• Air Traffic Control Assistant
• Air Traffic Controller
• Air Traffic Engineer
• Aircraft Maintenance Engineer
• Aircraft Refueller
• Airfield Operations
• Airline Pilot
• Airport Cleaner
• Aviation Security Officers
• Baggage Handler
• Cabin Crew
• Cargo Agent
• Customs and Excise Officers
• Firefighter
• Immigration Officers
• Information Desk Assistants
• Passenger Service Agents (check-in)
• Retail Sales Assistants
• Terminal Duty Manager
• Working at Airports

Airline Pilot

The Work

Pilots are employed in:

• Passenger scheduled services
• Passenger chartered services
• Freight services and business aviation

Being a pilot is not a nine-to-five job. They have to work anti-social hours including overnight, weekends and public holidays. Pilots spend long hours sitting on flight decks in confined spaces.

Typical work activities include:

• Acquiring information about the route, weather, passengers and aircraft.
• Working out a flight plan - the route to be taken, the height at which aircraft will be flown, etc.
• Carrying out pre-flight checks on the navigation and operating systems.
• Communicating with air traffic control prior to take off and landing and during flight.
• Interpreting complex data.
• Making regular checks on aircraft technical performance, position, weather conditions and air traffic.

Skills and Personal Attributes

Being a pilot requires mental agility, physical fitness, good communication skills and the ability to respond decisively in an emergency.

The required skills and personal attributes could be summarised as follows:

• The ability to remain calm and be able to take charge in the event of a crisis or emergency.
• Self-confidence.
• Excellent communication skills.
• The ability to motivate and the capacity for teamwork.
• Confidence when using technology.
• Good hand-to-eye co-ordination and physical fitness.
• Good motor skills and the ability to interpret maps and 3D displays.
• The ability to follow detailed spoken instructions from air traffic control.

Entry Requirements

In order to be considered for this type of work you need to have:

• A minimum of five GCSEs grades A-C (seven in the case of British Airways) in English, maths and preferably a science, such as physics.
• At least two A-Levels or Scottish Highers (three in the case of British Airways) are required, preferably in maths and physics.
• Pilots have to be at least 18 to begin training, and the maximum age varies between 24 and 28.
• A degree or diploma holder may be at an advantage, but bear in mind that it is rare to be accepted for sponsored training once you have reached your mid-twenties.
• You will need to pass a full and strict criminal record check.

Although it is possible to obtain a Private Pilots Licence (PPL) without any of the above qualifications and fly solo from the age of 16, this route into employment as a commercial airline pilot is perhaps the most demanding in terms of time and cost.

In order to establish your fitness to be an airline pilot you will have to take a pre-entry Class 1 medical by an approved Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) examiner to establish your visual sharpness and physical fitness. You will also have to undertake and pass an aptitude test.

Training

In order to fly as an airline pilot you need to have obtained an Airline Transport Pilot's Licence (ATPL), which involves a minimum of 750 hours of structured and progressive theoretical knowledge instruction and 195 hours of flying training. There are three stages:

Basic training:

This combines theory, known as ground training, (meteorology, navigation, navigation law, flight planning, principles of flight, engines, flight systems, etc) with instrument training and flight training (on simulators and small aircraft). The training period normally takes around a year to 14 months.

Intermediate training:

This takes around three to four weeks and offers flight training on larger aircraft.

Advanced training:

This is a conversion course to the airliner type that you will be flying and would take around two months. If you are successful you will be awarded what is known as a frozen ATPL.

A further six months or 1,500 hours' flying experience will be needed to obtain the full ATPL.

There are three routes to training:

• Enroll for a course at a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved aviation training school.
• Apply to an airline which offers sponsored training.
• Enlist in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air.
• Arm or Army Air Corps Association (AACA), as a pilot and later on undertake a conversion course.

Training is expensive with fees ranging from £50,000 to £60,000 for the full course. You will need to take medical and aptitude tests before you begin. Courses can take place in the UK at the Oxford Aviation training School, European Pilot Selection and Training (EPST) (Luton) and other CAA approved flying schools.

Some direct entry airline pilots have trained in the RAF, Fleet Air Arm and AACA before changing to civilian flying following the completion of a conversion course for the CPL and ATPL.

Further training: Type rating to fly specific aircraft, this is often provided by the company .

Progression: Progression is usually from first officer to senior first officer after around 5 years with promotion to captain occurring during mid-career, as and when vacancies occur.

Pilots can also take on training or management roles alongside their flying duties. They can also transfer to ground-based management and may reach very senior positions within an airline, e.g. head of pilot training or chief pilot.

Opportunities

There are over 200 companies, which employ pilots in the UK, the biggest of which is British Airways. They include:

• Scheduled airlines
• Chartered airlines
• Freight airlines.

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