LilLurkerGirl

I'll try to sum this up as best I can.

My mum is a teacher and has a student aged 17 who wants to be an airline pilot. As far as I am aware he has never done an actual flying lesson, but nonetheless he has decided he doesn't want to go to University and his parents are remortgaging their house to pay for him to go to a top-tier integrated flight school. My mum was curious about what I thought of this and how it compared to what I wanted to do and other methods of training.

I'm 15 and am (slowly) taking flying lessons at a small airfield in the hopes of getting my PPL at 17, as well as flying and gliding with Air Cadets, as I want to take a more modular route towards, eventually, my ATPL. I know for sure that I want to fly and I'm fairly sure I want to fly for an airline, but I'm remaining open towards fields like cargo flying and instructing. I am also set on going to University first. I personally feel as though I could gain more life experience and make better decisions if I complete my licenses modular-ly alongside things like cadets and education. I love flying but I'd like to build experience and qualifications rather than becoming a fully-fledged airline pilot as soon as I possibly can.

However, I'm really interested to know what the difference really is, as I'm still young and most of what I know comes from what I've read, people I've spoken to and the advice my flight instructor can give me. My understanding is that modular and integrated training produces the same standardised end result so it doesn't really matter, but are there advantages and disadvantages of each? Am I making the right choices here?

Basil Fawlty1

Difficult to offer advice as IMHO there is no right or wrong answer. You seem to have a great attitude and that is the most important thing. I'm sure you'll be successful whichever route you choose.

One thing to consider is whether to delay your PPL and keep flying gliders. You could then apply for one of the cadet schemes and with your obvious dedication to flying I think you would be at the front of the queue for these. You could then go modular if you didn't get on the Ezy/Virgin/whoever scheme.

Maverick97

I'm aware everyone has their own opinion on which training routes are better for whatever reason it may be. HOWEVER. I'm curious as to whether there has been any statistics produced to show;

A) Which training route is currently most popular.

B) What type of candidate the airlines prefer ( I'm aware some openly say they have no preference).

C) How its changing/changed over say the past 10 years.

There's such a contrast in opinion I genuinely think it would be interesting to see.

mj230994

As a newbie trying to work out which would be the best option for me i'd like to hear some recent success stories of pilots who went down the modular route now flying with airlines?

Maverick97

Check out 'how I did it! How you can do it' thread. honestly so inspiring.

Qtr Life Crisis

@maverick97 - I recently asked the same questions about employment statistics, while I was unable to find anything on modular employment rates (obviously a lot harder) I was encouraged by the fact that RTO's that offer intergrated programs are held to standards under the law in regard to misrepresentation. While I was not encouraged by their websites which offer little employment information I'm happy to say that upon attending many open days around Europe almost all the intergrated operators disclosed both their total intake numbers for the last 5 years along with their employment rates (including carriers). For the last two years it was very encouraging (obviously not before that!) but it was also accompanied by very honest warnings about waiting times and potential market shifts. I recently enrolled in one of the courses and I'm looking forward to it while at the same time remaining cautiously optimistic about the job prospects at the end!

P.s no one once used the words pilot shortage!

Go to open days, they are great

qazzee

can you list the flying schools which you attended

Yairb

Hey everyone,
Sorry if my question might sound a little absurd but I really do want to understand the Importance of when to do each and each Rating.

From Wandering through the Forum i have seen people that took their ATPL Ground schools first and only after finishing that moved on to PPL and vice versa.
Is there any logic or necessity of doing one before the other?

My other question is about doing CPL or IR first.
As I see things now, the best option for me will be the Modular form of training and I just want to understand the best, efficient way of doing it.

*I saw there are some Assesments tests going on when trying to get into colleges such as OAA and CTC. Does anyone who took them can tell a little about what are the subjects that being asked there? and maybe a good way to prepare for them?

Thanks alot.

Rottweiler22

Everybody has their own unique, individual situation, so what may the best option for one person, may be the worst option for another. I was advised quite early on by someone in the know, that integrated is the best way into the industry at the moment, but only if you can do it without the loan. My advice was also to steer clear of the loan, and if that wasn't a possibility, go modular.

In the integrated course that I'm on, seven of my self-sponsored colleagues all claim to not have taken the loan, so it's a bit of a myth that all CTC and CAE graduates are paying-back £1,300 per month back for a bank loan, I can assure you this isn't the case. Of course some will be, but I was advised well away from taking a massive bank loan against your house, just to go to a premium school.

I don't really know what the situation is with employment statistics at the moment, but the general consensus is that for self-sponsored graduates at CTC or Oxford, there tends to be around a six-month gap between graduating and starting a job. I interpret this to be six-months of applications, interviews, assessments, etc, but what exactly goes on, I'm not too sure. Of course the low-cost carriers are big players, but there seem to be lots of other "placement statistics" kicking around, right from graduates getting placements with the prestigious flag carriers, to the regional airlines.

