Ds13 dreams of being a pilot

[Rac20]

My son also dreams of being a pilot. He's been obsessed by planes since he was little. A couple of years ago we took him to an air museum and the tour guide was amazed at how much he knew about the mechanics of it all. Unfortunately, he really finds maths a challenge and he knows himself that this will probably be a barrier. He starts year 8 in September and has already said that he wants to join the air cadets. I think he'll really enjoy it.

[danisleigh]

My son was keen to join the RAF but wouldn't pass the medical due to his liver disease so had to give up on the idea. He did join the air cadets for a few years though which is great.

[BarrettFamily]

RAF or Commercial pilot? DS1 can't be an RAF pilot because he has a clubfoot. He seriously looked at being a Commercial pilot but has put it on hold whilst as uni. If commercial, go to an open day at one of the training schools or they have a big fair at Heathrow every year. L3 airline academy (CTC as was) have some good info on their site.

[Jagmate]

My DH is a pilot. Initially in the RAF, flying Jaguars, F15E (on exchange with USAF) and Typhoons. He's now out of the military but is a test pilot (he was the pilot flying Brian Cox on Forces of Nature). He did his commercial licences before he left the Service so that he could apply for airline jobs if necessary and he does occasionally fly the company airliner for them as well although he doesn't have as much time to do this now. He started in the Air Cadets, then University Air Sqn and the rest is history. He did have a teacher at school who told him he'd never be a pilot but he ignored them and went for it anyway and was one of the best pilots in the RAF (won top prize when he was at the Empire Test Pilot School at RAF Boscombe Down and got every flying qualification that was out there). Our DS is desperate to follow in Dad's footsteps although it's unlikely that he can be a fast jet pilot due to not having 20/20 vision but he wants to go multi-engine anyway. He's in the Air Cadets and has gone flying several times now with them and loves it. Highly recommend that as a starting point. It might be worth getting in touch with your local Recruiting Office as well as they may be able to give you more info. We have a lot of RAF friends who've left and joined the airlines too in fact the last time we met up with a close friend whom we'd not seen for years was when he was flying the Orlando route and we met him for dinner at Outback!

[neilhd]

I'd also recommend the Air Cadets. Our DD did that and got to go flying gliders a few times, and went on camps at RAF bases where they got to go up in various planes and helicopters.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

My Sons school mate always wanted to be a Pilot and is now at 28 fully qualified and flying commercially.
However his Parents had to sell their mortgage free house, downgrade to a smaller one with a mortgage and they sent him to New Zealand for 2 years who evidently have an excellent training system.

[louiseybobs]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

My Sons school mate always wanted to be a Pilot and is now at 28 fully qualified and flying commercially.
However his Parents had to sell their mortgage free house, downgrade to a smaller one with a mortgage and they sent him to New Zealand for 2 years who evidently have an excellent training system.

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I was gonna say I worked with someone who was in the air cadets and he told me it's the only way his family could afford him the opportunity to be a pilot because if you wanted to go commercial it would cost around £100,000 to become one. So his plan was to get trained up in the RAF and stay there until his late 40's and then retire and fly commercial

[Dutchdisneyfan]

My brother just became a pilot for Air Lingus.
All together his debt for his school/tests/flying hours (in The Netherlands) is about 200.000 pounds.
But when he get's to be a copilot (now, he hardly get's paid ) he can pay it back within 10 years according to the bank...

[colin39]

My cousins daughter never got the full qualification she need to become a helicopter pilot, so she joined the raf as an engineer, and passed he second part of he flying exam last week.

[TigerMom]

My work colleagues son is a pilot for FlyBe. He went to Spain and did a commercial pilots course instead of going to university. It was expensive but I don't think it was as much as £200000. He too wanted to be a pilot from when he was a little boy and he absolutely loves his job.