I'm 19 and currently doing the last year of my A-Levels, I've taken Biology, Chemistry and Computing, and it looks like I will end up with 3 B's overall.I was wondering if it's possible to be trained by an airline straight out of school, or if it would be better to go to university first before looking to become a pilot? I was planning on studying Medicinal Chemistry which is completely unrelated to aviation, would that be a problem?I'm also short-sighted and have a red-green colour deficiency, how will that effect my chances of becoming a pilot?Before applying to an airline, would I need a PPL?Thank You,-Sam :)

Airlines currently want a two or four year degree and prefer it be in an aviation field. I can't see it hampering you, though.Airlines won't hire straight out of high school and a PPL won't suffice. Also, going directly to a "major" airline after training isn't typically an option at all (think: regionals). You'll need at least a commercial multi-engine rating with instrument privileges to consider applying at an airline, but then there's also hiring minimums. Right now at the regional airlines in the states, 500-1500 hours pilot in command (PIC) with 50-100 hours multi-engine time are the norm.For the color deficiency, I'm not too sure. In other words you're color blind, correct? That usually becomes an issue with flight physicals and can ultimately lead to not having privileges to fly at night. Have you researched your questions anywhere besides a simulation forum? I suggest going to a local flight school and posing the same questions!

I'm guessing by your reference to A-Levels that you are in the UK. In order to train to be an airline pilot in the UK you are either going to need to have very rich parents or a very understanding bank manager.To go from zero to an ATPL you'll need about £70-80,000. No UK airline will pay that for you up front - you have to find that money yourself. Prior to 9/11 British Airways operated a sponsorship scheme which selected candidates had their training all paid for them and would be given a job with BA at the end of it. That was binned in the wake of 9/11. No other UK airline to my knowledge operated a similar scheme. BA have recently re-started the sponsorship scheme but you have to pay them £80k up front as a deposit, and once you're flying for BA they will pay you back the £80k at a rate of £1k per month.I believe some of the aviation schools in the UK offer "self sponsorship" schemes which basically means "pay us £70k to train you and we'll help you find a job at an airline when/if you finish the training".My neighbour's son wanted to be an airline pilot but didn't have the money. He established himself in a successful career but then decided to take the plunge and sold his house, his car, mortgaged himself up to the eyeballs and put himself through pilot training. He now flies 757s and 767s for Thomsonfly but is still paying off the money he owes.The bottom line is you will need lots of £££ and may very well end up working for a relatively poor salary with the likes of Easyjet or Ryanair.As I said earlier, do some serious research, weigh up the pros and cons and decide whether or not you think it's worth persuing. The best place to ask people who know is www.pprune.org - register at the forums there and ask away.As a little side note, I always wanted to be a pilot. When I was 17 I was entered for a flying scholarship with the RAF. Part of that involved going to do the officer and aircrew selection tests. I failed to meet the aircrew criteria because my legs are 14mm too long. I passed everything else, I was told I was at the top of the list for flying aptitude. I was offered to be trained as an officer in any branch of the air force I wanted except for aircrew. Flying was the be all and end all for me so I knocked them back.At the time I was doing my A-Levels (maths, physics, history) and went off the rails academically. I ended up dropping out of the sixth form a month or two before the final exams. I took a step back, decided flying fighter jets wasn't the only thing I wanted to do and learned about British Airways' sponsorship scheme. I figured if I was good enough for the RAF I would be good enough for BA, and BA wouldn't be bothered if my legs were 14mm too long because they don't have ejection seats, right? The only snag was I needed 2 A-levels in core subjects to be eligible for the BA sponsorship. So at the age of 18 I enrolled at my local FE college and did 1 year intensive A-Levels in physics, maths, discrete maths and mechanics. I'd covered it all before at school so it was pretty straightforward. I got my results in August 2001. The events of 11th September the following month resulted in BA stopping their sponsorship scheme and it dawned on me that I would need tens of thousands of pounds to realise my dream of being a professional pilot.In the end I embarked on a totally different career with an employer that was prepared to sponsor me through three years of training and pay me a salary. I've now got a list of qualifications as long as my arm and plenty of experience in a field where I will never have to worry about finding well paid work. I still have the same passion for aviation but I have no real regrets about not becoming a pilot.

Agree with what the others have said - this is tough and you really need to want it. I'm not aware of any UK airlines recruiting trainee pilots just now. If they had vacancies (which Ryanair do for instance) they'd look for those who already had significant civilian or military experience. Short-sightedness is perfectly fine for all levels of pilot licence if it's correctable with glasses / contact lenses (as with driving a car). Colour deficiency is more of a problem; if it's significant you probably wouldn't get the medical certificate to support a full commercial licence I'm sorry to say. More info from the CAA here:http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/49/SRG_Med_ColourVision.pdf

