Is being a pilot a good job?

[thecatislying]

One of my nephews is looking into it. We can find all the official info about the ways to qualify, time it takes, how to do it, salary expectations, what the job is like, etc, but we don't know anyone who has done this job, or even who knows someone who has done it.

Nephew is practical, reliable, very good at maths an science, gets good grades. Not really enjoying school, doesn't like writing, not thrilled about the idea of 4 more years at university so exploring other ideas.

If you have personal experience of either being a pilot or know someone who is one, what's your thoughts? Is it a good job to have?

I have to keep fairly mobile due to medical conditions (yes I'll be getting my class 1 first!!) but it's obviously more of a problem for long haul pilots.

@backintheboxi think the difference between our situations is that we are based in a part of the UK where the option is regional flying or charter. We don’t want to move to London as we are nowhere near there. I agree it is definitely what you make it and it’s his decision to choose the type of flying he has.

@peepsypops i work with people who live all over the world. That’s the freedom that aviation can give you - want to live in Edinburgh, Geneva, Vancouver or even Sydney? Just commute on staff travel. Captains in my airline even get free commuter tickets to sit in the flight deck if you need to. Just because your DH chose one aviation lifestyle, doesn’t mean the entire career is terrible!

I used to do a bit of that sort of thing UK to/from Europe...great if long haul, part time and also if senior and you had roster control...can get a bit more problematic if you don't and can get messy and stressful peak season.

You can also end up with maybe even more time from home than ideal if you have to travel in late in the day before duty starts for an early report the next AM.

As a result I don't think commuting is a panacea but as you suggest it is perhaps one way round getting a job operating out of a London base if you don't actually want to move the family away from the regions

Just in case anyone picks up on the idea of free travel certainly where I was 😏, when I was there the "free on the flight deck" ticket was domestic UK only, though I guess that might have changed since I left.

I certainly paid to travel on a jumpseat (cabin and flightdeck) more than a few times when there were no comfy seats left....

A couple of my friends are pilots. They described it as 95% Boredom and 5% panic. Training was very expensive. Both found it quite hard to get jobs at the start and had to take jobs far from home so paid high rents.

Both were long haul for a while. One has gone to short haul when they had kids. The other still does long haul but is looking to go to short haul.

A few years ago now, but Virgin Atlantic gave ALL staff 7 free flights anywhere in the world as a perk. Each year. Senior grades got free upgrades to upper class etc.
Wages were shite for all but the highest paid though.

My nephew has just started his first commercial pilot job (EasyJet).
Initial training fees were £89K, plus accommodation (total was slightly north of £120k) then a type rating cost of £29k.
It tends to be with companies now that if you pay for the type rating yourself, the salary is about £20k higher per annum from the beginning. If they pay for it, you have a lowered salary for the first few years, so you effectively pay them back.
Ground school (the first 10-12 months) is utterly hideous....think 18 hour days 7 days a week with 200 pages of new info to take in daily. DN was in bits after that and if you miss any pass marks, it then reduced the airlines you can apply to. They need to be decent at maths, physics helps too, although DN didn't do either at A level. DN almost finished his PPL at age 17, but the info he had was of very little use, so I'd save your money and not bother.
Summary - a very long slog and has taken about a year to get his first job, but he's now being paid well (far more than his school counterparts) and loves it.

Yep, rings a bell from some conversations I've had..

The staff travel packages are yet another thing that varies airline to airline.

@FinallyMovingHouse

Congrats to your nephew..

think 18 hour days 7 days a week with 200 pages of new info to take in daily

Yep, the level of knowledge required for the licences and ratings isn't always that deep, certainly compared with university level, but you have to able to retain lots of stuff quickly...sometimes described as like "trying to drink through a firehose".

That's hopefully as intensive as it gets classroom wise during his career. You get hit with similar workload when converting aircraft types (especially if it is on the company dollar) but that's usually only for a few weeks.

I would recommend Petter Hornfeldt's channel on YouTube Mentour Pilot. The only thing I dislike is the ridiculous AI generated images and click bait titles. Ignore those.

