For: The best jobs are well paid and the lifestyle can be quite interesting and fun. You will have the opportunity to travel the world and meet different people. With some of the smaller carriers your promotion can be quite rapid, and with the larger airlines you get an extensive employment package, which may include health insurance, loss of license (medical) insurance, and a generous pension.

Against: Some of the worst jobs are poorly paid, with quite a difficult lifestyle. At some airlines you are only hired till your next flight check or medical. If the economy goes bad and you are junior you might loose your job, and promotion with some of the large airlines can take up to 20 years.

The only way to get past step one is make a large list of pros and cons of being a pilot and that should be enough to see if it is for you.

There is nothing as sad as seeing some one who has set their site on becoming an airline pilot, started training, and then fail their medical. To become an airline pilot you will need a class one aviation medical. If you are seeking sponsorship the airline will take care of this, alternatively you can spend a couple hundred pounds and get it yourself. In the medical the doctor will look heart and lungs, measure and weigh you, and give a blood and urine test. You are able to wear glasses, as long as the prescription isn't too strong.

Step 3
The cheapest way to become a pilot in the UK is to get the airline to pay for your training. But the only down side with this is that competition is fierce. Here are a couple tips to help you out. Get to know a bit about the company’s history. Go and take a couple flying lessons or if you can get your PPL. This goes back to number 1 with being prepared. Be able to talk about the fleet size, route structure, know the name of the chairman, the airlines future plans, also know about the planes like what TCAS is, and EFIS. The airline wants you to demonstrate your ability as a team member, so shouting over everyone during the group exercise will not help you in anyway! Successful airline candidates are mature for their age and know a lot more then thrust to weight ratio of a jumbo.

Topics like politics, current affairs, and sports might also be bought up. It is time to look as smart as you can! Get a haircut, men remove your earrings, get your suit dry cleaned, and clean your shoes (including the soles). Common turn offs are: Men with highlighted hair, hair gel, tattoos, dirty figure nails, and ladies (and men too) no black nail polish. You will be surprised how many people come running in 10 minutes before the interview starts. Arrive early, as you will be a little more settled.

If you pass an initial interview the next stage will usually be a day of aptitude testing, group exercises and psychometric examination.

If all this effort fails you are among the 99 percent that do not get selected, you will have to pay for yourself. Full time pilot training course may be over a year in length and costs more the 50,000 pounds. Not many people can afford it, or the time out of paid employment while training in being undertaken. Another option is to go to the US for your flight training, but make sure it has the appropriate JAA approval certificate.

Step 4
Typically, a full time course lasts just over a year depending on your progress and the good old British weather. You will get about 160 hours during this course. You first learn to fly single engine VFR, then you start flying more complex single and then take an intensive instrument course. After this you will learn to fly multi engine aircraft. You will also be enrolled in a ground school that covers 14 subjects. Your flight training is something should enjoy and be able to look back on with fond memories.

Step 5
Flight test strikes fear into the hearts of even the hardest students. Some examiners have terrifying reputations but the truth is if you do everything right you will pass, and probably go out and have a couple pints! If it does not go very well, you will probably receive a partial pass, which means you have not meet all the standards but only have to re-fly the parts you did not very well on. At the end of all this you can pop down to Gatwick and get your new license. The blood, sweat and tears of the last few months or years will seem worthwhile. But don't slack off because there is more hard work to be done!

Step 6
It is time to go and find a job, you might think this is the final step but it is not! With your basic commercial pilots license and Instrument rating, the chance are you will have to take a turboprop job and then step up when you can. The biggest problem with these jobs is it is low pay, yet many turboprop operations are very interesting and have more 'hands on' flying then with the big airliners. Also you will be able to upgrade to command very quickly. If you are having problems with this maybe you should consider getting a type rating.

Step 7
This is the final step, you will learn how to operate as a crew and gain a type rating. Most pilots don't appreciate it at the time, but this is probably the hardest part of all. The ground school typically takes two to four weeks where you will take the airplane apart and then put it back to together metaphorically speaking. After ground school you move on to training in the simulator, where you will go through each and every emergency in the manual.

In addition, your use of checklist and company standard operation procedures will be finely tuned, as these are the cornerstones of safe multi crew operations. So a hot tip for progress is to learn the checklists and SOP's before you go to the sim session not during it. Keeping your instructor happy is a very important aspects of sim training, he or she will not be too happy if you spend half an hour of a 2 hour session pre-flight the aircraft. After doing some sim work you will then move on to line training where you get to fly a real airplane, in your uniform, with real passenger (and your training Capt.).

At the end of line training course comes the line check, which is usually a bit of an anticlimax and rarely botched, though some students need a few more sectors! Chances are you will be driving home after your final line check when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, or maybe of your uniform while moving the car gear stick, and then you realize you has just become an airline pilot.

If any of you have any questions please do not hesitate to E-mail me: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or feel free to post on the European/JAA training forum.