Oxford Aviation Academy. What does everyne think of it?

[Locarno1]

They think it's so easy to spend £80k all on the one go, lets see them going out and actually making that money.

I have financial backing. I would love to talk to some real pilots who can tell me their route to becoming an airline pilot!

Are any of you real airline pilots with licenses and a job?

[Flintstone]

Bingo!

I knew you'd show yourself eventually. You're a troll. You've had your fun, the door's that way.




Advice for the future Tristan. Don't plaster your real name all over the internet, yours is like a rash. Profiles on Freeworldairways. com ("FreeWorld Airways is a virtual airline for X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator"), VATSIM.net, bebo, facebook,Twitter............etc, etc. Shame really, some good people wasted their time giving out some good advice on this thread.

[SW1]

I would say that yes, you've had a few replies from REAL airline pilots and a few who are further down the line. You wanted advice and people are trying to give it.

This could be a wind up, but some of these kids nowadays have that attitude of "Dont tell me what to do" or "I'll make it dont you worry" or my favourite from a previous pillock which was something along the lines of "lets go to the interview on the same day and lets see who gets the job". Get some respect!!!

Rant over

[Bealzebub]

Even better, some of us are real airline pilots with real licences and parents of 16 year old kids!

You have had advice, it was free. Do with it what you want.

[redsnail]

I would love to talk to some real pilots who can tell me their route to becoming an airline pilot!

Are any of you real airline pilots with licenses and a job?

I would love to help real wannabes on their route to becoming a pilot. However, either you're a troll or your youthful exuberance is overriding your ability to listen to those who've been before.

Real airline pilot? Flinty, help us out here. What do you reckon?

2 ATPLs, 6500 hours +, captain etc... Have flown for airlines but not now.

[Flintstone]

That would qualify you reddo but......you're a girl

I think that young Tristan has us both beat on Microsoftsimtugyourselfoff though. He's flown that for hours and hours and hours.

[betpump5]

End of the school year.

Expect many more of these type of posts over the next 6 weeks

[G SXTY]

Are any of you real airline pilots with licenses and a job?

You're having a laugh mate. Spend five minutes researching the posting histories of some of us, and you'll soon find out who the real commercial pilots are. It's the sort of research you're going to do a whole lot more of if you want to land an 'amazing job' etc etc. Bealzebub alone has given you some advice that he should really charge for. Redsnail isn't an 'airline' pilot alas, so she's obviously not worth listening to. Even worse, she's Australian.

I'm probably wasting my time here, but one thing completely missing from your posts is any consideration of what might happen if you can't find a job when you qualify. Have you thought about that one? Or is it a natural assumption that Oxford + silly amounts of cash = job? You won't want to hear this, so you probably won't listen, but it takes a lot more than money to make it as a commercial pilot. Commitment, determination, health, contacts and - above all - good timing (luck, if you prefer). Qualify at the wrong time, when no-one is recruiting, and it's pretty irrelevant where you trained - there are no jobs. That's when a degree would start to look like a sensible back-up plan. Injure yourself, get ill, find that your eyesight isn't up to scratch - you'll lose your medical, which means no job. Where's your 'plan B' then?

Assuming you're not trolling (and if you are, it's the best one I've seen for a while) then you really, really need to do a lot more homework before you're old enough to throw your parents' money at flying training. By then you might have paused to consider the implications of not finding a job, as well as the alternatives to Oxford, CTC, FTE et al (hint - you can get exactly the same qualification elsewhere for a little over half what they charge). For starters, I'd suggest you read and absorb this story of what happens when someone launches into training at the wrong time, although to be honest I think you're only going to listen to what you want to hear:

http://www.pprune.org/interviews-job...-training.html

Yours, G-SXTY. airline pilot, 'amazing job', 'good airline', 'nice aircraft' (how did you know - have you flown it?).

[UAV689]

Give uni a bit more thought. Have you heard of university air squadrons? you can get paid to fly with the RAF and get some great tuition for free. While your at it why not consider the military? great job, great flying, great mates. Free license.

Also whilst your at univeristy there is nothing to stop you working at the weekends, living off your wages and banking those nice big low interest student loans, so when you graduate hey presto you could have

1. a lot of hours for free for your PPL courtesy of her majesty.
2. 12-15k in bank from uni loans, which come out of future salaries at a low rate.
3. degree - as a pilot you always need a back up plan, get a degree if your dream career doesnt happen.
4. Women at uni.
5. go modular - how will you feel when you could have 80k loan to repay and you cant, parents lose their house? have you seen how much you will earn initally with some airlines?
6. dont get any commerical loans what so ever to do flying training. Could seriously hurt your future, how will you get a house when you have to add 80k on top of your mortgage?

Good luck.

[WallyWumpus]

You cannot stop someone following their dream, and despite a lot of negativity on this thread, I am inclined to think that nobody is trying to stop the newbies from doing that, PROVIDING we, the PPrune family feel that they have all of the information they should.

