So, what exactly can you do with the degrees on offer with flight training?
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So, what exactly can you do with the degrees on offer with flight training?
Hey,
After dreaming of being a pilot for years, I'm currently privately funding my own PPL training and hope to get the license by the time I finish college next year. I love flying for my PPL, and will be starting Navigation next week as I have now completed three hours solo in the circuit. Next year however, I hope to take the modular route to getting my fATPL. Now, I've been researching on the best ways to do this for years, and I have whittled down the countless paths to a select few. Admittedly, most of these include a degree of some sort alongside conventional modular flight training, and after speaking with current students, attending open days and seminars, and visiting the Flyer Exhibition, I still maintain that this is a valuble assest to have. Alongside others, the Cabair/Kingston degree course has caught my eye in particular. However, I am still unsure where the various degrees that are on offer with flight training can actually take me in the future (if there is still a shortage of jobs with the airlines - ever the optimist -).
After dreaming of being a pilot for years, I'm currently privately funding my own PPL training and hope to get the license by the time I finish college next year. I love flying for my PPL, and will be starting Navigation next week as I have now completed three hours solo in the circuit. Next year however, I hope to take the modular route to getting my fATPL. Now, I've been researching on the best ways to do this for years, and I have whittled down the countless paths to a select few. Admittedly, most of these include a degree of some sort alongside conventional modular flight training, and after speaking with current students, attending open days and seminars, and visiting the Flyer Exhibition, I still maintain that this is a valuble assest to have. Alongside others, the Cabair/Kingston degree course has caught my eye in particular. However, I am still unsure where the various degrees that are on offer with flight training can actually take me in the future (if there is still a shortage of jobs with the airlines - ever the optimist -).
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practically no much!
fly small commercial planes, you need 800h TT.
join an airline?, need to pay for rating and 500h with no job at the end.
degree worth nothing, but as you will end probably jobless like most of you staying at home all day long waiting for a call, you would be happy to have a backup.
this market is doomed as long pilots pay for everything.
fly small commercial planes, you need 800h TT.
join an airline?, need to pay for rating and 500h with no job at the end.
degree worth nothing, but as you will end probably jobless like most of you staying at home all day long waiting for a call, you would be happy to have a backup.
this market is doomed as long pilots pay for everything.
Last edited by captainsuperstorm; 23rd Apr 2011 at 06:30.
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When you apply for a job, the first thing the airliner will look at is you logbook not your degree. I'd personally say go Modular or Integrated. I've heard that an Integrated applicant has more job prospect than a Modular one, considering that they have the same hours. Because an Integrated Course is done in a shorter period of time meaning its more intense than the Modular. The downside is that Integrated Course costs more than the Modular, and most of the time an Integrated Course wants the full payment given upfront. At the end of the day they both end up with the same licence. I don't see any reason not doing Modular, if you cannot afford an Integrated.
Anyway I am on my first year at Kingston and it has been fun so far. Training over at Florida was amazing. Considering the financial side though, you should consider the cost of living away from home as I've found out this is costing me more than what I anticipated. If you are planning to have your PPL before you start then you will be doing nothing until the other students come back with their PPL from Florida, April next year. Except for the Maths and Physics uni subjects.
I'd say if you want a degree, get a proper one or just go straight to Modular or Integrated.
Anyway I am on my first year at Kingston and it has been fun so far. Training over at Florida was amazing. Considering the financial side though, you should consider the cost of living away from home as I've found out this is costing me more than what I anticipated. If you are planning to have your PPL before you start then you will be doing nothing until the other students come back with their PPL from Florida, April next year. Except for the Maths and Physics uni subjects.
I'd say if you want a degree, get a proper one or just go straight to Modular or Integrated.
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I agree, the best thing would be to get a 'proper' degree, but with the cost of tuition fees as they are there is no way that I would be able to afford a degree and then flight training.
I have spoken to Jane Brookfield on many occasions, and its great to hear that you are on the course and enjoying it! I presume however, that whilst the other students are in Florida doing there PPL's, I would also be out there doing my hour building?
The other option that I've looked at is the new Cabair Pro-Pilot course, which also looks to be a very good course which suits my financial situation (No Integrated route for me I'm afraid). This has no degree, and I suppose I just worry about failing my medical five years down the road and having nothing to fall back on
.
I have spoken to Jane Brookfield on many occasions, and its great to hear that you are on the course and enjoying it! I presume however, that whilst the other students are in Florida doing there PPL's, I would also be out there doing my hour building?
The other option that I've looked at is the new Cabair Pro-Pilot course, which also looks to be a very good course which suits my financial situation (No Integrated route for me I'm afraid). This has no degree, and I suppose I just worry about failing my medical five years down the road and having nothing to fall back on
.
A degree is not a fallback; in five years time, if you've done nothing with it, it will in almost all cases be worth approximately nothing - regardless of subject. If you want a backup job capability, learn a transferrable skill like plumbing, cookery or TEFL.
A "foundation degree" is also worth approximately nothing if done in addition to CPL/fATPL, which are worth more, better understood, and the foundation degree contains little additional material, whilst the academic standards are minimal. I firmly class the Cabair/Kingston product in this bracket, even with the 1 year top-up to BSc Aeronautical Studies.
An "aeronautical science" (e.g. Leeds) type degree plus pilot training does seem, on the whole, to have some significant value in that there's a lot of experience that people with the combination fit into the professional aviation environment much better than those without. I don't believe, however, that the employers widely recognise this, so it'll not aid your initial job hunting. However, if you lose your medical, these degrees have little value in real science where they are generally regarded as "not real science".
An aeronautical/aerospace engineering degree with pilot studies is very tough and you really have to be interested in the academic subject, as well as the flying. There are careers where this combination works really well - particularly military flying: although those places seem to be dwindling into very small numbers nowadays. About 2/3 of test pilots nowadays seem to have aero-eng degrees in addition to either military or civil flying training. Plus, unlike aeronautical science, these are regarded as real engineering, and if you for whatever reason decide to stick with an engineering career, the flying training and experience is regarded as having significant value to an aeronautical engineer. This is probably the one case where doing the degree, then flying training, then going back into the degree subject, does not disadvantage you - because the aeronautical world tends to be more holistic: it's "all aeronautics".
G
A "foundation degree" is also worth approximately nothing if done in addition to CPL/fATPL, which are worth more, better understood, and the foundation degree contains little additional material, whilst the academic standards are minimal. I firmly class the Cabair/Kingston product in this bracket, even with the 1 year top-up to BSc Aeronautical Studies.
An "aeronautical science" (e.g. Leeds) type degree plus pilot training does seem, on the whole, to have some significant value in that there's a lot of experience that people with the combination fit into the professional aviation environment much better than those without. I don't believe, however, that the employers widely recognise this, so it'll not aid your initial job hunting. However, if you lose your medical, these degrees have little value in real science where they are generally regarded as "not real science".
An aeronautical/aerospace engineering degree with pilot studies is very tough and you really have to be interested in the academic subject, as well as the flying. There are careers where this combination works really well - particularly military flying: although those places seem to be dwindling into very small numbers nowadays. About 2/3 of test pilots nowadays seem to have aero-eng degrees in addition to either military or civil flying training. Plus, unlike aeronautical science, these are regarded as real engineering, and if you for whatever reason decide to stick with an engineering career, the flying training and experience is regarded as having significant value to an aeronautical engineer. This is probably the one case where doing the degree, then flying training, then going back into the degree subject, does not disadvantage you - because the aeronautical world tends to be more holistic: it's "all aeronautics".
G
