gbotley, thank you very much for your informative response and also your positivity as like you said there is much negativity on these threads! That's absolute madness about the additional start up costs, is it really appox £4000 or like you suggested more like £2500? How comes BBVA would not lend you the entire loan?? How was you possibly able to find the extra 23,000?? Also how are you considering paying for your type rating fees, will they lend you that money or is £70000 you maximum?? I will certainly read your blog on this matter as this is a considerable risk which will worry me every day! I'm so pleased you are enjoying your training and the placement/employment after training sounds very positive. Thank you for your response, Danny