How to finance pilot training

Inquitus

beauf wrote: »

I think if you have to have restart a five year old thread in the media of worldwide crisis as airlines go to the wall.

My advice would be NO you should not go out on a financial limb for this.

If someone wants to pursue it themselves, then sure why not. Its long hard road, but if you are committed, have the ability and lucky go for it.

Aye, wait and see, this current environment is disastrous for Airlines and their employees, pilots and cabin crew alike, I'd wait a year and see what the "new" normal looks like before putting my house on the line.

FFVII

Are we never going to fly again??

B.A._Baracus

Interesting thread.
How would one go about starting to learn to fly?

L1011

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Interesting thread.
How would one go about starting to learn to fly?

Decide if you want to go commercial or just have a PPL.

Probably worth doing a one hour intro flight just to make sure you aren't going to freak out.

Get the medical first (or after the intro flight) if you want to go commercial - too many people find out after spending thousands that they can't.

And for commercial - just don't do it now. Existing qualified, type rated, experienced pilots will be first in line for jobs as the industry recovers. We are not going to return to planned Summer 2020 flight capacity for quite some time.

MadYaker

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Interesting thread.
How would one go about starting to learn to fly?

Step 1: wait until 2021

shaveAbullock

Having wealthy parents would have to be the biggest help wouldn't it?

MadYaker

shaveAbullock wrote: »

Having wealthy parents would have to be the biggest help wouldn't it?

I know one guy who did it, both his parents are dentists.

shaveAbullock

MadYaker wrote: »

I know one guy who did it, both his parents are dentists.

Not begrudging them but I imagine for these people the consequences are much less severe if it does not work out.

Irish Steve

Being able to get the licence is one thing, and many do it at considerable cost both financially and emotionally.

Being able to use that licence to then earn an income is another matter altogether, and with the way things are right now, very much an unknown and uncertain, under normal circumstances, getting that first paying job is a very unpredictable situation, and with the covid nightmare that's grounded so many operators now added to that loop, anyone that thinks things will recover quickly is living in cloud cookoo land.

L1011

shaveAbullock wrote: »

Having wealthy parents would have to be the biggest help wouldn't it?

The term I've been told by someone in the IAA is that the essential requirement for quick progress is a phd - Papa Has Dough.

If you have the ready cash you can bugger off someone with clement weather and get it done quite fast.

Doyler92

Doyler92 wrote: »

We are looking at putting the house down as collateral with a bank to secure a loan to get him through.

I don't know the first thing about being a pilot, but you're gonna risk your house on someone else? What if he decides he just doesn't like it or if he gets attacked on the way home from a pub some night and his vision is damaged? or the airline industry collapses leaving a massive surplus of experienced pilots fighting for feck all jobs, or he turns out to just not be good at it and can't pass any of the exams, etc. etc?



There are lots of things that seem like bad ideas.. this is one of them.

SEPT 23 1989

The way things are going he could remortgage his house and buy an airline

wally1990

I worked in an accountants that previously serviced the aviation sector for agencies such as Mcginley, Brookfield, Parc aviation, Sigma and so on

All of the cadets had loans.

Many of the cadets had parents either take loans or go guarantor on a loan the cadet took out

Genuinely speaking, in my 3 years of dealing with pilots everyday not a single 1 from speaking/emailing with them and sorting their finances had saved for it themselves.

Many of them are young and those who aren't were in the exact same position (loans)

It was all loans and very large ones at that

Depending on where they were into their trading it was anything from 30k to 150k for each person.

maestroamado

Getting the license first step which i expect be done for about 10k.
I know someone who done and the hardest thing is gaining flight hours after.
What he did was worked for free with ariel photography people.

He is now flying people like Denis O'Brien and that guy from Kingspan.
What i did not know until he told me, most people who have planes cannot fly themselves
He told me a few years ago he flew Lewis Hamilton from Spain to Heathrow for a haircut.
They did not leave secure Airport apron and while Lewis was having haircut he had coffee and snack.
He reckons that it was some electronic gadget they need for the race and all a cover.
He did not see any difference in hair....

smurfjed

FFVII wrote: »

Are we never going to fly again??

Look at the IATA reports on when they expect airlines to get back to Jan2020 levels of flights and staff. So if someone if someone is going to take a new mortgage to finance training, they must have a realistic plan to pay that loan, how will they do that without a job ?

When the jobs return, there will be w glut of pilots so what will the salaries be like ?

Doyler92

Doyler92 wrote: »

...........
We are looking at putting the house down as collateral with a bank to secure a loan to get him through.

Never put a home down as part of anything.

PinOnTheRight

Doyler92 wrote: »

Sorry to bring up this thread from a few years ago but my brother is looking into a number of avenues to secure the cost of training to become a commercial pilot.

Maybe some things have changed since this thread was created so I’m wondering does anybody have any advice.

We are looking at putting the house down as collateral with a bank to secure a loan to get him through.

Lots of questions to ask, but essentially boils down to one overarching question - can you afford to remortgage the house and repay it without any reliance on your brother?

It’s a big gamble and the industry is incredibly unstable at the minute. Nobody knows what the recovery will be like but the general consensus most seem to be now agreeing it will take several years to get back to 2019 traffic levels. It’ll also be used by the airlines as an opportunity to further attack T+Cs of pilots, and indeed everyone in the industry.

Pilot training is very expensive. Finding that first job is very difficult and with a lot of airlines, still costs you. Maintaining your licences while looking for a job is also expensive. First job salaries, even now in legacy carriers, aren’t what they used to be.

Does he have any other skills or qualifications he can use for a career? What’s alternative plan if flying doesn’t work out? Such a loan is going to place a massive burden on him and the family.

California Dreamer

This is also assuming that once you have spent the 100k on training that you get a job straight away.

You should have alternative employment and be mentally prepared that you will not get a flying job for a year and at the same time have to stay current

When you have spent all that money, you will bite someones hand off to take a 30k a year job with a commuter airline.

mikel97

If and when this crisis in the airline industry including all sorts of sectors involved, there won't be any recruitment except previous employees and forget it without experience for at least 5-7 years.( my own opinion) Hope Im way off but this is bad. Go do PPL by all means but a Commercial now.......

Inquitus

Norwegian Air - Fired all employees outside Norway
Iceland Air - Fired 95% of all Air Crew
Ryanair - Firing 3000
BA - Firing 12000

No knowing when people will be confident enough to start flying at the same levels as before COVID-19 levels, now is not the time to become a pilot.

basill

To be clear those are maximum "potential" job losses in each airline across all departments. BA for example was 955 flight deck in an internal letter I saw. And that was the management starting point so what will be negotiated will no doubt be very different.

Its a stupid time to become a pilot. Plain and simple.

beauf

Training takes time you'd have be looking planning at 3-10 years ahead.

1123heavy

I can only echo what has been said. I am very afraid for my job and so are most people I know. Ditto those I studied with who didn't manage to find a job the past 2/3 years, of which there are plenty.

Finding a job even during the boom years is tough, the next few years is just going to be unrealistic. Proceed only if you have 100k burning a serious hole in your pocket.

I'm not saying to forget about it totally, but for the next 3-4 years find something else to occupy your time with. Then conduct a review and if things are truly trending upwards then you can embark upon it relatively safely.

Irish Steve

Brutal reality is that getting a licence will be expensive, but possible.

Getting a job that will recover the significant cost of that licence as a new entrant will be impossible for a number of years to come, given the seismic shocks that are about to hit every airline, and that will continue for a number of years.

On that basis I am going to close this thread, as it is achieving no useful purpose by allowing it to continue at present.