Before I was a pilot...

[Gordy]

Summer jobs during school included: chicken catcher and inoculator on a chicken farm, factory worker making pork pies, boxing bulbs for a garden distributor.

Then worked as a laborer for the military in Germany for year and half waiting to join the RAF. AEoP on Nimrods for 8 years, then left to train civilian for helicopters.

[Impress to inflate]

Ok, I'll play them as well

Picking stones out of fields and general farm duties(14-17)
Lifeguard, part time(18)
Outdoor education, bush craft instructor and estate maintenance(18-19)
Life support technician and gasman in north sea dive industry(20-25)
Dustman and truck driver (20-25) when not offshore
Borrowed a sh&t load and then learnt to fly (25 to today !)

[inmate]

Its been a long time

Paper boy
Buchers Helper in a Plymouth market.
RAF BE Airframes
Airwork Plymouth Airport Airframe/Engine mech.
RAF Bassingbourne "
BAC Filton/Fairford Concorde101 Flt Test Insp.

BAC had an agreement with Bristol and Wessex flying club which included 60% off flying lesson for a PPL (A)
45 yrs later and the rest is history.

[topendtorque]

my mum insisted I learn the piano, after the fifth year of that i quit, now flat out playing god save the queen with one hand so no need to purchase brothel sneakers in later life.
Farm duties, pulling cows tits, picking up sticks, round and round dragging ploughs and dreaming of flying etc until after school then cut down many trees, logging, splitting posts to spend it all on learning to fly f/w. Headed further and further north and west. Ended up with a rather exiting job of running a large stock camp in the NT for Bryce killen of Airfast fame where i saw my first helicopter. that was it.
PHL in Adelaide with Buck Ryan in 1974, couldn't even afford a taxi fare off the plane home (I suspect buck's mentoring in drinking activities had a bit to do with that) a few years heli-mustering, then, CHL Long Beach late '79 only cost six grand but - say again the taxi bit as above - been low level and low on cash ever since.

[Soave_Pilot]

Busboy
Waiter
Bartender
Roofer
Painter
Car salesman

Had 2 jobs most of the time in order to pay for training

[Bertie Thruster]

By age 23 I had completed my training as a graduate microbiologist.

Could not bring myself to apply for any related jobs.

I signed up as a private soldier in the British Army.

5 years later (35 years ago) I climbed into a Bell 47 for my first lesson on the Army Pilots Course..........

[Fortyodd2]

First paid job while still at school was planting lettuces at a local market garden. From there, moved onto a building site as a general gofer and then delivering cakes to shops in the days before they became supermarkets.
Joined the Army as an Armourer in '76 and saw the half the world before applying for pilot training with the AAC in the hope of seeing a bit more of it from a different view. Aircrewman from '88 and started the pilot's course in '91.

[Thorond0r]

Pizza delivery then post man, both with italian scooters. Now I deliver humans with an Italian bird so I guess it's all about having a machine in my hands and keeping true to my pizza loving habits. Never thought about this pattern before

[FYR]

Navigator on containerships

[Flying Foxhunter]

Petroleum Geologist ....... desperate to sit at the front rather than the back on those long trips out to the rigs in the North sea, UK, Danish and Dutch Sectors, offshore Italy, onshore Sudan


Then a consulting Engineering Geologists


Five helicopters later FI(H) CPL (H) etc etc

[21lefthand]

If only someone had told me about helicopters earlier then I wouldn't be still doing my before being a pilot job

[soggyboxers]

I worked part time as a laboratory technician at Wandsworth gas works, then became an analytical chemist for Brett Yarsley Services in Leatherhead. I was in the TA and wanted to join the army, but then my father showed me an advertisement in the Sunday Times colour supplement for people to join the Royal Marines and learn to fly. 2 months later I swore my oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth at Deal and began the path to becoming a helicopter pilot - best thing I ever did.
Sadly under EASA I am deemed to old to fly commercially any more but am lucky enough to still be involved in aviation in Tanzania.