Becoming a pilot

Right, first of all. Military or civillian? Next question. Army, RAF, Navy or Airline or private company. Then I can help.

Reply 3

nnppaa

If it is an airline pilot, you are talking about then it is extremely competetive to be one......

you could start by training for a PPL (Private Pilots Licence) at about £4,000 which is the basic thing whereby you can only fly small single prop planes- like the small 2 seater ones....... then theres lots of other licences you could obtain aswell for even more money

you then do the ATPL licence which costs another bomb......... you could then join an ailine training scheme sponsorship thing which costs around £60,000

you have to pay loads and takes ages and theres an extremely low number of places available.... After that you may get hired by an airline.

You need very good A-Levels, such as Maths, physics and english, and maybe a university degree

Depending on the airline you could be starting on around 25-40k, and earning up to 120k after loads of years

I'm sure someone else can give you a better insight into it all!

Reply 4

flipflop2

Look here, all the good info:

http://www.connexions.gov.uk/jobs4u/summary.cfm?id=635

The basic salary starts at around £30,000; a captain earns up to £70,000.

Pilot training costs over £50,000, but under sponsored training schemes an airline pays all or part of this

Reply 5

fredwad

K, i have a friend who got into the RAF as a pilot a year or so ago, and trust me its mega tough to get into. Best thing is to join your local RAF Cadets and get some contacts, this will help hugely in your application.

In terms of A-Levels they arnt massively picky as i am aware. 3 A2s is fine, my friend did P.E. English and Maths and iirc got 3 Bs. So in academic aspects its not impossible to get into.

However you do have to pass numerous apptitude tests, sleep deprivation and G force tests. This is where being in the Cadets would really help. They help you prepare most of it.

If you get in you have officers training for about 8-12 weeks, and after that anything could happen. Although you can if you wish go to Uni and get the RAF to pay for you.

Reply 6

trev

Motherless Child

How does one become a pilot? it's not as if there are A Levels in it. Would any particular A Levels help it?

What sort of salary?

Cheers.

Motherless Child

A-level Maths and Physics would be a good choice. Further maths might be useful though, and might be an advantage too. The salary has been mentioned by the people in this thread already.

Reply 7

You do not need any specific school qualifications. Physics and Maths are useful as they will help you pass some of the flying exams alhtough its not essential. There are several routes open to become a commercial pilot although it is amazingly competative. As was mentioned earlier the first step is a PPL(a). However youll need several more qualifications such as night ratings, multi ratings, jet training, ATPL, CPL and all those other really fuun things.

Denpending on your financial situation can do different things. Many people get thier PPL by themselfs which costs around £4500-£5000 (i dont know of anywhere in the UK that charges only £4000 as mentioned earlier). However another popular route is to go through the military. The Navy and the RAF wil train you up to a very high standard and after serving your time (i think its about 5 years) you can leave with most of the qualifications you need to fly commercailly.

You could of course pay for all your qualifications yourself but that will need about £65000 if youre doing it over here. In the US you can get british qualifications for about 2/3 of the pricee and in Australia for about half the british prices. So theres another option

Finally you can apply for sponsership. However this really is like winning the lottery. Thousands of people write to airlines every year saying that "they wanna be an airline pilot" and some do get accepted. However most get turned down. If youre lucky enough to get accepted then the airline will pay for all your training and then give you a job at the end of it.

The main key is persistance. I know people who have been applying to airlines every month for 10 years and one of them (out of three) has just got a job with FlyBe. However i sugggest that before you through any money at this you go to your local optitions and have a colour blindness check. Its only £10 or something but if you find you are colour blind then you will not be allowed to fly commercaily. There have been people who have spent thousands on training and then discovered they are colour blind and so have not been allowed to fly commercailly. (Although i think you can still fly privatly)

In my opinion you should find a nearby flying school (preferably a failry large one) and talk to the people there. Youll get far better information than i can give you and theyll probably know of a few more routes. Also get yourself a trial flight and see if you like it. FOr about £100 you can have an hour of for about £60 you can usually have 20 mins flying a plaane. Then youll see if you really like it and if you ctch the bug

Good luck

Reply 8

Salary from what I've read is poor to average, but I don't know how true that is.

Salary is not poor to average. Its amazing! Most will start at £20,000 to £30,000 and if you get to training captian (the highest position whilst still flying) you earn over £100,000 with many airlines

Reply 9

flipflop2

That's massively out of date. Airline flying, thanks to a recent but continuing erosion of terms and conditions, is no longer the wonderful world of milk and honey it once was.

As a Second Officer for RyanAir under training you earn £8600 a year. This is likely to fall in future years. During times of line training they don't pay you at all. BA's management is now so massively skewed that working for them is a nightmare. The basic salary is realistically 20-30k, but time to command is approaching 20 years in BA, and that's a long time to unlock the higher Captain salaries; and will you still want them when they incorporate bad terms, poor pensions, horrible working practice, and worse hours than before?

