I’ve just thought of the worlds worst dilemma for you PD. bear with me, it’s a bit of a leap, but imagine Tesco starting their own airline and offering you a pilots job! I can feel your pain just thinking about it. 
the maoster:
I’ve just thought of the worlds worst dilemma for you PD. bear with me, it’s a bit of a leap, but imagine Tesco starting their own airline and offering you a pilots job! I can feel your pain just thinking about it.
Tossco is a crummy supermarket, always will be, in fact they can go zb themselves…
Pimpdaddy:
DAF95XF:
Don’t know how, or who to speak to…People like Freight Dog are handy to know
, PPRuNe is handy but there’s a lot to sift through (the closer the progress of people at the level you want the better the info I.e don’t look at sections where captains are chatting, they have no clue about training dilemmas at entry level), google, magazines like flyer (exhibitions too), loop, pilot etc. FTOs have info but will tell you what you want to hear, remember they are a business. I’d be happy to help you too but I must highlight that I’m not a pilot, I’m a tool as stated on here & I talk a lot of zb:lol::lol:
I’m actually on PPRuNe,have been for a while, just trying to shift through the info into something I can understand 
Flying cargo planes not all glitz and glamour, my mate from Zimbabwe was 1 of the pilots of the old 747 that flew into the quarry in Canada a few years back on take off, UK registered but ZIm guy owned the company, cannot remember the airport, may have been Nova Scotia area, he was fully freighted up, seems like they had the wrong settings for weight on take off, they had the memorial for him in Harare, but not the funeral as such, they did not find anything of him. as far as I know his wife never received any compensation. he had 3 trucks with us at the same time, we were running them for him out of RSA, Wife ended up selling them in the end to pay the bills 
JLS Driver SOS:
Flying cargo planes not all glitz and glamour
I think it’s just like haulage, depends who you work for & where you are. Cargo airlines have some of the best pay & conditions compared to their passenger counterparts, I’ll use FedEx as an example.
All those research suggestions pimp daddy gave are just the ticket. Pretty much how I researched it yonks ago. You’ll pick it up as you wade through. Can’t remember if I sent you this link but one of the unions, BALPA have produced a little guide:-
balpa.org/My-Airline/Airline … -2013.aspx
I think I mentioned before, it would be irresponsible of me to recommend it to someone with a passing interest. If someone’s hooked there’s no telling them, all you can do is advise them to be careful along the way. I don’t know your circumstances (family etc) but it’s changed a lot these days. It’s become so expensive you have to consider the likely hood you’ll be out of work for sometime before finding a job. Give careful consideration of how and if you could afford repayments on the loans and keep current until you can find an opening. If married with children etc, the early days of training and job hunting will place a lot of strain on your family. I don’t want to sound negative but I’d hate for you to lose all that money and rather you did it eyes wide open if you still want to do it. As pimpdaddy says never listen to the flight training schools regarding Job prospects - they’re fibbing barstewards. They just want your cash.
Most low hour people who seem to have success tend to go through an integrated provider like CTC/Oxford who have partner airlines they supply their best trainees to. You’ll be charged for a type rating if you end up getting a job. CTC are a huge bone of contention amongst experienced guys as they’ve effectively closed the doors on recruitment in some airlines to non rated and experienced guys favouring cheaper CTC bods who they put on zero hour contracts and it’s messing up the terms and conditions. There are lot of temp zero hours and part time fixed term contracts emerging with the locos and even the like of Thomson which makes income security a problem. having an HGV licence is a good back up.
Once you’ve found a job expect some lean years until you rack up enough experienced to head to Emirates, Qatar, Monarch or whoever you aspire to. A friend of mine who was an engineer in his 40s qualified in 2007 with his basic licence, paid for a rating on an airbus and didn’t get a job. He’s just got his first job on a 737 flying cargo for Atlantic Airlines but he had to pay for the rating I believe. Drop me a line anytime and I’ll try to help if I can. Company I work for did take on some brand new guys as cruise pilots but they’ve just laid them off.
Forgot to say it mentions academic qualifications in that BALPA guide. That was something I had misconceptions about only having a basic secondary education myself. To get on one of the CTC program’s or cadet schemes you probably need certain grades. But I don’t think there’s any requirements if you’re not going in via CTC or a cadet scheme. I just had 7 GCSEs. I ditched my A levels as found them very boring and hard so I got a job to pay for my private pilots licence.
There isn’t that much maths that crops up in the ground school. Most of it is basic multiplication, addition and subtraction. The only bit that was slightly beyond that level - some GCSE trigonometry for the nav subjects (you’ll never use it again on the line!). You can use a calculator. You don’t need to remember it from school if you can’t recall it, as it’s explained easily enough in the lessons. It’s mainly learning about things that aren’t that hugely hard there’s just a lot of it. Probably like the operator CPC?
