Age to begin flying???

Mannybeltz

Hello all,

Iam a Dcu student that realised that I really do not want to spend my life doing what they are taeching us, All my life ive loved airplanes, the only reason I didnt choose this career was because I heard it was poor pay and very expensive to learn, I actually dont care any more, I can get around that and aslong as I do something il enjoy I wont care what the salary is, So I decided to do evrything possible to become a pilot,
I was wondering if starting at 22 years of age nearly 23 would be a serious problem,
And also I saw a course for a private pilots license with the national flight centre, it all sounded great, but they never mentioned the price evrytime I call they dont pick up, so I was wondering if any one knew how much this course would cost, I know that to become an airline pilot you need about 80 grand, is the private license course this expensive? If you can help, thanks allot!

xflyer

Perfect age to start flying. No problem with that. As for the cost, generally you can reckon around €10,000 plus to get a PPL in Ireland. Many people who are serious about it will go to the USA or elsewhere to get a PPL for quite a bit less.

In Ireland of course you don't have to find the money upfront and you can fly as and when you have funding paying for each lesson.

Whatever suits your circumstances.

alan85

My advice: Stick with your course for the moment. Your post screams of escapism. Are you finding the course in DCU a bit tough at the moment?

If all you ever wanted to do was fly you'd know the price and you'd find a way of flying even if it was too expensive. By all means get into flying. But do your research. Don't depend on forums for information - it is all out there. I can tell you that the exams for commercial pilot will be equally as tough as whatever you're doing at the moment in DCU. It will drive you crazy and probably more so than DCU. You will hate the exams. It will make you question your love of flying. That is the reality of it.

PPL in Ireland will cost anything from €10,000 up to €13/14,000. Your age isn't a problem.

owenc

Of course I'm doing mine next year and I'm only a teen and are you sure about that price because my dad got his and it only coat him £3000

alan85

owenc wrote: »

Of course I'm doing mine next year and I'm only a teen and are you sure about that price because my dad got his and it only coat him £3000

If you were to do it in County Derry or Down you'd still expect to pay upwards of £7000, maybe £8/9000. Unless your dad had some assistance from the RAF or had hours previously?

xflyer

owenc wrote: »

Of course I'm doing mine next year and I'm only a teen and are you sure about that price because my dad got his and it only coat him £3000

Owen are you sure? Maybe that's what he told your Mother;). £3000 divided by say 50 hours equals £60 an hour. I think the last time I paid that little per hour was back in the eighties and that was in a club.

Even a microlight licence would run to more than that.

owenc

xflyer wrote: »

Owen are you sure? Maybe that's what he told your Mother;). £3000 divided by say 50 hours equals £60 an hour. I think the last time I paid that little per hour was back in the eighties and that was in a club.

Even a microlight licence would run to more than that.

No my mother would rather he spends more money because hes tight. Anyway, i'm not sure but its definately not £10000

xflyer

Well there's a difference between the Pound and Euro. €10k is about £8.5k. It is probably cheaper oop north anyway.

airsofter.adam

that was probably a Private pilots licenese (PPL). the CPL, comercial priivates licence costs a lot more because of needs like the simulators etc.

kowloon

Do the IAA exams first, that way you'll learn a little bit quicker in the air.
The PPL exams are pretty handy anyway.

You need a class 2 medical (if it's still called that) for a PPL, but a class 1 medical for a frozen ATPL. Class 1 is a good bit more expensive, but if you don't get the all clear in the class 1 you'll have wasted your time getting a PPL as you won't be able to work in the area. The class 1 covers you for your PPL too.

foxtrot hotel

Got my JAA private licence not so long ago (17 days) and it cost me from zero hours to 41 hours (€3,600) Then I had to pay for the JAA examiner skill test and rent the plane for 1.7 so that bumped it up to the €4,000 mark. Then I was short of hours for the UK CAA so I had to rent the plane for a furthur 2.3 hours solo to bring me up to the minimum hours requirements for the JAA authority to issue out my licence which is 45 in europe.
Florida is much cheaper than Ireland and faster.

Delancey

A colleague of mine gave up trying to get her PPL in Weston a few years ago - constant cancellations or restrictions due to poor weather . She took a few weeks off and did it in South Africa a lot quicker and cheaper than she could have ever managed here.

mlumley

Have a look at this.....http://www.afors.com/index.php?page=adview&adid=20294&imid=0.. microlight but might help...?

PILOT

Have you thought of doing a dual course where you study Aviation Management and study to be a pilot at the same time. After the first year you can decide just to leave it at PPL level and continue with the degree or otherwise you can go on to get your CPL, IR etc.

The majority of students on CPL part of the course are over 23 years including a few in their mid-30s so its definately not too late to start!

Also if you were really serious about the pilot avenue then why not try a cadetship. EI application line in closed but BA are looking for 800 pilots including some from ab-intro.

owenc

foxtrot hotel wrote: »

Got my JAA private licence not so long ago (17 days) and it cost me from zero hours to 41 hours (€3,600) Then I had to pay for the JAA examiner skill test and rent the plane for 1.7 so that bumped it up to the €4,000 mark. Then I was short of hours for the UK CAA so I had to rent the plane for a furthur 2.3 hours solo to bring me up to the minimum hours requirements for the JAA authority to issue out my licence which is 45 in europe.
Florida is much cheaper than Ireland and faster.

No it is not its a rip off, and it takes forever to fly there. No point in going there goto the uk if you want to save.

galwayjohn89

Did all my training in OBA when I was 16 including my skills test in 4 weeks. Loved it was hard work and long days but really enjoyed it. Far quicker and cheaper than doing it in Ireland or the UK as I know people who have done it in both.

Delancey

owenc wrote: »

No it is not its a rip off, and it takes forever to fly there. No point in going there goto the uk if you want to save.

Interesting , can you explain or expand on your above post ?

owenc

Delancey wrote: »

Interesting , can you explain or expand on your above post ?

WEll my dad went there like three years ago and he had to keep flying back and forth all the time which ended up costing about £5000 (yes its very expensive to fly to america) and then they kept ripping him off and charging him for things he didn't need like they'd get him to repeat something over and over again etc. I think it was like £15,000 in the end up, so he just came back here.

owenc

Vuzuggu wrote: »

Did all my training in OBA when I was 16 including my skills test in 4 weeks. Loved it was hard work and long days but really enjoyed it. Far quicker and cheaper than doing it in Ireland or the UK as I know people who have done it in both.

Can you get your ppl at 16? Where oba?

galwayjohn89

You can do your skills test but you can't get issued your license until your 17 for JAA (and I think FAA too)

I'm hoping I misread this but did your dad spent £5,000 on flights to America?

Leonidas BL

Im doing mine in Sligo, 120 yoyos per lesson...
Handy that ya dont have to pay up front

Leonidas BL

Had my lesson, went very well. Doin a deal for 100 euro per lesson for me...