Pilot Careers Live event at Sofitel Hotel, Terminal 5 – London Heathrow Airport. This event provides EVERYTHING one needs to know about a career as a professional pilot. This event encompasses exhibition stands by leading training organisations, airlines and universities. As well as talks and seminars by airline pilots and organisations from all over the aviation sector.  

Attending the Pilot Careers Live event in November 2022 was a great experience once again for me. There’s always something new I take away from every careers event I attend. 

Work with a maximum of 3 ATOs – working with fewer ATOs the better. This is again for auditing purposes by airline recruiters during job hunts. I believe this one of the reasons airlines like integrated students since they can receive one comprehensive report from a single ATO that details the beginning to end of the training as opposed to a modular student having been to many ATOs. So ensure when joining an ATO they can provide you with a detailed report but ensure to keep it at maximum of 3. 

– CPL/ME/IRR/MCC – These are the more important parts of training. And it is important these are completed at one, single ATO! 

– ATPL Study: Most if not all students I spoke to reiterated the commitment needed for ATPL study. Typically students dedicate 6 months of focus and dedication with an average of 10 hours of study on weekends and similar on weekdays* (*integrated – may vary for modular). Something I picked up on a FTE Jerez seminar was students do 800 hours of ground school in total! 

– i spoke to a student from an organisation who advised she has now completed her training and does flight instructing. She advised me to do flight instructing if possible – as not only is it a great way to hour build but you’re also getting paid for it! And there is always demand for flight instructors. I thought this was a pretty cool tip to bear mind (although a flight instructor’s license costs £10k so it is worth weighing the pros and cons). 

Certain airlines have close affiliations with training organisations and tend to recruit from these schools. For example, EasyJet predominantly recruit CAE students. And Ryanair recruits from Atlantic Flight training Academy in Cork, Ireland. Ryanair also works with other organisations, such as Bartolini Air under the Ryanair Mentored Programme where students who choose to follow this pathway are trained in accordance with Ryanair’s SOPs to ultimately work for Ryanair (subject to interview). On the flip side I did also speak to students who were not on such programmes and had been recently recruited by Ryanair. 

– General consensus and recommendation is to complete the entire modular route back-to-back without any gaps. It is important there are no significant gaps between training. This is important in order for airlines to be able to audit and look back at your training. It has to be said this is the reason I did not begin my training during university or earlier. Or in fact include flying hours from flying at the University Air Squadron. I have had another person mention this before and decided to start flying when I would be able to do so without creating massive gaps in training. 

– Do the modular in a short time frame – This is rather controversial and I would deter anyone training quickly whilst neglecting quality. Having spoken to one individual I believe the idea behind this is if possible by doing the training quick – it shows determination, discipline and will. The integrated pathway is completed in 18 months – and no doubt it is intense! Whilst more and more modular students are entering the cockpit airlines like disciplined, organised students who can handle pressured situations which of course the integrated pathway embeds throughout. So by completing the modular pathway in a similar fashion no doubt will make you stand out from other students.