' hours. There are almost no operators offering business jet training - and it would not be for free. There aren't many bizjet pilots, period. Also, employers would generally be looking for pilots with more experience than you suggest. However, you could be one of the lucky few - once you have a Lear or BAe125 rating (paid for by you) in your sticky mitt.
The 737 option is far more practicable, as both Ryanair and easyJet offer some kind of ab-initio recruitment (that's for people with very little experience). Through CTC-McAlpine, easyJet are offering training from nil experince to 737 for a lucky 24 people this year. It will cost those lucky bods £63,000 over the next seven years, but it will be taken out of their pay a little at a time. This scheme may still be in place when you get there, it may not.
Ryanair's scheme involves you paying £50 to apply to them, £150 for an interview and simulator check and (I believe) £18,000 for a 737 type rating. Your pay is thereafter reduced until the company have 'recovered' their expenses - I'm not sure how long this takes.
A couple of other operators - FlyBe, Britannia, Astraeus, and JMC - have offered similar sponsorships, as they are known, over the last few years, but you must understand that they are few and far between and only a very few people are lucky enough to get on them. British Airways' 'Cadet' scheme is currently suspended, but could be back operating again by the time you're old enough to apply.
The majority of UK commercial pilots these days achieve their aim either via a commission in the RAF or Royal Navy, or by sponsoring themselves through flying training. This costs in the region of £65,000 to get 200 or so hours and a 'frozen' ATPL (a CPL which becomes an ATPL automatically on achieving 1500 hours), plus a few other necessary qualifications. They then have to go on the treadmill of looking for a job. This can take a
very long time to get!
Sorry to keep bringing it back to money, but it's vital that you understand that learning to fly costs a great deal of the stuff and, outside the military, very few organisations are willing to pay for you. Therefore you must be prepared to find that cash yourself, eventually - and therein lies another story.
However, don't be put off if this is what you really want to do. Keep reading Pprune and try to follow the progress of some of those ahead of you. Try and learn from the mistakes of others (those that they own up to!), and study the methods of those who have achieved their aims through sponsorships. There's a great deal to learn, and you have lots of time. Use it wisely!
Good luck.
Scroggs
Virgin/Wannabes Moderator
[email protected]
PS As for going on to long-haul at a later date - we can talk about that nearer the time!