F/O on a 737 at just 19
 

Is this a record? Can't be many 19 year old who made it to the flight deck of a 737!

From the UK Daily Mail
Britain's teenage airline pilot: Meet the 19-year-old who flies holiday jets to the sun


At the age of 19, Ed Gardner wasn't old enough to drive a bus, and in most countries he would have been too young to hire a car.

Yet, despite his youth, he was cleared to take the controls of a Boeing 737 and for the past three months has been flying tourists off on their holidays.

Mr Gardner, who turned 20 in December, is thought to be the youngest passenger pilot in the country.

He received his commercial licence on October 5 while still a teenager. Within a day he had started work with Stansted-based charter firm, Titan Airways.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/grap...nplanes114.jpg

Since then he has been sharing the cockpit with his father, Bob, 55, who is an experienced airline captain.

Mr Gardner, who comes from Stebbing near Stansted in Essex and who started flying at 14, said: "My dad never pushed for me to become a pilot but as soon as I said I wanted to do it he was pleased.

"He put up the money to do it and I'm paying him back. He's been very helpful. I flew solo at 16 and got my private pilot's licence on my 17th birthday."

He has passed a number of exams including instrument training and instruction on flying a Boeing 737, which holds up to 200 passengers.

Mr Gardner was so keen on flying he was able to pilot a plane before he had even started learning to drive a car.

After studying A-levels at the Helena Romanes School in Dunmow he went to the Metropolitan University in London for his air transport pilot's licence written exams, passing first time.

He then went on to Stapleford Flight Centre for instrument rating, another pilot's training course and then Boeing 737 training.

His first job with Titan Airways was flying mail between Stansted and Exeter. The first passenger flight he piloted was to Rostock in Germany.

Mr Gardner said: "I was excited but you don't really get to interact with the passengers.

"As first officer you do pretty much the same as the captain except you can't taxi on the runway.

"Of course the captain is in charge overall but if they fly to Malaga, you fly the plane back, for example."

He said he had not told his passengers how young he was.

Mr Gardner, who now flies regularly to Europe and Africa, said simply about the way his career had taken off: "I think I just came along at the right time." As for his father, he added: "I think he's very proud."

Rob Giles, 737 fleet manager for Titan Airways, said Mr Gardner was the youngest commercial pilot he had hear of.

"It is not without precedent at 21 or 22 but most people do something else and then come to flying so they tend to be older," he said.

"But there is no reason why a teenager shouldn't be able to do the job. Ed is a very competent pilot and ticked all the boxes. It's good getting youngsters into the company - we need some new blood."

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said that although it was possible for a 19-year-old to fly a passenger jet, they would not usually be given the chance to do so until they were a few years older.

The authority's records show that no teenagers were given the right to carry passengers in the years 2004 and 2005. Pilots need to be at least 18 to hold a commercial licence.

Way to go FO Ed Gardner :ok:

B757 at 19
 

I know somebody who flew B757 at 19 a few years ago!! His old war story was that he flew to MCO as F/O and was not allowed to the bar for beers with the crew so the girls left him in the car park with a bottle of coke and a packet of ready salted!!!

Well done to Ed, keep up the good work.

elac2

I think you will find that BA had at least one FO trained by British Aerospace, Prestwick in the early 1990s' was line checked aged 19.
:)

As a frequent traveller, I am much more impressed by the chap holding an ATPL than being 19:ok:

If they have the required knowledge, skills and experience, then give them the opportunity, I say.

A commendable achievement. I flew with a guy who had been an FO with Monarch at nineteen. The only problem with this is the risk of getting bored with the job early on. Imagine flying commercially for 46 years!

First Officer at 19 - well done!
 

However, without wishing to detract at all from his magnificent performance one of my former Royal Air Force colleagues flew Lancasters in the last war - you know 600 miles out and 600 back at night being shot at from the ground and shot at by night fighters , night after night- and suddenly realised that the average age of his crew was 19 yrs 5 months! He was 20 yrs 6 months as pilot in command - and the Lanc only had one pilot. Ah well - thank goodness those days are over.

The comparison with Lancasters is interesting but they were expected to get shot down and/or killed every handful of flights. In the airline business, that tends to disrupt schedules.

Just a q's out of the blue...

Does Titan hire 0 (zero) TT on type? If anyone has the knowledge he/she should be given the chance, but having dad on the LHS helps a lot...:E

Still, congrats Ed!

DK :ok:

"As first officer you do pretty much the same as the captain except you can't taxi on the runway". (quoting Phil)

Sh!t at 19 he's already one of these guys thinking there's not much differences between left and right seat!!:ugh::sad:...hope experience and white hairs will bring wisdom!:rolleyes:

Robert Sidney Bowen - Fighter pilot and ace in WW I at 14 years of age.... :ooh:

I can't congratulate him as he has only done what the rest of us have done, except that his father has funded it all and got him a job - yes that quite an achievement!!!!

Yawn!! What is the problem with a parent investing in their childs future. I bet yours gave you best part of 18 years free board and lodging.

BTW Ed - congratulations.

If only my old man had paid my flying/living costs, and got me a job with his airline.. ummm.. I would have been 18!

Mat Finish
never a shiny moment..:suspect:

I always query the motive of people that go to press about their achievements in this fashion.

I along with a handful of other people have been airline pilots on jets since 19, yet have not had the compulsion or desire to chase after the newspapers to tell my story. It's all circumstantial to whether you start your training at 17 or 40. I luckily had support from my parents to help back up loans etc...but why is that any greater achievement than working for 10years, funding your own training, as the financial backing, and in this case contacts (daddy fleet manager) weren't there.

It all strikes me as a bit desperate.

Robert Sidney Bowen is not listed in theaerodrome.com/aces

You presuppose that the family approached the press. You cannot know that.

Not sure if this should be copied to the military forum. A colleague of mine in the 1980's made it to First Officer on the VC10 at Brize Norton as a 19 year old Pilot Officer. Last heard of as station commander at RAF Lyneham. Way to go Piggy!

If I am not mistaken, BA (or even BEA) years ago, when they used to do all the training themselves, would take cadets at age 18, and there were therefore a number of FOs on the old fleet then who were FOs on Viscounts, One-Elevens etc by age 19.

so when did Titan advertise vacancies???

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).