Millwall

If you want to embark on a professional flying career be a “little” wary of the adverts etc you see for the glossy schools etc etc.

First off, yes get that trial flight done, but be objective about it, if you have a bumpy flight due to weather and you don’t enjoy it that much it doesn’t mean that flying will be like that, see if you can get a good day, they should be a plenty with the winter high pressure systems we start to get in December & January.
Secondly think about what route you would like to take, are you in full time employment? do you wish to keep your job going? have you got funds available to pay for flight training? if you have then great, this opens up alot of windows, if not then you have to consider how you will fund it, and whether you will undertake a modular or integrated, integrated courses are on the whole alot more expensive, and you will have to do your training full time, if you go modular then you can generally pay as you go but be careful here as you do not want to spend too long between lessons etc for obvious reasons.
Let’s talk about each route you could take.

Modular

Modular means you can still work (to a point), which will help to pay the bills, you should start off by taking a trial lesson, if you like it then you will book a Private Pilot’s Licence course, do not pay for this in advance, alot of schools have gone bust and have taken people’s money, it isn’t a common occurance but it happens, beware.
During your PPL you will be required to take 7 written exams, 1 oral exam and a medical, I suggest getting your Class 1 done as opposed to your Class 2, you cannot fly commercially with a Class 2, and the Class 1 is alot more stringent, so get it done whilst you can, you don’t want to start shedding out lots of money on training if you are not fit to fly.
After your PPL you will start hour building, your PPL will be a 45hr course, some people take longer, then you need 150hrs to start your Commercial Pilot’s Licence, so you undertake hours building, during this period you will start distance learning for your ATPL examinations, this is generally split into 2 modules as there are 14 exams, some companies split the 14 exams into 3 modules, the content is not “that” difficult, it’s the sheer volume of information you need to retain in your head at any one time that is the killer.
Once you have the 14 exams and the 150hrs flight time you can start your CPL, this is a 25hr course, it includes 10hrs of instrument flight and must include 5hrs in a complex type, i.e. ratractable undercarraige & variable pitch prop.
You can do a Multi engine CPL, but this means you have to do your multi engine rating before hand, and it’s a tad more expensive, and with a multi CPL things can get away from you very very quickly during the CPL skill test.
You then do the Instrument rating, which will be done on a twin if you want to go to the airline, this is a 50hr course if you have the CPL out the way, if you do the IR first then it’s a 55hr course.
You then do an MCC which is a Multi Crew Co-operation, this allows you to fly multi crew cockpits, which you need for the airlines obviously. Then after this you can send out the CVs.

As for who to do all this with is generally a personal choice, but if you go modular it may be worth thinking of staying with the same provider as the airlines like continuity of training, I got this straight from the mouth of a recruiting captain from a major UK airline.

As for finance, if you have not got the money stashed away to pay for it as and when then you will need to keep working, this can be done quite easily, but when you get to the IR you may need to think about throwing the job in, it depends how flexible your employer is.
Again, you can go to the States to do all this, but you will have to give up work, and I have had it said again from someone within the industry that if they had 2 candidates in front of them, 1 who trained in the States and one who trained in the UK they would prefer the UK guy, but don’t let this put you off, I know a few people who have trained in the States and have landed jobs.
As for how much it costs really depends on alot of variables, i.e. who you train with, how well you progress, and how much you can keep the other costs down like living expenses etc, but by the time I finish at the end of Feb I would have spent in the region of £45-£50,000, maybe a tad more.

Integrated

Integrated is a great way to train, there are pro’s & cons, the pro’s being if you are good enough you will “more than likely” find employment with a large uk airline straight away, the downside is that this will cost you a considerable amount of money, alot of schools offer their integrated courses for about £65k, but this has been known to rise to nearly £90k or even the £100k figure.
You will undertake your training with the integrated provider from zero hrs right through to fATPL, the airlines look favourably on integrated students as opposed to modular, but it’s a catch 22, I could not afford to give up my job to go integrated because I have a mortgage and a young family.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is pretty much dead in this country now, there are schemes that appear to be sponsorship, but the bottom line is that you will be bonded, or you will have some kind of outlay, this is not looking likely to change, you are correct in that CTC offer their Wings program, which is excellent, but you are bonded, check out their website for more info.
Some airlines & schools offer a free sponsorship program where they will pay for all your training, all they ask in return is that you work in their ops department or similar for 2-3 years, so in effect you are indirectly paying for your training because your wages will be nominal.

Academics

Millwall, I left school with GCSEs, I was one of these who could have done way better, but I didn’t have the guidence of my parents in certain ways like others had, but before I started flight training I did something to rectify this, I started a Maths Degree with the Open University, I am now doing A level English Language via distance learning, so I do suggest you do something similar even if it is to retake your GCSEs particularly Maths, English & Physics, end of the day you have to look at potential employers, if someone had grades and someone didn’t who is the biggest training risk? I know who I’d employ. You need to stay 1 step ahead, and think how best to widen your chances of employment, this is one of the most competitive industries in the world, places are few and potential employees are vast.

Millwall, these are only my opinions, they should not be taken as literal, but it may give you some food for thought.
Low & Slow is right, get down to your local flying school, look around and chat to the CFI, but try not to be blinded by the gloss, speak to ex students if possible, a good place to start is have a read of PPRuNe and read the wannabe sections, just be careful on there as you get alot of people who give bias opinions on things, and some opinions are very subjective as well.

If you are interested I typed up my CPL in a diary on the commercial section of this forum, take a look here

Good luck

Dean

As long as it stays civil & on topic it can stay open 🙂

I have indeed heard this as well about BA & LGW

I agree with PW, 2nd one is a 777, it looks grey so maybe an Asiana?

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1128225&size=M&width=1200&height=812&sok=JURER%20%20%28nvepensg_trarevp%20YVXR%20%27Obrvat%20777%25%27%29%20NAQ%20%28nveyvar%20YVXR%20%27Nfvnan%20Nveyvarf%25%27%29%20%20BEQRE%20OL%20cubgb_vq%20QRFP&photo_nr=7&prev_id=1129388&next_id=1127525

Fantastic shot

I think if the government made a concerted effort to show the public that they are making an effort as well would go a long way, do you see them giving up their cars and using public transport? do you see them reducing the amount of pathetically useless trips abroad they go on whilst also flying business class and wasting our money? do you see TB cycling to work? (security risk I know), maybe if 2 Jags Prescott got off his large backside and cycled to work he’d be less of a burden on the NHS in years to come. I want to do my bit, and I want to contribute, but it just get’s me quite irate when I see the double standards being set by this government all the time, and the cynic in me would come out and say that green tax is all about raising the amount of money in the coffer’s pocket and little else.
Again I come back to the public transport infrastructure, it’s unreliable, it’s dirty, it’s outdated, there isn’t enough of it, it isn’t cost effective and it isn’t time effective.
I am very conscious of being green, I tell my wife now that we are to switch off our baby monitors during the day, as well as alarm clocks, unused electrical items, no lights left on at night, no TVs etc on standby, everything that can be recycled get’s recycled, but I won’t give up my car, and why not? read above

Love the Loganair shots Jamie, very nice

Great pics PIK