Naturally, you'd have to be foolish to believe that the likes of CTC and Oxford will just "throw" jobs at you, but no doubt there are doors opened to you that would otherwise not be. You still have to stand-out in interviews and assessments, and be what the airline wants, which the majority of the people I train with completely understand. You do what's best for you, to your means, nobody else's.

Qtr Life Crisis

I agree with Rottweiler22 on what he said. I saved up and am starting very soon and dont have to take the loan. Everyone including the schools told me to budget for 2 years and also if possible to have money for a type rating or a way of getting it. I went a bit further and budgeted for 30 months

In terms of employment statistics I have yet to have a school that haven't provided them to me when asked. CTC's are on the internet last time I checked. I won't post them because its not my place but just give them a ring, its very positive.

KiloAlphaTango

Sorry guys, but I might need some advise. I finished my PPL (in the Philippines) last year and plan on doing the fast track course with Aeros in Cardiff(U.K.). It works out to about £60,000. 0 to a frozen ATPL.

Do you reckon it would be cheaper in the US? or doing it in the U.K. is the best bet?

I am currently studying Aircraft Engineering as well. So i thought i could get my Frozen ATPL as soon as i graduate, instead of taking a gap year from uni and then coming back.

let me know your thoughts!

Cheers!

Qtr Life Crisis

Im no expert but that seems expensive if you already have a PPL?

also yeah finish your degree dude, then you are an engineer if everything goes AOT.

PA28161

The current mood is toward integrated although CTC will gladly accept you as a modular student then and take your money with little or no real chance of an airline job at the end.
I wouldn't advise an independent TR either, they can cost anything from 14k to 20K and again no guarantees of airline employment. In any case, I think an airline would make you go through their own airline specific TR again within their own TR/Base Training/Line Training program. Of course, that is if you are fortunate enough to get into one of the airlines in the first place. External TR's are non-airline specific even though it may be on a A320/737.

KayPam

Modular students have trouble finding a job, even in this favourable period ?

KayPam

Better, it depends on what you consider better.
Could you please tell more : is there a type of carrier that will be more prone to recruit modular students ?
Do modular students have more trouble getting a job on medium jet ?

JDB275

Hello,
First of all i am looking for advice from the people in this forum who have actual experience in this area and have gone through process' similar to the ones i plan on going through.

I am currently finishing an aerospace engineering Beng degree from Sheffield university (finishing modules from home in south wales), initially i had read a lot about the integrated courses that CTC/OAA and FTE offer and i was sure that was the route i wanted to take to get into the left seat as quickly as possible with the most prestigious school. But now i know there is no way i could take a loan out and secure it against a house. I would like to fund it off my own back. Funding it myself there is no way i could afford the £80000 price tag most major integrated UK routes cost.

Im now looking into modular training with various different flying schools and i was hoping to get some advice on the best route to take. I want to learn in the UK, in order to afford the fee's of modular training im going to have to get some sort of job probably in engineering. However the cost of modular training in the UK is still around £40-50k so im guessing its going to take me absolutely ages with say a 20k graduate job. Also ive heard sponsorships are very few and far between so i cant bank on that.

As im currently living in south wales with family i dont have any living costs which i was hoping to use to my advantage and maybe save to get my PPL with Aeros based in Cardiff (if anyone can vouch for them?).

Still i have no idea which FTO i would choose for ATPL theory exams. Or who i would choose for ME CPL/IR/MCC/ JOC. Ive looked into schemes like CTC takeoff and OAA Waypoint but they're way to expensive. Ive also been looking into FTE integreated flight deck programme based in spain however even thats £63k.

Another thing i was worried about is how long the modular route is going to take, given that i will have a full time job, im not sure how much of the training you can actually do part time. Or would it be better to get the PPL (10K) whilst working full time and then save save save untill i could afford the £40-50k for the ATPL theory/ME CPL/IR/MCC/ JOC. Or would it be better to get a loan for the ME CPL/IR/MCC/ JOC part and pay that back later on somehow.

Would appreciate some advice, thanks.

utd4life12

Hi there,

I'm in a very much similar position to you, except living up in Yorkshire with family and about to graduate with a Law degree. So whilst I can't offer any advice, I'm also looking for the exact same advice you are in terms of best training routes, so hopefully we can get some good info I'd also intitially thought integrated was the way, but I'm now modular all the way!

utd4life12

Just out of curiosity, would you guys still advise Modular route over an MPL with an Airline, let's say Easyjet MPL for example?

captain.weird

Depends.

I went modular and I don't regret it all. My loan is low comparing it to MPL and integrated students. But the MPL students have a secured job. Which you can't find easily while going modular. If you can entry a MPL programme, go for it. But keep the loan in your mind, which will give you a headache.

But paying off your loan while cruising at FL380 is much better than flipping burgers.

unskilledcrayon

Hey JDB275 - Im in a similar boat to you, I'm from Wales, just graduated from University starting a graduate job near London. Seems like it will take a while to save to get the modular route. I had a trial lesson and Cardiff Aeros and I think they're fairly decent, in terms of value for money: Wolverhampton flight school is pretty cheap for a PPL, if you saved about 7.5k then went to Wolverhampton flight school you could do it in a few weeks.