Selecting your Professional Flying Course at PAT

This section is aimed at pilots who are pursuing the modular route to their airline qualifications.

PAT offers five options for the order in which you do your CPL, Multi and IR training:

  1. Single engine CPL, Multi Rating, Instrument Rating
  2. Multi Engine CPL (combined single engine and multi engine course), Instrument Rating
  3. Multi Engine CPL (all multi-engined flying), Instrument Rating
  4. Multi Rating, Instrument Rating, Single-engined CPL
  5. Multi Rating, Instrument Rating, Multi-engined CPL

The structures of each of these courses are detailed under the section Course structures.

Which option you choose will depend upon a number of factors including:

a) your flying experience to date and
b) how many multi hours you want to achieve

The following table summarises the five options, showing the number of multi hours and the total price of each option. This price is fully inclusive of everything, i.e. course price, aircraft hire for test (first attempt), test fees (first attempt), all landings/approach fees, all ground briefings and VAT @ 20% (although the price of the aircraft hire for test and the approaches elsewhere are estimates). For the detail of these calculations please contact us.

The hours include the following approximate test times, 1 hour for the Multi Engine Piston Class Rating, and 2 hours each for the CPL and the IR tests.

Summary of the available options
Option
CPL hrs S/E a/c
CPL hrs FNPT1
CPL hrs M/E a/c
Multi hrs M/E a/c
IR hrs FNPT1/
FNPT2
IR hrs M/E a/c
Total M/E a/c hours
Price
Option 1
22
5
 
7
25
22
29
£27,020
Option 2
13
5
12
 
25
22
34
£26,215
Option 3
 
5
25
 
25
22
47
£27,775
Option 4
17
 
 
7
35
22
29
£26,380
Option 5
 
 
17
7
35
22
46
£28,370

 

As you will see, the difference in price between the 'normal' route, (option 1) and option 3 where all the flying is done in the multi-engine aircraft (47 hours) is only £755. This would seem a worthwhile additional spend for an extra 18 multi hours.

The choice between options 3 & 5, is an interesting one. Option 3 is cheaper and is the 'traditional' manner of training, i.e. Multi/CPL first, then IR. The IR is probably more difficult than the CPL as it is all new training and there is a particularly high workload. The CPL has many elements of the PPL skill test, though the assessment is to much higher, more professional standards. However, if you choose Option 5, there are certain advantages. The CPL skill test consists of three main elements: general handling, instrument flying and navigation. If you do the CPL after the IR you will have already done the training (and passed the tests) for the general handling (Multi Rating) and the instrument flying (IR) so the additional training is concentrated on the navigation.

Clearly we cannot cover all the pros and cons of the various options. In order to determine what is right for you, why don't you visit us to talk through the options and maybe talk to some of our current students about why they selected one of these options and how they found the training?