Attention, il s'agit d'un point de vue britanique. On oublie ENAC, KD AF et autres formations du type.
L'article est a l'attention de ceux qui envisagent d'autofinancer leur formation, et d'une certaine maniere tourné vers les étudiants qui se forment plutot outre-manche, meme si on s'y retrouve dans pas mal de point avec un autre background.
C'est de l'anglais ultra-basique, c'est long a lire mais ce n'est pas du Shakespeare. Bonne lecture :
If you're thinking about becoming an airline pilot, recent newspaper headlines could well have made chilling reading.
Few of the pilot graduates who have recently completed their training for a job in the airlines will have predicted such tales of woe when they started their courses 18 months ago, and it's probably fair to say that a few might have thought twice about handing over cheques totalling anywhere up to £100,000 had they known how things would be once their studies were complete.
So is this a good time to be setting out on a programme of professional flight training? After all, what's to say that the story will be any better in 18 months time?
As many an aviation old-time will tell you, this industry of ours works in an often predictable cycle of peaks and troughs, with both good times and bad. Previous lows included the year or so after the events of 9/11 when the aviation industry went into mothballs while the airlines responded to a drop in passengers. However, the good thing about a trough is that it is followed by an upturn, and in more recent years we've seen a relatively buoyant marker for pilots with airlines growing and air travel becoming ever more popular.
So what does this mean for anybody looking to start their training now or in the near future?
Certainly the latest group of applicants who recently turned up for the Oxford Aviation Academy assessment tests, and who I had the pleasure of meeting, were all in an upbeat - if noticeably nervous - frame of mind. They spoke with enthusiasm about following their dreams of becoming airline pilots and displayed an almost universal confidence that the industry would pick up by the time they hoped to graduate in 18 months time. Mind you, and not wishing to be too cynical here, it probably won't be their own names on the £70,000 cheque required for them to complete their integrated course - it's often from mum and dad.
Of course, speak to the flight training organisations and they'll inevitably paint a much rosier picture. They will universally foresee a growth in pilot recruitment in the next 18 months or so, citing the likelihood that the economic situation can only improve and that growing fleets will need pilots to fly them.
Perhaps more importantly , the very people who are overseeing the recruitment for the airlines are generally upbeat.
What's more, reports in industry press suggest that there could even be a shortfall in pilots, engineers and ATC staff, so fuelling even more the demand for graduate pilots.
Unfortunately, such tales of a bright future do little to help the pilot graduate who has recently earned his or her wings and currently finds himself faced with the 'Not hiring' signs at the window of many airline recruiting offices. With a bank loan possibly in six figures to service, what's the best step for them?
One common answer is to go down the instructor route, where they can combine staying within the aviation industry with a wage of chance to do some valuable hour-building. This is certainly a positive solution in a couple of ways in particular. When the airlines do start recruiting again, they'll want to see that a graduate pilot has been spending his time in an aviation environment - it will certainly look better than somebody who perhaps has returned to the city or previous career in IT to make ends meet.
Secondly, that instructor experience might well count double if a future airline has half an eye out for applicants who could one day become a training captain.
On the downside, you'll have to shell out even more for your instructor rating. There simply aren't that many schools looking for instructors at the moment (in some cases there's even talk of redundancies) and even if you find a job, the money you'll earn will barely cover the interest payments on your training bank loan.
A second and increasingly popular option for graduates looking for work is to consider spending some time overseas. Despite the economic downturn, opportunities are coming up, typically in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Ok, the work might bnot be on your doorstep, but you will be working, it's a great opportunity to experience a different culture and then there's that all-important first commercial air transport flying job.
Whichever toute you take, the overwhelming advice from carriers and trainers alike appears to be stay within aviation and do what you can to improve your experience and employability.
What the airlines say
We asked a selection of employers what they think will happen in the next 12-18 months.
David Finn,
Manager, Flight Operations Resources,
CityJet
"We will be taking in graduate pilots in 18 months time, predominantly from our dedicated suppliers FTE and CTC.
At the moment, we take on between 12 to 18 cadets per year and I'm confident that will continue in the future - if anybody, it's the graduates who are finishing their training at the moment who will have cause for consideration.
As for the training routes, we do prefer graduatres from an integrated route as we prefer the training to be more concentrated and find that not only does it produce a better pilot, but we can also have more input into the training."
Ashtyaq Ahmed
Recruitment Manager, Rynair
"I am 100% confident that the marker will be sourcing new pilots in 18 months, so it is a good time to start training. Last year we recruited 450 pilots - so we're talking big numbers here - and if you look at the number of new aircraft that we have on order, I'm certain we'll be recruiting in 18 months time.
When it comes to the preference between modular and integrated student pilots, Ash said that he genuinely doesn't mind which they come from. When the modular student has taken a similar amount of time as the integrated to complete his training, we don't see any difference in the quality of graduate. In fact, the modular student can be preferred in that they had to work that much harder to achieve the same standards, which demonstrates a higher level of dedication."
Tim Cheal
Training Manager, Thomas Cook Airlines
"The industry is so difficult to predict at the moment I simply would not like to say! My gut feeling is that we will recover and now is probably the time to start training, but I have no evidence to support that!"
Source : Flyer, February 2009 (magazine britanique).
Désolé pour les éventuelles fautes en recopiant, j'ai écrit a fond car j'ai un boulot monstre pour l'université.
Waouh ca fait mal aux mains ...
PS : je ne suis pas pour copier un article évidemment copyrighté, mais je pense que ca peut s'avérer tres utile dans ce cas précis.
Pour ceux qui veulent acheter la magazine, on le trouve a Toulouse dans la librairie de la place du capitole, a Paris et autres grandes villes dans les gares, aéroports, etc ...