stop whining you bunch of miserable buggers. i wasn't sponsored by my family either, but i don't begrudge the young chap. i say good luck to the fellow and well done.

as for going to the press, you will probably find it was the airline who released the story. a bit like our airline went to the papers when we had a husband and wife flight deck.

Who's titan? And why didn't I go to the papers? Bummer.

Few more months in the industry before he realises how cringeworthy the article is! But welldone tho, hope they're paying you, and remember, listen to your ol' man ;)

Quit the whinging. Good on him. He's had help I'm sure, but so what? How many of us can say that we haven't had any help in their career? I can't.

I was awarded an RAF Flying Scholarship in 1968 at White Waltham and flew my first solo aged 17 and 2 weeks. I later graduated from the College of Air Training Hamble aged 19 and went straight onto the 747 for BOAC as a Second Officer. Training costs nil, bond £1000 for the first 5 years...

I quit at age 50 having probaly enjoyed the best years of commercial flying, averaged 35 hours per month...

Congratulations.
 

I'd rather one of my Sons drive a 737 than an XR3i cabrio. anyday.

Well done Ed, listen to your Dad, fly safe and i wish you blue skies.

SBD ..

There are some incredibly sad, jealous people posting here.

Good luck to the lad. Enjoy the next 25K hours. I’m envious!!

Agree, well done young man.

Fly safe

Doc C

:):)

Needs to learn how to shave now !!

Only kidding, well done Ed, if you've passed the course, then you're good enough.

Best wishes in your future career. Now go and tidy your room.

Skintman

Well done to him, as ZFT correctly says a few jealous people around, me included. He clearly has done well and had to pass the same exams as everyone else, financial help of not, its still not easy!:D

I first soloed in a Slingsby Cadet Mk III in the 1960s and my dad had to take me to the airfield as I wasn't old enough even to get a provisional license. ..... And I had to sit in the car in the pub car park with pop and crisps on the way home.

38 years later I have still only made it to PPL 1st class and yes I am a sad and jealous - OK scrap jealous I mean envious - (but probably a lot better off) bugger.

Well done Ed I say .... :D

An acheivement, but in no way unique. The youngest Captain however, is an achievement. My youngest Captain was 22 - on a 4-jet! And on another fleet, my employer had two 4-jet Captains who got into the left seat with less than 1000hrs total time. And one was a girl. Beat that!

What's all the fuss about, this is just the tabloids getting excited. The flying tests are easier the younger you are, I'd be more impressed if someone passed all the exams first time and got their first job at 55.

WHBM, Hambleoldboy,

Yes we were a bunch of spotty faced youths at Hamble in those days, but beware those who claim extreme youth. My years are similar to oldboys, and I remember the youngest on my course, who graduated aged 20. 2 weeks leave then into a BEA/BOAC training course. It was very rare to be cleared to the line before the age of 21.

And then we were kept alive by a very experienced Captain and another more experienced F/O, and if you were lucky, a flight engineer.

Nothing wrong with flying a 727 as a teenager, as long as you have a system that covers and acts as the long stop on the ability level.

Congrats from me as well Ed. I'm sure the jokes and sarcasm will bounce of you.
Best wishes and happy flying.

There truely are some cynical people with very large chips on their shoulders out there.

This chap has made a real effort and achieved his dream, well done and the best of luck to him.
So what if he's had financial assitance from his parents, my son wants to be a pilot and my daughter a doctor, I am going to have to pay for most of that and, although I'll probably have to rob a bank on be an incompetent CEO of a multi national who the gets fired, to fund it, I don't begrudge them for one moment.

It should also be noted that this chap's employers, Titan, are one of the few decent and thoroughly honest employers leaft in the airline industry - I don't know of anyone who's ever not enjoyed working for them.
I've no doubt that they've chipped in for some of the training, even if it wasn't a direct financial payment, so they're entitled to milk it for all they're worth.

Seems like a lot to do about nothing. Maybe there should be a thread for everyone who passes training and makes it to the line. woooohooooo!:rolleyes:

The sort of story that newspapers love and all credit to him for achieving the qualifications so young. Despite having the money the hurdles still have to be jumped.

In conversation with my FO on a recent trip he told me in conversation about types flown previously that he had flown the Electra for Air Atlantique. I later learned that he gained his command on it 2 days after his 21st birthday. As you need to be 21 or over to have a command on an aircraft of that type (I believe the criteria is weight) he is probably the youngest ever person to do so. He was extremely able but at the same time very modest and recognised that a fortuitous set of curcumstances had led to the achievement.

Edited to correct my error in referring to the Merchantman when the aircraft was actually an Electra.

Well done young man. Do the cabin crew breast feed you on your trips?

This is the sign of the times, next will be the MPL's. I'd prefer to have someone sitting next to me who did bit of charter work and has had to make a few decisions along the way.

Congrats though, I'm sure the old man is chuffed

Of course we would have also seen Daniel Swaddle on the flight deck if he had lived to see his 19th birthday.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m0b57Cz7IcA#GU5U2spHI_4

We all reach our goal by many different paths. I was lucky enough to get a cadetship. Some guys have family pay for it. Some get the BA golden ticket (not any more). Some people got 3 jobs one of which was instructing.

Firstly, this story is in the Mail, not always known for being factually correct, especially on aviation related matters.

Some people need to lose the chips off their shoulders (Flying Clara).