Please read and respond, to my mind this post is meaningful not only for me. I'M NOT LOOKING FOR AN EASY WAY, I DON'T CARE WHAT IT WOULD TAKE.

Hi,I'm 18years old, from Lithuania. I had a dream of becoming a pilot for 2years now. But it was only a dream, I never actually made huge work towards my ambition. And now as my last year of high school is looming on the horizon, I realize that I had to work harder, I have a bunch of loopholes in my grades and my knowledge in science.

I still really want to be in aviation field. The problem is I'm not that super duper in my academics level(I'm above average (7-8/10)), neither my family can really fund all of the finances(although they can help me to start, but they can't finance me all the way through), nor was I were ever attentive to events, volunteering. I'm looking for people who were in a similar position as I'm now, maybe some tips, is it even possible? and should I still consider an opportunity of being a pilot for THIS year?

I have created a strategic plan, of going to the Netherlands, learning their language(I don't know a single word),working, study science right there, to prepare myself for KLM Academy. This year is my last year in high-school, so I'll try to push myself to the fullest to be closer by at least one step to my goal. I strongly believe, that this plan should work, I'm not afraid of waiting even 10 years only to start studying. Anyone had a similar project to mine?

I know that you would think I'm a believer, you probably judge me, I too do judge myself of why I missed my years of pursuing my goal. But the past is in the past, right? I'm moving forward and started a month ago, stepping deeply into educating myself science, mathematics, over-all everything and reading about being a pilot.

For all of the youngsters who are thinking about being one. Don't waste your time like me, it sucks to be in the unknown. Study, find a job, start saving up. LEARN about universities and academies, meet people with experience, participate in EVERYTHING you can to expand your knowledge. I actually mean it. Start now, any work towards your goal is appreciated in the long run. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

high11as1a1kite wrote:

Please read and respond, to my mind this post is meaningful not only for me. I'M NOT LOOKING FOR AN EASY WAY, I DON'T CARE WHAT IT WOULD TAKE.

Hi,I'm 18years old, from Lithuania. I had a dream of becoming a pilot for 2years now. But it was only a dream, I never actually made huge work towards my ambition. And now as my last year of high school is looming on the horizon, I realize that I had to work harder, I have a bunch of loopholes in my grades and my knowledge in science.

I still really want to be in aviation field. The problem is I'm not that super duper in my academics level(I'm above average (7-8/10)), neither my family can really fund all of the finances(although they can help me to start, but they can't finance me all the way through), nor was I were ever attentive to events, volunteering. I'm looking for people who were in a similar position as I'm now, maybe some tips, is it even possible? and should I still consider an opportunity of being a pilot for THIS year?

I have created a strategic plan, of going to the Netherlands, learning their language(I don't know a single word),working, study science right there, to prepare myself for KLM Academy. This year is my last year in high-school, so I'll try to push myself to the fullest to be closer by at least one step to my goal. I strongly believe, that this plan should work, I'm not afraid of waiting even 10 years only to start studying. Anyone had a similar project to mine?

I know that you would think I'm a believer, you probably judge me, I too do judge myself of why I missed my years of pursuing my goal. But the past is in the past, right? I'm moving forward and started a month ago, stepping deeply into educating myself science, mathematics, over-all everything and reading about being a pilot.

For all of the youngsters who are thinking about being one. Don't waste your time like me, it sucks to be in the unknown. Study, find a job, start saving up. LEARN about universities and academies, meet people with experience, participate in EVERYTHING you can to expand your knowledge. I actually mean it. Start now, any work towards your goal is appreciated in the long run. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

All I can woud say is, don't learn Dutch. It's one of the more difficult languages in Europe and it will take a long time to fully understand and speak it. In addition to that, the KLM flight academy is not sponsored by KLM, so you will still need to pay for it yourself. Even if you manage to learn Dutch, then you're very limited with flight schools. If you want to learn another language, go for Spanish or German, at least that's spoken in more than 1,5 country.
Maybe look into sponsored programs, I think Flybe used to have it. Saves you the trouble learning a (let's be honest) not very useful language and instead focus on studying more important courses like science and maths.
Sorry I don't have any more tips or tricks, I'm sure someone will come along to help you in the right direction. Best of luck!

Different part of the world, so it may not apply to your case, but here in Canada this has been my experience...

