How do you get a CPL/IR for £20k?
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How do you get a CPL/IR for £20k?
You can't. But it got your attention didn't it? Due to the huge response to my posting 'who wants to know?', well, two bored sleepless ppruners here it is, my story of how I went from zero hours to the rhs of a 757 with JMC.
*
A ten year career as a computer operator with British Gas and the offer of voluntary redundancy due to privatisation cutbacks got me thinking about my future career. I’d had it good up ‘til then, nearly £40k a year for very little, a nice 1 bed flat on the outskirts of London and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.
The money was a factor. £20k to leave, but I knew that due to yearly increments in a nationalised industry my salary had escalated to twice the market rate for the job. Compulsory redundancy on much less favourable terms would follow, so I took the leap and thought I would survive and have £20k in the bank.
It was May 1996 and I had been using the professional resettlement services afforded to BG employees and came up with the great idea of I.T. recruitment. I could do that. Ok it was mainly commission but I knew about I.T. didn’t I?
What a change of scenery. Instead of the 3 x 12hr shifts per week I was expected to do five days.......urghhh! On top of that I had to commute on the train into London Bridge. My God. After several years with the TA where I had learnt to become an Arrest & Restraint Instructor, PTI and Recce Platoon Commander, my patience was severely tested by this bunch of animals from Middle England. I wanted to ‘lamp’ every one of the buggers within a couple of weeks!
During this change of scenery I had met Suzie, an Independent Financial Advisor who was going to show me how to ‘consolidate’ with my new found millions!
The recruitment agency was just a fine place to work...................if you had no ethics. I was expected to tell the biggest no-hoper and the highest-flyer (no pun intended) that I had the perfect job for him/her, and to tell the biggest employers that I had the perfect candidates! It just wasn’t me. Now the guy sitting opposite me on the desk was inspirational. Well sort of. Let me paint the picture.
Tim-Nice-But-Dim. That was him. Bloody hilarious without knowing it! Can you believe that he didn’t want to do this job for life either? No, he had much grander plans. He wanted to be a commercial pilot!!
He pulled from the drawer a glossy brochure from a training school at Cranfield............”let’s have a look I asked”.
That was it. I hadn’t had the boyhood dream or anything like that, but as I read further into the leaflet it was like a shining light leading the way.....no sh*t, that’s the best way I can describe it. It hit me like a bolt of lightning. This is what I wanted to do, this is what I was cut out to do, and this is what I could do for the remaining 30yrs of my working life and enjoy it.
The enquiries started and within the month I had left, after discussing it in depth with Suzie; I needed her support for the ‘year or so’ of training that my £20k would fund. Well only £5k short according to the brochure!
Trial lesson at Biggin Hill in August 1996 with said company. All they appeared interested in was my cash, and £6k of it at that for a PPL! They even sold me a bloody logbook on the day to ‘log’ my first flight! Took a look at Redhill where I found the most helpful of instructors hanging around who gave me 2 hrs of his time to take me through all the options and routes to a CPL/IR, first stage being a PPL for £2300 including NVQ! I did my PPL at Redhill.
First flight October 1996 after all the background information had been checked etc. Then came the bad weather.
Suzie had moved into my 1 bedroom flat and let her 2 bed out to bolster her wage from the House of Fraser. Then came the news that almost changed everything. We were expecting a baby. I’d have to go back into I.T. and earn a wage, it was over before it had even started.
After many heated discussions we decided that our relationship would be all the better if I stuck at what I really wanted to do. February 1997 and 5 hours in the logbook................it was like starting again, and I’d been at the airfield 5 days a week 9-5 and weekends if I could get an instructor. March saw the weather change and I polished off the rest of the hours by the end of April. What a feeling. I was a pilot.
May and June saw the IMC course through. All was in place for the birth of Harry on 13th July. My hour building was booked for 30th in Florida for 1 month at Naples Air Center................what could I do? Put it off? Suzie went to her parents just before I went to the US and she had maternity leave for several weeks. Now really was the ‘least worse’ time to go.
