British living in France, best 0 - FO training route
 

Hi,

So yeah I am a 22 year old British person living in France. I have a French "Titre de sejour" aka residence permit, however this only gives me the ability to live in France, not the rest of the EU.

My late Dad, who we sadly lost back in November, was a pilot his whole life, who was lucky enough to get free training from BA back in the late 60s. I have always loved flying, and having both my parents and all their friends having worked in the industry for many many years, have always been surrounded by the people that work there. After having done a degree in Audio Production (I know, what was I thinking haha). I have decided I want to go back to my dream, and continue my Dads legacy of being a pilot (was known as Biggles if anybody here was in BA 20+ years ago).

So I was thinking of going to CAE or L3, but after having heard the lack of job opportunities, and the incredible costs of an iATPL or the Generation EasyJet program, I dont think that is such a good idea anymore, although I still might do the virtual assessments anyway). Considering my right to live in either France or the UK, what would you believe the best route to be? Doing an EASA ATPL event though my only right for EU work is in France, can somebody like BA or EasyJet employ me with an EASA license on a French base? I dont really know how that side of it works. Other options is to do a UK CAA ATPL, but then that is limiting me to the UK, and the crazy expensive flying schools.

I also saw that you can do an EASA integrated course over in the states, and then come back to Europe and get everything converted for something around 60k USD, is that another viable option?

The modular ATPL seems like a much cheaper option, but very complicated and slow (especially considering where I live in the middle of the countryside). I am at a loss as to what to do, and would love your opinion and thoughts.

If its of any help, I am currently in the process of restarting my EASA SPL ( Sailplane Pilots License)


I know there are lots of posts like this, but given my unique situation I thought it best to ask,

Cheers,

Will

Start by doing some research. A lot of research... MPL is the most expensive option.

my mistake, I meant to write modular pilots license, was late in the Night Shift at that point

Probably knew your dad as at hamble 1970. I would suggest that you train at st Rémy en Provence..Romani..I’ve flown from most of the gliding sites in the region and they have a second to none set up.
Go there with the express mentality of becoming a glider pilot ..you will learn skills that you won’t learn driving heavy metal.
Keep it quiet as to what you eventually want to do.
Muck in especially with maintenance.
good luck and have fun

That'll be the modular CPL then. Realistically you have to treat it as though you live in the UK - that's where your initial career goals should be. Being allowed to live and work in only one EASA state is extremely limiting so 95% of work available to you will be in the UK. By all means study for EASA exams as well, but you'll need a CAA license.

Try to get out of the mindset that you live in the countryside - you won't. A pilot goes where the work is so if you want to continue living where you do then give up on the dream right now.

Other than that your next step is to get a CAA class one medical then some kind of PPL - British, French, US - it doesn't matter which. That is the starting point of a frozen ATPL.

I dont live too far away from there, but have my own gliding club I use, they're aware I eventually want to get a PPL but that's it, great part of the world to do it, they said I can grease monkey for some free hours so no complaints from me!

Thanks for the input!

Don't worry definitely dontt want to live in the countryside any longer, I just happened to grow up here.

I was planning on doing my class 1 here in france, would that be ok for now, or is it imperative to have a UK class 1?