Airliners.net

Hello i am 16 and I have always loved planes and have always wanted to be a pilot. All i know is you need a breif understanding of physics and maths. Also how do you start off (once you have a comercial airline pilot liscnese) getting a job, because most of the airline pilot jobs i have seen need 1000s of hours of experience in a certain plane.

Thanks

Thomas

Thomas2611 wrote:

Also how do you start off (once you have a comercial airline pilot liscnese) getting a job, because most of the airline pilot jobs i have seen need 1000s of hours of experience in a certain plane.

You start off by spamming every single airline in the world with job applications. Then you repeat the process every few weeks for several years.

Somewhere along the way you realize that nobody is going to give you a job unless you invest another 15-20.000 gbp in a type-rating, or up to 35.000 gbp in a pay-to-fly scheme. Then after all of that, you may get a job.

Be wary about the information you are given on here as requirements and costs vary widely from country to country so some of what you will be told will not necessarily be correct for becoming a commercial pilot in the UK. For example, contrary to what you have been told in your other thread, a degree is not a requirement - reasonable GCSEs and A levels will suffice.

Before you even consider investing large amounts of money in training, it's a good idea to check that you don't have any medical conditions that would prevent you from being a commercial pilot, and perhaps even arrange to have a medical - all of the relevant information can be found at the CAA:
http://www.caa.co.uk/medical/

Then it might also be worth checking that you have a suitable aptitude to be a commercial pilot:
https://www.airpilots.org/career-matter ... ude-tests/

A good source for the basics on how to become a commercial pilot can be found at the UK CAA:
https://www.caa.co.uk/Blog-Posts/How-to ... ial-pilot/

Some airlines have schemes for people wishing to get trained up and work for them. e.g. British Airways:
https://jobs.ba.com/jobs/futurepilot/
but they have no vacancies at the moment.

One of the biggest training organisations in the UK is CAE Oxford Aviation Academy - they run ab-initio schemes for a number of airlines around the world:
http://www.caeoaa.com/
but, as others have already mentioned, you will need to find considerable sums of money up-front and/or be tied in to a specific airline for a number of years while you repay the training costs (of ~£100K, plus living expenses for 2-3 years).

There are some ways of reducing the cost of getting the required flying hours, such as spending some time as a flying instructor (after you have got a commercial pilot's licence), or as a parachute aircraft pilot (which technically only requires a private pilot's licence, but most parachute clubs will require you to have considerably more than the minimum flying hours before considering you).

Have a ton of money.

Thomas2611 wrote:

because most of the airline pilot jobs i have seen need 1000s of hours of experience in a certain plane.

Then you start flying at an airline that doesn't require that many hours. Ryanair for example is known to hire pilots that have just come from flying school. You get your 737 type rating at Ryanair and then you start flying for them. They don't pay very well and you got to bring a ton of money to "buy" yourself in (they charge you for getting your type rating for example), but you can build up some experience there. Once you've flown for them a couple of years you might get a chance to switch to another airline that pays better.

Don't expect to get hired by BA straight after you've finished school, that's just not going to happen. Best chances to start your carreer are at airlines like Ryanair, Wizzair, etc.