100hrs of flying to every airfield in Florida saw the hour building completed along with the 300nm x-country qualifier by the end of August and back I came to nappies and bottles and groundschool at London Guildhall.
Suzie had to go back to work when the maternity leave was up so we needed a childminder. “how f*ck*ng much?” “£100 per week and that’s cheap?” Jesus. And then you have to find one who is suitable. We saw dozens and settled on a grandmother who was in it for the love of it and not for the money. She was just perfect.
The routine started. 14 weeks at Guildhall, oh God no, not back on the London Bridge route again! September to Christmas saw us swapping the chore of driving Harry to the childminder, leaving the car and walking back to the station to go up town. Study in the evenings and weekends, play at families and remain happy in our one bedroom flat.
Christmas was spent at Suzie’s parents with me staying on the extra week to study in peace before the Nav sittings in January. I put so much work in, 14 hours a day head in books. And Suzie, back at home playing the working single mother. God bless her. And Harry? throwing up a lot at the worst possible times – in the car on route the childminder.
Tech course was booked at Guildhall for March, so when my results came through for the Navs I was more than happy with 8/9 first time. I gambled on not doing any climatology for met theory and got 69%. ****. I elected to resit the met after the Techs.
April saw me do the Night Rating at Leeds/ Bradford which was fairly straight forward.
Being quite technical I enjoyed the tech course, only six subjects helped somewhat too! Life was continuing but becoming more and more abnormal. Harry was throwing up more and more often and we just couldn’t get a nights sleep to save our lives. He’d have his milk and an hour or so later bring the whole lot back up and get so distressed. Suzie caught me one night holding him up and asking him after hours of no sleep “what the f*cks the matter with you?” I felt terrible. We’d taken him to see the doctor several times and spent fortunes on different types of milk on their advice due to a perceived allergy.
The tech course finished and I had a week to prepare for the exams. Back up to Staffordshire for some quiet study to cement that knowledge. This was broken 2 days before the exam by a frantic phone call telling me to come home now as Harry had been admitted into hospital. Suzie had been on her way to the childminder, rushing as usual in the morning and Harry had just started vomiting and didn’t stop until he was almost unconscious. The GP’s was just round the corner and that’s where she headed. He was sent straight to hospital.
By the time I arrived he had already been moved on to St George’s in Tooting SW London. Here I was with no car, on public transport trying to get there as quick as I could. 8 hours from Brum to Tooting. Suzie was in a state when I got there. They didn’t know what was up with him but the ultrasound had showed up an abnormality. 2 weeks later his childminder ended up in the same hospital diagnosed with cancer. She never came out. God bless her.
5 weeks later I was still sleeping on the hospital floor due to no facilities being available for parents, but now we were in King’s College, Camberwell. The poor lad had had every test known to man and was been fed through his jugular vein. He had lost so much weight. My techs? Who cares at that point. I phoned the CAA and cancelled ufn.
It turned out Harry had a pancreatic cyst which had never been operated on in the UK before. We had him Christened the day before his pioneering op and shed many tears over the next couple of days in intensive care. As babies do, he recovered very quickly from the operation and has gone on to make a wonderful recovery. My techs? I cancelled the May sitting and sat them in June along with the resit. Getting them all in one go felt like a triumph over adversity.
At this point money was getting pretty low and it was decision time again. BCPL and instruct or BCPL/Upgrade. The sales literature got the better of me and we decided it would be best to get the licence as quick as possible. If we could have afforded a PC I might have found pprune earlier and got some opinions!
OATS was chosen after looking at all the 509 schools for both BCPL and then the Upgrade. Redundancy had gone, shares were all sold, 16v Calibra went for an old Passat Estate and the BCPL/upgrade and LOFT would need £15k remortgage and £8k career development loan.
I rented a room for £50 a week in Kidlington and travelled up and down each weekend on the ‘Tube’, cycling to the airfield each day to save money on the bus fare! I ate pasta and rice and became a hermit. BCPL took from mid August to early October 1998. The GFT was in my opinion the hardest flight test of all. I was so pleased to pass it.