First of all what missed years? If you're 18 you have nothing but time and opportunity in front of you. I know a lot of people who would pay a million dollars to be back at your age just because of how much opportunity lays ahead. I've loved flying since before I can remember and I was 28 when I took my first flying lesson, and there were multiple people in my courses that were older than I.

If being a pilot is what you want to do I would work towards that goal every year. But you don't necessarily need to work at it 24/7, you can go fast routes or you can work at it on the side while doing other things. Life doesn't need to be a big rush. Having said that though, if it's a real goal then you need to regularly work at it, the human brain isn't perfect so any time you stop doing something for a while when you start again you'll have to spend time and money catching up to where you were again. Basically, if you do end up getting busy with other things that's okay, but you'll be much better off if you can get in a flight lesson or read your books at least one day per week just to keep it flowing in your brain.

School: Finish high school with a passing mark in useful courses, but don't get too worried about the exact marks. I've been in aviation for over 10 years now and I've had to indicate that I've passed high school several times but I've yet to be asked what my marks were. The standard seems to be as long as you can say yes I successfully completed high school your good to go. Obviously your there to learn so make sure you are learning as much as you reasonably can, but at the same time if the cool kids all got 90s and you only got an 80 I can almost guarantee that in five years from now it's not going to matter one bit. Honestly as long as you passed nobody in the real world gives a s**t what your marks were.

Language: Learning another language is cool, but realistically the aviation industry seems to have settled on English. I recommend being fluent in English plus whatever languages you want to learn in your free time. As far as being a pilot goes though, I'd say the most useful languages would be english plus the languages predominately spoken in the areas you intend to fly to on a regular basis.

Finance: It's a tough one for the pilot thing pretty much anywhere you go. The most common and seemingly successful route I've seen people do is get an entry level job in aviation first, save as much as you can and then use that to help cover the costs of flight school. You could do ramp work, catering, cabin cleaning, passenger service agent, all sorts of options. This will not only give you some extra money for flying lessons but it will also give you a chance to get to know different parts of the industry. My experience has been it can actually be super helpful to know how the other departments work.

Actually, in a lot of cases, I find the better pilots are the ones who have done some time in other departments. There's a lot more goes into getting a commercial flight in the air than you'll ever see from the cockpit, and the pilots who have been there done that seem to have an easier time understanding what's really what and who's really who.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: You do not win by being the fasted one to get a flying job. It might take one person a year and the next person 20 years to get that flying job, but the real winner is the one that had fun doing it.

Forget learning Dutch. That is literally the maddest idea ever. Just get a job and spend all your spare cash on flying lessons. You only need 180h and a frozen CPL to get hired by Ryanair. Find another student pilot who you can fly with as a safety pilot in the right seat, gaining experience as an observer to shortcut your own flying lessons. Be a star pupil at your flying club by doing chores etc so they’ll let you backseat on ferry flights etc. Get your English — the international language of aviation, not f***ing DUTCH — perfect and accent free. And that’s probably it. Good luck.

The KLM Flight Academy students almost all join KLM after their training as young as 20/21 years old, so it’s not that strange of an idea.

Germany is bigger and needs more pilots though so maybe that’s better.

England also has a couple good flying schools I think.

I can't recommend the Dutch way either.

Don't under any circumstances chase a single airline. It's just way too risky. KLM might be hiring a few Dutch-speaking pilots today, but tomorrow they could completely change the hiring criteria. If they overhired, or we get hit by another economic crisis, they could well go for another 10 years without hiring a single pilot at all! Or they could decide that they are so short of pilots that they remove the Dutch requirement completely, and then all your efforts will be for nothing. Or implement an unofficial policy of only hiring Dutch citizens. Or maybe the recruiter won't like you, so you fail your only shot at getting the job. Keep the options open.

If I was you, I would start looking for offers and prices on training, all over the place. Remember to factor in the EASA conversion if you find an attractive offer in the US (these should under no circumstances be underestimated, both in effort and price). Factor in a self-sponsored 737 rating, just in case you need to finance it yourself. Once you have a rough idea of what the cost is, make a budget and try to get an idea of how long it will take to save the money and get a loan.
Then go and find a job, or maybe even 2. Speak with some banks about financing it. Spend a few years saving for it. I managed to scrape most of it together in 2 years, albeit with Scandinavian wages. Covered the rest with a loan.
Good thing is that you are an EU citizen, so you can move to where the jobs pay more. You might as well get used to it, because that's what you will get as a pilot.

