Loan Insurance for student pilot

Bingobum

Hi,
My youngest, Gabriel, (17) wants to become a pilot but we think will struggle to raise the finance as we don't own our own home to back the loan. Can I take out any loan insurance instead? (Maybe in conjunction with someone who is prepared to back the loan to assure them?) All the PPI I can find seems to provide sickness protection for those in work. Is there ANY way a boy from a poorish family can become a pilot if he has the aptitude?

[Deleted User]

You'd still need to raise the finance, before you could take out an sort of income protection policy.

forgotmyname

If his desire to do that then he will be looking for every job possible to earn as much as possible. Even between a main job he would be looking for part time work or another source of income.

I used to earn half as much as my main job on a good weekend. But you need to make sacrifices. No good thinking i want to go out on saturday when you could be earning money.

iolanthe07

Is there ANY way a boy from a poorish family can become a pilot if he has the aptitude

The RAF or Feet Air Arm used to provide a way to learn to fly at public expense. Many airline pilots are ex servicemen. This route may be worth looking into.

ReadingTim

Bingobum wrote: »

Is there ANY way a boy from a poorish family can become a pilot if he has the aptitude?

The only outfit who'll teach you to fly for free and gratis based only on aptitude is the military, but competition will be intense because (basically) if you have the "aptitude" to drive a car, you have the "aptitude" to pilot an aircraft: it's really not that difficult. So for a 17 year old, we're talking the Air Cadets, CCF if at school, University Air Squadron if at Uni, or joining direct, as long as he meets the criteria outlined here

In Civvy St, post 9/11 all of the airlines' cadet programmes were closed, and ab initio recruitment was frozen for a few years. It's now reopened, but nowadays, recruits pay for it themselves: see here for what BA do and how it works. Easyjet do something similar.

Finally, try posting on the wannabees section of pprune - that's a better place than here. However, if your son seriously wanted to be a pilot, rather than merely entertained it as an idle fantasy, he'd know all of this stuff already....

silverwhistle

I considered it when I was younger, and there was still training available, but my poor maths and physics, my lack of coordination and the sheer competition from people far more motivated than me led me away from the idea. I occasionally hung around the local airfield, had an airband radio and tried to join the UAS, but in the end realism prevailed.

I think the OP illustrates the point how social mobility is getting less, but ReadingTim's point in his last line sums up where he should be if he wants to succeed in his aim.

CKhalvashi

BA offer probably one of the best cadet schemes currently available, which involves them guaranteeing the training debt, which is paid back tax free at £1000p/m for 7 years. Another huge advantage of BA is not being left to fund a type rating (which can go anywhere to £30k on top of the £100k training costs). IIRC your son would be liable for the interest on the loan however.

Another note is regarding how the pay scales work, which could disadvantage him if the quick commands of the last few years are still available in a few years time.

Easyjet offer a similar scheme, although I'm not 100% sure of how it works.

PPRuNe links to the most recent Easyjet scheme and BA scheme are here, (click on the airline names), and airline links to the same schemes are here for Easyjet and BA (same applies).

I believe the options for Easy are CTC and OAA, and for BA OAA and FTE Jerez.

Good luck to him

Westminster

If you don't get in to BA, then you will need £100-125k to get all the way to day 1 in the right hand seat for EasyJet or Ryanair.

Its not a cheap whim!

CKhalvashi

Westminster wrote: »

If you don't get in to BA, then you will need £100-125k to get all the way to day 1 in the right hand seat for EasyJet or Ryanair.

Its not a cheap whim!

Or a lot less to get into Wizz, Blueair etc before moving on after a few years.

Worth crossing that bridge if/when it gets beyond the BA/Easy stage though as it's a lot riskier financially, especially if there isn't the money in the first place.