My Plan
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: UK
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Yeah I understand with the age thing (although personally I wouldn't worry just yet). If you consider that if you were to do the CPL/Multi/IR part time in the UK as others have said you may end up:
a) spending more money as you have to repeat bits which have become a bit rusty
b) taking a frustratingly long time to complete due to only being able to fly 2 or 3 times a week
Therefore if you were to hammer work for 6 months and then go and do the above bits full time, the net effect of completion might be quite similar and you would have possibly spent a bit less due to continuity of training and it would have felt like less of a ball ache as you wont be constantly juggling work with flying with family, if you catch my drift.
With regard to the ground school, I have a friend who went the Bristol route, took a few months off work and just went into our local library every weekday and treated it like his job. Got the course completed with good grades in less than 6 months, can't remember the exact time scale but I believe it was about 4 and a bit months. He got to live at home and spend time with friends and family. It depends on how disciplined you are, if you feel like you don’t have that ability then go and get immersed in a residential course. Only you know deep down though what sort of a studier you are
Keep us informed though as these sorts of discussions help lots of people when deciding what to do.
Camel Toe
"Over Macho Grande?"
a) spending more money as you have to repeat bits which have become a bit rusty
b) taking a frustratingly long time to complete due to only being able to fly 2 or 3 times a week
Therefore if you were to hammer work for 6 months and then go and do the above bits full time, the net effect of completion might be quite similar and you would have possibly spent a bit less due to continuity of training and it would have felt like less of a ball ache as you wont be constantly juggling work with flying with family, if you catch my drift.
With regard to the ground school, I have a friend who went the Bristol route, took a few months off work and just went into our local library every weekday and treated it like his job. Got the course completed with good grades in less than 6 months, can't remember the exact time scale but I believe it was about 4 and a bit months. He got to live at home and spend time with friends and family. It depends on how disciplined you are, if you feel like you don’t have that ability then go and get immersed in a residential course. Only you know deep down though what sort of a studier you are
Keep us informed though as these sorts of discussions help lots of people when deciding what to do.
Camel Toe
"Over Macho Grande?"
Join Date: Nov 2005
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From the very helpful advise received here, I am now tempted to try for maybe a longer career break, if not 12 months then maybe 8 months. This will at least allow me to get the CPL under my belt before returning to work.
If say I managed to get 12 months off work, then what would you do - integrated or modular? Seems to be a big difference in the costs involved.
I thank you all again for your advise.
I have to say though; posts like this one below do really worry me.
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=288618
If say I managed to get 12 months off work, then what would you do - integrated or modular? Seems to be a big difference in the costs involved.
I thank you all again for your advise.
I have to say though; posts like this one below do really worry me.
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=288618
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Batfink you will never get the "definitive" answer regarding going integrated or modular, and I'm not even going to cast an opinion here as it really is discussed to death around these areas.
It has to be what is best for you. If you do plenty of research, visit schools, plan your finances, chat to people face to face who work in the industry then you "may" come up with a lean toward one or the other, at the end of the very very long day discussing integrated v modular if you have researched it properly you should be happy with your choice. Some don't have the choice between integrated or modular but even if you find yourself in those shoes you still have to decide which school and why etc.
There is no "holy grail" so don't go looking for it, just check out what is available and the answer should materialise once you've slept on what you have learnt from the background leg work.
With regard to that link you posted, I think some sound advice to throw you before you get too blinkered with training is that it can be tough to find that first job. Many in these neck of the woods have spent "a lorra lorra money" and have been looking for that first job for what probably seems like an expensive eternity. There are of course others who have happily got something straight outta school. Don't listen to who shouts loudest, as posts like that show that those who aren't getting jobs shout pretty loudly, just make sure the fact you may end up with no job is factored into your thinking - up to you whether you mention that to the missus
As always best of luck and keep asking here, it's a fookin useful tool.
Camel Toe
"Over Macho Grande?"
It has to be what is best for you. If you do plenty of research, visit schools, plan your finances, chat to people face to face who work in the industry then you "may" come up with a lean toward one or the other, at the end of the very very long day discussing integrated v modular if you have researched it properly you should be happy with your choice. Some don't have the choice between integrated or modular but even if you find yourself in those shoes you still have to decide which school and why etc.
