[Melanie Moxon]

I'd get your PPL (FYI 3-Axis microlight hours now count)...

No - there are multiple threads referencing this at the moment. Microlight hours will not count towards the issue of an SEP PPL. The recent changes only allow 3-axis microlight hours to count towards revalidation of an existing SEP/TMG rating

Badly worded perhaps but that I what I meant.

[SH87]

I trained via the modular route and am now a 737 FO (furloughed).

I followed this route: PPL, Night Rating, ATPL theory & hour building, CPL, IR & MEP Class Rating, MCC & JOC. I worked full time during my training until I got to the IR where I was lucky enough to pool my leave and take some unpaid leave to give me 2 months off work. As soon as I finished, I was straight back in the old job earning money while applying for flying jobs.

The job market was reasonable when I qualified in 2015 but it still took me 15 months to get a job offer. In that time I passed the Flight Instructor course, and got a Class Rating on the Cessna 208 and flew skydivers. As others have mentioned, the job market is non-existent at the moment but there are more jobs in aviation than being an airline pilot.

I suggest your first step is to take a trial lesson at an airfield close by, Leicestershire Aero Club may be a good start.

Good luck - keep asking as many questions as you need to

I find this really encouraging, to hear of other modular stories. I am an accountant working my way through LAPL, then hopefully onto hours building and eventually CPL. I can’t afford the 100k integrated course (and not would I in these times!) but I am sure demand in the long run will return - humans want to travel!

Would you be happy to tell more detail about your experience, in particular how you went about your hours building and getting things like the multi engine rating, I earn a decent salary so hopefully that can see me all the way through, but I am not clear on how I would make transition into a commercial role. For example do I need to quit my existing role first?

[Arrow Flyer]

I flew a Piper Arrow while hour building (hence the forum name). Destinations driven partly by Flyer magazine free landing vouchers and partly by where I could convince friends to go and cost share..

When doing your hours building, don't just bimble around the 4 corners of your folded chart. See the UK from the air, it's a great place to fly. Challenge yourself to fly accurately in terms of heading and altitude, **make sure you can trim**, and choose some destinations you need to think about. I live in East Anglia and did my CPL QXC to Scotland.

MEP class rating took me 5 days and was done while still working, before starting the ME IR. It's a 6 hour course with 7 hours groundschool requirement. If you're going to do anything full time I suggest it's the IR, you can't afford to make backward steps due to long layoffs between lessons. It's expensive enough without unnecessary repeats.

I did my FI part time, and got a part time instructing job which I do and enjoy to this day. That said, it's become more of a full time job since COVID!

The transition to a commercial role is a tricky one, in the new world I think you'll have to jump on the first job you're offered even if it means a pay cut. Regardless of which industry, it's usually easier to get a new job once you've got a job. Somebody else will normally pick up or contribute towards your revalidation/medical cost too. If you can split flying and accounting then even better.

You've done the sensible thing and got yourself qualified in another area first. People far wiser than me have tried to instill the need for a fallback career into new pilots for years, that advice was accurate in the past, is acutely accurate now, and will be accurate in the future.

PM me if you want any more info...