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Original poster

How to become a pilot

18 replies

ganrian · 16/02/2024 15:22

DP has decided he would like to become a commercial pilot. Can anyone give any advice on the best way to pursue this?

He has a private pilots licence and saved up for 10 years just to be able to afford that. Now he has this he doesn't have the money to privately fund another license.

OP posts:
DustyLee123 · 16/02/2024 15:22

TUI opened their training opportunities recently, have a look on tnere.

MaloneMeadow · 16/02/2024 15:44

DH is a commercial pilot, unfortunately for him (and most people who aren’t fortunate enough to inherit a 6 figure sum!) he just had to save up for years on end and ran a successful plumbing business in order to be able to afford the training. He only got his commercial license in his late 30s! It’s a sad reality of the way things are - such a huge wealth divide and really not fair

Pineapplewaves · 16/02/2024 15:55

How about going onto the careers sites of various airlines and finding out what the entry requirements are. Your DP has an advantage over 18 year old applicants by having a pilots license already. I believe that's the expensive part....

MaloneMeadow · 16/02/2024 16:03

Pineapplewaves · 16/02/2024 15:55

How about going onto the careers sites of various airlines and finding out what the entry requirements are. Your DP has an advantage over 18 year old applicants by having a pilots license already. I believe that's the expensive part....

A 14 year old can get their pilot’s license, so I suspect most 18 year olds applying to training would definitely already have their PPL. It wouldn’t be an advantage

ToHellBackAndBeyond · 16/02/2024 16:07

Dad always said he regretted never training as a pilot and he has lived an incredible life so if your hubby wants to then he should go for it. If that means working out what his income would be when qualified then maybe this would justify a loan that would be paid back on that income.

If it wouldn't pay then maybe as suggested above- seek out and in-company training like the truckers can.

Original poster
ganrian · 16/02/2024 16:07

the pilots licesce he has is only a private and not a commercial. It bewildering to hear @MaloneMeadow that your husband waited until late 30s

OP posts:
MaloneMeadow · 16/02/2024 16:13

To be honest @ganrian it’s definitely not a career choice that he’d recommend. We have quite a few pilots in our friend group and certainly nobody is encouraging their kids to get into it, if anything seeing what life is really like as a pilot has put them all off it. DD has no interest and we’re glad. Long hours, a huge amount of time away from home and pay isn’t great either unless you work abroad in the middle/far east. Due to Brexit things have become a lot more complicated and UK based jobs are much harder to come by with lots of competition. Most airlines would much rather hire a pilot with an EU licence

Pineapplewaves · 16/02/2024 16:26

I'm sure that to join Easyjet at age 18 you need to pay around £23k but that covers the cost of them training you to get your ppl which takes are year. As your DH already has this he should be able to go straight into the training for commercial flight which is all done on a simulator and they don't get to fly a real commercial airplane until the end.

RampantIvy · 16/02/2024 17:59

My friend's DS trained with Easyjet, but they needed tens of thousands to pay up front for the training.

aitchteeaitch · 16/02/2024 18:04

A friend of mine trained as a commercial airline pilot. He already had a private licence, and it was only with an inheritance that he was able to afford it. From what he said, the majority of other pilots were former RAF who had retrained.

flatmop · 16/02/2024 18:10

I have three friends who are pilots.

One was a career change in his mid 30s. He moved to New Zealand to train because it was cheaper. He really struggled to find a job after he was qualified. Eventually he ended up with one of the budget airlines. The pay wasn't great and they went bust (at which point they wanted uniforms to be returned at the pilots' expense!).

The other friend went through training sponsored by BA about 20 years ago. He is from quite a posh background (I wouldn't say it to him but I think it helped a lot) and has been with them ever since.

The third was a RAF pilot and was snapped up by Virgin as soon as he decided to leave the RAF. A lot of RAF pilots look to commercial airlines after leaving.

Original poster
ganrian · 16/02/2024 18:17

thank you so much for everyone who has responded. Does anyone a pilot, or spouse is a pilot who my partner can talk to about what the reality is like. Such a pay, progression, hours, etc.

OP posts:
FictionalCharacter · 16/02/2024 18:53

Pineapplewaves · 16/02/2024 16:26

I'm sure that to join Easyjet at age 18 you need to pay around £23k but that covers the cost of them training you to get your ppl which takes are year. As your DH already has this he should be able to go straight into the training for commercial flight which is all done on a simulator and they don't get to fly a real commercial airplane until the end.

Where did you get that info from? The current cost of training with EasyJet is about 100,000 euros, and it’s similar or more with other airlines. It takes nothing like a year to get a ppl. Training with an airline does include flying a real aircraft.

AgnesX · 16/02/2024 18:56

https://www.pprune.org/

He should have a wander about this website.

RampantIvy · 16/02/2024 21:10

FictionalCharacter · 16/02/2024 18:53

Where did you get that info from? The current cost of training with EasyJet is about 100,000 euros, and it’s similar or more with other airlines. It takes nothing like a year to get a ppl. Training with an airline does include flying a real aircraft.

Show quote history

That's pretty much what it cost for my friend's DS to train.

BarelyLiterate · 16/02/2024 21:16

If he has his PPL his next step is to get his instrument rating, build up his hours, then obtain his Commercial Pilot’s License (CPL). If he has got this far I’m somewhat surprised he doesn’t know this already. Odd.

First things first, however. He needs to establish whether he will be able to obtain a CAA Class 1 medical certificate. If he can’t, that’s the end of that ambition. Ask me how I know that….

BarelyLiterate · 16/02/2024 21:21

ganrian · 16/02/2024 18:17

thank you so much for everyone who has responded. Does anyone a pilot, or spouse is a pilot who my partner can talk to about what the reality is like. Such a pay, progression, hours, etc.

MN probably isn’t the best forum on which to ask this question. He should try Pistonheads instead. Plenty of pilots on there. Plus a few who have only ever ‘flown’ computer games but think they are experts…

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