PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - I DON'T want to be an airline pilot!
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Old 20th Jun 2015, 08:12
  #5 (permalink)  
Luke SkyToddler
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
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It's difficult but certainly not impossible

If your profile is correct and you are 19 years old, from the UK, then you have two immediate concerns.

First is that there's obviously no "bush piloting or safari flying" to be found in the UK. So if it's your chosen career, then you are committing yourself to spending your entire working life away from your home country and family. Do you have a particular country in mind, have you travelled extensively or lived in these kind of countries before, had dealings with the locals, do you really know what you're getting into in terms of day to day life in these places, or do you just have a romantic idea in your head of what it's like being a bush pilot from watching discovery channel? Do you have any plans to have a family of your own one day? Will your wife have any kind of minimum expectation of quality of life or housing or whatever? (Assuming you're a guy ... no offense redsnail ) What about kids, would they be able to live in your "bush pilot" accommodation?

I don't mean to burst your bubble but there is a reason why virtually NOBODY makes a career out of "bush flying", because it is virtually without exception a young single person's game, and 99% of people treat it as a stepping stone to a more settled job in a more civilized country. The places where you have to live and the typical salary associated with it, makes it almost impossible to consider it as anything else. There are a few exceptions to the rule - i.e. the Australian flying doctor service - but many of those jobs are not likely to be accessible to you as a Brit.

In any case, you will need to go live somewhere where there IS that kind of flying. Africa, Australia, Indonesia/PNG, Canada/Alaska. You will of course need a work visa and a licence for that particular country. It's possible to arrange in some African countries and the likes of Susi Air can arrange it in Indo, but next to impossible in Australia or South Africa or Alaska. So do your work permit research first.

Secondly, if you're 19, don't take this the wrong way but you are probably several years too young to be taken seriously by many bush / GA type operators. They don't really like spotty teenagers in command of their very expensive single crew aircraft, and would rather someone with maturity and at least a few years of life experience.

That is probably a good thing though, in that it will give you the time to go work in whatever professional capacity you can for the next 3 or 4 years and save the money you'll need, without taking on a massive pilot training loan. Then if your heart's still set on it, at least you can save money on the very expensive airline oriented UK training. Flying schools in South Africa are much cheaper and I'm sure you can find one that's bush pilot / GA oriented.

After that, you'll either need to have a connection, or you'll need to go travel around to places like Maun and potentially spend some serious time sweeping hangar floors and buying beers for chief pilots until an opportunity comes up. Bush operators don't typically even respond to CVs posted from the UK, they would rather hire someone they know who's already in town.

Best of luck
Luke SkyToddler is offline