We are the future of air transport! and £££

[The Butler]

Time to kick up a fuss. Ive read too many threads now about how its a stupid idea to be a pilot (not that its gonna stop most of us trying) so hold on a minute. What the hell is gonna happen in the future? The air is the only way to go (from a transport revolutionary kind of point of view) and the industry, despite setbacks like 9 11 is on the whole gonna get bigger and bigger.

Anyone have any idea if the amount of people wanting to be a pilot (ie us wannabbeabbawanas at the mo) has decreased over the last few years or has it stayed the same or what? There are only 10000 (propper!) pilots in the UK at the mo, 2 or 3000 of which are gonna retire pretty soon. Surely we've got a decent chance?

Its about time there's a bit of positivity floating around here so come on!

I don't know about anyone else but when Im 40 I want the nice car, the nice house etc etc etc, its part of what has motivated me to do it all. Yes I love flying, but Im not obsessed with it. I wanna do it for the coin and for the buzz of landing a big :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: off plane and being 'a pilot'. Not really arsed what the reality is of the job, there are ups and downs for every job.

What I would like to know from anyone is where (in theory) if things carry on as they have done over the last 10 or 15 years with peaks and troughs etc is what kind of situation can we expect to be on in 10 or 15 years time? We're all forking out shed loads of cash here, surely someday its gonna be payback time? Let's not be silly here, you are all lying if the money doesn't come into it. Im sure you would all have gone into pilot traing if the max wage through your career was gonna be £ 20000pa. Any thoughts about anything Ive said?

[Flypuppy]

There is probably enough new positions for 75-100 people (to account for expansion or new start ups, in a good year), and movement further up the food chain accounts for probably about 300 places for more experienced bods moving out of night freight/instructing/regional turbo props (again in a good year).

So all in all there is probably not much more requirement than 400 jobs per year available for new pilots This equates roughly to the output of 1 mid sized flying school.

[scroggs]

I agree. So a great many who start training will never find a job in the airlines, and will end up with a big bill to pay when they finally give up! The trick is to be one of those 400 or so....

As for the money, there is nothing exceptional about pilots' salaries these days. A great many other jobs and professions can and do pay more, and without quite such an enormous investment up front. It is possible to earn over 100k in this country from flying, but the numbers who do are very small! For the majority of commercial pilots in UK, 40-50k is probably the most they'll see, and a great many have to make do on half of that.

We're not being negative, but we are trying to make you see the reality of this business. I hope your positivity eventually nets you one of those 100k jobs, but you're going to have to settle for far less for 20-odd years beforehand.

Scroggs

[The Butler]

Cheers for the replies