To PPL or not?

[bradderz]

Hi,

After hours of trawling the web, I've finally found a forum that looks really good and hopefully you can help me on my journey as an aspiring pilot.

My name is Brad, and at the tender age of 18 I'm looking to pursue my dream of becoming a commercial pilot (like everyone I know). I was hoping that the people of PPrune would be able to advise me taking into consideration my current situation?

I currently work as an IT network engineer as I was told about 2 years ago to stick with my 'backup' plan until the market started to pick up again as demand is not very high. This I did and now I'm looking to take my first steps toward getting to the ultimate goal.

Can anyone recommend a route? I currently hold plenty of GCSE's and have all the important ones too No A - Levels or degree, just professional qualifications (Microsoft / Cisco / Checkpoint) in my current field. I guess this just putts me at a disadvantage and practically rules me out of sponsorship since Maths and Physics at A level, well wasn't really my thing.

So here I am, should I take a PPL and start actually working towards my dream? Where would be best to take it? I've seen the posts on Florida and just though is it a good idea?

[spicejetter]

I'd say A-Levels would be a good place. Ivecworked in recruitment (non airline and nothing as demanding as a pilot) and A-levels were a must. We didn't even look at GCSEs. They can be seen as qualifications to continue into further education but as for the workplace they're pretty irrelevant.

[pudoc]

If I were you I would be working in aviation right now and not IT. I've always been advised, by many people off this forum, that it's a good advantage to be within aviation should you want to be a pilot before and after training. I know this isn't always possible due to career change or better pay to fund training, but consider getting a job in aviation.

And should an airline ask you what you back up plan is, say it's to work within aviation in operations or something. If you say it's IT, then they'll question your passion for aviation.

I'm pro modular in the UK type of guy, but there are many, many ways.

[average-punter]

This is a good thread that was going a week or 2 ago

http://www.pprune.org/professional-p...ppl-first.html

[Genghis the Engineer]

If you're in a reasonably well paid job - then yes, I think go and do a PPL at your local school. Even if you take it no further, what's there to lose apart from a (relatively) small amount of money?

G