a gamble or what????

[G-MANN]

Here is my problem, advice appreciated!!

I am 24yrs old working as ground staff for uk charter airline/ faa dispatcher licence training completed along with seven years of ops/flight planning experience under my belt.

For the last 6 months I have had the idea in my head of selling my house and making approx £15000 to fund flying training. Of course I would love to fly commercially, however would you consider me giving up my house for a line of work where i may not get a job crazy???

All my friends have said 'go for it' but i dont think they realise the seriousness of this line of work!!!

G-MANN

P.S I don't have A levels or a degree so would the airlines even look at me. I would have thought ops experience would count for something!!!

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

I would say go for it, if that is really what you want to do. I think alot of people that have decided to bite the bullet and go for it, have had to make sacrifices in order to fund their training, whether it be sell a house, or take time out of their lives to save the money.

I think it all depends on your circumstances. I am not an airline, but I don't think not having A-Levels will affect you, friends of mine who don't have A-Levels have jobs.

All the best and good luck.

[BroomstickPilot]

G-MANN,

If you are planning to train under the FAA, then £15,000 may just about do it. If you are planning to qualify under JAA, then that sum sounds far, far too small.

I think you need to have access to about 50% more cash than you expect to spend, as you can fail exams and have to take them again or need more flying training than the minimum or both.

Don't underestimate the maths and physics element of JAA groundschool.

Don't listen too hard to the representatives of the FTOs and groundschools, they want bums on seats.

Don't listen too much to the encouragement of friends. Good friends always see it as their function to be encouraging; not always wisely.

Once you qualify, it may take years for you to get into commercial flying, and you will have to make a living and maintain your currency during this period.

Commercial flying isn't the well paid job it used to be. Look at the pay scales and think carefully whether you think it is worth the expense and effort. There are many more occupations that yield much more income without the outlay.

Above all, do plenty of desk research before you commit yourself and talk to people who have recently qualified.

On the positive side, you are still only 24 and can afford a mistake.

Good luck, Kid.

Broomstick

[englishal]

If you are planning to train under the FAA, then £15,000 may just about do it. If you are planning to qualify under JAA, then that sum sounds far, far too small.
Not nescessarily.

There is a company out there offering Internships, whereby you pay for the training to Instructor, then work as an instructor for them and spend a couple of years in the USA.

The result is that after a couple of years, at a cost of about £16,000 total after your instructor pay has been subtracted from the initial course fees, you have FAA CPL/IR, JAA fATPL and 1500 hours......

I won't advertsie as I don't want to break the Pprune rules, but there is another chap on these forums who is training along these lines, and he may be in a better position to advise you.

EA

[CAP509castaway]

G MANN,
Have you taken any flying lessons yet? If so speak to your instructor about your plans,if not head down to Barton and seek out one of the instructors and again talk it over.Good luck.
Feel free to P.M. me

[G-MANN]

Thanks for the replies!

If i do go ahead and bite the bullet then i will be training under jaa regs. I'm aware it will cost more than the £15000 i quoted to obtain frozen atpl status however everybody has to start somewhere.

I have approx 18hrs experience on motorgliders through the air cadets plus flying with friends which obviously hasn't been looged so i will be starting from scratch on the flying side (legally speaking)

As I said before I have completed FAA dispatcher training which is more or less the same as an faa atp syallabus so I have a headstart there, plus working in the airline means i'm able to get advice from people who have completed training in the last few years!!

Best get my thinkng cap on and start making some serious decisions!!!

G-MANN