Leaving that well paid job to fly
 

I've spent the past twelve months on this forum, have visited flying schools, been to Flight Training exhibitions and started a PPL. I've wanted to be an airline pilot since the age of 5 (I'm now 33) and today I put my hand up for severence from my unfulfilling but well paid IT job! It feels like the most sane and yet insane thing I've ever done!. .. .I feel excited and terrified at the same time!! I know that I am following in the footsteps of many of you and I guess I'd appreciate knowing how those of you who have given up the security of an office desk feel about it in retrospect. My main fear is that I may do this and not get a pilot job. There have been a few posts over the months which have worried me which indicated that the FTO's are a bunch of charlatans selling a dream to thousands which will only be achieved by a few. . .. .I know I love flying - it's in my bones and always has been, I know there are no guarantees but I can't help feeling that at 25 I had less to lose than I have now. The other issue is that I already work for an airline and so have spent ten years comforting myself with the fact that 'at least I am in the industry' and can ride juimpseats etc relatively easily but in many ways that has only made the passion to fly even more intense.. .. .Are you still glad you made a similar decision?. .. .Desk-pilot

Des. .. .You've made the right decision. Life is too short to just keep day-dreaming.. . <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="cool.gif" /> . .. . <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="cool.gif" /> . .. . <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="cool.gif" />

Hi Desk-Pilot, I suspect the consensus will be "go for it"! . .I think there are many people in your position, I am one, now 28 and also in IT AND also thinking of going for my CPL! From what I have seen it is a common occurence, many like me have tried and failed to get sponsorship a few years back, never dreaming of being able to afford to PAY for all that training!! I have only recently realised that is is more affordable than it seemed when I was a poor student.. .The best of luck to you! The only advice I am qualified to give would be to not set your heart on flying a Boeing for the majors, at least to start with. As long as you are happy doing something more modest and not very well paid you chances are not bad. Then anything more is a bonus.. .By the way, I would be interested in any training decisions you have made.

Mate - an office desk aint no security - it's a prison.. .. .Go for it

You never want to look back on your life and think.. I WISH I HAD DONE THAT. .. .I have just done the same and starting the ATPLs in September, I am scared to death of debt and lack of a job, but then i do not like the thought of my office being my home till i die !. .. .GO FOR IT

Guys,. .. .Many thanks for the words of encouragement - it's great to know that we are all in this together.. .. .Billy fish - My preferred option is Oxford mainly because my wife works at Heathrow and so I hope to trade our house for something smaller within commuting distance of Oxford for me and Heathrow for her. Prices are pretty high in that part of the world but we're looking. I'm booked on the Cabair open day because that's a contender too. I have ruled out Jerez, Michigan and KLM because to attend any of those would mean living away for well over a year and I think I'm asking enough of my wife already!. .. .Where are you guys going?. .. .Desk-pilot - but hopefully not for much longer!

I quit my desk in Feb 1999. Best move I ever made. My life now is incomparably better than if I had stuck with the safe option.. .. .Good luck,. .. .WWW

DP. .. .Cabair and Oxford are very similar, although I suspect Cabair is slightly worse (was when I was there). But it's pretty much of a muchness they all have to teach to the same standards and comply to JAR reg's. anyway.. .. .Good luck to you and keep the blue bit up.. .. .PS Just realised DP means something else too.

Hello,. .. .I'm curious. This thread is about leaving the desk job to go for the ATPL. Are there many out there who did both together? Fly at weekends, summer evenings etc... Do the exams via distance learning or whatever? AND keep your well paid desk job.. .. .Or are the ATPLs just to demanding to do both in any reasonable time frame? . .. .Cheers,. .. .PPL172

Never done a desk job. In fact, never had a 9 to 5 of any description. Can't see why anyone would want to do one in the first place <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> . .Well done on joining the real world <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="cool.gif" />

Early in my career I had to do AFIS work due to lack of flying jobs. Later, I took a year off from flying to work behind a desk. Aviation related work, but funny enough, after a year it started to itch, and you just have to find a simulator and get current again. . .. .I guess it`s like this. When you`ve made your decision to become an aviator, you just have to maintain heading and no 180° turn. Later, like some thousand hours later, it does not harm to do something else. It helps you from not getting a tunnel-vision.