The Upgrade course was immensely enjoyable, 80hrs to do a twin/IR was a doddle, but the test was still a nerve wracking experience. Everything depended on it. I had no money left if I’d got a partial or fail, and I mean no money. When I sailed straight through the Chalo hold after 5 minutes airborne I thought I’d buggered it up, and to recover from that took some hard work. The main thing is I didn’t bugger up putting it right, and as I headed toward Daventry I was swearing at myself inside trying to ‘kick myself up the arse’ and put it out of my mind. It worked. I have not flown an ILS or NDB as well as I did that day since. As the examiner took it on the roll at Coventry we climbed away and I couldn’t believe it that he gave me a full pass. Yippee! They tell you that, then give you 1 hour worth of debrief where I think he just talked straight through me. I just couldn’t concentrate with excitement. I wanted to get that CV out and await the anxious calls of all those Chief Pilots calling me to interview!!!
We were all on a high and between the end of Jan 1999 and into Feb I completed LOFT and got my shiny blue licence issued.
I soon came back down to earth with a bump when all I got with my 50 odd cv’s were 3 applications and nothing else. Oh dear. Now what? Suzie and I set a cut-off of two months before I had to get more hours. Instructing was the only option. What about the money? Old credit card from the BG days came to the rescue.
Decided to go to Teesside as I could get free accommodation not too far away. Throughout the month of May 1999 I completed the course whilst looking after Harry, various relatives taking him throughout the days when I was training. Each night I would come back, feed him, clean him put him to bed and prepare my following days briefings/ lessons.
I was 2 hours from completing the rating using an AFI/QFI upgrader for practice lessons when the CFI asked him if he would be interested in flying a C310 doing the ‘Flying Eye’ for Glasgow for a company called Edinburgh Air Charter. The CFI knew the Chief Pilot very well and was often approached for potential pilots. I was dead envious that this 1000+hr instructor was being offered this on a plate and the job would lead onto full IFR charter work in time. I was amazed when he turned it down because it was in Scotland! The CFI then asked if I would be interested. Damn right I would be. When, Where, and Who do I speak to? Drove up for an interview a couple of days later and went for an impromptu check ride and nearly fell off the sofa when the CP offered me the job!
Started in June 1999, originally just to do the ‘Eye’ to free up the line pilots for the charter work, but as my training progressed the CP (and owner of the company) realised that my instrument flying wasn’t as bad as he would have expected for 280hrs (they’d never taken anyone with less than 700hrs before) and continued the training onto the C402 and C404. Three weeks later there was I going single crew into Heathrow with 9 pax in a 404. Jesus Christ! It was fabulous.
Two months later my world nearly fell apart when the CP and his co-pilot were tragically killed along with several Airtours crew in the Glasgow accident in the 404. I was shocked. Deeply shocked. We all were. I’d just had 2 days off and gone back down to London to see Suzie and Harry and walked back into the office to be met with the news that the 404 had gone down. I couldn’t quite believe it. I’d flown it only a few days before.
There was I, 300 odd hours, 2 months experience, one of only two people in the office facing a growing hoard of the nations media. It wasn’t pleasant.
The accident was devastating. Could I continue my short career being so close to this tragedy? Suzie couldn’t handle it. She was down in London trying to work, look after our child, sell a flat and deal with this, oh and of course she was now pregnant with our second. We didn’t operate for a couple of months and this gave us all time to deal with our thoughts. A lot of talking and reasoning went on and we all decided we wanted to continue our work and build the company back up.
I shall never forget those who died that day, one of whom gave me my first break in aviation. R.I.P.
The work started again and I went back onto just 310’s for a while and took things at a lot slower pace, building the confidence back up before going back onto the 400’s. The hours built steadily, we sold the flat and Suzie and Harry joined me in Scotland. We spent a very happy year in Dunblane, Edward arriving early in October 1999 whilst I was on an ‘islands’ trip. I rushed back, drove up the motorway to the hospital and missed the action by 15 minutes! Will I never be on time?. We got married in August 2000 and moved on to rent in Dunfermline.
