FairPlane

Had a meeting with Lembit Opik MP this week and will give you an update on that shortly.

In the meantime I really wanted to put this information on about a young lad called Tim, it is people like Tim that this campaign is about. Here is what Tim has to say…

“My name is Tim and I am 15 years old. I am currently in Year 11 at Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby where I am taking my GCSEs next year. My ambition is to become a commercial pilot, something that I have wanted to do since I was six. For my 15th birthday in May, I was given a trial flying lesson, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and since then any money that I have goes towards more lessons with the aim of achieving my Private Pilot’s Licence to improve my chances of getting on a flying course when I’m older.

A few weeks ago I went with my parents to the Flyer Exhibition at London Heathrow. We soon found out that my choice of career is going to be a very expensive one. Not only do we have to pay for the flight training ourselves with no financial help from the government that is available to other students, but VAT is also levied on the cost of the training. The cost of the commercial flight training is around £80000. This means that at the age of 18, I will have to find a bank that will loan me this vast sum of money that I will have to start paying back when I finish the course, regardless of whether or not I have a job. The alternative is to see if my parents can help out in some way. This is very unfair as other students benefit from subsidised course fees, and government backed loans at a preferential rate. I feel that all students should be treated the same, whatever their choice of course or career.

A majority of the public are still under the impression that airlines train student pilots themselves, and we need to get the message across that this is not the case. There are many young people who are in the same position as me, and we need the government to act now.”

I can totally sympathise with Tim and his family as I had the same choices to make for my son, Oliver, we ended up taking an expensive second mortgage.