CPL

Hello to everyone

I have been doing some checking on obtaining my CPL in South Africa. Would airlines except you on just a CPL or do you need an ATPL? How does one get an ATPL? Also would it be best to get a degree, such as a mechanical engineering or of any other kind?

Thanks in advance

My father, although retired recently had flown for over 30 years, biggest thing they will be looking at will be flight hours and on what aircraft/aircrafts, and of course flight training and at what level and with what company/company's (Australia /NZ anyway), everything else is secondary

An airline won't accept you with a CPL, 99% will want CPL/IR MCC i.e. a frozen ATPL. You get the frozen ATPL by doing the CPL/IR MCC and ME.

Degrees aren't essential, you'd spend a lot of money on it and probably wouldn't use it again if you had a career in aviation.

One of the big factors airlines and most companies are looking for today is work experience. A degree does not tell you much about a person. Alot of people coming out of universities etc can not get a job because they have no practical work experience and lack people skills.

If you do gain a CPL+IR+MCC+ME and have passed all the ATPL theory exams,without having gone through a training institution that has good contacts with airlines, people in such a situation tend to turn towards instructing. With low hours airlines are more than likely to turn you away. Instructing is the way forward in this situation until you at least have a good 1500 Hours, although people would mabye dispute that figure. Then there is the downside you need an instructor rating. If modular I would seriously suggest the CPL course to you, then getting the instructor rating. Then using the money from the teaching to get more licences.

Thanks for the info. But what does MCC stand for?

Thanks

Its a Multi-Crew Co-ordination course. Effectively its a course to help you transfer from small, simple cockpits to the complex cockpit of an airliner.

Last edited by Tartanaviation on Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total

As TA says, it's Multi Crew Coordination but a lot of places call it Multi Crew Cooperation - same thing. This course isn't essential for the airlines, but they like it, and at roughly £2500 in the UK, it's worthwhile doing.

Specifically, it involves teamwork and cooperation in a multi crew environment where as previous flying experiences will have been single pilot. The transition to multi crew requires some gentle nudging to get all members singing from the same hymn sheet - especailly useful for non-standard operations. It's on the same branch as CRM (Crew Resource Management) which is also crucial in multi-pilot operations.

Bottom line for going for the airlines is make yourself as attractive to them as possible.

Thanks for that