Pilot training.

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TrotterDel

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Hi all need some advice. My son who is eighteen wants to become a commercial airline pilot (Jets).
What is the best way of doing this i.e. spending the least amount of money.
 
A mate of mine flies for Ryanair. He started by getting his private license in an airfield in Kerry. He then went to a flight school in the UK that went bust with him losing his money. From there to the US and form there to SA to finish. He would work at any job while trying to earn money for flight time.

It cost him €100,000 all in and it would have been more if he stayed in Europe.
 
Most routes seem to be fairly expensive and it's not a great time to be an airline pilot. A friend of mine qualified in September and has so far been unable to get an interview anywhere and she is looking all over the world. Most of her class mates are in the same position. The class prior to her's all walked into jobs so maybe things will change again but it is something to be aware of.
 
Hi,
My son did his licence with the training college in Waterford. It was always his ambition since he was 5. It cost €75k and AIB organise student loans for this as the pay is good when they get work. He started wotk with Aer Arann last summer and unfortunately was made redundant in Nov. with all the cuts Aer Arann had. The big problem was that he had to pay Aer Arann €25 for training which would be paid back to him after 5 years continuous employment with them and now..... If he tries to get a job with another Airline he loses this. He will be 21 in June but has no work now.
 
A friend's son will be starting training in the US shortly. $90k, so he sold his house and took a job as a trans continent truck driver (Limerick/Heathrow/Limerick)) to raise the fees. He had an average Leaving Cert but is pretty ambitious. I think I read recently of a man who worked as a luggage man at one of the airports going on to be a pilot. But this is of little interest to young people.
 
When you get into that field of work, there is no such thing as the least amount of money. Its huge bucks all the way I only managed a few hours and it was painful..
 
South Africa seems to be attractive I know of several people that got commercial helecopter lisences there.

Also I have stories of people crop spraying to get flight time under the belt in Africa, Oz, NZ.

Also try the direct route of training through Aer Lingus - they used to offer this, but most importantly get some private lessons to see if its what he really wants to do and has what it takes to make it. The provate lessons will also strenghten his application case as it shows he has got the finger out and put his money where his mouth is.
 
If he wants to fly in europe then he will need a JAA. He will not get this if he's trains outside of europe. In America it's the FAA and canada and a few other countries it's an IKEO. IF he trains in america ( florida has a great reputation ) then the conversion to the JAA is a nightmare.

There are talks about making it a much easier lik the ( IKEO to the FAA, just 2 exams, no extra flight rides ) process but at the moment it's a lot of money and a lot of extra study. From memory i think there are like 12 exams to take and around 10/15 hours of flight as well.

It is cheaper to go abroad but when you factor in the costs to convert the licence it's not worth it. Waterford would be his best bet.

Also you may have been told ( as a canadian friend of mine was when he was trying to convert from IKEO to JAA ) that airlines will sponsor you and help with these costs and you can do your flight rides with them........this is all totally false no matter what you are told. They will not even look at your sons application if he does not hold a JAA. They will except frozen licences cause he wont get his full licence untill he has x amount of hours ( i cant remember the exact figures )

Private lessons wont do alot of good to his application, you cant use those flight hours on your application. And there is no airline that is going to take him on direct training at the moment. The market is to bad.

For joanboot, it is normal to have bonds with airlines. It costs them a lot to train people and they dont want to spend the money training you and then for you to move to another company. 5 years is very long, usually it's around 2. But i would look into that a bit more, i have heard of this happening to others and they were able to get it all back because they were made redundant. This was a while ago so they could have changed things now. Your son didn't leave so in a way he's not breaking the contract they are. Worth a try anyway.
 
www.pprune.org is a forum for professional pilots. It has a section on there called wannabees that has lots of information about schools in Ireland & abroad from people who have trained at those particular schools. He'll find it useful.

Aer Lingus no longer trains its own pilots. Some companies were running 'sponsored' schemes but you still had to put up most of the money yourself. In the current climate these schemes have probably disappeared as many airlines worldwide are letting staff go rather than hiring. That said it's always been a cyclical business so perhaps by the time he's qualified there'll be an upturn in the industry.

He can of course go to his local flying club and have an intro lesson to see if he like it! As long as it's a lesson with a qualified instructor he can indeed log the hours and they will count towards his total hours in the future & will be counted in a job application.

Best of luck!
 
A mate of mine did it via teaching private lessons to get the hours up, only problme in Ireland is that the weather is so bad, it takes twice as long, as most days in winter its too bad to fly light aircrafts, so you have to go to US to get your hours up.
 
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