The honeymoon week saw me post off a cv to JMC as I’d heard they were recruiting and asking a minimum of 700hrs. I now had nearly 900 of which 700 odd was multi/IFR. I called and mailed, called and mailed and called and mailed over 4 months trying to get an interview. I was on the verge of giving up as I’d heard that the recruitment was to end before Christmas when a last ditch attempt with a CV emailed to the ‘man who counts’ on a Friday night with a follow up call on the Monday lead to a call back and request for interview. I was over the moon. I’d completed MCC at Multiflight in November and went on an interview coaching course for pilots. It did the trick. Passed the interview and arranged for the sim assessment for the New Year. Spent nearly £900 on a couple of hours practice at Gecat and had a crack at the check-ride. It took 6 days to get the result. I honestly did not know what the result would be. You just can’t tell. A pass. Medical to go, no probs, job offer two days later. I’m there. I’ve done it. Type and line training to go and I’m there.....the rhs of a 757. Life felt so good on Friday 25th January 2001 when that phone rang, and it still does. If you see me in training you won’t be able to miss me, I’m the one with the beaming smile from ear to ear........................
Pilot Pete.
ps. Was it worth it all? You bet it was.
Good Luck Wannabees.
[This message has been edited by Pilot Pete (edited 04 February 2001).]
*
A ten year career as a computer operator with British Gas and the offer of voluntary redundancy due to privatisation cutbacks got me thinking about my future career. I’d had it good up ‘til then, nearly £40k a year for very little, a nice 1 bed flat on the outskirts of London and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.
The money was a factor. £20k to leave, but I knew that due to yearly increments in a nationalised industry my salary had escalated to twice the market rate for the job. Compulsory redundancy on much less favourable terms would follow, so I took the leap and thought I would survive and have £20k in the bank.
It was May 1996 and I had been using the professional resettlement services afforded to BG employees and came up with the great idea of I.T. recruitment. I could do that. Ok it was mainly commission but I knew about I.T. didn’t I?
What a change of scenery. Instead of the 3 x 12hr shifts per week I was expected to do five days.......urghhh! On top of that I had to commute on the train into London Bridge. My God. After several years with the TA where I had learnt to become an Arrest & Restraint Instructor, PTI and Recce Platoon Commander, my patience was severely tested by this bunch of animals from Middle England. I wanted to ‘lamp’ every one of the buggers within a couple of weeks!
During this change of scenery I had met Suzie, an Independent Financial Advisor who was going to show me how to ‘consolidate’ with my new found millions!
The recruitment agency was just a fine place to work...................if you had no ethics. I was expected to tell the biggest no-hoper and the highest-flyer (no pun intended) that I had the perfect job for him/her, and to tell the biggest employers that I had the perfect candidates! It just wasn’t me. Now the guy sitting opposite me on the desk was inspirational. Well sort of. Let me paint the picture.
Tim-Nice-But-Dim. That was him. Bloody hilarious without knowing it! Can you believe that he didn’t want to do this job for life either? No, he had much grander plans. He wanted to be a commercial pilot!!
He pulled from the drawer a glossy brochure from a training school at Cranfield............”let’s have a look I asked”.
That was it. I hadn’t had the boyhood dream or anything like that, but as I read further into the leaflet it was like a shining light leading the way.....no sh*t, that’s the best way I can describe it. It hit me like a bolt of lightning. This is what I wanted to do, this is what I was cut out to do, and this is what I could do for the remaining 30yrs of my working life and enjoy it.
The enquiries started and within the month I had left, after discussing it in depth with Suzie; I needed her support for the ‘year or so’ of training that my £20k would fund. Well only £5k short according to the brochure!
Trial lesson at Biggin Hill in August 1996 with said company. All they appeared interested in was my cash, and £6k of it at that for a PPL! They even sold me a bloody logbook on the day to ‘log’ my first flight! Took a look at Redhill where I found the most helpful of instructors hanging around who gave me 2 hrs of his time to take me through all the options and routes to a CPL/IR, first stage being a PPL for £2300 including NVQ! I did my PPL at Redhill.
First flight October 1996 after all the background information had been checked etc. Then came the bad weather.