The problem is I'm not that super duper in my academics level(I'm above average (7-8/10))... ...nor was I were ever attentive to events, volunteering.

That is practically completely irrelevant to aviation, from my experience. So no worries there.

stepping deeply into educating myself science, mathematics

You really don't need a strong knowledge of science and maths to become a pilot. It's just a myth told by maths teachers to make you pay attention. What you do need is an understanding of the underlying principles and the ability to do some relatively simple mental calculations. I saw lots of fellow students at my flying school who could calculate how to land on the moon, but had completely forgotten how to multiply 14 with 3 without a calculator.

Example, the formula for lift:

Looks complex, one of the more complex we studied, but we never actually put numbers into the formula and found a sum. It was more an understanding of how how air density only has half the effect of wing surface, how speed gives an exponential growth of lift, and how real world factors affect to total lift etc.

And seriously, you don't need to know everything before starting your flying training. You attend a flying school to learn it, not to prove that you learnt it all yourself.

cedarjet wrote:

Be a star pupil at your flying club by doing chores etc so they’ll let you backseat on ferry flights etc.

You can forget about that in Europe. We barely have any flying club activities, and ferry flights have nothing to do with them.

English is the best language to learn for aviation. Look in to colleges and universities that have aviation programs, theres quite a bit here in the US and they even have foreigners in the programs. Also, before you do any flying, make sure you pass the physical first!

As TWA772LR says, get a Class One Aviation medical first. No point spending lots of money and then finding out there's an "issue". And don't worry too much at first if there is some issue. Many such are fixable/manageable.

There are many ways to get into the airlines, but as mentioned above, don't fixate too much on one path. There are many ways to land that dreamjob, many of them including years of less glamorous work. That less glamorous work, though, will stand you in good stead in the future.

Grab opportunities when and where you can. They will give you experience that will prepare you to grab better opportunities in the future. "Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."

Side note: Never make enemies in aviation. You never know where that former schoolmate, colleague or instructor will end up in the future. He or she may be the one that gives you your big break in the future.

Starlionblue wrote:

As TWA772LR says, get a Class One Aviation medical first. No point spending lots of money and then finding out there's an "issue". And don't worry too much at first if there is some issue. Many such are fixable/manageable.

I'll just add to that what my medical examiner told me the other day: In the US at least, EEG's are only due at age 35.
So some people get their first class medicals when they're young, put in a lot of work and then suddenly at 35 a big issue pops up. Even if you have to pay extra, insist on doing that and the ECG if not included to see if you'll waste your money or not.

SAAFNAV wrote:

Starlionblue wrote:

As TWA772LR says, get a Class One Aviation medical first. No point spending lots of money and then finding out there's an "issue". And don't worry too much at first if there is some issue. Many such are fixable/manageable.

I'll just add to that what my medical examiner told me the other day: In the US at least, EEG's are only due at age 35.
So some people get their first class medicals when they're young, put in a lot of work and then suddenly at 35 a big issue pops up. Even if you have to pay extra, insist on doing that and the ECG if not included to see if you'll waste your money or not.

ECG? You mean the electrocardiogram? Under EASA it's mandatory for the initial, and then to be renewed every 5 years below the age of 30, 2 years between 30 and 39, 1 year between 40 and 59 and 6 months above the age of 60.
As far as I'm aware, the EEG test was phased out by EASA ages ago. I certainly never did it, heard about it or can find any references to it anywhere in current documents.

VSMUT wrote:

ECG? You mean the electrocardiogram? Under EASA it's mandatory for the initial, and then to be renewed every 5 years below the age of 30, 2 years between 30 and 39, 1 year between 40 and 59 and 6 months above the age of 60.
As far as I'm aware, the EEG test was phased out by EASA ages ago. I certainly never did it, heard about it or can find any references to it anywhere in current documents.

Alright, I'll bow to your knowledge then. I don't fall under FAA - yet.. That's just what I remember, but he also might have said ECG then.
I did both in my initial in the military and got out ok - seems like testing for madness and testing for epilepsy are different. Thank goodness for that!

