Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Pilot Careers Live Exhibition as a University of Leeds Aviation Technology student and representative. It was a fantastic day of engaging with prospective, trainee and current commercial pilots and also great to witness the exhibition firsthand as an exhibitor.
As an Aviation Student at the University of Leeds, students are given the opportunity to represent the University and the aviation degrees at these exhibitions. It has been something I was extremely keen to get involved with and I do hope I can exhibit at one again in the near future. I am a big fan of early starts involving a long journey, especially If I am travelling to an airport. This was no exception, waking up at 4 in the morning to get to University and then subsequently down to Heathrow to set up for the exhibition. After setting up, we stood waiting for, what we imagined would be a fair group of people to start the day off and enter the exhibition hall. We were very wrong, a huge mass of people entered, leaving no corner quiet, within minutes, I was already in full swing talking about the Aviation degrees at Leeds on offer.
Although primarily in attendance at the exhibition to sell the degree, I also was extremely keen to help people understand the routes to the flight deck. It was fantastic to be able to adapt my personal situation to those of 14 year old aspiring pilots. This is because I stood in their boots with my dad in 2012, where the magic of Heathrow was overwhelming enough, never mind the vast amount of information given to me and my dad about Flight Training. From this experience, I explained my background and current situation and found myself talking for great deals of time about the different ways to become an airline pilot.
It was an extremely rewarding experience and additionally, a great opportunity to network. Thankfully, I was able to gain a few contacts that day. Such contacts are invaluable in any aspiring/trainee pilots path to the cockpit, they provide excellent advice and information which goes a long way in helping people secure their first job in the right hand seat of an airliner.
Until next time.
MozzThePilot 