Had a similar situation myself. Saved up a lot but still needed around 60.000€ but borrowed 75.000€ to include Type Rating and some other stuff. No mortgage needed in my case, but I was very very lucky (and some people helped me out). With that amount you will have to go down that way, which is not pleasant.
Went to a big school, hired straight away by a good airline, permanent from day 1 with good salary. Around 50.000 pounds before tax on year 1 I would say and around 65.000 pounds on year 2. More or less.
My repayments were initially 900€ a month for 7.5 years, although I was paying very little interest thanks to the people I know in the financial world.
With that in mind, I had a decent life in year 1-2. Could afford living by myself and not sharing, bought a little used car and went on holidays (European) twice a year. I was able to save up a lot every month, around €2000 every month. That including the loan repayments. I used to give some money in advance so my repayments went from 900, to 750, then 450, then 215.
My parents faced the repayments during my training, I continued straight after. 2 years down the line, I paid off my loan, so that would be around 4 years after I got the loan.
Now I was very lucky, because:
-Interest I was paying was not the one offered to general public.
-Pound/Euro exchange rate went through the roof and I was lucky to exchange big amounts of money when it was at its peak (1.40).
- I had tax advantage in the UK, as many cadets.
- As I said, permanent from day 1 with very good salary.
So it all depends on how you want to manage it. Different people do it in different ways. You can either:
- Accept the debt and continue to the last day. You will have to pay every month but apart form that, the rest is for you.
- Try to pay it off asap and put every single penny in your savings. That means no shiny new car, no Australian trips, not many nights outs, no expensive toys, no nothing. But you will be free of debt sooner. Much sooner.
Nowadays I changed airline, country. Salary is less but free of debt, I could afford buying a shiny new car and saving up for a deposit on a house. First years were tough but I sleep a lot better knowing that I do not owe any money to the bank.
But this is, of course, the story of a lucky one. Know some people who finished training with similar or (much) higher loans and still no job. Some are trying to pay it back working somewhere else, some are "lucky" and their parents are helping out. For them of course, the situation is much much worse.
Think twice about borrowing this amount of money. I was very lucky, but I have seen some people in a real mess, being in their late 20s with no money and no job whatsoever (even worse, owing 100K to the bank).
Would I play again and risk my money?
To be honest, I would not, or I would take less risks.