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My own experience #02: Starting flight school

So there I was, about to start my last year of high school, at age 17, knowing that I was accepted to the flight school and going to become a pilot. It felt like a dream! All I had to do, was graduating high school and prepare for the pilot course!

The first day of school I immediately made some changes. I used to do Science at Gymnasium level, which had classic languages included. I decided to drop Latin (I had already dropped Ancient Greek) as it was taking a lot of my time and I preferred to focus more on the science subjects (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology) that were quite difficult. I did need to choose another subject, so I chose Spanish. My classmates had chosen Spanish 2 years before, so the course I was going to join was already quite advanced. I therefore had to study everything that I had missed in the previous two years to keep up with my classmates. Knowing that I was going to study in Madrid, I had the perfect motivation and I loved studying the language.

The last year of high school passed by so fast, I had to study a lot but was constantly daydreaming about my future life as a pilot! In June 2011 I sat my high school exams and I graduated! My best mark? An amazing 10 (out of 10) for Spanish!

You must know that when starting flight school I barely knew anything about aviation. And that was okay. I was about to start an ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot Licence) integrated course and in the next 10 months I was going to learn everything I needed to know to pass the official exams and more.

In October 2011 I moved to Spain. On my own, at 18 years old. It was the biggest adventure of my life (so far). I was welcomed by the most amazing people and moved into a house with three other student pilots. They were all from Holland, too. It was in a town close to Cuatro Vientos airport, the location of the flight school. On the first evening, before starting the course, the other Dutch students (about 20 students) organised a welcome drink so we got to know everybody. I got to know the local pub where I didn’t know I was going to end up weekly to spend time with my new friends. We were a little Dutch community in Leganés, the town where we lived, and the owners of the pub (Rincon) always greeted us nicely, as it had been a tradition for many years among the Dutch student pilots.

One of my roommates was Ruben and we connected really well. We both missed home quite a lot in the first few months and it helped a lot to at least have each other as we felt very comfortable around each other. We became really good friends. Little did I know that this new roommate of mine was going to be my pilot colleague at an airline in the future! But I will tell you all about that later on. First, I will tell you about the two years of flight school!

 

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Muralidharan

    What are the language should pilot wants know ???among that which language is compulsory??

    1. pilotlindy

      English is the only language required to become a pilot, but some companies require their pilots to also know the native language of that company, besides English.

      1. Muralidharan

        Ohhh ok thank you. and how much years required to complete ppl course and cpl course???

  2. Muralidharan

    how much years required to complete ppl course and cpl course???

    1. Pilot Lindy

      It depends on whether you do the course modular or integrated and on how quick you pass the theoretical exams. In my case I finished flight school in two years.

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