| Put
wings to your career and fly high
7 November 2007
It's
time to make a move from the job where you are currently grounded to one that
is not only high flying and glamorous but also a viable and lucrative career option.
It's time, says Sourya Biswas, to put on a pilot's wings!
Because I fly
I
laugh more than other men
I look up and see more than they
I
know how the clouds feel,
What it's like to have the blue in my lap,
To
look down on birds,
To feel freedom in a thing called the stick...
Who
but I can slice between God's billowed legs,
And feel then laugh and crash
with His step
Who else has seen the unclimbed peaks?
The rainbow's secret?
The
real reason birds sing?
Because I Fly,
I envy no man on earth. -
Anonymous Ask
any 10-year old boy (or girl) what he wants to be when he grows up, and the answer
usually lies in two categories - become a cricketer, or a pilot. The blue skies
yonder have always held a fascination for children and adults alike, and those
dynamic men and women in smart suits steering huge engineering marvels thousands
of feet above the ground have always been role models to "look up" to. The
10-year olds are lucky to be living in an aviation boom. Luckier are the 20-year
old hopefuls for whom this opening up of the skies has not come a moment too soon.
Getting a highly valued CPL (Commercial Pilot's Licence) from a handful of flying-clubs,
and then a job from even lesser number of vacancies is no longer the Herculean
task it used to be. With every second business house starting an airline every
third month, the demand for pilots has skyrocketed. India
currently has about 3,000 pilots flying 300 aircraft. With a bulging middle-class
population of 250 million, the Indian aviation sector is growing at 30 percent
annually and shows no sign of slowing down. Aircraft manufacturers are an elated
lot, with current orders scheduled to be delivered till 2011. While Boeing estimates
India will need 900 aircraft over the next 20 years, Airbus' projections are even
higher. Also, we cannot forget the new rich toys for richer boys - private jets.
With a booming economy and a zooming sensex, many now find it inconvenient to
go through the rigmarole of security checks and baggage queues. Solution? Get
your own aeroplane. And all these will require pilots to fly them. As
for the total number of pilots required, estimates vary from 10,000 to 15,000
over the next 20 years. However, what all analysts agree on is that demand far
outstrips supply, with only about 100 pilots graduating each year; hence, there
is a major premium being paid on pilots, perhaps more than any other profession.
Of course, investment bankers may make more money, but remember their small numbers
and 80-hour workweeks. All
this makes becoming a pilot a viable and lucrative career option. Viable because,
it does not require either excellent academic credentials or years of training
- standard XII pass-out with Mathematics and Physics and a 15-month stint will
suffice. Lucrative because, other than the highly-stratified world of high-grade
investment banking, no other profession will pay a fresher Rs24 lakh per annum.
And this is just to start with. As a fresher graduates from co-pilot to captain,
the paycheque may increase to Rs50 lakh, all within a span of three years. With
promotion to senior commander, Rs70 lakh salaries are quite common. Private pilots
do not lag behind. Recently, a pilot was in the news for being offered a Rs.1
crore salary by a major industrial group. Add
to that the shorter working hours (20 hours a week to the usual 50), generous
benefits (family members fly free) and an increased retirement age (65 years versus
the normal 60), and the sky does seem to be the best place on earth. Of course,
one will need an initial investment of Rs.18 lakh for an Indian CPL, or Rs.25
lakh for a foreign one. However, with engineering, medical and management degrees
costing Rs.5 lakh and above, these figures don't seem astronomical. Especially
considering the fact that the investment can be recovered in as little as a year's
time. With this
increased demand for trained personnel, some airlines have started offering training
to pilot-aspirants out of their own pockets. The only catch is that once a pilot
gets his or her CPL, he or she will have to put in some years of service with
the sponsoring airline as a matter of contract. That catch doesn't sound so bad
considering that these trainee pilots will be trained for free and also paid at
commercial rates once they graduate. Jet Airways may also be mulling such an internship
scheme. All this
has literally led to a flight of established people from other professions joining
the queue to become a pilot. And the flying schools, old and newly established,
have everything to cheer about. Puneet Dhal, a software engineer with Oracle,
Bangalore, left his job to train for a CPL abroad. Jet Airways and Jetlite have
former ground staff now handling aircraft in the air. 45-year old ex-army man
Paviter Singh Virk took voluntary retirement to train in Philippines and join
a low-cost carrier as a pilot. Indian employs a pilot who as a purser once used
to serve drinks in the same aircraft he flies today. In fact, close to 15 per
cent of Spicejet's total pilot strength is constituted of people for whom flying
has been a career switch. "Looking at the value proposition, that is, high
salary and good lifestyle, even I wouldn't mind switching and becoming a pilot,"
remarks Jeh Wadia, managing director, GoAir. Age, and current skills, are no longer
constraints to dreams of flying high. Wear
smart suits, handle multi-million dollar machines, visit foreign lands, work relaxed
hours with gorgeous colleagues and get paid generously — pilots seem to have
it all. Remember Leonardo Di Caprio as the confidence trickster Frank Abagnale
Jr. posing as a Pan Am pilot in the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can? And
the admiring glances he draws as he sashays down the street? Being a pilot is
still associated with glamour, only the windows of opportunity have opened wider.
So for all those young people looking for a glamorous, high-paying career, as
well as the not-so-young feeling grounded in their present occupations, its time
to reach for the skies, literally!
 | | Leonardo
Di Caprio impersonating a Pan Am pilot | The
following is a list of flying-schools operating in India (not exhaustive, and
please check DGCA accreditation): Government-owned:
1.
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi, Rae Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
2. Delhi
Flying Club, Delhi
3. Assam Flying Club, Guwahati
4. Bombay Flying Club,
Mumbai
5. Madras Flying Club, Chennai
6. Bihar Flying Institute, Patna
7.
Gujarat Flying Club, Vadodara
8. Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, Bhopal
9. Kerala
Aviation Training Centre, Thiruvananthapuram Privately-owned:
1.
HAL Rotary Wing Academy, Bengalooru
2. Orient Flight School, Pondicherry
3.
Frank Airways, Indore
4. Ahmedabad Aviation and Aeronautics, Ahmedabad
5.
Flytech Aviation Academy, Hyderabad
6. Wings Aviation, Hyderabad
7. Rajputana
Aviation Academy, Kota
8. Garg Aviation, Kanpur
9. Yash Air, Indore
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