Suzie had moved into my 1 bedroom flat and let her 2 bed out to bolster her wage from the House of Fraser. Then came the news that almost changed everything. We were expecting a baby. I’d have to go back into I.T. and earn a wage, it was over before it had even started.
After many heated discussions we decided that our relationship would be all the better if I stuck at what I really wanted to do. February 1997 and 5 hours in the logbook................it was like starting again, and I’d been at the airfield 5 days a week 9-5 and weekends if I could get an instructor. March saw the weather change and I polished off the rest of the hours by the end of April. What a feeling. I was a pilot.
May and June saw the IMC course through. All was in place for the birth of Harry on 13th July. My hour building was booked for 30th in Florida for 1 month at Naples Air Center................what could I do? Put it off? Suzie went to her parents just before I went to the US and she had maternity leave for several weeks. Now really was the ‘least worse’ time to go.
100hrs of flying to every airfield in Florida saw the hour building completed along with the 300nm x-country qualifier by the end of August and back I came to nappies and bottles and groundschool at London Guildhall.
Suzie had to go back to work when the maternity leave was up so we needed a childminder. “how f*ck*ng much?” “£100 per week and that’s cheap?” Jesus. And then you have to find one who is suitable. We saw dozens and settled on a grandmother who was in it for the love of it and not for the money. She was just perfect.
The routine started. 14 weeks at Guildhall, oh God no, not back on the London Bridge route again! September to Christmas saw us swapping the chore of driving Harry to the childminder, leaving the car and walking back to the station to go up town. Study in the evenings and weekends, play at families and remain happy in our one bedroom flat.
Christmas was spent at Suzie’s parents with me staying on the extra week to study in peace before the Nav sittings in January. I put so much work in, 14 hours a day head in books. And Suzie, back at home playing the working single mother. God bless her. And Harry? throwing up a lot at the worst possible times – in the car on route the childminder.
Tech course was booked at Guildhall for March, so when my results came through for the Navs I was more than happy with 8/9 first time. I gambled on not doing any climatology for met theory and got 69%. ****. I elected to resit the met after the Techs.
April saw me do the Night Rating at Leeds/ Bradford which was fairly straight forward.
Being quite technical I enjoyed the tech course, only six subjects helped somewhat too! Life was continuing but becoming more and more abnormal. Harry was throwing up more and more often and we just couldn’t get a nights sleep to save our lives. He’d have his milk and an hour or so later bring the whole lot back up and get so distressed. Suzie caught me one night holding him up and asking him after hours of no sleep “what the f*cks the matter with you?” I felt terrible. We’d taken him to see the doctor several times and spent fortunes on different types of milk on their advice due to a perceived allergy.
The tech course finished and I had a week to prepare for the exams. Back up to Staffordshire for some quiet study to cement that knowledge. This was broken 2 days before the exam by a frantic phone call telling me to come home now as Harry had been admitted into hospital. Suzie had been on her way to the childminder, rushing as usual in the morning and Harry had just started vomiting and didn’t stop until he was almost unconscious. The GP’s was just round the corner and that’s where she headed. He was sent straight to hospital.
By the time I arrived he had already been moved on to St George’s in Tooting SW London. Here I was with no car, on public transport trying to get there as quick as I could. 8 hours from Brum to Tooting. Suzie was in a state when I got there. They didn’t know what was up with him but the ultrasound had showed up an abnormality. 2 weeks later his childminder ended up in the same hospital diagnosed with cancer. She never came out. God bless her.
5 weeks later I was still sleeping on the hospital floor due to no facilities being available for parents, but now we were in King’s College, Camberwell. The poor lad had had every test known to man and was been fed through his jugular vein. He had lost so much weight. My techs? Who cares at that point. I phoned the CAA and cancelled ufn.
It turned out Harry had a pancreatic cyst which had never been operated on in the UK before. We had him Christened the day before his pioneering op and shed many tears over the next couple of days in intensive care. As babies do, he recovered very quickly from the operation and has gone on to make a wonderful recovery. My techs? I cancelled the May sitting and sat them in June along with the resit. Getting them all in one go felt like a triumph over adversity.
