What am i doing
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 762
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What am i doing
While i am waiting for that F/O position to come up. Or of course a direct entry captain position on the virgin vss enterprise.
I am cuurrently on a course for a phone company to be a manager. In a grotty hotel, where you have to share a room.....Nice!.
The only thing that is keeping me sane is the thought that i WILL get a flying job with anyone/ someone .
Just to add a little insult to injury, I am right under the heathrow flight path. I shed a tear everytime i hear a 7 or 3 something going overhead.
Just to ease my plethora of pain, has anyone done some shi@ty jobs before landing the first airline position.
Hopefully it will make me feel better.
jtk
I am cuurrently on a course for a phone company to be a manager. In a grotty hotel, where you have to share a room.....Nice!.
The only thing that is keeping me sane is the thought that i WILL get a flying job with anyone/ someone .
Just to add a little insult to injury, I am right under the heathrow flight path. I shed a tear everytime i hear a 7 or 3 something going overhead.
Just to ease my plethora of pain, has anyone done some shi@ty jobs before landing the first airline position.
Hopefully it will make me feel better.
jtk
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: England
Posts: 908
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Why wait for your first airline job when an instructors rating would build your hours and experience?
The money is crap but remember that the Captains who might interview you went down this well trodden and proven route.
It really does feel nice to get paid for flying albeit a PA28 etc
Regards Tonker
The money is crap but remember that the Captains who might interview you went down this well trodden and proven route.
It really does feel nice to get paid for flying albeit a PA28 etc
Regards Tonker
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: uk
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The instructor route is one way. I would also suggest that you try to get a job which involves airline work. Perhaps dispatching or something along those lines.
I have taking the instructor route and enjoyed it immensely. It does however seem to be largely a case of who you know, not what you know that gets you your 1st foot into the door. By working for an airlines you do get to brush shoulders with captains, training captains etc.
These things do get noticed as was highlighted by a local airline who recently looked to hire two co pilots. They had a load of applicants all with type ratings and varying expereince. They actually employed two employees who were already working in their operations department. These guys had their CPL etc but no type rating which they must fund themselves. It makes sense that a company would choose such people as they have shown commitement to start at any level in the company and it allows the company to see how relaible they are.
Better the devil you know as the saying goes..
.
Hope this helps TH71
I have taking the instructor route and enjoyed it immensely. It does however seem to be largely a case of who you know, not what you know that gets you your 1st foot into the door. By working for an airlines you do get to brush shoulders with captains, training captains etc.
These things do get noticed as was highlighted by a local airline who recently looked to hire two co pilots. They had a load of applicants all with type ratings and varying expereince. They actually employed two employees who were already working in their operations department. These guys had their CPL etc but no type rating which they must fund themselves. It makes sense that a company would choose such people as they have shown commitement to start at any level in the company and it allows the company to see how relaible they are.
Better the devil you know as the saying goes..
.Hope this helps TH71
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: England
Posts: 908
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I totally agree with all of the above, but as an instructor with over 1000 hours maybe i can enjoy the best of both worlds now moving into an airline. Just a thought and if anyone can sudgest someone in the Crawley area i would be very grateful
Regards Tonker
ps yes i know where Gatwick is in relation to Crawley
Regards Tonker
ps yes i know where Gatwick is in relation to Crawley
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Vigo-Spain
Age: 40
Posts: 213
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hiya!
What about a bit of delivering commercial leaflets for a fast food pizza restaurant (tough when it's raining heavily), I left for a job all night long (22 to 6) cutting and loading iced fish.
All this acompanied with some @#$% interviews and exams which are a fake (after 21 years of speaking Galician, a local tongue, they say my level is 7.5 out of ten. Hope you understand my Enlgish 'cos it has to be horrible), missing Portuguese and English classes where they take it in account (if you miss 20% you lose the right of continuous evaluation and you have to play all your cards in June). Then study for a distance learning Business Administration degree which is not easy (the level is high).
By the way don't forget to study hard and visit the Tech Log and Safety and CRM forums at Pprune, read articles at avweb, and buy some of those advanced books to be a proficient pilot.
Then your girlfriend asks rightfully (without her support it would be much worse) for her share of duty time in the weekends (she studies in another town).
Anyway I'm happy (although I've got my bad days) 'cos I'll start flying a Socata Rallye and Tampico at my aeroclub (for which I've recently become a member) with a bunch of true aviation enthusiasts. Maybe in a short-medium term I save enough and I get the help from Daddy Bank (that one with the lowest interest rates) and get a FI rating. And there is a lot of people out there starving, living deep in s**t and so on so I've to be grateful and feel lucky.
I hope a serious airline sets up in Spain so I can get a work just with my willingness to work and my short background.