Sponsorship for now is a dead duck. There're a few "sponsorship" schemes involving the airline paying for your type or line training, but you have to provide them with a frozen ATPL, sign up for a long contract, and then accept a massively reduced salary while you repay your "loan" to them.

It is not an easy job to get into, to keep, to enjoy, or to profit from. Look at the "interviews, sponsorships and jobs" forum on www.pprune.org, and see for yourself.

Reply 10

fredwad

K, i have a friend who got into the RAF as a pilot a year or so ago, and trust me its mega tough to get into. Best thing is to join your local RAF Cadets and get some contacts, this will help hugely in your application.

However you do have to pass numerous apptitude tests, sleep deprivation and G force tests. This is where being in the Cadets would really help. They help you prepare most of it.

If you get in you have officers training for about 8-12 weeks, and after that anything could happen. Although you can if you wish go to Uni and get the RAF to pay for you.

You will not get "contacts" through cadets. You will gain some useful knowledge and skills. There is no sleep deprivation until a certain, unmentioned training course on the front line. There is no G force testing until approaching fast jet tactics and weapons training, and then only for certain candidates going to a certain course.

Officer training is 24 weeks, increasing late this year to 32.

Please, please check your facts before you offer advice!

Reply 11

flyboy123

The Navy and the RAF wil train you up to a very high standard and after serving your time (i think its about 5 years) you can leave with most of the qualifications you need to fly commercailly.

Finally you can apply for sponsership. However this really is like winning the lottery. Thousands of people write to airlines every year saying that "they wanna be an airline pilot" and some do get accepted. However most get turned down. If youre lucky enough to get accepted then the airline will pay for all your training and then give you a job at the end of it.

I would suggest that one of the first steps in being a commercial pilot is learning to spell commercially.

You have to remain an aviator in the forces for 12 years. Again, check your facts! "Most of the qualifications?" The forces give you none; you'll leave with nothing over ability and hours.

Full sponsorship no longer exists. Part sponsorship does, but it's not exactly a golden-egg-laying goose; read the small print. You'll be paying anything back several times over.

Reply 12

flyboy123

.... perhaps you might like a peek at RyanAir's payscales... a grand total of £3000 earned in the first 6 months? £8600pa initially? Massive reliance on sector pay to build salaries....?

Do you work for MOL??

Reply 13

Well lots of people that i know, some family and some freinds are ailrine pilots and although ryanair (who are a low budget airline) may pay that (although i doubt it) most ailines pay a LOT more

Reply 14

flyboy123

The Navy and the RAF wil train you up to a very high standard and after serving your time (i think its about 5 years) you can leave with most of the qualifications you need to fly commercailly.

utter utter rubbish. As Wzz said, check your facts before you offer advice. The competition to get Pilot in the forces is one of the most competitive jobs you can get. It is a lot harder than applying for an Airline position. You have to go through 4 days of selection, IOT, EFT, BFJT, AFJT, etc etc. Then you cannot simply 'sign off' after 5 years. The training alone takes that long. Joining up simply to get trained how to fly is idiotic and offering that as advice is ludicrous.

Reply 15

flyboy123

Well lots of people that i know, some family and some freinds are ailrine pilots and although ryanair (who are a low budget airline) may pay that (although i doubt it) most ailines pay a LOT more

Althought you doubt it? Wzz is a pilot. You may doubt it, but at the end of the day it is a fact. So again, don't offer advice unless you know what it is you are talking about. So your family and friends are pilots, great. I don't know anyone that goes spouting off to their mates about their financial packages for a job.

Reply 16

Ok im sorry i may well have got the amount of years that you have to stay with the RAF wrong. I did say that was what i thought and i admit it was just a random idea i had which apparently is wrong so i am sorry but you will leave with some qualifications.

As youre so intent on peopl e doing reserch i have done some. And have discovered that your example of Ryanair is a very biased one. They are the lowest paying airline which is why they can have such cheap tickets. Apparently they have even had court sessions about thier pay and the fact that they are patronised and never paid overtime. (dont say that im an idiot if this is wrong but this is what other information says). If you want to use extemme facts then ill start posting Cathays salaries ok?

Are you really a pilot Wzz? if so where did you train? and also who do you work for? Im a fair way on the way to becoming one hopefully going through sponsership (yes i know its rare but i know people who have done it and i think im as good as them)

Also im amazed at how much youre slagging of the aviation industry considering you work in it. Dont you enjoy flying?

Reply 17

Eurofighter

Its just that most of the 'advisers' (Blackhawk, Wzz e.t.c.) often have to repeat the information over and over again as most people dont read previous threads which contain the information. Thats why they may seem harsh.

Reply 18