RAF?

[rich49]

Hi,. .I want to become an airline pilot and have looked into funding my way through training but a lot of people I have met have advised me to get a scholarship with the RAF. I don't know anything about this route but I have looked into it to find that you apply in the final year of sixth form and then go straight on to train with the RAF (assuming you qualify) this would leave me without a degree which a lot more people have advised me to get before persuing a flying career with the current climate. Could anyone advise me about this route to a flying career?

[Lucifer]

There are no longer any flying elements in the sixth-form scholarship to my knowledge, though I reckon the leadership and team exercises that it now involves are worthwhile in my opinion. You can apply in sixth form for a bursary, which will, when you join university, give you automatic membership of a UAS. Do not expect using this and then recinding the bursary to do you many favours in getting in an airline though, since commiting and then giving up does not bode well in many people's eyes. Joining a UAS whilst at university is however worthwhile, but only if you are prepared to put commitment in and are serious about taking a look at the RAF.

UAS flying, although it counts to hours on a PPL and can go toward an initial issue, does not provide any formal ATPL experience - you will have to actually join and serve for the required hours of experience and a minimum number of years of commitment in order to qualify for an ATPL.

Certainly the degree is advisable, and other than getting to the seat of a plane later, the uni route in the RAF gives little monetary and no promotional disadvantages compared with a school leaver from your year joining straight away.

For funding for an ATPL if airlines are you chosen route, I;m afraid you'll have to wait and see what sponsorships re-emerge in the next year or two.

Best of luck

[Dusty_B]

On Tuesday night at my Squadron's AD, CAS again brought up the subject of recruiting school leavers directly, and offering them the chance to get their first degrees in service.. .This was first suggested in my first year at uni, but as other sponsorship routes are drying up, it looks like they are going to take this further - it is obviously the most cost effective method of bringing in new pilots too (you've got them, they can't leave, and you are paying them on the DE scale).

If you want to join but aren't sure about the cost (or time) of going through uni, then this may be an option in the next couple of years.

The down-side is, of course, that you don't get the whole 'student' experience, of being (semi) independant, skint and everything else!

The upper echelons are VERY keen on recruiting school leavers are pilots. Chances of getting in DE at 18 are higher now than in the last 20 years.

[tacpot]

Slightly off-topic, but can you throw any light on the top-brass' thinking regarding DE @ 18 - why the preference for spotty kids rather than the fully rounded products of our higher education system? <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[Dusty_B]

There are two opposing forces at play here.

1) The RAF had to start pulling in graduates as pilots, because they were finding it harder to justify to the other branches why they couldn't get to the top jobs.... All engineers needed a degree but couldn't get above one or two stars. Yet some kid who joined from school could get to AM.. .OASC kind of took the mission to heart, and was telling almost every school leaver to go to university before joining.. .The 'problem' isn't as bad now as more staff courses are converted to 'real' qualifications - All senior officers do a stint at JSCSC, and many will end up with a Masters en route to the more senior ranks however they started their career.

2) Age makes a hell of a difference, and they've realised that life-experience is probably less desierable than a young vacuous mind that is easier to mould... . .Pilots going through university are not getting onto the front line quick enough. Back a few years ago, I knew a couple of guys who had been in 6 years and still hadn't got through the OCU. They were approaching 30 years old, and still on a steep learning curve - and only 8 years away from 'retierment'. The holding times have reduced since, but training a pilot at 19 is a lot easier than training one at 22-23.. .You get a longer service life out of an 18 year old, they are cheeper to employ (OC-Flt Lt 6 years?? vs SO-Flt Lt 24 months).

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

If your goal is to join the airlines - join the airlines. Don't waste your and other peoples' time and money by joining the RAF solely to achieve that goal - you are barking up the wrong tree. You need dedication and total commitment to get your wings.....if your heart's not really in it you'll find it very hard going.