How To become a Commercial or Airline Pilot
There are 2 routes to obtaining a Commercial Pilot's Licence leading to the qualifications required to become an Airline pilot.
Route 1 Apply to an approved Integrated School
There are 3 such schools in Europe; Oxford Aviation Training, Cabair or Jerez - European Flight Training. The course lasts about 15 months and costs about £70,000 start to finish, not including living expenses. It is a full time, quite formal road. There is usually a pre selection procedure to ensure the student shows the potential to get through the course in the minimum time as stated on the contract. If during training it becomes evident that more flying hours are required to get the student to the standard required for the various tests, then the student must pay for this extra training time on top of the initial outlay. Realistically, costs can rise to £72,000.
Route 2 Modular Training - What Tayside Aviation specialise in.
The student first completes a Private Pilot's Licence course of 45 hours minimum to qualify for a PPL. You then have to hour build, under supervision, to fly another 105 hours. During this time you can complete the distance learning package to pass all of the CPL or ATPL ground exams. Once having logged 150 hours total flying time, of which 100 hours are pilot in command time with at least 20 hours of cross country navigation flights and having completed the ATPL exams, and having been issued with a CAA Class 1 Medical, you then qualify to complete the Commercial Pilot's Licence course of 25 hours minimum. To get issued with the licence, you must have a total of 200 hours logged flight time including 5 hours of night flying.
After this you have a choice;
Either complete the Flight Instructors Course, get a job as a flying instructor for a year or so to build your experience up towards 1,000 hours of flight time,
Or
Go straight for the Multi Engine Piston Class Rating (MEPCR) and the Instrument Rating (I/R) courses, followed by Multi Crew Cooperation (MCC) and Jet Orientation Training courses (JOT). These last 3 courses involve a Flight Navigation Procedure Trainer / simulator.
Either way, you must complete the MEPCR and I/R followed by the MCC and or JOT courses to qualify for a frozen Airline Transport Pilot's Licence (fATPL).
You are now qualified to apply to the airlines seeking a position as a First or Second Officer - Pilot.
The Modular route will cost about £38,000. But, you can spread this over 3 to 4 years and do it part time to fit in with your working / family life.
Whichever route you take, you end up with the same licence and the same 200 hours of experience and with the same prospects of finding employment with a suitable airline. Extra time gained as a flying instructor will stand you in good stead.
It must be stressed that these cost are for minimum training times. Should you need more training at any point to reach the standard required for tests, then this will cost more. The idea of quality flight training is to keep the cost to a minimum which does not mean that you will get through on minimum time. It should be taken as you getting through on what is a minimum time for you. We are all individual and each learns at different rates.
Hopefully this answers all your questions on how to become an airline pilot.