At this point money was getting pretty low and it was decision time again. BCPL and instruct or BCPL/Upgrade. The sales literature got the better of me and we decided it would be best to get the licence as quick as possible. If we could have afforded a PC I might have found pprune earlier and got some opinions!
OATS was chosen after looking at all the 509 schools for both BCPL and then the Upgrade. Redundancy had gone, shares were all sold, 16v Calibra went for an old Passat Estate and the BCPL/upgrade and LOFT would need £15k remortgage and £8k career development loan.
I rented a room for £50 a week in Kidlington and travelled up and down each weekend on the ‘Tube’, cycling to the airfield each day to save money on the bus fare! I ate pasta and rice and became a hermit. BCPL took from mid August to early October 1998. The GFT was in my opinion the hardest flight test of all. I was so pleased to pass it.
The Upgrade course was immensely enjoyable, 80hrs to do a twin/IR was a doddle, but the test was still a nerve wracking experience. Everything depended on it. I had no money left if I’d got a partial or fail, and I mean no money. When I sailed straight through the Chalo hold after 5 minutes airborne I thought I’d buggered it up, and to recover from that took some hard work. The main thing is I didn’t bugger up putting it right, and as I headed toward Daventry I was swearing at myself inside trying to ‘kick myself up the arse’ and put it out of my mind. It worked. I have not flown an ILS or NDB as well as I did that day since. As the examiner took it on the roll at Coventry we climbed away and I couldn’t believe it that he gave me a full pass. Yippee! They tell you that, then give you 1 hour worth of debrief where I think he just talked straight through me. I just couldn’t concentrate with excitement. I wanted to get that CV out and await the anxious calls of all those Chief Pilots calling me to interview!!!
We were all on a high and between the end of Jan 1999 and into Feb I completed LOFT and got my shiny blue licence issued.
I soon came back down to earth with a bump when all I got with my 50 odd cv’s were 3 applications and nothing else. Oh dear. Now what? Suzie and I set a cut-off of two months before I had to get more hours. Instructing was the only option. What about the money? Old credit card from the BG days came to the rescue.
Decided to go to Teesside as I could get free accommodation not too far away. Throughout the month of May 1999 I completed the course whilst looking after Harry, various relatives taking him throughout the days when I was training. Each night I would come back, feed him, clean him put him to bed and prepare my following days briefings/ lessons.
I was 2 hours from completing the rating using an AFI/QFI upgrader for practice lessons when the CFI asked him if he would be interested in flying a C310 doing the ‘Flying Eye’ for Glasgow for a company called Edinburgh Air Charter. The CFI knew the Chief Pilot very well and was often approached for potential pilots. I was dead envious that this 1000+hr instructor was being offered this on a plate and the job would lead onto full IFR charter work in time. I was amazed when he turned it down because it was in Scotland! The CFI then asked if I would be interested. Damn right I would be. When, Where, and Who do I speak to? Drove up for an interview a couple of days later and went for an impromptu check ride and nearly fell off the sofa when the CP offered me the job!
Started in June 1999, originally just to do the ‘Eye’ to free up the line pilots for the charter work, but as my training progressed the CP (and owner of the company) realised that my instrument flying wasn’t as bad as he would have expected for 280hrs (they’d never taken anyone with less than 700hrs before) and continued the training onto the C402 and C404. Three weeks later there was I going single crew into Heathrow with 9 pax in a 404. Jesus Christ! It was fabulous.
Two months later my world nearly fell apart when the CP and his co-pilot were tragically killed along with several Airtours crew in the Glasgow accident in the 404. I was shocked. Deeply shocked. We all were. I’d just had 2 days off and gone back down to London to see Suzie and Harry and walked back into the office to be met with the news that the 404 had gone down. I couldn’t quite believe it. I’d flown it only a few days before.
There was I, 300 odd hours, 2 months experience, one of only two people in the office facing a growing hoard of the nations media. It wasn’t pleasant.
