iranian in the uk , where to start?
 

Hi
I am a 31 year old iranian male and been living in the uk since 2011 Running my own business which I sold it a few months ago and now I want to fulfil my childhood dream and become a commercial airline pilot.
I know a lot of people from the UK do their training in other European countries because of better weather and cheaper fees but unfortunately that is not an option for me because I don't have a British passport , I only have my iranian passport plus uk residence card which means I can live , work and study in the UK but if I want to travel to other countries I will need a visa which narrows down my options in terms of which school to choose .
I came across FTA Global in shoreham near Brighton and they seem like nice people , they do the whole training in the uk which suits my needs .
they offer modular and integrated training .
I wanted to ask your advice , would be great to know if anyone had experience with FTA Global and whether you would recommend them or not ?
also would like to know if I should choose the modular or integrated course ?
if modular how should I go about it and where to start ?
fortunately I don't have any problem In terms of finance at the moment and have funds ready even for the integrated course but I don't mind saving my hard earned cash if at all possible by choosing modular .

any advice would be highly appreciated .

In my opinion FTA are nice people, as you say. Whether you should gve them your money or not is another question. Most would say stay away from expensive integrated training and go modular for the reasons of cost, and because you can control your training path more. A quick look at FTA's website suggests they would charge about £65K for a series of modular courses. In my opinion this is far too much and typical of the 'modular offering' that schools that pre-covid only offered integrated training have put together to try and attract business. You should be able to sort a series of modular courses for considerably less than £50K. You may decide to pay the extra £15K for the convenience of having only one training provider - but that is up to you. In summary, I have never heard any bad reviews of FTA, but they may overcharge you compared to what you could buy elsewhere.

Hi and thanks for your reply .
I have done a lot of research and thought about it a lot .
I have got to be honest with myself , I am not too old but not that young either so I prefer to do it the quickest way. Also knowing the person I am , I'm scared by choosing modular I might take my time to finish each stage of the training or even get distracted and not finish it at all and just stay in my comfort zone which is a place I can not afford to be in at the moment .

So I said to myself what is the point in trying to save money then risk wasting whatever money and time I spend on the modular course without even finishing it or at least finishing at a reasonable time.

I know the pressure of integrated will bring the best out of me and also the guilt of spending the money will push me to do all my best to hopefully pass all exams first time and with good scores .

And as I mentioned in my previous post I have to choose a school that does the entire training in the UK , FTA ticks all the boxes for me so I have decided to go with FTA's integrated course starting in September.

Yes £90k is a lot of money but luckily I have the cash ready which is more than half of my life saving and fortunately I have a stable source of monthly income as well which help me to completely focus on my training without having to worry about finance while I am studying and training .

Good for you, I hope you enjoy it. Shoreham is very nice and FTA have a good reputation

Advice for Brit becoming Airline Pilot in USA
 

I am at the beginning of my journey and conducting as much research as I can. I have 0 flying hours.

I am 25, live in the UK, have £15k savings and potentially further finance available from family. I have 2 goals:
1. To become a Commercial Airline Pilot
2. To emigrate to the USA

Considering my goals what course of action seems to be the best (bearing in mind money is tight):
a) Train for FAA License in the US, then apply for work permit/residence.
b) Train for FAA License in Europe, then apply for US work permit/residence.
c) Train for EASA in Europe, get some experience here, then apply for US work permit/residence + License conversion.
d) Train for EASA in US, get some experience in Europe, then apply for US work permit/residence + License conversion.
e) Another route

Thanks in advance, any other advice or experience you feel would be valuable is greatly appreciated.

Go to the USA, train there for FAA and EASA, marry an American (solves work permit issues) and live your dream.

Advice for Brit becoming Airline Pilot in USA.
 

Unfortunately this one for the crysyal ball, frankly trying to give advice to answer your question is in my estimation impossible.15000 is not gonna go anywhere on the U.S.
please dont forget that COVIT 19 HAS DECMZIMATED the U.S. airline industry.,there pilote taking any jobs just to get by and furlougbed guys literally dont see any light at the end of the tunnel,it is estimated that could be up to 5 years for pilot employment to pick up. Also dont forget allnthe highly guys with years of experience on all types of military aircraft all plesding to get hired.
unfortunately the cuture is bleak.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but those are the stark facts.also dont forget all the guys coming outa flight school and there will literally be thousands and thousands with Ll the qualifications looking for jobsp.
my aologies for being long winded i.m outa Chicago and get all the news.
Best of luck to you,l but pls be carefull.

