commercial pilot

how do you mean any degree. would a degree in international relations do?

LOL. Are you applying to this thread so you can agree with yourself??? I thought it was Flyer who wanted to be a pilot not DazYa. Or are they so confused in your mind now that you can't tell which one's which!!!

Someone who knows what they're talking about at last

A degree will increase your chances of getting sponsership from an airline.

There are 3 ways you can get your frozen ATPL

1) Private residential training school - you pay yourself
2) Full of partial sponsership and training by airlines - you pay part of it yourself
3) Armed forces pilots.

Suggest you do your research. You DO NOT need a degree to get an ATPL. You don't theoretically need any educational qualifications. The best of flying training schools that can provide flying training up to frozen ATPL (oxford for example) require 5 GCSEs in proper subjects (maths, science etc). The less well known will take basically anyone if they have the cash it would seem.

The best place to look is www.pprune.org where people actually know what they are talking about. there is a forum for wannabe airline pilots. check it out, although use the search function before posting your questions!

Now where did I say you needed a degree? I said a degree would increase one's chances!

But it doesn't. Joe Bloggs with 1500 hours turboprop is more likely to get the job compared to John Doe who has no hours what-so-ever, just a frozen ATPL. They don't care if you know how to be a biologist or whatever, they care that you can competantly operate an aircraft. Experience gets this, not a degree.

Now this justifies what I meant by the crap that is posted on this board because i'm reading a section in occupations 2004 and it that states " most commercial pilots are graduates(sponsership wise).

Of course flying experience will be vital.

Well what you are reading is actually the crap. Suggest you seriously check out the website i mentioned earlier. The very few airlines that do offer sponsorship require very high grades. However places for this are extremely limited and thus incredibly hard to get, so all but the very very top and best people end up on this route. Most pay for their own training, which requires basic or no qualifications at all. It has all changed since 9/11, something the said book may have failed to notice. For a dose of reality go to the website i said.

If you would acknowledged the year of the occupations book, you would have figured out that the WTC bombings occured much before that!

For gods sake, why the fuck won't you just read the damn website. The forum i have given a link to has thousands of people in exactly the same situation as this topic starter, who will say what you are saying is bullshit. Do you think that the book researchers actually reseach every career in depth?
i doubt it very much.

Well i'd like to think so! Please don't resort to swear words.

Sorry if i offended you. However i would rather trust a website about the mentioned topic rather than a book which breifly covers it with researchers who care equally about flying jobs as they do about road sweepers.

Did you do an IT GCSE? I recall my teacher going through the advantages and disadvantages of information being obtained from the internet. That it did have up to date information but was not necessarily correct!