Becoming an airline pilot: Is it a dream or a form of mental illness?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: U.K
Age: 45
Posts: 48
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Becoming an airline pilot: Is it a dream or a form of mental illness?
Why are you doing it?
You've taken out a loan of anything up to £70000 so that you can get in line for one of the few airline jobs out there.
You don't know if you'll even enjoy it.
You spend the money without considering if you even have the ability.
With all the competition, chances are you'll never get the job anyway.
So, why did you decide to become a professional pilot?
Whats so great about the job that youre willing to bet such a huge sum of money with such terrible odds?
You've taken out a loan of anything up to £70000 so that you can get in line for one of the few airline jobs out there.
You don't know if you'll even enjoy it.
You spend the money without considering if you even have the ability.
With all the competition, chances are you'll never get the job anyway.
So, why did you decide to become a professional pilot?
Whats so great about the job that youre willing to bet such a huge sum of money with such terrible odds?
Jet Blast Rat
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Sarfend-on-Sea
Age: 50
Posts: 2,081
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
...one of the few airline jobs out there...
).However, to answer you headline directly - it's both
Join Date: Dec 1997
Location: Suffolk UK
Posts: 4,927
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Whats so great about the job that youre willing to bet such a huge sum of money with such terrible odds
I'm left with the inescapable conculsion that their ambition is fed by Airplane 1 & 2 and Catch Me If You Can and little else!
Scroggs
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: London, Engeeerland!
Age: 44
Posts: 46
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
With that kind of attitude no-one would get a job!
Most of the people who fly professionally used to dream of it at some point or other way before they used to fly. What's so good about it - are you joking!!!!
As for the lack of jobs - many of us came into aviation in worse times than this, I for one was just post 911 complete with my 200hrs. I got a jet job, my friends got a job - now off to fly longhaul and see the world for free.
But if others would prefer to sit behind a desk it's up to them I suppose (whatever floats your boat). Get fed up of pessimistic posts like this, grow some balls and live the dream.
Most of the people who fly professionally used to dream of it at some point or other way before they used to fly. What's so good about it - are you joking!!!!
As for the lack of jobs - many of us came into aviation in worse times than this, I for one was just post 911 complete with my 200hrs. I got a jet job, my friends got a job - now off to fly longhaul and see the world for free.
But if others would prefer to sit behind a desk it's up to them I suppose (whatever floats your boat). Get fed up of pessimistic posts like this, grow some balls and live the dream.
Join Date: Dec 1997
Location: Suffolk UK
Posts: 4,927
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What attitude? What pessimism? It was a reasonable post, asked politely and it is a worthwhile topic for discussion. Clowns answered with his point of view, and I echoed Seaweed Knees' curiosity with a slightly ironic twist.
No, I don't think he was. But you haven't answered the question...
Scroggs
What's so good about it - are you joking!!!!
Scroggs
...well, for me, it was a case of putting all the cash on the 3:30 at Newmarket or going down the route of the frozen ATPL - thought the second option sounded like a much more risky punt and went for it !! lol 
after all, its only money !!!! can't take it with you !!!
after all, its only money !!!! can't take it with you !!!
Guest
Posts: n/a
Not a difficult one. I wanted a career change and flying is one of the few careers that pays a decent amount (eventually) and suits my persona. I can afford to loose the money, but I don't see it like that as I will always fly be it privately or instructing whatever happens.
Anyway, flying teaches you much more than simply flying.
Anyway, flying teaches you much more than simply flying.
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Kilmacolm
Age: 47
Posts: 740
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Having had around three hundred hours and four years of enjoyable general aviation flying, I decided it was either stay in the IT industry for the rest of my career or go professional.
Before I decided to go professional, I was lucky enough to be invited along on flight deck trips with friends who were members of the flying club of which I was a member.
These weren't only the flight itself but meeting the crew before they started their pre-flight paperwork in the ops room to after the post flight paperwork at the end of the day.
It is a great shame that airlines do not allow these kind of experience flights for potential crew since 9/11. It would be a great insight for many of these young and older potential professional pilots to see what the job entails...
...however I am fully aware that there is a lot more to the career than that I have experienced as an outsider.
About the closest one can get nowadays are the numerous videos that are available. However this doesn't do the career justice and invariably they only go through the flight itself whilst explaining the aircraft systems.
Before I decided to go professional, I was lucky enough to be invited along on flight deck trips with friends who were members of the flying club of which I was a member.
These weren't only the flight itself but meeting the crew before they started their pre-flight paperwork in the ops room to after the post flight paperwork at the end of the day.
It is a great shame that airlines do not allow these kind of experience flights for potential crew since 9/11. It would be a great insight for many of these young and older potential professional pilots to see what the job entails...