That's the positive bit. The less positive bit, if the reader will indulge me, is the reaction I see from some quarters. This forum is, I believe, designed for those who are either already in the professional training sausage factory, or those aspiring to be. It is unreasonable to jump on someone who pitches up with their first post saying "I am thinking of spending 100k of the parents/banks money on an integrated course at OAA and then immediaitely getting a well paid career (not just job) with BA, where it is my ambition to eventually become the youngest ever training captain on the A380 and then chief pilot". This is nothing more than an expression of a naiive child-hood dream that requires a dose of relaity. I have always believed, and still do today, that there are a vast number of sources of information available to educate these people, and that this site is one of those. To all of the "Zombie Wannabe" army, as you are now being tagged, if you have always dreamed of flying, but have never really felt that you have gotten to grips wit the relaity of the path down which you are about to emabark, I for one would say keep posting here.

I went to OAA, and graduated in the Autumn of last year. I now fly for RYR. I took the old-fashioned route of saving up for the course, meaning I did not have to call on the bank, nor the bank of Mum and Dad. The advice you will get from this site matches my own experiences, and can be summed up as follows;

1. If you want to train to be a prof pilot (CPL/IR or MPL) do so with the understanding that you may, or may not get a job on graduation. This cannot be predicted at the start of your training, as with the passage of 18 months, things can chane dramatically.
2. If you do not get a job immediaitely, have a financial plan to manage your affairs for, say, 3 years after graduation. This plan should include money for surrency and skills renewels.
3. The vast majority of grauates will eventually find work, but "evenatually" can be measured in years and not months.
4. Do not bemoan the cost of training, and do not entertain others that do. We live in a free market economy, supply and demand driven, that works to our advantage in so many walks of life. Do not cherry pick individual bits of it to complain about, that behaviour is the same as an airport NIMBY (note I am attacking the behaviour and not the person here).
5. Do not bemoan the existence of pay-to-train schemes of self-financed TR schemes. We live in a free market...blah blah..... NIMBY..... you get the picture.
6. Ignore those of us that still seek to inflate our jobs beyond the true value we represent. I love flying, I really do, but I see my place in society for what it is. Piloting is not a profession, it is a technical role, and you will be a small cog in a big wheel. This view does not stem from my RYR experiences, it is more of a general view of the job.
7. Flight schools exist to make money, and rightly so. They are not providing a social service. See through the glassy marketing and especially any promises of jobs at the end of the course.
8. Listen to those who argue that you should get a degree first, even if all you want to do is fly. I sit on the fence on this one, as I can see both sides of the coin. Make up your own mind.

I think that is about it for my brain dump today.

Wally.

[redsnail]

Flinty, ooh got me there. But I'm married to a real airline pilot and his is bigger than yours.



aircraft that is.

[Locarno1]

Whats this troll thing you are talking about?? I dont know what its all about. Thanks for the advice guys it has actually been really helpful and i appreciate this. I will print all this off and show it to my parents to see if they can sum all this up and try and help me to have a clear path ahead of me.

Thanks,

Tris

[davelongdon]

My experience

I have done all the research and was attracted by all the big lights CTC and Oxford has to offer. So I decided to truly find out what it was all about.

I told CTC to knock their FlyBe assessment day to 100 euros and I'd hop over the Irish Pond to go through the PILAPT assessment and FNPT II Sim Check of which I didnt have a problem which. So they are like well we will contact you if you are successful to put you for a FlyBe Interview.

Shock Horror I was successful but before they put you for interview they sent me a form saying you wouldnt be guaranteed a job and that where would the 90000 euros for the course come from and when can it be ready for. So that was it.

Now i have budgeted to do my PPL, ATPL Theory with Bristol GS, Hour Building, Multi Engine, IR, CPL, MCC & Jet Orientation Course all in this country taking into account budgeting for failures for circa 40k and you end up with more flying time and experience in UK Airspace.

Just starting my ATPL Theory for Bristol Now and never looked back. by time you work out flights, accomdation at schools abroad theres no point, you dont get experience flying in clear skies with no air traffic in a desert.

Also heard rumours that first lot of FlyBe cadets have been offered jobs as cabin crew in mean time (spose its better than nothing). But how are you meant to justify 90k for a 25000 pound wage!!!!! Dont have a go if rumours arent true, as it has not been confirmed.

Hope its been of some use.

[G SXTY]

Also heard rumours that first lot of FlyBe cadets have been offered jobs as cabin crew

And that rumour is a fact.

[rogerg]

I remember when BA did the same to some excess "hamsters". Most ended up in command and a lot better for knowing how the other half lives.

[Captain-Random]

I don't think he's a troll, just another misguided wannabe who makes the rest of us wannabes look just as bad.

He's a real person alright.. A quick search of his name on google proves that....


But i think he's looking for this site ...

[GearDownFlaps]

Then I stand by my statement , if he aint a troll then he is a very naive pilloch

[disco87]

Is that a real site?

[Captain-Random]

Don't know... Found it on another thread

[Locarno1]

Then I stand by my statement , if he aint a troll then he is a very naive pilloch

You think of me that way then do you?? Thats a very nice way of welcoming a new member to these 'sometimes' pointless forums