OAP -v- OAT

[FlyerPhilec]

I am 36 years old and have been trying to save for years to undertake my ATPL. I was almost there in 2001 and then bottled it immediately after 9/11 (yeah, I know - Gutless wimp)

Through no fault of my own I do not have access to parental funds nor can I raise the necessary funds for an Intergrated Course through bank finance. Therefore, I will have no option but to go the modular route especially as I have a wife and young daughter (who are wonderfully supportive)

I have spoken to the Careers Service at OAT and they were very honest (and I commend them for that) about my age on graduation being an issue.

I see my only option is to get my licences as cheaply as possible and then pay out for a Type Rating and possibly some F/O line experience.

I know that "Self Funded Type Rating" is a swear word here, but for some of us older dreamers, it would seem to make sense to pay £40k for licences and Type Rating and, possibly, some F/O line experience rather than risk spending £62k (or £100k if you count loss of earnings) to come out with low (albeit excellent) hours and have to compete for jobs with a load of 23 year olds with their nuts on fire (this is a compliment by the way) and a £25k bond in their pocket. The airlines will only give a stuff about our maturity and life skills if we can reduce their risk by knocking on their door with a Type Rating.

Just thought I would bounce that out and see if anyone had any thoughts or similar experiences.

Cheers


Phil

[boogie-nicey]

Age is no doubt an issue but certainly shouldn't be treated as a form of bar. If you get cracking as soon as possible and maintain continuity throughout then I can't see why you shouldn't embark on the Type Rating soon afterwards. However the line training though extremely handy to have could potentially become a bottleneck where the TRTO supplying it need to negotiate such 'slots' with airlines and that's not a precise science. Nevertheless with the loco culture prevalent in the industry these days it's more to do with quality of hours rather than the bias towards quantity, but then again I'm no expert so I might be wrong. If nothing else at least you would have quenched your desires and not left 'wondering' in the latter years.

[FlyerPhilec]

Thanks for that - does anyone have any experience of doing a self funded type rating and/or managed to get some F/O Line experience.

Many thanks


Phil

[captain_rossco]

30+

One of the chaps beginning beginning his commercial with me in the States was 37 and if anyone was going to get there, I'd have put money on it being him. Go for it, next year you'll only be worrying more, you've got over 25 years!

Kind Regards

Ross Hickman