Become a pilot for free
For those with no flying experience wishing some general careers advice on becoming a commercial pilot - what it involves, the training courses needed for a licence and the overall costs involved, please our free eBook on this subject. Feel free to share it.
An extract from this eBook follows:
There are two routes to becoming a commercial pilot; an integrated course and the modular route. We can assist with either route. Airlines now recruit pilots for both types of schools as long as the schools involved are recognised by them as delivering a well-trained pilot.
Integrated school offer a complete package for your training and are generally good, but very expensive and you may have to pay large sums in advance. Also, there is little flexibility about your training and a high drop-out rate if you are not able to keep up with the high demands of their training courses.
The Modular route delivers the same training and involves 2 or more schools, The main advantage is cost - it is by far the cheaper option that leads to exactly the same qualification to becoming an airline pilot [frozen Airline Transport Pilot's Licence(ATPL)] The modular route costs about two thirds of the price of an integrated course. The drop rate is much lower as you can progress at your own pace and it offers more flight experience than the integrated route. The ability to choose your own timing for each major element of the course helps the financial outlay.
The Modular route to frozen ATPL is as follows:
- Private Pilot's Licence (PPL) - about 50 flying hours.
- Commercial Pilot (ATPL) ground school studies. (6 month residential or one year distance learning course).
- Flight Hour building (minimum 150 hours)
- Commercial Flight Training, consisting of Commercial Pilots' Licence (CPL) Multi-Engine Rating (ME), Instrumental Rating (IR)
- MCC Course flight sim of commercial jet transport type of aircraft
After completing a PPL locally at any EASA Flying Club, you could come to Scotland to us for 6 months of intense classroom study for the 14 ground school ATPL Theory exams. You have to pass these before starting any commercial pilot flight training. The cost of our course is currently £4950 and accommodation costs are about £225 per month. After this course with us, you can go to any flight training school of our choice (integrated or modular). For Example, we have a partner flight school in the USA (the highly regarded flight training in Florida) for the EASA (European) flight training as a cost effective solution where the weather is good and fuel is very cheap.
Regarding the ground school studies, there are numerous distance learning (DL) options including our own DL course (self study on your own), but we would always recommend the full-time residential course where the student is taught by fully qualified pilots. Our Staff here are all very experienced instructors and have delivered a highly effective programme for several years with very good results for the students. There is good and low cost accommodation available on site or nearby.
