PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - VET-FEE Help - gooooone from 1 Jan
View Single Post
Old 5th Oct 2016, 23:26
  #16 (permalink)  
BPA
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Australia
Posts: 622
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Why does everyone feel the need to pay up front for their flight training. Around 90% (perhaps more) of the 1500 pilots at the airline I work at paid for their training by having a full time job outside of aviation and paid as they flew ie once a week. Some saved for 12 months and then do a bunch of flying during their holidays. That was the norm 28 years ago when I started flying.

Back then there were only a handful of flying schools in Australia running the full time, zero hours to CPL (IR) type training and most of these schools focused on training pilots from overseas. However there were a lot of schools that offered partime/pay as you go CPL/IR/Instructor training and they were just as busy (if not more ) than the schools offering full time training.

It took me 3 years to get my CPL and instructor rating by paying as I flew as well as holding down a full time job. It then took we another 3 years of instructing (only paid as a casual) before I got my first twin IFR job and another 4 years before my first airline (regional) job. So it took me 10 years to finally make it to the airlines and yes it was hard work and at times I thought about throwing it in, but all I ever wanted to do was fly so I stuck with it and didn't need any goverment loans.

log0008, I also came from a single parent family.
BPA is offline