fed up with UK flight Training- advice please

[vee one]

hi

i would like some advice if i may. A fiend of mine who has a JAR-CPL(R) began his IR about a year ago and all was going swimmingly until he had a personal tragedy in his life and he was forced to stop training.

after several months, he got back into the saddle and tried for his IR again at a differnt school, but had issues with the school and the instructors. to top it all off he lost his UK ATPL theory credits so he has to take the JAR ATPLs.

He is getting disillusioned with UK flight training, particularly the financial commitments involved.

he has his heart set on emigrating to New Zealand and retraining there. How difficult (or easy) would this be for a uk Citizen? what is the aviation job situation in NZ as compared to the UK? Would the US, Canada or Oz be a better option?

i have told him that he would be better off here since he really doesn't have that far to go and he isn't getting any younger (late 30s) but i think he just wants to keep his options open.

any advice would be gratefully received particularly from anyone who has been through the same situation.

many thanks.

will post (snail mail) your replies to him since he doesn't own a PC.

[carbonfibre]

Canada seems like good option,flying,scenery and country all good

Avoid the UK Jungle and the Dodgy schools that do JAA in US, look up previous on this site for that info, also dodgy FTO's in the UK, FC at Wolvo being one of them. Poor quality for inflated prices

Good luck:ok:

[onehunga]

I think the job options would be very limited in NZ due mainly to the small size of the market and a surplus of pilots - many with thousands of hours. You only have to check out the Air NZ website to see how competitive it is to work for them. When vacancies do arise applicants will generally be type rated with many thousands of hours.

The NZ market from what I can gather mirrors the US approach. Typically you would instruct building up your hours and then try and land a first job flying single engine IFR carrying freight or pax on smaller niche routes. Then if you are lucky it would be turbo prop. After that jets but you could be waiting a while as the market is just so small and the vacancies are not huge.

Australia is a much bigger market but again a big supply of pilots which is not helped with the Ansett collapse years ago.

A better option might be for your friend to stay here and get into jets through CTC or the other avenues build up substantial jet time and then try and get in on a direct entry route. I think Freedom Air in NZ might have been advertising not so long ago for type rated people.

The dunnunder threads have lots of information if you ask there.

[vee one]

thanks for your advice guys. will check out NZ forum.

cheers and happy flying

vee one