Insights | Nov 16

Pursue a Career as a Commercial Pilot

​ Are you are looking to become a pilot and have a long successful career with great opportunities and to meet people all over the world, but always wondered how? A career as a pilot often pays well and comes with various benefits including, reduced airline tickets and hotel stays but, this varies from airline to airline. If being a pilot is the career of your choice, it will be very costly and requires a lot of self-funded private training before you can look at applying for a pilot job. What are the different types of pilots?There are two primary types of aircraft, these are fixed-wing (pilot) and rotary wing (helicopter). Also, there are three different flying groups: private, commercial, and military. Private pilots – these usually include Cessna and Piper planes and are 2-4 seaters. You tend to see these planes flying much lower in the sky compared to cargo planes. Private pilots fly at their leisure. Commercial pilots – requires additional training compared to private pilots, and also a minimum of 200 hours qualifying flight experience, meaning they will qualify for a Commercial Pilots License (CPL). If they hold this license, they can fly planes for all different airline companies allowing passengers to travel around the world and transport cargo and are allowed to receive money to do so. Military pilots – follow a separate path to private and commercial pilots. They are required to take a different type of training which enables them to control/manage aircrafts in the armed forces. To become a military pilot, you must join the RAF, Royal Navy, British Army, and Air cadets air squadron.Commercial PilotTo become an airline Commercial Pilot, you need to gain your ATPL exam qualifications, which are achieved through an aviation academy or flight school. With the ATPL exams passed, plus Commercial Pilots licence and Instrument Rating training you will hold what is known as Frozen ATPL (or fATPL) you can apply for first Officer jobs working beside a captain. To become a captain, you must have a minimum of 1500 hours of flight time behind you and meet a specific standard, this ‘unfreezes your fATPL to allow you to carry out the role as Captain). The role of a Captain comes with a much higher salary but a significant increase of responsibility. Skillset needed for training to be a Pilot:Personal attributes: you must have a great interest, desire, and enthusiasm for flight, technical ability, able to deal with demand and structural thought. Secondary education grades: You must show qualifications for GCSE grades A-C in Maths, English, and Science.Medical certificate: You must hold an official Medical Certificate (Class 1 for Commercial Pilots, and Class 2 for Private Pilots). To show proof, you have passed your eyesight, hearing, coordination, and general health test which you need throughout your pilot career. Age and correct qualifications: You are entitled to apply for the training at 17 years old however you must be 18 to start the training. You need to meet the requirements to live in the country the training occurs in. Assessment: You will be required to carry out various tests that includes; Computer-based aptitude testing, personality questions, teamwork exercises, and competency-based interview questions that allow the interviewee to find out whether you will succeed as a pilot and this is a suitable career path for you.Different Paths to take to achieve your career as a pilotThere are two routes you can take to become a pilot. Whether you decide to study at a university (which isn’t vital) or, if you are sure you would like to have a career as a commercial pilot then, it would be beneficial for you to start your private training and would be more cost-effective in the long run.However, if you are not 100% sure, you can study Private Pilot’s license at university, this will not give you the full qualification, and additional training and studying are required. In addition, to be accepted for a university, you will be expected to have A-Levels or similar.How to gain your fATPL Licence: There are 3 different ways you can achieve your fATPL training these include:Integrated Training Modular and integrated training are not similar, but they can still achieve the same result. Integrated training is where you will start the training right from the beginning and, modular training is where you should have PPL already and work for 150 hours prior to training. Unfortunately, like everything, the private training is costly and varies between £80,000-£90,000 and added extras. The integrated course runs on average, for 18 months and includes a mixture of theory teaching and practical flying time. This course is strongly advised if you are looking to start with an airline and even though you may have zero flying time, you are more likely to be accepted from taking this course. Modular Training You can train/study Modular training alongside you working, but the downside is that there is no set time limit where the course needs completing by. You are also unable to begin your commercial pilot training until you have met the entry criteria, which includes having your PPL and completing 150 hours of flying.Multi-Crew Pilot Licence This type of license can stop pilots from being able to work for certain airlines and aircraft. This route isn't advisable unless you know you have a job opportunity at the end of your training.Registered training providersCivil Aviation Authority: https://www.caa.co.uk/Data-and-analysis/Approved-persons-and-organisations/Datasets/Lists-of-approved-persons-and-organisations/Pilot-training-providers---ATOs-and-RTFs/University courses:Private Pilot Licence (PPL)Private Pilot Licence and ground instruction theory (ATPL)Frozen ATPL goes hand in hand with the Private Aviation Training Schools providing the whole knowledge and practice you need. There will be numerous written exams that you have to sit/pass to gain your commercial pilot licence, these include:Air lawAircraft general knowledge: airframe/systems/powerplantAircraft general knowledge: instrumentationMass and balancePerformanceFlight planning and monitoringHuman performanceMeteorologyGeneral navigationRadio navigationOperational proceduresPrinciples of flightCommunications: visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (IFR) KSA – Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Overall Becoming a pilot has many pros and very few cons but, it is a great career choice. If this is the career you would like to pursue, please consider the study route and how quickly you would like to become a pilot. When you have passed your qualifications, we could help you find your first job, therefore don’t forget to keep an eye on our website to see all the jobs we are recruiting for.

