# How to finance pilot training



## Unregistered (30 Apr 2005)

Hi,
I have always wanted to be a pilot and over the last few years I have saved 10,000 euro towards training so far.  HOwever,  I researched training on the net and find that I will need the guts of 80,000 if I wish to complete a full time commercial pilots course in the US. At the rate I am going it will take forever to get this money together. Can anyone advise the best route to take. I have my money with my local credit union and they will give me four times what I have saved. Ideally, I would need a loan that I could pay back when I start working as a pilot which would hopefully be inside two years. Is this possible. I would be grateful for any suggestions.


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## Unregistered (1 May 2005)

What age are you ?

If you are under 26, you could have a go at joining the Air Corps and be paid to fly !

Have you researched if any companies/airlines would take you on if you completed you PPL first ?

I also recall hearing/reading that New Zealand is a cheap place to do pilot training (€1 = c.NZ$2).


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## extopia (1 May 2005)

South Africa also, read a couple of articles about this last year.


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## Unregistered (2 May 2005)

Hi,

Don't want to sidetrack your interesting thread but just wondering if you have any advice for son wanting to join the air corps.  Is it practically impossible to get into same?  Have heard that there are very few places and many kids chasing them.  He has dreamt for years about going for it.

Hope you get some good advice here about the funding for your training.  Do Aer Lingus/Aer Arann ever recruit new pilots?


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## ClubMan (2 May 2005)

Have you/he already checked the Irish Air Corps careers page? (Unfortunately the _Air Corps _main page menus do not work in _FireFox_). I've heard anecdotal reports that some people who want to pursue an army or air corps career sometimes try the _British _forces for various reasons (more places available, different training etc.).


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## ixus (2 May 2005)

A friend of mine managed to get into the air corps last year on his second year of interviews. I think it's only 2 every year they take. He had a good(1 or 2.1) degree in Aeronautical engineering from UL. 

What are the banks attitudes to this in terms of lending?
Could you get a visa to live and work in US while training to support yourself?

I've also heard South Africa /Oz /NZ are less expensive.

Also just off the top of my head, if your ultimate goal is to save up to become a pilot, did you ever look at living in england? What I'm getting at is, could you see yourself living in england and saving maybe £10k a year against 10keuro in Ireland? With the strength of sterling, this could help you reach your goal earlier.


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## Enaja (3 May 2005)

Check on any of the major airline recruitment pages. They seem to offer interest free loans to trainees-easyjet,british airways etc. Check their websites for details. No one would expect you to come up with that kind of cash!


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## Unregistered (3 May 2005)

Thanks everyone for all your replies. 
I'm 21yrs old - finishing my degree at UCD this year. Yes, I've done a lot of research on the web with regards to piloting training and found that all airlines now want you to fund the training yourself. There is a scheme with Easyjet - online application followed by interviews etc., I did all this as did lots of others.  Went to the UK for two interviews - I got down to the last 6 and only 2 were picked to go forward for training. Even with this one you have to pay back the money once you are working as a pilot but that would have been no problem.
I got advice recently from someone well up in an airline re. training with the air corp. (no the airlines no here no longer train pilots) You have to sign up for 12yrs and to be quite honest I really want to go the commercial route rather than the air corp. The person in the airline told me air corp pilots, while excellent at their job, are not great commerical material and they need to almost retrain when they join an airline.  His advice is to go to Florida to train. I will need to get a job there too and see if I can fund this myself.
Thanks again for your help.


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## Zapatista (6 May 2005)

Sorry, just to clarify is it mandatory to sign up to the air corp for 12 yrs ??


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## Unregistered (8 May 2005)

Yes, 12 yrs was what I was told - that's about 3 yrs ago so unless something has changed since. It is possible to "buy out" after a number of year - not sure exactly what that number is though. I believe it may be 8.


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