Hey everyone. I’m back with another dilemma. As the end of high school creeps closer and closer for me, I have started to think about my future decision but is met with a problem.
Basicially, should I have a plan B and do an (eg.) engineering course in case something goes wrong?
Some universities around me have this thing called The Qantas Future Pilot Program. It allows select students to get a career as a pilot with Qantas right after graduating. Should I do an piloting course or no?
Thanks for all your help in advance!
Well it is your decision I think it is a great idea to have a plan to fall back on and to become a pilot right away sounds amazing! But I think the engineering course would be something that you could fall back on, be a great skill for you and you would still be able to work in aviation
Im going to do cabin crew then when I have the money from doing that I will go to flight school doing a course is good but not really necessary in my opinion their are other ways around it If you are not to keen on doing a course.
I dont want to push you down, but cabin crew honeslty do not make that much money. Starting off you will only be getting paid around 11 to 18k.
The main reason older flight attendants get paid double and sometimes triple that is because theyre working off older contracts which havent been changed. New flight attendants now dont get that much money. Im only pointing this out is because you say you want to save your money from being a flight attendant and put it towards flight school.
I would personally go for it. You have an opportunity which I can’t even dream of getting (You can’t get such stuff in the UK)
But also I would have a backup plan but I wish you all the best :)
The Qantas program looks good from what I read on the link provided. That said I would look into people who are currently in the program as well as people who have graduated the program and moved on to fly the line. Look into the program success rate. That is huge. If 10% of your class only makes it through to fly the line I would stay away from it. To me that doesn’t make sense to invest in something with only a 10% success rate.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a back up and I personally encourage that. I went to uni and have degrees in both biology and finance. Having been in aviation at it’s lowest time I will tell you HAVE A BACK UP! always. When interning at USAIR and it tanked post 9/11 and many pilots lost job they had no clue what to do(most ended up being substitute teachers at a local school because they had military background) Engineering is a great back up.
@Joeoreilly77 that’s a good plan. While you won’t make much money you will get to travel on your duty days, enjoy non rev perks and on your off days you can study and flight train. Just don’t bank on making a lot a money. It will also give you a great insight of what your life will be like on line as a pilot in terms of your schedule. I personally know many FAs currently pilots in the regional Airlines the way you would like to make it happen. Being in the plane will also keep you driven in my opinion.
If you wouldn’t mind telling me, how interested are you in becoming an engineer? And the same goes without saying: how interested are you in becoming a pilot (in comparison to engineering)?
Perhaps you have a vision or imagination “abstract ideas” of what the world could be and you love solving real-life puzzles—engineering is for you. Or maybe, you consider yourself as an observant person who puts less imagination and love more concrete, non-abstract ideas—then pilot it is.
I am a sophomore computer science myself and I recently (around last month or so) had thought of becoming a pilot. I have been into flying since I was around 7 but I had always ever thought flying was dangerous. While nowadays I don’t see flying being that dangerous, I still can’t handle the fact that I would have to hold people’s lives in my hands—this puts me off from flying so much. The same goes with being an ATC: I love controlling but I am not mentally strong enough to hold people’s lives under my control.
I discussed this with my friends and they also said that I might fit as a pilot, mentally and physically. They know me as someone who goes crazy about travelling and driving, and I noticed that too. In my spare time, I drive around town even when I have no destination in plan—this is just how much I enjoy driving. I could assume the same thing when I become a pilot, honestly speaking.
So I came to a conclusion to obtain my private pilot license once I graduate with my CS degree. I thought it might be useful when I retire and have a ton of spare time to kill (I’m thinking of flying around with my wife, my kids, my family, or whoever-it-is lol)
That being said: I once had a thought to becoming one of IF’s software developers, because why not. I love coding and flying so I thought, “why not work for IF bro?” 😂
I am not telling you to hold short pun intended LOL of being a pilot; this is just purely my opinion. Indeed, always have a Plan B in case things ain’t going like you expect. I definitely suggest discussing your thoughts with your parents and if you want, my PM is always open 😉
@EdgyEugene 4/10. I’m not that interested in becoming a engineer. 9.5/10 for being a pilot tho. Thanks, I’ll think about it @Erj145 I’m not quite sure what %, but it does say a select few, so not everyone is going to make it.
So if I do an engineering course, I won’t be doing the course that might get me into the QFPP
You might wanna delve a little deeper into engineering.
In my case, there are some aspects “branches” in computer science that I don’t like—it’s not that I love all of CS. I’m getting like B- and B’s in the courses I hate; A and A+'s in the ones I love. Maybe you’re only 4/10 into engineering because you haven’t found that one aspect of engineering you’re really into, but if you’re not into engineering in general, I think you might as well just step into aviation.
In the same way, delve a little deeper into aviation too! Maybe you love flying in general but you haven’t discovered some dark sides of it…