My plans for my career as a Airline Pilot - am I correct?

[DuendarS]

Hi Guys!

So I have been collecting information about how to become a pilot for a week now. My goal was to find out, how I would like my career to be>
Starting at a university in Germany (that where I am from) to my flight school in Canada to my first job for a major airline.

This is basically my plan. I would like to ask everyone here in the forum if everything about my plan is in the right order, if something is just nonsense or if something is missing in your opinion to reach my goal. There you go:




1. University Degree (Bachelor of Arts, maybe Master) at a German University, Aviation Management. 3,5 - 4,5 years. But for free so I have the opportunity to save money for the flight training in Canada and I am not in debt at that point.

2. I also have the Opportunity to get my PPL in Germany parallel to my studies. Does that help for my flight training in Canada? I think it would be nice to get airborne while studying.

3. After finishing my studies in Germany I'll head to Canada to get the following licenses and ratings:

4. Private Pilot License
5. Commercial Pilot License
6. Instrument Rating
7. Night Rating
8. Multi Engine Rating
9. Multi Crew Rating (do you even say that?)
10. Fixed Airline Transport License
11. Commercial Pilot Instructor

13. Flying as first officer for a small airline, traffic control, wildfire screening, bush pilot, flight school etc. to gain experience and hours to then finally:


14. Being hired by a Canadian airline. Getting my ATPL.



Does that make any sense? Or is there something that really doesn't fit into the whole picture?

Thank you so so so much if you've read this until here!


Sincerely,

Sonny

[DrSpaceman]

What's wrong with doing all this in Germany?

[fish4life]

A few things, first of all if you do a degree don't bother with an aviation one get something useful.
No such thing as a multi crew license in Canada and your other ratings have incorrect terminology and are out of order.
You missed the hardest part about trying to get your first job in Canada, I've heard various things but it seems like less than half the people who get a commercial license ever end up flying for a job.

[digits_]

9. Does not exist in Canada
10. You need 1500 hours to get this. You can't even write the written test until you have a bunch of hours, it's different from Europe.

I don't see any value in a degree in art (for flight training / flying career)

[bhuntsy]

Have you looked into Lufthansa's cadet program. I thing germanwings has one too. Worth considering/a shot if you want to go airlines.

[Eric Janson]

Does that make any sense? Or is there something that really doesn't fit into the whole picture?

I don't see you mentioning either Canadian citizenship or the right to work in Canada.

Without one of the above getting these Licences won't help you.

[Koalemos]

Sounds like you're planning on coming to Canada to stay, is that correct? If so, you'll need to look at the immigration process to do so (unless you're already dual citizenship of course).

Without the right to work here, your plan is dead in the water. I'd make sure you can process through the immigration system first (if required).

Make sure to check the other sub forums here to get an idea of what you're getting into. Getting the licences is the easy part. Breaking into the industry can be rough, lot of it is luck, right time right place type of thing (assuming you're willing to put in the work). It's an expensive gamble with years of low wages if it pays off.

[lazyeight]

If he comes here on a study permit, he should have can get a work permit for the length of time he was in flight school in Canada. Now finding that first job might be a bit tough but doable.

[MIQ]

I am originally from Germany, have done something similar in Canada and have flown there for the previous 4 years including work for a small local operator. I recently moved to a different country though for my next flying job. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. However, like previously mentioned, getting the right to live and work in Canada as a foreigner is going to be the hardest part for you, unless you have a PR or canadian citizenship already. Without that you can still get all your licenses and ratings but bear in mind that you will end up with a canadian license which will basically only let you fly in Canada (with a few exceptions) and converting an ICAO CPL to an EASA one is a pain the... After going through an extra 6-8 months of conversion and the extra money that's involved with that you may as well could have gotten your license in Europe to begin with.
Also as previously mentioned by others, if 'Airline Pilot' is your absolute career goal, try the cadet programs of various european carriers first. Going the 'canadian' route might take you a long time until you end up in the cockpit of an airliner. That is IF you end up at an airline.