There is no "holy grail" so don't go looking for it, just check out what is available and the answer should materialise once you've slept on what you have learnt from the background leg work.
With regard to that link you posted, I think some sound advice to throw you before you get too blinkered with training is that it can be tough to find that first job. Many in these neck of the woods have spent "a lorra lorra money" and have been looking for that first job for what probably seems like an expensive eternity. There are of course others who have happily got something straight outta school. Don't listen to who shouts loudest, as posts like that show that those who aren't getting jobs shout pretty loudly, just make sure the fact you may end up with no job is factored into your thinking - up to you whether you mention that to the missus
As always best of luck and keep asking here, it's a fookin useful tool.
Camel Toe
"Over Macho Grande?"
Join Date: Aug 2007
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What does your wife and family think about the whole idea? did you swing her round to the idea with the whole "as soon as i finish with 220 hours i will start with an airline for a while then go to ba and earn mega bucks"?
If you did thats a pipe dream and you have been somewhat selfish to your family. Have you thought what will happen in 1 - 2 years when you have a mountain of debt, or youve spend all of your familys savings and childs inheritance and you dont have a job. I cant imagine your wife will be best pleased! There will be lots of
flying round the house that night!
When you do qualify, you will have 220ish hours. There are 9 million other guys out there with that many hours all fighting for remarkably few jobs.
I would take a step back and really look what you are up against, if you do go ahead
you will have great time!!!! and i hope you make it to where you want to go.
But now you have responsibilites and a mortgage a career in aviation might be water under the bridge if you weigh up the pros and cons.
On the brighter side, i wouldnt worry about the groundschool, i did it distance learning and passed all 14 exams with little difficulty. Not because im clever
,but because the amount of feedback out there makes the exams a memory test. When you sit the exams you will have seen nearly every question beforehand.
That does lead me to another point. I am the first to admit that, that kind of exam prep does leave gaps in knowledge which could become exposed at any interview. But still i would save any career breaks for the flight training as previosly suggested.
If you did thats a pipe dream and you have been somewhat selfish to your family. Have you thought what will happen in 1 - 2 years when you have a mountain of debt, or youve spend all of your familys savings and childs inheritance and you dont have a job. I cant imagine your wife will be best pleased! There will be lots of
flying round the house that night!When you do qualify, you will have 220ish hours. There are 9 million other guys out there with that many hours all fighting for remarkably few jobs.
I would take a step back and really look what you are up against, if you do go ahead
you will have great time!!!! and i hope you make it to where you want to go. But now you have responsibilites and a mortgage a career in aviation might be water under the bridge if you weigh up the pros and cons.
On the brighter side, i wouldnt worry about the groundschool, i did it distance learning and passed all 14 exams with little difficulty. Not because im clever
,but because the amount of feedback out there makes the exams a memory test. When you sit the exams you will have seen nearly every question beforehand. That does lead me to another point. I am the first to admit that, that kind of exam prep does leave gaps in knowledge which could become exposed at any interview. But still i would save any career breaks for the flight training as previosly suggested.
Join Date: May 2004
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Well, I'm another one - Here's my plan
Hey everyone,
After doing extensive research around these forums, flight schools, talking to people etc, I've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen to me in the next few years.
However, I've decided to be another one of "them" and put my situation across to all of you guys to see what you think.
So, here goes. I'm 17, I live in Preston, Lancashire. I'm just going into second year A-Level and I'm taking maths, physics, geography and computing (and I took the same for A/S level). After 18 months of training (I'm sure you all know the woes of British weather!) I finally managed to gain my PPL at Blackpool just after Easter this year. Since then I've just been keeping my hand in, flying approx. once every 3 or 4 weeks, and I currently have around 65 hours, 20 of which are logged as P1.
So, my future then. Naturally, I want to be a commercial pilot (how romantic!), and have done for many many years. I love (almost) everything to do with aviation, and frankly can't get enough of it, as, I'm sure, is the case with you guys. I've looked at all the different routes, and I'm pretty much set on a modular route (though I'm always open for discussion!). Apart from the fact that it seems a far more cost-effective way of doing it (while, for various reasons, cost isn't a massive deciding factor, of course it plays a large part in training, and I want to do it with as little incurred as possible), it seems far more "me" than going on an integrated course with CTC or the likes.