1. As I understand it getting a work permit on the basis of being a British citizen wanting to be an airline pilot in the US, pre-Covid was difficult enough...it certainly wasn't something that many people managed to achieve. KARNAK66 has explained why getting a work permit now or in the foreseeable future is going to be mighty mighty tough.. eckhard's solution isn't that far fetched...

2. Even getting experience in mainland Europe (specifically one of the EU states) now we are post Brexit could be difficult unless you have the right to live and work in the EU.

3. In the short term you might want to look at UK/CAA/EASA options in the short term whilst the fallout from Covid manifests itself and we get some idea how/when recruitment anywhere is going to pick up.

Advice for Brit becoming Airline pilot in USA.
 

PS one last piece of advice, there is not a FLIGHT SCHOOL IN THE WORLD THAT CAN GUARANTEE YOU A JOB WITH THE AiRLINES THAT IS HOT AIR,
its the Almighty Dollar they are after.

Interesting to hear, I was under the impression, from various different things I'd read/watched, that there was a bit of a pilot shortage?

As far as the current (COVID) situation goes, I wouldn't be qualified with enough flying hours for 2 - 5+ years, by which point I was hopeful that demand would be closer to pre-covid levels. I am very competitive and motivated so would be willing to do whatever it takes to land a job, even if it involved working in an unappealing job for some time to gain experience.

wiggy

Your timeline on hiring is way off. United is now interviewing for pilots to start in May. Delta just posted a training entitlement that will leave them 350 pilots short and is expected to start interviews late summer. They have notified all conditional job offer pilots who never started to expect June or July class starts. Frontier is currently hiring and Sprit is expected to start soon.

Ref: KARNAK 66 and Sailvi767 - usual story, ask two people and get five answers ! Best of luck.

My only experience, and not relevant now of course, was - married to an American, and holding two foreign ATPL's and I.R's ( one UK ) with over 20,000 hours airline experience and wanting to fly after retirement, was to be only granted a CPL stamped " Not for hire or reward " . That did of course allow me to fly recreationally, anything else would have taken a lot of time, and money. I would take eckhard's advice, with the addendum - marry a rich American.

Best of luck, best job in the World.

Go to Vegas and marry the first drunk granny. The slope goes down hill from there. Might as well get flight training paid for.

15000 will get you a Private + living expenses.
Thats it.
You’re looking at $65k-$75k in training cost alone.
$85k-$90k after living expenses and tickets and such.
Do Not and I repeat DO NOT put this burden on your family.
Its your dream and not theirs.
It’s not fair to draw them into something that they have no clue about.
In any case there is no such thing as a work permit for a pilot.
You have two major problems, no work permit and no money.
That’s not magically going to fix itself.

Interesting, that's good news, thanks, though I guess it might not help the OP.

Learning to fly in the US is a great idea, and you can get all the training done for less than £30k. The problem is you cannot just emigrate to the US. It is effectively impossible for a UK citizen. You will basically need to get married to a US citizen to stand a chance.

non EU citizen low hour pilot find a job?
 

Greetings! I'm an aspiring wannabe pilot from Morocco! I posses a vehement ardour for flight, and It hurts me to think I have a very slim chance of becoming one. I don't have an EU citizenship; and I was looking through the low hour FO job requirements for multiple airlines, they all request the unrestricted right to live and work in the EU... For reference, I still haven't started my training; and I'm willing to get a frozen ATPL when the skies are friendlier. I heard Wizz Air used to employ international low hour pilots, but looking in their website; it seems they changed it, Any ideas or workarounds for my drawback? maybe getting a work visa or something alike? Please let me know, thanks in advance.

No EU citizenship no party.

That's pretty depressing, might as well be a simulator pilot the rest of my life :}. Do all low hour opportunities require an EU citizenship? If so it's pretty much impossible for me to become a pilot :( even American airlines require citizenships... Maybe middle eastern airlines? But they need a high amount of experience no? I'm in an endless maze...

Why not Moroccan airlines? :)