I know exactly where you are coming from, I quit my desk job last year, terrifying yes, but I think it will be the best thing you ever did!. .. .Go for it.

Quit a safe and reasonably well-paid job in manufacturing management.. .. .Bashing away at those ATPL's, but wake up with 1000% more enthusiasm for the day, and the future for that matter - whatever it might hold - than I ever did ensuring we made our monthly target for gizmo production.. .. .Downside is I now make my own coffee and had to swap company Vauxhall Omega 3.0 for a jalopy and consequently can't drive round at 135mph.. .. .Upside is salvation and looking forward to my next company 'vehicle' being far faster.... . . . <small>[ 20 March 2002, 19:21: Message edited by: Gin Slinger ]</small>

yes PPL 72 I did all my studies and flying whilst still holding down a job. I was QFI at weekends and slowly built up the hours. You can have the best of both worlds but the hours go up slower.

Good move, well done.. .. .You will not regret it if you 'stay the course', and I mean all the way to your first job, remain realistic, dedicated, devoted and just keep plodding on in the face of adversity. Starting off by reading Wannabes is a good first move, you'll hear the same encouragement and warnings to all who start out on this path.. .. .Good luck.. .. .PP

hope you did the right decision.. .do you know your job prospects are almost nihil at the moment ? . .just inform yourselves

Well done Desk-pilot. Go for it.. .I made the same decision recently to give up the planet and do the only thing that had been nagging me since I was a kid.. .It took 4 months of planning and asking questions before I finally told my wife and kids.......only just managed to hold on to the wedding ring....she, like everyone else thought I had lost my head completely.. .Anyway, I managed to sweet-talk them all round and before you know it, we had sold our house, sold our car and plunged everything we owned into this little venture.. .We are now living in a rented house and I drive an old BT escort van which I managed to scrounge for free but life is absolutely fantastic.. .There is still a long way to go, I've got the PPL, am upto 100hrs and rising rapidly and currently doing my ATPL distance learning with Bristol. When I'm not revising I'm flying.. .Keep going D-p, theres a lot of people and situations out there that can put you off so very easily. You just have to keep moving forward.

Left the desk job in June 2001 after 2.5 years of flying part-time, getting as far towards the frozen ATPL as I could while still working.. .. .Did the CPL and IR full time over the summer of 2001. I have very fond memories of those times.. .. .Passed my IR (first time!) on Sepetmeber 9th and got it issued on September 12th.. .. .Did an MCC then started an Instructors Rating but ran out of money half way through. It's academic anyway, as instructors jobs are nigh-impossible to get at the moment.. .. .I'm now back in a desk job waiting for things to improve.. .. .My moral? Never burn bridges, stay realistic and never say never:) Bills don't pay themselves..... .. .cheers!. .foggy.

I'll go along with ppl172,. .. .Don't see what the big deal of leaving a job is all about. Did my ATPL's part time 4hrs/night + weekends for nine months. I was certainly one of the slow ones as plenty others overtook me doing it the same way. Did 20 odd hours weekend CPL flying course + briefings. . .. .Only IR to go and could do this full time over a months holiday (or so) at Bristol, Oxford or Jerez if I wanted to name drop on my CV. But I can meet the same qualification standard doing a part time course for 1/3 the cost and no loss of earnings.. .. .Don't see the logic in throwing away one year of IT pay and 35K+ to do a full time course and cover myself for travel & expenses etc. So what's that work out to be a total loss of 70K, probably 100K (before tax) at the end of the day depending on the IT position. It is possible to have a (secure?) well paid job and achieve your flying dream at the same time.. .. .Sounds more like a lifestyle make or break decision without fully testing the water. Who knows you may not like the pressure and lifestyle of the airline job at the end of the course (although I very much doubt it).. .. .Anyway best of luck and enjoy the year out.

Go for it!!!!!. .. .Well said Scroggs. Same here, never done a 9 to 5 office job - the idea of ever losing my licence fills me with horror. Commuting same time every day??? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" /> ,not a chance. And every time I fly I just love it, even 6 days on..... .. .Not always been easy- I've lived in a Ford Fiesta. .for 3 months when I ran out of cash (1990 was not a good year to try and get a flying job, especially when Saddam invaded Kuwait 5 days after I got my UK CPL/IR issued). But the hardship was more than worth it as I now get to strap an airliner to my backside regularly <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" />