Want to be a pilot? Think twice, then think again!

The desire to fly high is in all of us whatever field we may choose. However, when it comes to becoming a pilot in India , the road is a very bumpy one.

Darius Moose* graduated in science and then decided to become a pilot. He wanted to go to the USA and learn to fly. So he applied to one of the many pilot training schools there and they sent him a letter stating that he had been admitted. He filled in an I-20 form for which he paid $500 (approx Rs 23,000).

He paid $43,000 (approx Rs 20 lakh) as school fees for the entire course. He was told that accommodation, travel from school to the hostel and food was included in this fee. And so he left for the States, confident that he would return after the six-month course qualified to fly. But things weren't as simple as they seemed.

The first shock he received was when he reached the States and the promised transport was not available. The distance from his hostel to the air field was 4 km. "Public transport in that part of the States is pathetic and so I had to rent a car for $500 a month. The legal formalities to buy a car there are too many," he says.

The next shock proved to be a more expensive one. The flying course was supposed to be for six months. However, it did not finish in six months. He was finally there for 16 months and his expenses shot up to $64,000 (approx Rs 30 lakh).

The reasons for the delay? Bad weather, poor maintenance of the aircraft and the couldn't-care-less attitude of the instructors. "Most of the instructors were recent graduates themselves and they were more concerned about logging their flying hours than teaching us," he laments.

To add to the agony, students are required to meet with a progress check examiner once in six months. These examiners are licenced by the US government, but getting a date from an examiner was like getting an appointment with the US President himself!

Darius recollects that in four months he flew only six hours. According the information Darius had recieved, a student had to fly 35 hours for a private licence, but he actually flew 65 hours to get this. Then he had to fly 33 hours to learn the instruments (called hood time), which actually took 50 hours.