The Federal Aviation Administration (US) can and do grant licences to colour blind pilot applicants, although these are almost always subject to restrictions, such as limits on night flying, IFR etc, so it is unlikely you would gain a commercial license in Uncle Sam land.In the UK, currently, there is very little chance of getting a pilot's licence at all if you are affected with either Protanopia, Deuteranopia or Tritanopia, these being the three most common forms of colour blindness in order of commonality, since you have to pass a CAA test, and having any of those deficiencies means you will simply be rejected out of hand at the moment. But don't despair just yet...A few years ago, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority commissioned a research programme to find a better test, and the initial results suggested that as many as 35 percent of applicants currently rejected for a pilot's licence owing to forms of colour blindness, could soon be able to gain some types of pilot license if a new test standard is adopted, and the process of getting acceptance for such a new test standard is in progress, although it will take more than the say of the CAA to see it fully accepted, but it is a start. You can learn more about that here:http://www.colblindo...al-flight-crew/I have trained one or two colour-blind people, and so I know the problems fairly well. The main issue is the warning lights on aircraft systems, and runway VASI/PAPI lights, since any red/green deficiency means that warning lights on the two standard airliner cockpits used for the basis of CAA research tests (A320 and B757), or the red sections of PAPIs will not be clear enough. But another problem is the nav lights on aircraft at night, because since they are red on one wing and green on the other, it is impossible for a pilot to determine the orientation of an aircraft by its lights alone at night with any red/green deficiency, whereas someone with normal vision can do this by noting which light appears to be on which side, which will reveal whether aircraft is heading away from you and clear, or heading towards you and in conflict. This means that gaining a UK night rating or IFR rating would be a problem, and without those, you won't be able to fly a commercial aircraft either at night or in the daytime over the UK.So I would think an airline pilot career is out of the question unfortunately, although you may one day be able to gain a civil (VFR only) PPL if that new test comes to fruition, and you can certainly get an FAI glider license, since there is no test for colour blindnesss invloved in that process at all, and strictly speaking, you don't actually even need a license to fly a glider in UK airspace, although you'd never be allowed to fly from a UK airfield if you did not possess an FAI license, so that is kind of a moot point. Thus if your dream is to fly, you absolutely can fly a glider, and at least that is some consolation.Incidentally, Medicinal Chemistry is not necessarily completely unrelated to aviation. There is a branch of medicine known as Aviation Medicine, which is what Flight Surgeons and Aviation Medical Examiners do, and much of that skill is related to knowing about chemistyry and its affects on the body, although ironically, one of the tests such medical staff have to perform, is related to determining colour blindness in pilot candidates.Al

I've been thinking, if I had a job where I could drop £70-£80k on training, I'd rather keep that job!I didn't know the colourblindness would affect getting a PPL, I watched this video and I could easily distinguish between the red/white/green lights, does that mean I would have some chance of getting a PPL?

I've been thinking, if I had a job where I could drop £70-£80k on training, I'd rather keep that job!I didn't know the colourblindness would affect getting a PPL, I watched this video and I could easily distinguish between the red/white/green lights, does that mean I would have some chance of getting a PPL?

I would call an airman medical examiner near you and ask.

Pass the medical eyesight test and you are in business, simple as that.You might also take heart in the tale of Edward Mannock VC's tricky road to becoming a pilot...He was almost certainly the highest-scoring fighter ace in WW1, in spite of the records claiming otherwise, because he stopped officially claiming aircraft victories in order to conceal making forbidden extra lone patrols where he is known to have shot enemies down on numerous occasions. He is also known to have credited several new pilots under his tutelage with what in reality were his own victories, in order to boost their confidence, by generously claiming that he had missed (unlikely, since it is known that he was an excellent shot) and that their wild inexperienced shooting was what had downed the enemy. This is in stark contrast to the German's system of victory claims at the time, where the flight leader normally gained the credit for any shared victories. So there is a very good chance he actually gained very many more victories than any other WW1 flyer, and he certainly downed vastly more than the 73 that he is officially credited with, in spite of his modesty.Why is this inspirational? Mannock was virtually blind in one eye and also not very physically fit, having been interned and subsequently tortured in a German prisoner of war camp in Turkey, where he had been working as a telephone engineer, before being released and repatriated to Britain early in the war, this because his captors mistakenly thought he was not fit for military service, he having been so badly maltreated by the guards.Back in Britain, he only passed the eye-test to become a fighter pilot by sneakily memorising the letters on the eye test chart by going into the tent where the test was to take place when the doctor was taking a break, so that upon the doctor's return, he could reel the lines of letters off perfectly when they covered his good eye! Not only that, but because he took a long time to perfect his skills as a pilot and gain his first victory, he was actually accused of cowardice by some fellow squadron members. Ironically, many of those accusers were later keen to join the squadron he eventually commanded, because of his prowess as a skilled and brave flyer and the success of pilots in his unit. And as if that wasn't enough, he wasn't 'posh' either, which was another barrier to becoming a pilot in those days, he being Irish, essentially an orphan, poor, and a devout left-winger politically as well, and he was quite vocal about all these things too.If that isn't an inspirational tale of getting into the pilot's seat when one is faced with so many barriers, including what looks like insurmountable ones, then I don't know what is.Al