Just wondered what kind of jobs you did before you became a pilot, to help pay your way through it if you weren't lucky enough to get sponsorship.

Cheers.

Mowed lawns

Army Reserve for 3 years. My commanding officer was very helpful & authorised me to do the maximum allowable paid days / year. He even 'found' things for me to do. Pretty well covered my PPL expenses & was a deciding factor in my bank manager's decision to give me a loan to get my CPL. My loan totalled A$8000 to get from PPL to CPL + Class 4 Instrument Rating (aka Night VFR rating).

The unemployment or student benefits depending on whether I was between jobs or was studying full time. My CPL theory course meant I had to go on to student benefits even though it meant a reduction in income from the dole! Used some of my loan to live on & make the loan repayments.

Factory production line making folders & clipboards

Small-ish supermarket assistant then manager. My parents had bought the place as a semi-retirement thing, got bored & went off to study at university.

Truck driver (thank you Mr Army for giving me a truck licence!). Paid for my initial multi-engine endorsment.

3 years as a student nurse then subsequently a registered nurse. When I trained, nursing training was done entirely within a hospital & you were paid a wage + shift, weekend & public holidy penalty rates. My nursing was/is in the specialty area of mental health.

During my 1st year of nursing training I was able to pay off the last A$5000 of my CPL loan, save half of my IR & get another loan for A$3000 to fund the rest of my IR. My 2nd & 3rd years paid off my IR loan & saved enough to pay for a couple of IR renewals & my instructor rating.

Now nursing keeps me fed when I'm not flying for a living.

Sold computers till I was blue in the face, earnt loads of dosh though!!!

Started flying at 14 years old, cleaned toilets at the local 'special' hospital for the care of the mentally retarded - everyday after school to pay for one lesson a month, earned £7.22 a week...also fueled and cleaned planes most weekends at the local club for £5 a day!

After leaving school got myself a decent job in airline operations which taught me the background, had reasonable money and the shift pattern allowed time off for flying...

I was king of Namibia!!! Oh damn, did I say that out loud? :o

I was a police officer for Atlanta PD...

A thankless job indeed.

TP

Worked my @ss off!

I had two jobs most of the time, sometimes three. Your best bet is to treat your licencnig like full-time school. Your learning curve is way higher when you can fly several times a week, an study when your not flying.

Tinstaaf

I read with great interest your reply to this post, and must say, I'm impressed! (and I don't mean this sarcastically). I only wish I had as many strings to my bow as you have - you deserve what success you have for sheer endurance!

FD

Currently i am a wannabie.

And my jobs just now are.

1. 10hr shift a day during the week as a IT contactor.

2. Class1 HGV driver taking fresh salmon east and south at the weekend after a trailer swap at Dutch border. ( Thankyou REME/RE for getting me the lic)

3. Scuba diving instructor. (dosn't pay well but its getting payied for a hobby.)

4. Acting a a resourcer for various agency for IT staff (money for nothing getting my mates jobs)

5. Fixing home PC problems for punters who can't fix driver problems.(crap work but not bad pay)

To be honest i am well illegal working in europe and i look forward to becoming a pilot just for the drop in working hours.
Currently zero days off in 3 months 7 hours kip a night average if i am lucky.

But if you have a need its all worth it.
If my first employer expects 12hrs a day 6 days a week, so be it, i have averaged more than that for the last 2 years and boy do i feel it.

A well tired

MJ

(BTW i work on a remote 3rd line support desk for a telecoms company which is why i am online all the time even when driving the wagons)

Edited (again) for a lie i sat the ATPL exams in JUne so i had 2 weeks + 1 long weekend off So include 2hrs a night study

[ 12 July 2001: Message edited by: mad_jock ]

I left secondary modern school at 15 years
old. No GCE.
Had apprenticeship as a letterpress machine minder, first year wage of £1.75 for 40hour week.
I wanted to teach printing at a tech college at age 21 years.
Told to come back at 26years or teach abroad now.
Got such a job in Nassau with local Tribune newspaper via Daily Express UK.
Opened an account with Barclays Bank there with my total capital of £25, the manager was so so rude I closed it after 1hour and moved across to a Canadian Bank.
The manager there took me flying in an Aircoupe at the Nassau Flying Club.
This was my second flight after the BOAC 707 flight ex UK.
The manager was ex WW2 fighter pilot and suggested I should learn to fly.
I then applied to the UK RAF for pilot training and they who offered me a position as a trainee cook.
I remained in Nassau and spent 4years doing FAA licences weekends in Florida and had them and one US$ left at 26years.
I payed for a full conversion to the UK ATPL at 35years old.
I retired at 60years old and never ever felt I "worked" since my first job cleaning aircraft in 1966 at the Nassau flying Club.

worked in a factory producing cosmetics and other healthcare products. Normally worked 12Hrs a day, 6 days a week for 3 years, Went off and did a load of my exams and hour building. Oncce qualified and looking for a job I worked in a supermarket stocking shelves and working in the wharehouse. Had enough of that. Worked for a charter airline for a year as cabin crew until I got my first job flying ATR's.

• Mowed Lawns
• Worked in a warehouse which stored and/or pulped confidential documents.
• Spent one long long hot summer cataloguing one million manila folders in an old dusty inner suburban warehouse.
• Worked in a shop selling tents rockcliming gear and ski gear
• Drove tiptrucks delivering garden soil, firewood and gravel.

That's all I can think of.

Amongst others; Mc Donalds.
Not kidding.

It took about 2 years to get my CPL, and in that time I:

• Worked in a supermarket packing shelves
• Spent time on a resort in the Whitsundays (Australia) as a porter (that was fun)
• Did a bit of computer programming

The job in the resort was the most fun, if only they needed pilots on the island !!