The accident was devastating. Could I continue my short career being so close to this tragedy? Suzie couldn’t handle it. She was down in London trying to work, look after our child, sell a flat and deal with this, oh and of course she was now pregnant with our second. We didn’t operate for a couple of months and this gave us all time to deal with our thoughts. A lot of talking and reasoning went on and we all decided we wanted to continue our work and build the company back up.
I shall never forget those who died that day, one of whom gave me my first break in aviation. R.I.P.
The work started again and I went back onto just 310’s for a while and took things at a lot slower pace, building the confidence back up before going back onto the 400’s. The hours built steadily, we sold the flat and Suzie and Harry joined me in Scotland. We spent a very happy year in Dunblane, Edward arriving early in October 1999 whilst I was on an ‘islands’ trip. I rushed back, drove up the motorway to the hospital and missed the action by 15 minutes! Will I never be on time?. We got married in August 2000 and moved on to rent in Dunfermline.
The honeymoon week saw me post off a cv to JMC as I’d heard they were recruiting and asking a minimum of 700hrs. I now had nearly 900 of which 700 odd was multi/IFR. I called and mailed, called and mailed and called and mailed over 4 months trying to get an interview. I was on the verge of giving up as I’d heard that the recruitment was to end before Christmas when a last ditch attempt with a CV emailed to the ‘man who counts’ on a Friday night with a follow up call on the Monday lead to a call back and request for interview. I was over the moon. I’d completed MCC at Multiflight in November and went on an interview coaching course for pilots. It did the trick. Passed the interview and arranged for the sim assessment for the New Year. Spent nearly £900 on a couple of hours practice at Gecat and had a crack at the check-ride. It took 6 days to get the result. I honestly did not know what the result would be. You just can’t tell. A pass. Medical to go, no probs, job offer two days later. I’m there. I’ve done it. Type and line training to go and I’m there.....the rhs of a 757. Life felt so good on Friday 25th January 2001 when that phone rang, and it still does. If you see me in training you won’t be able to miss me, I’m the one with the beaming smile from ear to ear........................
Pilot Pete.
ps. Was it worth it all? You bet it was.
Good Luck Wannabees.
[This message has been edited by Pilot Pete (edited 04 February 2001).]
Guest
Posts: n/a
What a story - well done indeed Sir !
Ive just been down to Redhill. Anyone got a fishing rod ?
Gatwicks not much better. A JMC was on finals just as we came off junction 9 M23.
Looked like he / she was having fun with the wind sheer that had just been reported.
MY TURN SOON PLEASE ! ! ! !
Any more stories - we need to turn on as many lights at the end of the tunnel as possible !
KEEP EM COMING ;0)
Ive just been down to Redhill. Anyone got a fishing rod ?
Gatwicks not much better. A JMC was on finals just as we came off junction 9 M23.
Looked like he / she was having fun with the wind sheer that had just been reported.
MY TURN SOON PLEASE ! ! ! !
Any more stories - we need to turn on as many lights at the end of the tunnel as possible !
KEEP EM COMING ;0)
Guest
Posts: n/a
What an inspiring tale pete.You certainly demonstrate that to achieve a courageous goal in life you need to burn all bridges of retreat and dont give up until you achieve that goal.
I myself am in a similar position to what you were.I left a well paid job to commence my cpl/ir training having also sold a small buisness to fund the training.
I am due to go to the US to commence my PPL but I am having doubts about whether I will attain a position once qualified.Your tale tells me basically to stop fannying around like an old mare and just get on with it and don,t quit at no point.
Well done mate .
I myself am in a similar position to what you were.I left a well paid job to commence my cpl/ir training having also sold a small buisness to fund the training.
I am due to go to the US to commence my PPL but I am having doubts about whether I will attain a position once qualified.Your tale tells me basically to stop fannying around like an old mare and just get on with it and don,t quit at no point.
Well done mate .
Guest
Posts: n/a
Pilot Pete,
Congratulations on the RHS and what a wonderful story!
I'm still doing my PPL and want to progress through the modular route. Only today I was reading all the FTO's literature and ended up getting hacked off at the thought of that dough needed. If only I'd got those qualifications I could have applied for an airline sponsorship!!!
Anyway, look forward to hearing from you on what it's realy like flying with the big boys.