The only maths we use on the line is multiplication, adding and subtracting for performance calcs and loadsheets which are important you get correct of course. Its not hard at all. You just have to take your time to make sure you’re not making simple mistakes like 10 tonne adjustments instead of 100 tonne adjustments at 4 am in low lights of the cockpit with a mad Indian dispatcher nagging you for the weights.
Once flying maybe the odd bit of multiplying something like your altitude by 3 in your head to help with knowing when to descend (it sounds far far worse than it is!- for example if at 35000ft. We knock of the zeros and do 35 times 3 means we need 105 miles to touchdown. You add maybe 10 more to slow down. A bit extra for tailwinds, icing and mother. You just learn a rough amount with experience and it’s only something you do to help yourself. It’s all taught)
I think that was MK Airlines flight 1602 from Halifax. Very sad.
Changing subject the other way. I’ve asked before about getting back into driving on my time off after many years but in the end it didn’t get to do it due to work.
I’m going to do it now as with the current company I contract for you get a few months unpaid a year and I need to know I can rely on driving as a back up. I’ve finally got my driver’s tacho card! I’ve got grandfather rights on the CPC but not completed any training yet so know beyond Sept I’m grounded until I do the 35 hours.
I live in Ireland but im going to head over to familiar turf where I used to drive before in lincs where my family are. I’ve not driven in 10 years but I’m going to speak to the local hauliers (Mason Bros, Booths I’ve seen) to ask if A) they’d give me any work and B) If so, can I go out on locals or something with one of the old hands to show me the ropes before diving in?
I’m pretty nervous about it and have lost all my confidence I had in my youth of the job. Just looking at an artic I wonder how on earth I ever reversed it 
. When I did it before I was brutally honest when new and always was asking for help and tips with this and that and found the drivers (bar the exception) to be really helpful. Is it still like that?
Freight Dog:
I’m pretty nervous about it and have lost all my confidence I had in my youth of the job. Just looking at an artic I wonder how on earth I ever reversed it
No need to be nervous it’s dead easy, if you can shoot a cat 3 ILS with failed engines on a 747 you can pretty much do anything you put your mind to…
Oh I don’t know about that. I’m not good at cleaning the house according to the misses
I guess this is how Pilots earn their money !!
I think this is just how my missus imagined she’d do it if she ever got put into this position 
citycat:
I guess this is how Pilots earn their money !!
Same as what a LU train driver once told me, they earn their money when ■■■ ■■■ hits the fan.
P.s I love 767s
Pimpdaddy:
citycat:
I guess this is how Pilots earn their money !!Same as what a LU train driver once told me, they earn their money when ■■■ ■■■ hits the fan.
P.s I love 767s
Well, the missus doesn’t like 767’s cos there’s no bunks for the crew. The crew rest area is just a row of seats with a pull round curtain.
Give her a 777 any day
citycat:
Give her a 777 any day
Ive ever been on a triple 
Pimpdaddy:
citycat:
Give her a 777 any dayI’ve never been on a triple
Well, if there’s anything you want to know about it, I’ll get her to ask the pilots for you next trip.
She’s got a badge that says ‘If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going !!’
citycat:
Pimpdaddy:
Well, if there’s anything you want to know about it, I’ll get her to ask the pilots for you next trip.
I know a bit about them from documentaries etc but I’ve never flown on one as a passenger. There’s loads of nice clips on YT like this for example youtu.be/0oyWZjdXxlw
Move the down bar
A video on YouTube of a flight I did last year from Madenah to Delhi on one of the passenger fights. I filmed it from the jumpseat. We were heavy crewed that day as operating there and back without a layover as this was the last period of the Hajj so full out but empty back (with sleeping cabin crew). So Karl flew the right seat on the way there. I kipped in the bunk then flew it back. Bloody long day. About 18 hours working by the time we got back to Jeddah. And legal! Karl’s a card. He’s a great Irish guy. Good fun.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks0ajzhlVc4
Excuse the fact that it’s under the category “comedy”. Maybe quite appropriate! I’ll try and dig out some more.
Thanks for sharing, that howling sound coming from the engines makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside, ooooooh:grin:
One I think only us truckers would get as pretty boring pic of some pallets basically! A very short view of the main deck of TF-AML being loaded on a sweaty afternoon in Dubai bound for Hong Kong via Riyadh. (think I put some stills on of that flight). I was trying not to get run over by the pallets whilst filming!
The pallets are different to the ones we play with aren’t they!? What’s your average TO weight & how does it compare to passenger? Have you had a go on the dash 8 yet?