Loans/Financial Support for flight training?

[mattoneous]

Hi all!

I am a UK citizen wishing to pursue a career as a helicopter pilot. I would like to live and work outside of the UK so JAA licencing is not a certain requirement for me, that said if it makes the dream possible I'd be happy to work in the UK too! :)
I am keen to do my training in either the US or Australia (respectable schools with better flying weather and exchange rate!) and would be very grateful if anyone could offer me advice on gaining financial support to cover/assist with my training costs. I am aware of career development loans in the UK and it would seem that the professional studies loans offered by Natwest and HSBC no longer cover aviation.
Any (legal) tips and advice you may have would be so very much appreciated,

Many Thanks to you all!

Matt Eke

[willybear]

As a UK ex pat now living in oz. I can point you in the right direction for obtaining a licence in either Oz or US. Just PM for more info if you like

But remember a licence means f**k all without experience keep focused and get a secondary trade in reserve for when you don't get that flying job you’re after.

Later

Wills

[gulliBell]

To me it's crazy to borrow a big pile of money in the hope of returning a little pile of money. You might hope but you can't realistically expect to get a flying job soon after getting a pilot licence, let alone one that pays well enough to make the loan repayments.

Work hard doing something else and save the money first. Only after you've saved enough (plus a bit more), then start spending it, but only if you have a real job to fall back on! The reality is, unless luck goes your way it can take 2 years or more to land your first paid flying job. Can't imagine the bank manager waiting 2 years to start getting his money back.

[Pandalet]

try http://www.airleague.co.uk/scholarships.html

If you want to go the loan route, you WILL get different answers from different branches of the same bank, so try asking around. HSBC do do a professional career loan to pilots, but not all branches will.

[Ioan]

Some banks will still provide professional studies loans to pilots. I was in Bournemouth doing the ATPL theory a couple months back and I know of one person who got a loan and another who was in the process of applying. Both fixed wing admittedly - the girl who got it had to do a lot of paperwork filling out forms, writing business plans etc, but I understand she got quite a bit. Enough to pay for a fair chunk of the course from PPL to fATPL.
I rememeber her mentioning something about how disorganised the banks seemed. One branch would tell her one thing, then another would tell her something completely different. Think the one she got it with was HSBC. Hope that helps!