Get to the substance and he is fabulous. A great communicator and teacher producing exceptional content.

He also has another channel Mentour Now about developments in the industry.

74 Gear is good although a bit more cheeky and less cerebral.

I think we can probably concede that my experience, my husband’s experience and your experience are all valid and doesn’t mean that an entire career is good or bad because of the so many variables there are.
My opinion is not coming from a “pilot wag” point of view incidentally. I have been involved in flight operations recruitment including pilots for the majority of my career.
Correct, many people do commute all over the world for such a role. For many people that wouldn’t suit. And I suppose that’s probably why we can only share our own experience and let the person thinking of such a career move to make the choice for themselves.

Flying training is probably something for a specialist forum but anyhow that link is to a US site, for info the training environment and initial career path tends to be very different in the UK and Europe..

It's worth being aware the big flying training organisations are very keen on pushing the idea that a structured integrated mentored course is almost the only way to go, because that's what they charge big money for.

In reality there are other, slightly less/less expensive ways into the career, but none of them are cheap.

It's just bus driving in 3D.

It's not.

Just curious how normal people can become pilots - or do they have to come from extreme wealth?

I recently learned that it is very common for pilots to develop tinnitus, and often hearing loss, from constantly changing air pressure and cabin noise. As someone who has recently developed this and hating it, it's definitely something to consider.

Depends what you mean by "pilot,"...

If you're on about the basic entry level private pilots licence (PPL), the sort of thing many that fly at flying clubs have, then that'll cost several thousand quid and is within the reach of many but obviously not everybody...and that licence had limited use..for want of a better analogy that's the sort of GCSE of the flying world.

At the other end of the pilot scale, in the commercial world, flying airliners the gold standard is the
Air Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL) and that needs access to either cash and or a sponsor.

A full time residential integrated course taking someone from zero flying to ATPL ( initially with probationary leve limitations) is probably going to be £100,000 plus. The same course done part time, in blocks ("modular") should be well sub £100k..

Just to add to the complexity there's another avenue which is an airline specific airline sponsored qualification, the MPC/MPL.

Some airline sponsorship might be available for the above but usually comes with ties and/or repayment to the airline.

As to your question about actually funding it, I know/knew many newish pilots who had been subbed by the bank of Mum and Dad, and a lot came from for want of a better expression "normal" families, no extreme wealth involved.

BTW another option is via military flying and then doing courses to convert your military qualifications into a civil licences, which is the road I took.

Some very minor hearing loss might not be that uncommon due to the job but any significant loss is going to be picked up during audiometry testing which is performed fairly frequently as part of the cycle of annual/bi-annual medicals.

A major problem would see the pilot grounded and I don't recall that happening for hearing reasons to anyone I knew, but a lot might depend on aircraft types flown.

Never heard (!!!) of air pressure changes being a problem in this context - the main risk areas were jet noise during the pre-flight walk round, so ear defenders required, and some times general noise due air flow (both interior and exterior) on the flight deck - so noise cancelling headsets were often mandatory.

Be careful of flight Schools going bust and you losing your fees. Also be mindful that you can't get student loans for the approx 120k you will need.

Good points.

The big Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) have almost captured the system, certainly as far as integrated courses go, and they are often keen on maximum money upfront....

There is also the Submersible Pilot (not Submarines) job too, my husband is that, he works for Inkfish and OceanX, good money, megga interesting and he dives to over 10,000 meters in one of the Subs Always something to consider

Its barotrauma from the air pressure changes. My Dad actually developed tinnitus after a plane ride from it - diagnosed by an ENT.

He said he sees it regularly, and is apparently more common if you fly with an URT infection.

Great post @backinthebox👏

Well this thread has clarified one thing for me. I was wondering if @notimagain was a @backinthebox name change as I hadn't seen the latter around for a while and noticed that the former now appeared to be the MN resident pilot. Now you've both appeared on the same thread, I know you're two separate people.

But seeing as the thread is a year old, I wonder if the OPs nephew has made any progress towards his pilot career?

I’m a mum and MIL to pilots and yes, they are happy in their careers. Both were self funded by family.