The Hungry Pilot

Before we discuss how to find your first gig as a professional pilot, let’s take a look at what you need to bring to the table and how to find the right training provider. I have decided to split this topic up further, as there is a lot to cover and to consider, so there will be more posts on this in the future. Like last time we will start with more about my own background and then dig into the details.

Again, first a bit more about me

As mentioned in part 1, I failed the selection process for Austrian Airlines and that was enough to kill my mojo for quite a while. My grades in school were average at best but mostly because I was lazy. After my military service I studied IT project management at the university for 2 years, but eventually dropped out since the outlook was sitting in an office year round, and this wasn’t very tempting either at this point. Anyway, I was convinced I had the cognitive skills a pilot should have. I also finished my PPL training in the minimum required time in terms of flight hours, and with pretty good feedback from my instructors and my examiner.

So I felt confident enough to look for a flight school in Austria and for financing. My mind was made up, even though I knew very well that the financial crisis, which had just begun, would have an impact on aviation for a while. The idea was to train during the crisis and to be ready for the job market when the recovery would start. Turned out that the upturn came much later than everyone was hoping…

After converting my PPL to a European license I enrolled for my training, which started in June 2009 with the multi-engine rating, immediately followed by the instrument rating (IR). I managed to graduate in April 2010, being among the 3 best guys of my course. Now, finally holding my freshly printed CPL in my hands, it was time to start hunting for a job.

To be continued…

The key items

In my humble opinion there are 4 major boxes that you should be able to tick before you sign up with a flight school:

• Motivation
• Money
• Skills
• Health

We will have a closer look at each of these now.

Motivation

Why motivation, you might ask, since you already (kinda) know that you want to fly. Well, I guarantee you it is a crucial point as it will have probably the greatest impact on how you learn and train.

If you are starting with zero flight experience, surprise, there is a lot to learn. You will be studying hard, especially if you are training in Europe (check this post, and this one). From my own experience I know how hard it is to learn if you are not interested in the subject. I’m talking about my time at university and dropping out, which is also a result of not being motivated in the first place. However, I soaked up everything that was thrown at me during flight training like a sponge, because that was what I wanted to do. Studying the dullest subjects (like airlaw) never felt like a burden.

Types of students

Already during my own time as a student I noticed that there are different types of students, and it was confirmed over and over again while being a flight instructor. Most students were highly motivated up to a point where they would take a loan to finance their training, which always comes with quite a bit of risk. A good portion of them managed to finish their training in reasonable time and they can now be found in airline cockpits.

Some students were also motivated, but they had different expectations on what they were in for. Perhaps because they didn’t do enough research beforehand, perhaps because their training providers didn’t make it clear enough during the sales process, or a mix of both. Anyway, they underestimated the amount of stuff to learn and the time which is spent with studying. This usually caused them some delays in their training, but not too serious in most cases.

Another type of student were the guys playing with someone else’s chips, quite often a father with ample financial means generously funding his offspring’s training. While there’s nothing wrong with that, my observation over the years was that these students took longer to finish their training, some of them significantly. They just don’t have the financial pressure to finish training, find a job and start making money, as much as the self-sponsored guys with a huge bank loan do. Some of them are not even fully convinced that they really want to be pilots, and they just see what this is all about and if this might suit them. This is a lot easier to do without that financial pressure, and then some of these guys take forever to train or they drop out after a while, often after several fails at the ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License) theory exams.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that all the guys whose training was paid for them were all dropouts. Most of them are working as pilots now. There were also highly motivated guys who funded their training through a bank who dropped out during training. There’s not just black and white, as is the case with most things in life.

So what’s the point, please?

Allow me to repeat myself here: Your motivation will have the biggest impact on how successful your flight training will go. Ask yourself if you are willing to make sacrifices, to struggle and also fail on your way, because it’s inevitable. Read this post if you need a reminder on how cruel aviation as an industry is.

It’s a competition

I’m going to leave the USA aside in this discussion, as there is (still) a pilot shortage and the job market works differently there. In Europe and lots of other parts of the world there are usually too many pilots with zero or low experience in commercial air transport for the amount of jobs available. This means the employers can select their pilots from a huge pool of people who are keen to get their feet in some company’s door. It’s great for the employers, as they can pick the best and ignore the rest.

For you as a student pilot this means: Try to be among the best.

The competition for jobs will be fierce and the best ones get picked first (or only). Arrange your life in a way that allows you to focus on your training for 2 years, and nothing else. Try to finish training in reasonable time, like 1,5 or 2 years. Not 3 or 4. Make your performance your top priority in every way. For example, you ideally don’t fail any theory exams.

Always show up well prepared for your flying lessons. If you don’t, you will most likely be sent home by your instructor, but you will be charged anyway. Apart from the financial loss, repeating a session will leave a stain in your student record. And that’s something most airlines will ask from you at some point during the application process.

No need to panic though. To fail is a part of life and what I just described are not immediate showstoppers. Those failures will not prevent you from being a pilot, unless too many of them accumulate. But not being among the best will not set you apart from the competition.

When fate strikes

Apart from the things you have to bring, there are obviously a lot of other factors involved, some of which you cannot control. There will be setbacks for everyone, but with the right motivation you will be a lot more resilient and creative in finding ways to overcome those obstacles and setbacks. Let me give you an example from my personal experience, a little “teaser” about my own story which I will cover in more detail in the future.

So, after finding my first pilot job and working for a couple months, I noticed that my vision started to deteriorate. I went to my eye doctor and after some checks I was diagnosed with a tumor in my right eye. Within a month from the diagnose I had it removed and the result was a 100% blindness of my right eye.

My career in aviation was going down the drain, all I had left was a worthless pilot license without a class 1 medical certificate, and a lot of debt. And of course there was the monocularity itself and several days of waiting and hoping that the tumor was benign. Luckily, it was.

Long story short, 11 years later I’m flying jets in commercial air transport, with only one working eye. It was a bumpy ride with plenty of struggles, including a lawsuit against the Austrian Civil Aviation Authority over my medical certificate.

The key is: I found my motivation again and it gave me the strength to fight, and to never give up. The right motivation can move mountains.