By the way, are things "easy" there to get a job as Instructor, Skydiver bomber, or any basic job? I really want to visit the UK and spend there a few months whilst trying to get a job in the industry. I'm a bit tired of Spain. Your info would be greatly appreciated.
BTW cheer up James! I hope you find sth aeronautical soon!
Best regards!!!
Pablo
PS: the VFR corridor is just over my flat, so I've got to hear a few choppers and aircraft everyday, so I understand your feeling!
What about a bit of delivering commercial leaflets for a fast food pizza restaurant (tough when it's raining heavily), I left for a job all night long (22 to 6) cutting and loading iced fish.
All this acompanied with some @#$% interviews and exams which are a fake (after 21 years of speaking Galician, a local tongue, they say my level is 7.5 out of ten. Hope you understand my Enlgish 'cos it has to be horrible), missing Portuguese and English classes where they take it in account (if you miss 20% you lose the right of continuous evaluation and you have to play all your cards in June). Then study for a distance learning Business Administration degree which is not easy (the level is high).
By the way don't forget to study hard and visit the Tech Log and Safety and CRM forums at Pprune, read articles at avweb, and buy some of those advanced books to be a proficient pilot.
Then your girlfriend asks rightfully (without her support it would be much worse) for her share of duty time in the weekends (she studies in another town).
Anyway I'm happy (although I've got my bad days) 'cos I'll start flying a Socata Rallye and Tampico at my aeroclub (for which I've recently become a member) with a bunch of true aviation enthusiasts. Maybe in a short-medium term I save enough and I get the help from Daddy Bank (that one with the lowest interest rates) and get a FI rating. And there is a lot of people out there starving, living deep in s**t and so on so I've to be grateful and feel lucky.
I hope a serious airline sets up in Spain so I can get a work just with my willingness to work and my short background.
By the way, are things "easy" there to get a job as Instructor, Skydiver bomber, or any basic job? I really want to visit the UK and spend there a few months whilst trying to get a job in the industry. I'm a bit tired of Spain. Your info would be greatly appreciated.
BTW cheer up James! I hope you find sth aeronautical soon!
Best regards!!!
Pablo
PS: the VFR corridor is just over my flat, so I've got to hear a few choppers and aircraft everyday, so I understand your feeling!
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 762
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks guys
The funny thing is. In the training session today, the group had to guess what job they could see me do. Please bear in mind that no-one knows that i have been training on my atpl/ir.
The general concencus of opinion was pilot.
how wierd is that.
if only BA etc saw it that way
jtk
The funny thing is. In the training session today, the group had to guess what job they could see me do. Please bear in mind that no-one knows that i have been training on my atpl/ir.
The general concencus of opinion was pilot.
how wierd is that.
if only BA etc saw it that way
jtk
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: No Fixed Abode
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
One of the coolest Temp jobs I did was to work in my local Job Centre. Helping people get jobs. How cool is that. Blind leading the blind or what. At the time I was there was one bloke that used to come in with a frozen ATPL A and another with a Frozen ATPL H who had been flying on an FAA ticket in the states for the last two years and had come home to diddly squat.
It was a good place to work in. The sharp end of 'Customer Relations'. The standard Customer Services course was actually called 'Preventing and Calming Difficult Interviews.' Wish they had one called 'succeeding really damn well at airline interviews'
It was a good place to work in. The sharp end of 'Customer Relations'. The standard Customer Services course was actually called 'Preventing and Calming Difficult Interviews.' Wish they had one called 'succeeding really damn well at airline interviews'
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey don't get too down we've all been there.
I've just finished line training and am flying 320's and some days 321's, but last summer I was working in a factory fitting broom heads to handles! A great turn-around I know, I can hardly believe it myself most days!
Don't worry your time will come, hang in there!
I've just finished line training and am flying 320's and some days 321's, but last summer I was working in a factory fitting broom heads to handles! A great turn-around I know, I can hardly believe it myself most days!
Don't worry your time will come, hang in there!
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 762
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
cloudpuncher
thanks mate.
hopefully it will seem sonner rather than later.
just as a matter of interest, were you a newly qualified 30 ish like me or an experienced top gun of the airline world.
jtk
thanks mate.
hopefully it will seem sonner rather than later.
just as a matter of interest, were you a newly qualified 30 ish like me or an experienced top gun of the airline world.
jtk
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 293
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I worked in a hotel as a kitchen porter -washing dishes, peeling spuds and carrots, split shifts, earlies into lates - nightmare. Only good thing was chatting up the waitresses. After that I packed in a warehouse, then eventually got into operations for a well known charter airline. Now I fly F/O on B757.
Stick at it you will get there if determined enough!!
Stick at it you will get there if determined enough!!
