Completely agree with and understand everything you've said VariablePitchP, and Portos8. Thanks for all the advice!

At the moment I haven't put any money down and I'll certainly be keeping it that way for as long as possible. It would be a shame to give up the place having been going through the application process since December but I'm well aware that realistically, that's looking like a possibility. So I'm trying to stay optimistic given that the start date is November but I fully understand that even if this blows over by then, the job market could well be non-existent for years to come.

As for going modular, It's something I'm seriously considering as a back up option. I live about 10 minutes away from Stapleford and I've had a few lessons with them in past so I'm sort of familiar with the place. I would have no problem if it came to it, with going somewhere like that and taking it a bit more slowly while keeping a close eye on how things are going. And of course, save an enormous amount not just on the course but also on living costs (I'd rather not be stuck with my parents but oh well).

Financially, yes my parents are helping me out so there's a bit less risk there. But I do have a job to keep me busy and I'm just finishing up at university so will have a degree to fall back on if necessary. Even if I did end up sticking with the integrated route, I understand there could be a very long wait for a job at the end. So I've done a bit of research into potentially having to revalidate licenses etc.

So yes, just watch how things go I think. Things seem to be calming down in China now, so hopefully once the worst has past that will be the case in Europe. And quite frankly, if the worst comes to the worst, I'm happy even if I end up just flying around in a 152...

A wise move, ZC.

Lost my Loganair Assessment in November. Now Logan only want ex-Flybe or ATR rated crew.

After Monarch, Thomas Cook, Flybe and now Covid-19 the UK market is really bad and probably for many years to come. Like 6 or 7 years.

Sticking to FI work. Cancelled my AUPRT.

I appreciate your honesty, but WOW. You handed over all that money to CTC without ever hearing of a modular scheme? Shows how much research you did into the industry before you handed over (I'm guessing a six figure amount) to one of the largest glossy magazing factories around. This is why CTC/L3 continue to screw people dry 7 days a week.

Very valid point. However, to add more context, I left uni without enough money to run a car let alone get a PPL. Therefore modular was just as affordable to me as going integrated, which was just as affordable to me as starting my own space programme... Utterly impossible. I had never paid for a flying hour in my life when I started the course... £150-£200 an hour, just for fun, you’ve got be clinically insane to do that! I was literally working as a delivery driver at uni in the evenings to save enough to be able pay for the assessment fee in order to even be allowed to pay to do the course 😂

To me the idea of paying £8k for a PPL would have been an obscene use of money, so 60k modular vs 100k integrated was just irrelevant at that point.

I was quite lucky in that an airline gave me the money to do the training. The reason I went to CTC is because I had to. The fact a modular course would be 40k less was just totally irrelevant, that’s not who they would pay for. FTE and Oxford were also options but they’re essentially the same. Had it not been for the help from the airline I would never have pursued aviation as a career as there’s just no way on earth I could have even attempted to pay for it. Plenty of other fulfilling careers to do that don’t require any upfront cost. Long story short, I’d never heard of modular because why would I have done? Looking up modular schools would have been as much use as looking at scuba diving courses, the latter probably being more fun!