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Insights | Nov 09

The Aviation Industry Begins To Take Flight

​When the pandemic first hit, the aviation industry came to a halt, which meant that many people lost their jobs, countries closed their borders, planes were parked up on runways or put in storage and, some retired earlier than planned. However, as the adult population began to be fully vaccinated and restrictions started to ease in April, we have seen the Aviation industry increase dramatically. Therefore, there has been a rise in aviation jobs and the number of flights taking off. Summer 2021Towards the end of summer, the flight industry saw a 51% increase in July 2021 of scheduled seats per week globally compared to July 2020. When the holiday season hit towards the end of July, it meant that the flight capacity for European holidays heightened to 21.5 million scheduled seats. For more information regarding statistics of flights visit here: https://blog.ch-aviation.com/2021/07/27/since-the-covid-19-outbreak-capacity-numbers-are-at-an-all-time-high/The furlough scheme ended at the end of September 2021, and we could expect to see more redundancies in the aviation industry and further businesses going into administration. Changes to the travel traffic light system will show fewer countries to appear on the red list. All countries on the amber and green have combined to form one list and, you will no longer be required to take a PCR test 3 days prior to travelling to the UK if you are fully vaccinated. However, the requirement to take a PCR test 2 days after arriving in the UK was still in place. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has stated the aviation industry has overcome the most difficult times of the Covid Pandemic and has advised the government to reduce the travel rules and allow for borders to open. Although in 2022, reports show there will still be a predicted loss of £8.5bn and, the industry is working towards a slow but positive recovery. For example, Ryanair has seen an increase in passengers on their flights. The London Stock exchange reported on their passenger traffic data that Ryanair passengers increased from 5.2m in September 2020 to 10.6m in September 2021, which overall shows an 81% increase from the year before.Australia’s borders have finally opened at the beginning of November. They have had their borders shut since the beginning of the Pandemic March 2020, which equates to nearly 600 days.What We Have Seen So FarAs we head into Winter 2021/22, airlines are not forthcoming with adding capacity too soon. Although, they have seen positive changes happening and more customers booking winter holidays, especially in October half term. For example, Spain has seen a 1.9% growth for its flight schedule between November 21 - March 22, which is more than their schedule in 2019, pre-pandemic. Canary and Balearic Islands have also seen a 10% increase in their flight schedule for this year compared to 2019.  From Sunday 24th October, the government relaxed the rules further by, fully vaccinated holidaymakers returning from non-red-list countries are not required to take a PCR test 2-days after arriving in the UK. Instead, you are required to take a lateral flow test booked through private providers and, the test is a lot cheaper compared to the original PCR tests.Positive Impact For Resource GroupOverall, the aviation industry is finally looking up, and reports show that traffic will not return to normal until at least 2024, with business travel taking longer than leisure trips.At Resource Group, we have seen positive movements with aviation companies recruiting for new opportunities in the industry. Whether this is for flight crew, engineers, mechanics, and office roles, there are a lot of jobs available - click here to see: https://www.employment.resourcegroup.co.uk/jobs.In September, we saw our Resource Training solutions welcome 14 students from Airbus Helicopters, Airtanker, JMI, and DEA starting their exciting learning journey consisting of a fully approved Level 3 CAT A Aviation Maintenance Apprenticeship programme. They will be training with us for the next 10-months at our training facility in Cirencester to produce a safe and competent, work-ready apprentice that can actively contribute to their workforce. But it doesn’t stop there because we are already looking to recruit our next cohort of apprenticeships next year Jan/Feb 2022 for more of our world-leading clients. This is all positive news for Resource Group and, we hope to continue growing our company.  

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