Airline Pilots..advice for my lad please

[silverback mike]

Thanks again folks, all messages passed on to the boy!

[AngryPartsBloke]

RAF?

[ColinM50]

AngryPartsBloke said:

RAF?

Funnily enough I was going to suggest the same. I thought a lot of commercial pilots were ex RAF and in fact we have a distant family member who joined the RAF solely so he could build the neccesary hours and ultimately retire and join the airlines. Pretty sure he chose to fly tankers and hercs solely for the long game.

[silverback mike]

He's applied to the RAF already but for some reason came across a stumbling block. I don' think, due to the cuts further aircraft are being brought into service and apparently there are lots of pilots. Not over subscription as such but they are taking literally the top 1% of everyone.

Same with the RN I believe..

[JuniorD]

silverback mike said:

He's applied to the RAF already but for some reason came across a stumbling block. I don' think, due to the cuts further aircraft are being brought into service and apparently there are lots of pilots. Not over subscription as such but they are taking literally the top 1% of everyone.

Same with the RN I believe..

No reason why your guy can't be in that top 1%. The year I got a cadetship there were 5000+ applicants for 16 places. The way I saw it was that's one place with my name on it, and 15 places for the remaining 4999 people to fight over.

Medical grounds aside, if he want's it, he'll get it.

[croyde]

As others have said, RAF, give it a go. Some real flying and try and find that Channel 4 programme about British pilots flying in Indonesia.

Almost made me want to be a pilot. I did try the BA route a few years ago but they insisted on a degree even though I was 50.

[JuniorD]

croyde said:

I did try the BA route a few years ago but they insisted on a degree even though I was 50.

[pushthebutton]

croyde said:

Almost made me want to be a pilot. I did try the BA route a few years ago but they insisted on a degree even though I was 50.

Now, nothing stands in your way:

British Airways said:

You will need:

5 GCSEs at Grade C or above, including English Language, Mathematics and a Science (single or double award), excluding General Studies.

PLUS

either 3 A-Levels at Grades BBC or above, excluding General Studies and Critical thinking.
OR an Honours Degree at 2:2 (or higher) or a pass (or above) in a higher degree such as MSc, MA, MPhil, DPhil, PhD, MBA.

[Sump]

I know some international captains. General consensus was don't bother nowadays.

[croyde]

Even though I was a girly swot, I left halfway through my A levels because I wanted to earn money and ride motorbikes

[pushthebutton]

croyde said:

Even though I was a girly swot, I left halfway through my A levels because I wanted to earn money and ride motorbikes

Go on...

Knock off a few A-Levels in the required subjects and you're away. Aren't they easy nowadays anyway? 3 A*s should take 6 months tops and then the sky's the limit. I'm looking forward to following the post.

Edited by pushthebutton on Tuesday 6th October 11:48

[pushthebutton]

Sump said:

I know some international captains. General consensus was don't bother nowadays.

I think the general consensus in most professions, from the older generations, is don't bother. I think you have to compare the job with an equivalent obtainable job in another profession.

[anonymous-user]

Sump said:

I know some international captains. General consensus was don't bother nowadays.

It's not like that in my airline. Many of the senior guys have sons who now fly or are beginning their training like the OPs son. I would recommend it to my children if they showed an interest when they got older.

[silverback mike]

Thanks Chaps, I'll keep you posted with proceedings.

That is if he doesn't cream in racing the new Rotax Kart he's hairing around on now.

[croyde]

pushthebutton said:

I think the general consensus in most professions, from the older generations, is don't bother. I think you have to compare the job with an equivalent obtainable job in another profession.

I've been shouted down when I've mentioned this before but about 10 years ago I was chatting to a BA pilot who was giving it all up to be a tube driver. Better pay and less hours he claimed.

[JuniorD]

croyde said:

pushthebutton said:

I think the general consensus in most professions, from the older generations, is don't bother. I think you have to compare the job with an equivalent obtainable job in another profession.

I've been shouted down when I've mentioned this before but about 10 years ago I was chatting to a BA pilot who was giving it all up to be a tube driver. Better pay and less hours he claimed.

Ahhh, but did self deprecating Nigel actually give up and become a tube driver?

(About 10 years ago my wife was an eye surgeon and she said to me she was going to give it up to be a pizza delivery driver so she "could get to look into other people's houses".)

Edited by JuniorD on Wednesday 7th October 13:02

[PanzerCommander]

Good on him, sounds like he knows what he wants, I’m not an airline pilot but I will chuck my 0.02p in for what its worth

Despite desperately wanting to be a pilot (military rather than civilian) my eyesight let me down for the RAF, RNAS and AAC (20/20 required for military), and deciding to listen to a careers advisor (who with hindsight hadn’t done any research at all) rather than following my dreams (then switched to commercial) I ended up in engineering, not a bad gig but all things being equal I’d rather have been dropping bombs on Tallywags or flying people/cargo to far flung destinations.

I decided this year to do my PPL and my only regret is how long it took me to get my finger out and get on with it. I may over time move towards some form of commercial flying but paying for it myself is very costly, though I quite fancy business jets rather than airlines.

I have been keeping a PPL blog Link Here on PistonHeads if you want to direct him to it so he can have a read of what’s involved in ‘simply’ getting a PPL, I’m half way through the course at the moment.

The BA FPP (if they are still running it) is a good scheme, I believe BA guarantor the loan required for the training and then when you complete the course and start working, pay off the capital (probably about £100k in total) and leave the Cadet responsible for the interest (at least that’s what it was when I looked earlier this year).

I think others advice on getting some sort of additional qualification and the life experience alongside is a good thing, but he should definitely go for it if it is what he wants and ignore the careers advisors at school/college. As other posters said, if he wants it band enough, he will get it

[silverback mike]

Thanks PC, I'll direct him to your blog. much appreciated.

[Crush]

[quote]
I think others advice on getting some sort of additional qualification and the life experience alongside is a good thing, but he should definitely go for it if it is what he wants and ignore the careers advisors at school/college. As other posters said, if he wants it band enough, he will get it
[/quote]

100% ignore school advisors, they're only interested in you going to university to improve their stats

[PanzerCommander]

Crush said:

100% ignore school advisors, they're only interested in you going to university to improve their stats

Yep, he looked at me like I was insane when I said university was of no interest to me.