I have a friend who lives in Canada, and I went to visit last year. He's also got his PPL and wants to do the same thing as me. The plan is that next summer (once I'm done with college) I'm going to hop over the pond for a couple of months to do some "hour-building" with him. I'll need to get almost up to my compulsory 150 hours, with (I believe) 70 hours of that being P1 time for the MEP rating.
After that, things get a bit more blurry. I'm very interested in doing a distance-learning ATPL course after that, to allow me to live at home (hence not incurring accommodation costs), so the plan is so far that I'd complete that, either through BGS or by signing up for the OAT Waypoint scheme. Once done there, I'd either progress with OAT, most likely through their Arizona base (especially if I'd done the ATPL ground exams with them) or, if I'd gone through BGS, perhaps finding a different commercial school to complete my ATPL (f) and quite possibly my MCC too.
Of course, the question is "Then what?" to get an airline job, but I think from what I've read and heard so far that the best thing to do is to concentrate on actually getting through flight school first, before worrying about trying to get a job with the biggies.
What does that sound like as a plan to you guys? Of course, I'm open to any of that plan changing if we figure there's a better way of going about it. Any comments, suggestions or otherwise would be very much appreciated indeed.
Thanks a lot in advance!
After doing extensive research around these forums, flight schools, talking to people etc, I've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen to me in the next few years.
However, I've decided to be another one of "them" and put my situation across to all of you guys to see what you think.
So, here goes. I'm 17, I live in Preston, Lancashire. I'm just going into second year A-Level and I'm taking maths, physics, geography and computing (and I took the same for A/S level). After 18 months of training (I'm sure you all know the woes of British weather!) I finally managed to gain my PPL at Blackpool just after Easter this year. Since then I've just been keeping my hand in, flying approx. once every 3 or 4 weeks, and I currently have around 65 hours, 20 of which are logged as P1.
So, my future then. Naturally, I want to be a commercial pilot (how romantic!), and have done for many many years. I love (almost) everything to do with aviation, and frankly can't get enough of it, as, I'm sure, is the case with you guys. I've looked at all the different routes, and I'm pretty much set on a modular route (though I'm always open for discussion!). Apart from the fact that it seems a far more cost-effective way of doing it (while, for various reasons, cost isn't a massive deciding factor, of course it plays a large part in training, and I want to do it with as little incurred as possible), it seems far more "me" than going on an integrated course with CTC or the likes.
I have a friend who lives in Canada, and I went to visit last year. He's also got his PPL and wants to do the same thing as me. The plan is that next summer (once I'm done with college) I'm going to hop over the pond for a couple of months to do some "hour-building" with him. I'll need to get almost up to my compulsory 150 hours, with (I believe) 70 hours of that being P1 time for the MEP rating.
After that, things get a bit more blurry. I'm very interested in doing a distance-learning ATPL course after that, to allow me to live at home (hence not incurring accommodation costs), so the plan is so far that I'd complete that, either through BGS or by signing up for the OAT Waypoint scheme. Once done there, I'd either progress with OAT, most likely through their Arizona base (especially if I'd done the ATPL ground exams with them) or, if I'd gone through BGS, perhaps finding a different commercial school to complete my ATPL (f) and quite possibly my MCC too.
Of course, the question is "Then what?" to get an airline job, but I think from what I've read and heard so far that the best thing to do is to concentrate on actually getting through flight school first, before worrying about trying to get a job with the biggies.
What does that sound like as a plan to you guys? Of course, I'm open to any of that plan changing if we figure there's a better way of going about it. Any comments, suggestions or otherwise would be very much appreciated indeed.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Join Date: Apr 2007
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Hey, I'm in a similar position to yourself. I'm 18 now, in college, currently doing my A2's and like you I am doing Maths, Physics and ICT. I have also got a PPL/IMC and have 170 hours with 102:15 PIC.
That is pretty much the route I am taking. (we're thinking on the same wavelength here
), although just having read the forums today it seems like flight instruction is a good way to start out.
Hope we keep in touch, its great to speak to people my age that fly. There's quite a few of us now actually.
Keep In Touch
Gurcharan Bhoday
That is pretty much the route I am taking. (we're thinking on the same wavelength here
), although just having read the forums today it seems like flight instruction is a good way to start out. Hope we keep in touch, its great to speak to people my age that fly. There's quite a few of us now actually.
Keep In Touch
Gurcharan Bhoday