SAAFNAV wrote:

VSMUT wrote:

ECG? You mean the electrocardiogram? Under EASA it's mandatory for the initial, and then to be renewed every 5 years below the age of 30, 2 years between 30 and 39, 1 year between 40 and 59 and 6 months above the age of 60.
As far as I'm aware, the EEG test was phased out by EASA ages ago. I certainly never did it, heard about it or can find any references to it anywhere in current documents.

Alright, I'll bow to your knowledge then as it seems you fall under FAA rules. That's just what I remember, but he also might have said ECG then.
I did both in my initial in the military and got out ok - seems like testing for madness and testing for epilepsy are different. Thank goodness for that!

EASA, I am under EASA rules, not FAA rules

Good morning.
I want to tell you my story.
My first memory about aviation is when I was 10 and I was travelling with Neos for a family holiday, a very kind stuart asked me if I wanted to visit the cockpit and I said yes. After this fantastic experience I realized what it would be my dream: to became an airline pilot.
I grew up and at 18 i had to face with reality: I belong from a modest family and I couldn't have asked the money to my parents so I put my dream in stand by.
I went ahead getting a degree at 22 and start working very hard with the target to raise 100k euros.

I had my First Flight lesson at 26, after passing all medical and technical exams. At the moment I am attending distance learning course to became private pilot (this permits me to work and study), after completing this I am going to start Atpl e CPL courses.
The road is still hard and long, but now I can do it!

So believe in your dream, work hard, study hard too and one day you will reach your dream.

Best wishes

Andrea.

CanadianNorth wrote:

Different part of the world, so it may not apply to your case, but here in Canada this has been my experience...

First of all what missed years? If you're 18 you have nothing but time and opportunity in front of you. I know a lot of people who would pay a million dollars to be back at your age just because of how much opportunity lays ahead. I've loved flying since before I can remember and I was 28 when I took my first flying lesson, and there were multiple people in my courses that were older than I.

If being a pilot is what you want to do I would work towards that goal every year. But you don't necessarily need to work at it 24/7, you can go fast routes or you can work at it on the side while doing other things. Life doesn't need to be a big rush. Having said that though, if it's a real goal then you need to regularly work at it, the human brain isn't perfect so any time you stop doing something for a while when you start again you'll have to spend time and money catching up to where you were again. Basically, if you do end up getting busy with other things that's okay, but you'll be much better off if you can get in a flight lesson or read your books at least one day per week just to keep it flowing in your brain.

School: Finish high school with a passing mark in useful courses, but don't get too worried about the exact marks. I've been in aviation for over 10 years now and I've had to indicate that I've passed high school several times but I've yet to be asked what my marks were. The standard seems to be as long as you can say yes I successfully completed high school your good to go. Obviously your there to learn so make sure you are learning as much as you reasonably can, but at the same time if the cool kids all got 90s and you only got an 80 I can almost guarantee that in five years from now it's not going to matter one bit. Honestly as long as you passed nobody in the real world gives a s**t what your marks were.

Language: Learning another language is cool, but realistically the aviation industry seems to have settled on English. I recommend being fluent in English plus whatever languages you want to learn in your free time. As far as being a pilot goes though, I'd say the most useful languages would be english plus the languages predominately spoken in the areas you intend to fly to on a regular basis.

Finance: It's a tough one for the pilot thing pretty much anywhere you go. The most common and seemingly successful route I've seen people do is get an entry level job in aviation first, save as much as you can and then use that to help cover the costs of flight school. You could do ramp work, catering, cabin cleaning, passenger service agent, all sorts of options. This will not only give you some extra money for flying lessons but it will also give you a chance to get to know different parts of the industry. My experience has been it can actually be super helpful to know how the other departments work.

Actually, in a lot of cases, I find the better pilots are the ones who have done some time in other departments. There's a lot more goes into getting a commercial flight in the air than you'll ever see from the cockpit, and the pilots who have been there done that seem to have an easier time understanding what's really what and who's really who.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: You do not win by being the fasted one to get a flying job. It might take one person a year and the next person 20 years to get that flying job, but the real winner is the one that had fun doing it.

EXCELLENT ADVICE!

Know and excell at English language (as is already evident in your initial post) and you can work anywhere in the world.