Hello!
I am fairly new to these forums. I've been snooping around them for the last couple of days...
To cut a long story short I am a bloke in his early 20s born and bred in the US who has had a burning desire to become an airline pilot ever since he was a little kid etc etc etc. Unfortunately I sort of gave up on the idea in high school when I realized that there was no way I could ever back my dream with the adequate amount of mulah or achieve it via the military route. So I had to think of something else to do in the mean time...
Fast forward a few years and I am now a professional firefighter in one of the biggest cities in the UK. A bit random I know but I feel very blessed and also very content to be where I am now, doing what i'm doing BUT... I still always find myself looking up at the clouds etc etc etc [insert cheesy dream stuff here].
Now I am beginning to feel like I am in a position where I can actually start thinking about pursuing my ultimate dream of being in the right seat of an airliner. I am not saying i've got the money to do it this very moment but at least I am making decent money which I can save towards my dream. Plus I hopefully also have time on my side. Maybe?
From what I can tell these are my options...
A) Save around £30k, go and do all my training in the US. However I know this will not get me anywhere near the amount of hours or experience I will need to apply for any airline job. So if I went this route would there be any part-time flying jobs I could do in the UK to make me competitive for an airline flying job?
OR
B) Go the integrated flight school route like CTC, get lucky and get hired for easyJet flexicrew or something similar. However it is a terrifying thought that I might be nearly £100k in debt and be making less £££ than I am now.
Now money is not everything to me. I do not want to be a pilot for the big $$$ but obviously we all need to be making enough to look after our families and not be in a load of debt.
Oh and before I forget there are also things like BAs future pilot program but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, get rejected by these excellent programs and not be any closer to becoming an airline pilot because I didn't do any training myself. But then again you can't be a fully certified pilot and apply to these programs...
Heck, what about becoming a bush or mission pilot? But you need a load of hours for those jobs too.
So that brings me back to the title of this thread, where do I start?
Let me specify I do love my job and would be quite happy doing it till the day I die but that doesn't mean I don't want to give my ultimate life long dream the big old try otherwise I will always wonder, what if?
I fully appreciate anyone's input in advance!
And let me just specify that I attempted to get my PPL a few years back so I know I love to fly. Never achieved because I ran out of money.