In the meantime, I'm flying with JMC to Tenerife on 18/5/01 flight JMC033K. If you're up front I'd love a jumpseat for landing and to have a chat if it's not too much trouble?
Cheers and all the best to you and the family!
N.W.
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To go-around, not to go-around, that is the question.......
[This message has been edited by November Whiskey (edited 04 February 2001).]
Congratulations on the RHS and what a wonderful story!
I'm still doing my PPL and want to progress through the modular route. Only today I was reading all the FTO's literature and ended up getting hacked off at the thought of that dough needed. If only I'd got those qualifications I could have applied for an airline sponsorship!!!
Anyway, look forward to hearing from you on what it's realy like flying with the big boys.
In the meantime, I'm flying with JMC to Tenerife on 18/5/01 flight JMC033K. If you're up front I'd love a jumpseat for landing and to have a chat if it's not too much trouble?
Cheers and all the best to you and the family!
N.W.
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To go-around, not to go-around, that is the question.......
[This message has been edited by November Whiskey (edited 04 February 2001).]
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If you are ever back in Glasgow drop me a line and i'll gladly buy you a pint. You have earned it for all of the times you have flew over head and made me think 'hmmm...flying..i could get into that!'
Thanks PP...you will be missed in Glasgow
[This message has been edited by EGPFlyer (edited 05 February 2001).]
Thanks PP...you will be missed in Glasgow
[This message has been edited by EGPFlyer (edited 05 February 2001).]
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PP,
Glad I read your post sir. I was fretting about how I can fund my JAR CPL (with two baby boys and another due in June) and was fast running out of steam (with the added hurdles of approaching forty and the wife quite rightly running out of tolerance).
Although I will never be able to fly for the likes of JMC (age) I now have a little more enthusiasm and will to forge ahead.
Thankyou
Jim Nicholas
Glad I read your post sir. I was fretting about how I can fund my JAR CPL (with two baby boys and another due in June) and was fast running out of steam (with the added hurdles of approaching forty and the wife quite rightly running out of tolerance).
Although I will never be able to fly for the likes of JMC (age) I now have a little more enthusiasm and will to forge ahead.
Thankyou
Jim Nicholas
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Pete thanks very much for the story.I hope Harry is fully recovered now.You certainly deserve your new post and I wish you the best of luck.Suzie your wife sounds one hell of a lady to put up with every thing whilst you were training.I wish you and your family all the best for 2001. 
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GET THE BLOODY NOSE DOWN!
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GET THE BLOODY NOSE DOWN!
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Pilot Pete,
What a fantastic story. Only real life can be that dramatic. I got tears in my eyes while reading. Just after wiping them away I now have to thank you for sharing your story. It's very inspirational and I must save it for the future. I will most certainly go for it myself.
I wish you and your extraordinary wife the very best. Ohhh, I wish for a girl like that! :-)
What a fantastic story. Only real life can be that dramatic. I got tears in my eyes while reading. Just after wiping them away I now have to thank you for sharing your story. It's very inspirational and I must save it for the future. I will most certainly go for it myself.
I wish you and your extraordinary wife the very best. Ohhh, I wish for a girl like that! :-)
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just read jimnich's posting and always intrigued to hear what other "oldies"!!?? are thinking. I'm forty and planning to go to the US in 3 or 4 months time to start on the trek towards developing from a 25hrs PPL student to 700 hrs ATPL. I believe the folks who say it can be a little more difficult for those of us who have a few more miles on the clock. However, it is obvious from reading these pages, that the right attitude and sufficient determination, can pay dividends. If there's anyone out there who can give some tips/info on the US side of the equation as well as any general comment of a constructive nature, ideally based on 1st hand experience, I'd be glad to hear from you.
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Pilot Pete
As everybody else has already said this is great..just what is needed when plodding through the distance learning material !!
Out of interest (from another British Gas employee !) how where you when you started out on this trek ??
Great stuff !
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As everybody else has already said this is great..just what is needed when plodding through the distance learning material !!
Out of interest (from another British Gas employee !) how where you when you started out on this trek ??
Great stuff !
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