...however I am fully aware that there is a lot more to the career than that I have experienced as an outsider.
About the closest one can get nowadays are the numerous videos that are available. However this doesn't do the career justice and invariably they only go through the flight itself whilst explaining the aircraft systems.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Behind a computer screen
Posts: 160
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As I wannabe I feel I should make a contribution to this thread.
I have never seen any of the "Airplane" films, or "Catch me if you can" or any of the cockpit DVD's. Nor have I ever experienced a commercial flight from the planning, onto the flight deck to the closing paperwork as CZ has. I have overseen the planning and paperwork, and have talked with many professionals about the bores and downfalls of the job, so I would claim not to be wearing rosy specs!
For me, flying has always been a dream. As a littler lad I would always look up and wish it were I flying whatever soared above my head. Getting my PPL was to an extent a fulfilment of that dream, and I was (and still am) determined to keep flying, thought the costs pose a problem. The only other career I have really considered is going into theatre, or stage management. However I enjoy flying more, and there are greater percentage of unemployed actors than there is pilots!
I've been very fortunate in that I know what I want to do. Most of my college friends are going to Uni next year without having a clue what they actually want to do with their lives. My ambition drives me and gives me something to work towards. I don't really care where and what I fly, I', quite happy to make a humble living doing one of the worst paid jobs in aviation, so long as I can afford to live. But so long as I fly, I'm content. That feeling you get when you're pottering along, watching the clouds, and it dawns on you that you're flying! One of man's oldest dreams, certainly my own.
I am about to pour a vast sum of money into my professional training and am prepared to scrape a living with exploiting management in rickety aircraft held together with duct tape because I love flying.
h
I have never seen any of the "Airplane" films, or "Catch me if you can" or any of the cockpit DVD's. Nor have I ever experienced a commercial flight from the planning, onto the flight deck to the closing paperwork as CZ has. I have overseen the planning and paperwork, and have talked with many professionals about the bores and downfalls of the job, so I would claim not to be wearing rosy specs!
For me, flying has always been a dream. As a littler lad I would always look up and wish it were I flying whatever soared above my head. Getting my PPL was to an extent a fulfilment of that dream, and I was (and still am) determined to keep flying, thought the costs pose a problem. The only other career I have really considered is going into theatre, or stage management. However I enjoy flying more, and there are greater percentage of unemployed actors than there is pilots!
I've been very fortunate in that I know what I want to do. Most of my college friends are going to Uni next year without having a clue what they actually want to do with their lives. My ambition drives me and gives me something to work towards. I don't really care where and what I fly, I', quite happy to make a humble living doing one of the worst paid jobs in aviation, so long as I can afford to live. But so long as I fly, I'm content. That feeling you get when you're pottering along, watching the clouds, and it dawns on you that you're flying! One of man's oldest dreams, certainly my own.
I am about to pour a vast sum of money into my professional training and am prepared to scrape a living with exploiting management in rickety aircraft held together with duct tape because I love flying.
h
Join Date: Dec 1997
Location: Suffolk UK
Posts: 4,927
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It is a great shame that airlines do not allow these kind of experience flights for potential crew since 9/11. It would be a great insight for many of these young and older potential professional pilots to see what the job entails...
Almost any other profession will give you the opportunity to have a look 'under the hood', and with most it's reasonably obvious what much of the job entails. Even military flying is more accessible to a wannabe than the airline world through the ATC/CCF, University Air Squadrons, work experience and other visits. But the poor airline wannabe has to satisfy him/herself with flights in light aircraft, the aforementioned movies, this website, and a hefty dose of imagination. That's all very well, but it has two major disadvantages: it doesn't reward the genuine interest enough, and thus we probably lose some good people, and secondly it doesn't do enough to discourage those whose interest is superficial - the sort for whom Airliners.net would be far more interesting than Pprune.
Scroggs
Join Date: May 2002
Location: LONDON
Posts: 230
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Get a job as cabin crew even if its only for a few months ... the training is good (and useful) and more importantly you are part of an operating crew once qualified so you get a feel for the life - ie the rosters, disruption, endless longing for sleep etc etc! 
You will also find the jumpseat is an option when you have spare crew on the a/c. Poss the only way into the flightdeck now post 9/11. It will also look good when you come to interview for the RHS because you can see things from both sides of the flight deck door.
I was fortunate enough to have a mate flying pre 9/11 so did many jumpseat rides with him aswell as my stint at cabin crew
You will also find the jumpseat is an option when you have spare crew on the a/c. Poss the only way into the flightdeck now post 9/11. It will also look good when you come to interview for the RHS because you can see things from both sides of the flight deck door.
I was fortunate enough to have a mate flying pre 9/11 so did many jumpseat rides with him aswell as my stint at cabin crew
