How Much for a Professional Licence?

[timharrison]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone could tell me how much (approx) a professional licence would set me bak

Also, whats the difference between a CPL and an ATPL LIcence?

[pilotchap]

£60-70,000

[Wobbles]

CPL= Commercial Pilot's Licence
ATPL= Air Transport Pilot's licence (I think!)

CPL allows you to earn money from flying. e.g.: air charter, flying instructor (if you get an FI rating). If you want to work for the airlines, you need an ATPL. This is basically a CPL with an IR (instrument rating) and passes in the ATPL ground subjects. To get a CPL, you need 150 hours; for an ATPL you need to be 21 and have 1500 hours. Until you have 1500 hours, you have a 'frozen ATPL'. With this, you can't fly for an airline as you don't have the hours, but you can get some other sort of flying job.

In this country, an ATPL integrated (full time, 1 year approx.) course costs about £50-60,000, or you can do a modular course, spread over perhaps two years, which will cost £30-45,000. You do this in modules. ie.: PPL (Private Pilot's Licence), then do some hourbuilding, then do CPL, then a multi engine IR and the ATPL groundschool.

You can do this in other countries as well (e.g.: USA, South Africa, Australia (where I want to do it)), and it could cost a third to half of the price.

If you want some web addresses of schools to look at, e-mail me. I've had information from about 45 schools so far; expecting more any day!

Have a look at websites like www.avasp.com (http://) and airline websites for more info. The British Airways website is quite helpful, too. www.britishairwaysjobs.com (http://).

Hope this helps!

[Groundloop]

Not quite right, Wobbles.

You can fly for an airline with a 'frozen ATPL'. But you cannot COMMAND an airliner until the ATPL is unfrozen.

How else do BA cadets, for example, go on the line with just over 200 hours?

[foghorn]

Just to expand on groundloop's correction, for the sake of tim, what Wobbles calls an ATPL is actually a 'frozen ATPL' - which is really a Commercial Pilot Licence, Instrument Rating and passes in the ATPL theory exams. This is, if you like, an airline first officer licence.

Get to 1,500 hours flying time (there are more detailed requirements about what kind of hours these are), and your ATPL 'unfreezes'to become a full Airline Transport Pilot Licence which allows you to be commander of a two-crew public transport flight; if you like, an airline captain's licence.

Otherwise wobble is correct except that it isn't always cheaper to go abroad then convert back to the UK.

cheers!
foggy.

[Send Clowns]

Pilotchap is either rather pessimistic or has been to a very expensive school. It is possible zero to frozen ATPL for around £40,000 on a modular course, everything done in this country.

However you will of course have to live for about a year while sitting the course. It need not take two years as Wobbles suggests, it is a similar length of course to the integrated if modules are sat in turn immediately, nor is it necessarily much cheaper to do parts of the course abroad. His order is also wrong, as you must complete the ATPL groundschool before the CPL or IR tests on a modular course.

Best of luck with the road to becoming a pilot - email me if I can answer any queries.

[Wobbles]

Sorry, my mistake!